Tom Evans

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

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

Tom Evans is a former political aide turned lobbyist. In January 2015 he joined lobbying giant Burson-Marsteller as an associate after working at Westbourne Communications.

Evans previously worked for Jim Fitzpatrick MP when he was a Labour minister.

Career

Evans has worked in Westminster City Council’s press office and completed some public affairs work for Thompsons Solicitors.

He was then an aide for former Labour minister for transport and Defra, Jim Fitzpatrick for two years, where he was responsible for media operations, research projects and community engagement.

He was a senior account executive at Westbourne Communications, working on projects for Uber, GPlus Europe and the North West Energy Task Force until January 2015.

Access to government on behalf of 'astro-turf' fracking clients==

At Westbourne Communications Evans worked with clients such as the North West Energy Task Force (NWETF), a ‘local’ lobby group set up by Centrica and Cuadrilla to push the business case for fracking in Lancashire. Analysis by Greenpeace in 2015 revealed however that less than half of NWETF’s members were based in the county, and included an elderly care home and a Welsh fishing resort.

Spinwatch highlights the benefits for lobbying firms such as Westbourne of employing former government advisers:

Emails released recently by Defra under freedom of information rules reveal that in May 2014 a Westbourne staffer wrote to Guy Robinson, who was at the time a special adviser to former environment secretary Owen Paterson (now Liz Truss), to request a meeting on ‘shale gas and farming’. The lobbyist, whose name is redacted but mentions NWETF is a client, was ‘working on a research paper exploring the potential benefits of shale gas developments to farmers’. He/she wanted ‘to discuss some of the findings’ over ‘some lunch or a brief coffee’ ahead of a launch event.

Within hours Robinson had replied, asking the lobbyist to set up a meeting with his diary office. Unfortunately we have no way of knowing whether they met – the emails don’t give any dates in the secretariat’s reply, or indicate if they arranged it by phone. Nor is it listed on Defra's most recent disclosed spads’ meetings dated 30 June 2014.

Guy Robinson, as it turns out, is an ex-lobbyist himself – he once worked for Crosby Textor, the UK-Australian lobbying outfit co-owned by David Cameron’s infamous election spin doctor Lynton Crosby.

Evans' move to a much bigger lobbying firm, Burson Marsteller (B-M), which handles the account of petrochemical giant and wannabe fracker Ineos, was no doubt aided by his former government credentials. B-M also used to employ Maria Allen, now special adviser to energy and climate minister Amber Rudd.

Education

• Politics, University of the West of England.

Resources

See: Fracking lobbying firms

See: Fracking Spads

• Melissa Jones and Andy Rowell, Access all areas: Westminster's (vast) fracking lobby exposed, 29 April 2015.