Bell Pottinger Public Affairs

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Bell Pottinger Public Affairs (BPPA) is one of the lobbying firms of Bell Pottinger Communications one of the largest public relations companies in the United Kingdom.

Background

"BPPA is one of fourteen companies operating within the public relations division of Chime Communications plc," it states on its website. The Public relations division is named Bell Pottinger Communications.

Its stated aim is to "work closely with clients to ensure that their case hits home with the people who matter most... We make sure that our clients know the politics, policies, people and process that drive decisions. We advise our clients on what to say, how to say to it, who to and when."

Opposing transparency

BPPA is the largest of the lobbying firms refusing to disclose its client list. Giving evidence to MPs conducting the Parliamentary inquiry into lobbying in March 2008, Peter Bingle, Chairman of BPPA, said "The public has no right to know who our clients are." Bingle also voiced his resistance to closer scrutiny of the industry in an opinion piece in PR Week in September 2007. When the inquiry was announced, he wrote: “There is no point rehearsing in public the view that we welcome the inquiry. We don’t. I have yet to meet a member of the industry who does… The real issue is that the industry needs a public voice with the ability to make a convincing case and to disarm the doubters… Now is not the time for faint hearts.”

In 2009 Bell Pottinger Public Affairs told the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee on Lobbying: Access and Influence in Whitehall that, “We think that it would be an unnecessary burden for Parliament to be a regulator of our industry, and that it would be an unnecessary burden on the public purse for there to be an external authority”

Influencing government policy

In early 2007, BPPA produced the Brown Book, essential, at around £5000, for “anyone with an interest in the interplay between politics and business”. It includes a 40 page chapter on “who to know” in Gordon Brown’s government. The Independent on Sunday reported it had seen an email from a leading lobbyist bragging how it is cashing in on its "unrivalled expertise and links to the Brown camp".

In September 2006, PR Week reported that "senior politicians including two Cabinet members pulled out of evening receptions organised by Bell Pottinger Public Affairs at the Labour conference this week ... following revelations that the firm was charging clients fixed fees to meet them." Chairman of BPPA, Peter Bingle admitted: “They didn't want to be linked to the idea of cash for access”. An email leaked to The Times indicated that clients would be charged some £5,000 for the opportunity to meet with Lord Falconer, Stephen Timms, Richard Caborn and Kevin Barron MP.

Caught on camera

In an undercover investigation conducted in June and July 2011, BPPA was secretly filmed boasting once again about access, this time to the Coalition government, and how it uses ‘dark arts’ to bury bad coverage and influence public opinion. Reporters from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism posed as agents for the brutal Uzbek government dictatorship and representatives of Uzbekistan's cotton industry.

As part of their pitch, BPPA executives claimed they had persuaded David Cameron to speak to the Chinese premier on behalf of one of their business clients, within 24 hours of asking him to do so. They also boasted about Bell Pottinger’s access to the Foreign Secretary William Hague, to Cameron’s chief of staff Ed Llewellyn and to Cameron’s old friend and closest No 10 adviser Steve Hilton. The revelations, published in the Independent, led to an investigation by the industry body PRCA and also saw the PRCA withdraw from the UK Public Affairs Council and endorse the government’s decision to introduce a statutory register of public affairs practitioners.

Among other dark arts tactics, BPPA also recommended using an event run by the think tank Policy Exchange as a root to influencing UK government policy. The firm's managing director, Tim Collins, also recommended a meeting with its Chairman Daniel Finkelstein, who he said was very close to David Cameron.

Bell Pottinger quoted the Uzbek representatives a potential ‘£1 million-plus’ fee for carrying out the work.

Clients

Clients include (March 2008)

• ASDA, BAe Systems, ebay, HSBC Holdings, Imperial Tobacco, Jacobs, Ladbrokes,McDonalds, National Grid, Nuclear Decommissioning Agency (NDA), O2, Pettifer Estates,Provident Financial, Rolls-Royce, Rio Tinto

Clients listed on BBPA's website (December 2011):

• BACTA, Bank of Ireland, Canary Wharf, Direct Marketing Association, Emirates, Equitable Members Action Group, Imperial Tobacco, Inmarsat, Kellogg's, Motor Sports Association, National Grid Property, National Grid, Oil & Gas UK, Park Group, Permira, Provident Financial, Rio Tinto, Stannah BPPA,

Iraq

In March 2004 BPPA won a $5.8m (£3.2m) four-month contract from the U.S. supported administration in Iraq to promote the establishment of democracy ahead of the handover of power to the interim Iraqi authority on 30 June. According to PR Week, the contract also includes promoting the election of an Iraqi government.

"B-PC will work with its Dubai operation Bates PanGulf, and Baghdad-based media services company Balloch & Roe. A small team will be sent to work with Balloch & Roe's Arabic writers who will advise on how best to cross the cultural divide," PR Week reported.

The project team, PR Week reports will be headed by Mark Turnbull and the head of BPPA's Dubai office Tom Mollo. The Independent (UK) reported that company founder Tim Bell described his role as "masterminding the campaign in London".

