Revision as of 06:41, 13 September 2017

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

Established in 1991, Interel Consulting UK (formerly Politics International) is a lobbying firm with offices in Manchester and London.

They are part of the wider Interel Group, with offices in Belgium, China, France, Germany, India, German and the USA.

Interel, Greencoat House, Francis Street, SW1P

Background

Interel Consulting UK is a member of the Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC).

Defence sector specialists

Interel has handled public affairs work for some of the biggest names in the arms and security business, most notably Boeing, Lockheed Martin and QinetiQ. Until recently its head of defence and security practice was Oliver Waghorn,^[1] a former special adviser to Liam Fox until scandal ended Fox's stint as a Conservative defence minister back in 2011.

At Interel, Waghorn led on 'advising a range of defence, technology and aerospace clients on business critical issues...support[ing] major UK, US and European primes including Boeing, Finmeccanica Lockheed Martin, QinetiQ and Babcock.^[2]

Concern over Waghorn's access to Whitehall and Westminster whilst working for such clients at Interel saw Thomas Docherty MP ask the then Conservative defence secretary Philip Hammond in 2013 'on how many occasions Mr Oliver Waghorn has been registered as a visitor to his Department’s main building ' since Waghorn had stopped working as Fox's adviser. Hammond replied that:

Since November 2011, there is no record of Mr Waghorn having been registered as a visitor to the Ministry of Defence (MOD) main building [...] In addition, my private office records show both Mr Waghorn and Mr Coffey attended a meeting with me in my MOD office on 3 November 2011. ^[3]

Waghorn le Interel in November 2016 to head BAE Systems's government relations unit.

People

Staff

George McGregor, managing partner. Former special adviser to the former Secretary of State for Scotland Rt Hon Helen Liddell and a researcher for a U.S. Congressman in Washington DC^[4]
Stephen Edwards, deputy managing partner. Former researcher at the Foreign Policy Centre
Lee Whitehill, director
Katherine Morgan, director. Has worked in HM Treasury and the European Commission, specialising in taxation and expenditure policy.
Steve Bramall, director
Lindsay Paterson, group practice director
Toby Kay, group head of digital
Bob Lewis, group head of association management
Mary McCue, director
Hannah Carmichael, associate director
Brian Wadsworth, associate director. Former director for strategic roads, planning and national networks at the Department for Transport and is currently chairman of the board of European Maritime Safety Agency
Amanda Gdula, consultant
Anna Jobling, consultant. Former researcher for Glenda Jackson MP
Becca Wright, consultant
Mike Blakeney, consultant. Has also worked at public affairs companies Bell Pottinger and Good Relations
Alice Hodgson, designer
Craig Stanley-Adamson, head of research and intelligence. Former parliamentary assistant to Conservative MPs Anne Milton and Paul Maynard and research assistant at the Henry Jackson Society^[5]
Lucy Mears, monitoring assistant^[6]
Nick Gash, associate director. Is also a non-executive director and deputy chairman of West Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust and policy and public affairs advisor at Associate of Accounting Technicians^[7]

Former

Oli Waghorn, director and group head of defence. former special adviser to the Secretary of State for Defence in 2010 and senior researcher to the Shadow Defence Minister in 2008.^[8]

APPC register

APPC lobbying register==

March 2016-May 2016

December 2015-February 2016

September 2015-November 2015

Clients

UK Registrar of consultant lobbyists

The register of consultant lobbyists documents those clients on behalf of whom Interel has lobbied government ministers and the firms filings since 2015 are as follows:

April - June 2016

British Amusement Catering Trade Association (working in support of the Fixed odds betting terminals APPG) | British Association of Leisure Parks, Piers and Attractions | Campaign for Fairer Gambling (working in support of the Fixed odds betting terminals APPG) | Expedia | Hippodrome Casino | LM Consultants | Nissan | Novomatic (working in support of the Fixed odds betting terminals APPG)^[12]

January - March 2016

October - December 2015

July - September 2015

April - June 2015

January - March 2015