Butler Kelly

Butler Kelly is a cross-Party public affairs consultancy set up in 1998 by directors Phil Kelly and Chris Butler.

This article is part of the Lobbying Portal, a sunlight project from Spinwatch.

Background

History

Butler and Kelley started their business association in 1995 with the formation of a public affairs unit in Grandfield Public Affairs.

Butler is a former Conservative MP and Secretary to the Backbench Trade and Industry Committee; before entering Parliament he was a political advisor to Number 10 and ministerial Special Advisor in the Office of Arts and Libraries and the Welsh Office.

Kelly is a former Deputy Leader of Islington Borough Council, now Chief Whip, a former advisor to the Labour Shadow Cabinet and Editor of Tribune, the Labour Party weekly paper from 1987-1991.

In 1999-2000 Kelly and Butler reportedly gave the Labour Party £5000 for "tickets for dinners" and another £5000 for sponsorship. Grandfield, another Labour Party donor, had also paid over £5,000 for tickets for dinners in 1998.[source needed]

Activities

Butler Kelly say they provide a variety of services for their clients: political monitoring of Parliament, advising on how to protect your interests and find out the real agenda behind the issues raised; strengthening submissions to Government or the Opposition policy-making machinery, acting as bridges between business, Westminster, Whitehall and Local Authorities; incorporating clients views into legislation, convincing the key officials in Whitehall before any Bill is even drafted; Select Committee preparation; Local Government liaison, helping private sector clients to minimise opposition on procurement, PPP, planning and regeneration.

People

Staff members include:

• Phil Royal, previously a key member of Labour's Campaign Team working for Milbank for the 1997 General Election (with special responsibility for briefing candidates);
• David Nicholson, a former Conservative MP who served on the Commons Public Accounts and Education and Employment Select Committees, was PPS to the Minister for Overseas Development and a former Deputy Director-General of the British Chambers of Commerce
• Terry Ashton, former General Secretary of the Greater London Labour Party (involved in the selection process for London MPs, MEPs and GLA members) and was political liaison with Labour's London Parliamentary Group and with Local Authorities

• Hugo Summerson, another former Conservative MP, who served on the Commons Environment Select Committee and on the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Pensions, and is a former Treasurer of the British-Latin American Parliamentary Group and Treasurer of the Association of Conservative Parliamentary Candidates.

Consultants

In August 2011 former Conservative MP Nigel Waterson, who retains a parliamentary pass, was listed as working as a consultant for Butler Kelley. He told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism however that: ‘I am careful to follow the House rules about not using my pass when visiting the house in a lobbying capacity.’ His former Parliamentary colleague the Labour MP Parmjit Dhanda was also listed as a consultant. Dhanda also had a pass after the election but has subsequently given it up.

Clients

In 2010 the website listed: Angel Trains | BASF | ESBI | SPAR | Calor | SAGA | Schering Plough | Thames Water

Previous clients include: BAe Systems, Eli Lilly and Company, Enron Europe, the Environment Agency and Railtrack.

All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prison Health

According to the All-Party Register, Butler Kelly is paid by its client, MSD, to act as the group’s secretariat. MSD or Merck Sharp & Dohme Limited is the UK subsidiary of Merck and Co. Inc.

Publications, Contact, Resources and Notes

Contact

Address:83 Victoria Street London SW1H 0HW

Phone:020 3008 8525

Email: admin@butlerkellyltd.co.uk

Website: http://www.butlerkellyltd.co.uk/