Bell Pottinger Communications

Bell Pottinger Communications (a subsidiary of Chime Communications) is the largest PR and lobbying company in the UK. Their income in 1999 was £34,390,000 (political lobbying accounted for £3,440,000 of this). They gave the Labour Party more than £5,000 in sponsorship in 1999-2000.

The Chairman of Bell Pottinger is Lord Tim Bell, a friend of Thatcher's who ran the Tory Party's publicity campaigns for the 1979, 1983 and 1987 elections. He was the Deputy Chairman of Lowe Howard-Spink and Bell alongside Frank Lowe before founding Chime Communications in 1989. He got his peerage from Tony Blair in 1998.

Other ex-Labour Party staff at Bell Pottinger include Cathy McGlyn (an adviser to Jack Cunningham when he was Agriculture Secretary), Amanda Clow (from Tony Blair's office before the 1997 election), Amanda Francis (a former adviser to Mo Mowlam), Jav Chavda (a former researcher for the 'Rapid Rebuttal Unit') and [[Nick Williams[[ (a researcher for David Clark).

Clients

Some of Bell Pottinger's clients include Nike, BSkyB, Natwest, BNFL, BP, AEA Technology, GlaxoSmithKline and Prudential.