A senior member of David Cameron’s frontbench team was last night forced to pull out of an appearance as the guest of honour at a reception for a corporate lobbying firm at the Tory conference.

Francis Maude, who recently issued a tough warning to lobbyists that they must clean up their act or face statutory legislation, had agreed to meet “clients and friends of APCO Worldwide” at a private suite in the Midland Hotel in Manchester on Tuesday.

A party spokesman said: “Francis Maude is not attending the APCO event at conference.” The effort to avoid a potential conflict of interest follows last week’s disclosure in The Times that dozens of Conservative parliamentary candidates have been working as lobbyists, with some admitting to having arranged meetings for clients with frontbenchers.

…

Many of the private interests will be represented in Manchester next week where, according to one party insider, “wealth and power is stampeding in a way not seen since the collapse of the Berlin Wall”. Such comments reflect the unease felt by some senior members of the party at the bombardment from firms seeking to influence the next manifesto.

…more at The Times

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