BG Group

British Gas, now BG plc, gave the Labour Party more than £5,000 in sponsorship in 1998 and in 2000-2001. BG took over the transmission, exploration and production of gas from the former nationalised British Gas company.

David Varney, the Chief Executive of BG, was paid £474,150 in 1999 (and £433,873 in 1998), which he describes as 'enough to keep me satisfied'. His 'base' salary (before bonuses) for 2000 is £500,000. He holds options on 724,107 shares under a BG incentive scheme. He was a Director of Shell until 1996. He is Chair of the London New Deal Employer's Coalition and is a member of the Government's Ministerial Performance Review Panel for the New Deal. He was part of the Government's Welfare-to-Work Task Force in London, a position that Derek Draper, the former assistant to Peter Mandelson, said in 1998 that he had received because of pressure from BG's lobbying company GPC Market Access (BG denies this, of course). In a brochure for GPC, Varney is quoted as admitting the appointment to the Welfare-to-Work Taskforce gave him 'the opportunity to communicate...assessments of a particular situation clear and undiluted to senior Ministers. The insights into Government...are valuable in a wider business context.'

Dame Stella Rimington, former head of the UK's internal spy organisation, MI5, also sits on the board of BG as a Non-Executive Director (she was paid £25,000 in 1999).