Defence

In 2003 BAE Systems appointed Bell Pottinger Public Affairs to look at improving their corporate reputation with political and business audiences. The account is led by Peter Bingle In 2004, Charlotte Lambkin, who had been Director of Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial was appointed the BAE Group Communications Director. “We hired Bell Pottinger for Piers [Pottinger],” Lambkin said in 2005. “He has a strong relationship with Mike Turner [chief executive at BAE Systems] and he is also contactable when I want him.”

BAE was recently under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office for allegedly “bribing” Saudi generals. The Guardian reported that “A well-orchestrated PR campaign, involving BAE's lobbyists, veteran fixer Tim Bell… was already setting up a chorus that the latest Saudi arms contract was in danger, threatening up to 100,000 jobs.” According to the report, the campaign saw MPs from all parties urging the investigation be dropped, citing fears that jobs would be lost in their constituencies. The Government blocked the SFO inquiry in December 2006, claiming it would endanger Britain's security.

Public Private Partnerships

In 2001, Bell Pottinger picked up an account for the Public Private Partnership Forum, the consortium representing the largest organisations involved in pitching for Government contracts. Because of opposition to and controversy surrounding the London Underground PPP, the Forum felt it "better to concentrate our work on reminding people of the benefits of PPP as a whole." Bell Pottinger Public Affairs was hired to lobby both central government and opposition groups including trade unions.

Key Staff

• Peter Bingle: Chairman of BPPA, Bingle is a former Conservative councillor who has close personal links with MP Nick Brown; they are said to frequently attend the opera together. Brown is a former agriculture minister and a leading backbench ally of Gordon Brown. Nick Brown, godfather to one of Mr Bingle's children, has a “reputation as a political fixer". He also attended a client dinner hosted by BPPA at Labour's 2006 conference.

• David Hill: Hill rejoined Bell Pottinger as Director for the Group in September 2007 having served four years as Tony Blair’s director of communications (he replaced Alastair Campbell in 2003) He is Director for the Bell Pottinger Group based in The Collective, "where senior Bell Pottinger employees share clients with 'cross-group requirements'” . Prior to becoming Tony Blair's right hand man, Hill spent five years as MD of Bell Pottinger Good Relations, another Bell Pottinger company. During this time Hill returned to the Labour Party HQ at Millbank on “unpaid leave” from Good Relations, as a senior press spokesman for the 2001 election campaign. Prior to that he was director of communications for the Labour Party from 1991 to 1999. His long-term partner is Hilary Coffman, a press officer at Downing Street.

• David Sowells MD at BPPA, Sowells was a member of the Labour Party’s economic secretariat for three years in opposition. His past clients include McDonald's, Vickers, 3i, Camelot and BNFL.

• Neil Stockley Director at BPPA since January 2002, according to its website, Stockley's specialist area is energy and environment policy. He is a former Director of Policy for the Liberal Democrats, a member of the party’s Federal Policy Committee and in 2007 chaired the working group that developed a new climate change policy for the Liberal Democrats.

• Jonathan Caine Caine joined BPPA as a Director in March 2007 after spending 8½ years as an assistant director of the Conservative Research Department, based at Conservative Campaign Headquarters in Westminster. According to its website, at various times, hewas the principal adviser to successive Leaders of the Opposition and members of the shadow cabinet on Constitutional Affairs, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. He also served as a member of William Hague’s PMQ preparation and speechwriting teams. From 1991-95 he was special adviser to two successive Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland, and from 1989-90 a member of Mrs Thatcher’s Political Office in 10 Downing Street. He worked alongside David Cameron in the Conservative Research Department from 1988-91 and as a fellow special adviser from 1992-95.

• Luke Chauveau According to BPPA's Chauveau’s sector specialism is the defence industry. He received the BAE Chairman’s Award for improving BAE Systems’ reputation within Government and has advised firms on procurement projects with the Ministry of Defence, including The Future Defence Supply Chain Initiative. He joined BPPA in 2001 having previously been PR manager for the chairman of Press Complaints Commission, Lord Wakeham. Chauveau started his career in public affairs at Westminster Strategy then as a researcher at Conservative Central Office.

Contact information

Bell Pottinger Public Affairs
6th Floor, Holborn Gate
330 High Holborn
London WC1V 7QC
Phone 020 7861 2400
Fax: 020 7861 2401
http://www.bppa.co.uk

Resources

See David Hill

External links

• Sarah Robertson, "Bell Pottinger in Iraq democracy PR drive", PR Week, March 11, 2004.
• Ian Burrell, "How to sell democracy to Iraqis: bring in Lord Bell," Independent (UK), March 13, 2004.
• Paul Holmes, "U.K. Firm to Promote Democracy in Iraq," The Holmes Report, March 13, 2004.
• Heather Timmons, "Publicist Hired to Tell Iraqis of Democracy," New York Times, March 31, 2004.
• Ravi Chandiramani, "BPPA under fire over 'cash for access'", PR Week (sub req'd), September 28, 2006.
• "Bell Pottinger opts for its own code of ethics", PR Week (sub req'd), June 21, 2007.