Patricia Hewitt

This article is part of the Revolving Door project of Spinwatch.

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

This article is part of the Health Portal project of Spinwatch.

Patricia Hewitt

Patricia Hewitt (born 02 December 1948, Canberra) is a senior adviser at FTI Consulting and former health secretary in the UK Government.

Politics

Hewitt worked as a press officer (1983-1987) and policy coordinator (1987-1989) to former Labour MP Neil Kinnock.

Hewitt was appointed the Labour Member of Parliament for Leicester West from 1997 to 2010, obtaining over 50 percent of the vote in all three elections contested. Whilst in parliament she was a junior minister with the Treasury (1998-1999), minister of state to the Department of Trade and Industry (1999-2001), secretary of state for trade and industry (2001-2005) and secretary of state for health (2005-2007).

Patricia’s five ways to meet a Minister

In the Dispatches programme ‘Politicians for Hire’, broadcast on 22 March 2010, Dispatches set up a fictional US public affairs company and contacted Hewitt and several senior politicians asking them if they were interested in a position on the advisory board in their London office. Hewitt attended a bogus interview and outlined to the undercover reporter five ways in which corporations could gain access to a serving Minister of State:

(1) Wining and dining

“You know when I was Business Secretary I would cheerfully accept hospitality initiations, for instance, because it was just a really useful way of getting to know business leaders rather better. Gordon is pretty against all of that.”

(2) The think-tank route

“Now the think tank and the seminar route I think is a very good one and will remain a good one and so identifying the right think-tank. Policy Exchange is a good one at the moment, Demos is another good one. And saying ok, does that think tank already have a relationship with Minister X? Can we invite Minister X to give a seminar on this subject? Your client would then sponsor the seminar and you do it via the think-tank. And that’s very useful, because what you get for your sponsorship is basically you sit next to the Minister.”

(3) Sponsor a Party Conference event

“Is a classic one, increasingly crowded for the Conservatives at the moment. A bit un-crowded for Labour last year, it used to be the reverse.”

(4) Direct invitation

“Sometimes you know just a direct invitation to have you know we want to come and see you about X will sometimes work.”

(5) Establish a presence in the Minister’s constituency

“So depending on the company if they’ve got a presence in some part of the country or there’s some link and then that fits with where roughly speaking where a Minister’s constituency is … that can be a more subtle route in … and doesn’t get trapped by the officials.”

FTI Consulting

In December 2014 it was announced Hewitt had joined FTI Consulting as a senior adviser, where she will work under UK head of public affairs and managing director Alex Deane. FTI are hoping to utilise her experience as a Minister, policy adviser and company director as they look to expand their 'public affairs offering in the UK'.

Donations

Hewitt has donated £4,000 to Liz Kendall's campaign to succeed Ed Miliband as the next leader of the Labour Party.

Special advisers and aides

Former

• Liz Kendall, 2004-2007

Affiliations

• Special Consultant, Alliance Boots (http://www.allianceboots.com/) - International chemist chain. Role was approved by ACOBA, subject to Hewitt "wait[ing] six months from the date on which she left office and, for 12 months from the same date, she should not be involved personally in lobbying the Government on the company’s behalf"
• Senior Adviser, Cinven (http://www.cinven.com/) - Private equity firm. On a salary of 55,00 Role was approved by ACOBA subject to "wait[ing] six months from the date on which she left office and, for 12 months from the same date, she should not be involved personally in lobbying the Government on the company’s behalf"
• Chair of the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) board
• Non-executive director of EuroTunnel
• Member of the International Advisory Board of Sutherland Global Services
• Member of the UK government's Asia Task Force
• An active supporter of Katha, an NGO that is transforming the lives of children and their families in Delhi's slums.
• Member of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women.
• Non-executive director, BUPA, 2013.

Former affiliations

• Non-executive Director, BT (http://www.bt.com/) - Communications company, March 2008-March 2014 Role was approved by ACOBA subject to "12 months after leaving office, she should not be personally involved in lobbying the Government on the company’s behalf"

Resources

See: Fracking lobbying firms

See: The Corporate Capture of the NHS

• Melissa Jones and Andy Rowell, Access all areas: Westminster's (vast) fracking lobby exposed, 29 April 2015.
• Tamasin Cave, The privatising cabal at the heart of our NHS Spinwatch, 1 April 2015.
• Costello, Miles, "BT snares former minister Patricia Hewitt," Times, 13 March 2008, accessed 25 November 2008.
• Hewitt, Patricia, About Patricia Hewitt, accessed 25 November 2008.
• Ungoed-Thomas, Jon, et al., "Revealed: how minister cashed in on contacts," The Sunday Times, 23 November 2008, accessed 24 November 2008.