James Lundie

James Lundie is managing director of public affairs at PR firm Edelman.

He is a former advisor to Liberal Democrat leaders Paddy Ashdown and Charles Kennedy.

In May 2009, the Daily Telegraph revealed that the new Chief Secretary to the Treasury, David Laws, was Lundie's partner, but had been claiming expenses on the basis that Lundie was was his landlord. Laws gave the paper the following statement:

“I claimed back the costs of sharing a home in Kennington with James from 2001 to June 2007. In June 2007, James bought a new home in London and I continued to claim back my share of the costs. I extended the mortgage on my Somerset property, for which I do not claim any allowances or expenses, to help James purchase the new property.

“In 2006 the Green Book rules were changed to prohibit payments to partners. At no point did I consider myself to be in breach of the rules which in 2009 defined partner as ‘one of a couple … who although not married to each-other or civil partners are living together and treat each-other as spouses’.

“Although we were living together we did not treat each other as spouses. For example we do not share bank accounts and indeed have separate social lives. However, I now accept that this was open to interpretation and will immediately pay back the costs of the rent and other housing costs I claimed from the time the rules changed until August 2009.”

Clients

• News Corporation - Lundie and managing director of corporate affairs Alex Biggs are heading Edelman's team tasked with helping the embattled company handle mounting public anger and political pressure over the phone-hacking scandal in the UK. The team reports directly to Will Lewis, general manager of News Corp subsidiary News International, the publisher of Rupert Murdoch's British newspapers, and provides "communications and public affairs support and counsel" to its management and standards group.