ON reading in The National that Rutherglen’s Labour MP, Michael Shanks, has been appointed an under-secretary at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, I instantly knew that every public affairs director in the oil, gas, renewables and nuclear sector would be on the phone to their lobbyists.
They’d be demanding to know who this new minister is, what’s his background, where did he go to school, what did he do before politics, to what wing of the Labour Party might he belong? That’s just the start.
I know this because my 35 years in corporate and financial public relations tells me that’s exactly what I would be doing were I still in the business. For Mr Shanks has become a very important person. He has power, and all power attracts people with deep pockets, well-connected networks of highly placed people and big plans. Many are wholly honest. All are determined to win. Some will have few scruples. Others will be downright crooks.
Keir Starmer has given Mr Shanks the job of bringing to life one of Labour’s biggest election promises. He’ll be responsible for creating GB Energy, the new public-owned investment vehicle that aims to help the energy industry and its investors deliver bankable projects.
Much of the talk is about clean and green technologies but oil, gas and nuclear will surely be part of Labour’s ambitions to improve the UK’s energy security, create many thousands of jobs in the sector, make prices more affordable for industry and consumers and develop new businesses that can strengthen the UK’s global competitiveness.
Before winning the Rutherglen by-election in October last year, Mr Shanks was a secondary school teacher in a school in Erskine, about 15 miles from Glasgow. He is about to enter a world that’s night and day wholly different from what he left behind.
He’ll discover that everyone wants to be his friend, particularly sharp-suited, deep-pocketed, smooth-tongued men and women all too keen to have lunch with him at the Savoy Grill or have him as a guest at Wimbledon, Wembley or the Royal Box at the Albert Hall.
These new friends are being paid by powerful interests who want to know what the minister and the Government are thinking, and they want to influence that thinking. They want to win.
Business leaders, lobbyists and trade associations will all say they want to hear the minister’s views.
So, the minister will be bombarded with invitations to speak at conferences and dinners. What the people making the invitations actually want is an opportunity to put their case to the minister.
Access is the key. Influence is the aim. It is sought in many ways. A trade association might offer to compile statistics to help the Government reach “informed conclusions”. You can be sure that a document of the highest analytical and presentational quality will be produced.
Skilled presenters will be drafted in to take the minister through the case, stressing that the route being advocated will have a positive impact on the economy, on jobs, on communities and, by gentle implication, the minister’s career prospects.
The research will be skewed in favour of its provider, of course, but it may be the only vaguely credible material the Government can obtain without commissioning its own research at considerable cost to the public purse.
Let me give Mr Shanks a few bits of advice as I wish him well in his new post.
- Before accepting corporate hospitality, ask yourself how it will look to the people who voted for you in Rutherglen.
- Avoid being alone with people who want to influence your decision-making.
- Get your civil servants to vet anyone you feel might be trying to pull the wool over your eyes.
- Remember, the public are the voters and the taxpayers. You are there to act in their best interests. Sometimes, but not always, the interests of business and wider society will coincide, but not always. Ask questions. Demand answers. Understand the details.
- Find yourself an expert on infrastructure project finance. You need to know about debt, equity, cash flows, return on investment, private equity, capital market instruments, business case models and how to interrogate business plans. Don’t rely on your civil servants.
- Business, industry and finance will be at the centre of your work as you build GB Energy. But don’t forget to allow access to you from communities that may be affected by the decisions you make. Local authorities are the voice of the people who voted for them. Environmental groups have as much right to be heard as big business.
- Get yourself a very smart press officer – someone with the skills you need, but far more importantly, someone with an ethical eye who can tell you when yours might be in danger of being blurry.
Finally, remember that people are in business to make money. That is their primary motivation. It is different from your primary motivation. That is to be the people’s tribune. Those two approaches are not natural bedfellows.
You will have to decide. Decide what you think is right. Be your own man. You’re from Ayrshire, so keep in the back of your mind “that an honest man’s the noblest work of God”.
Martin Roche
via email
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