The Tories are selling access to the new chancellor and senior ministers \u200bat almost \u00a33,000 a ticket for corporate leaders and lobbyists at their autumn conference, saying it will help firms \u201ctake your business to the next level\u201d.<\/p>\n
The party is advertising spaces for its \u201cprestigious\u201d annual business day at \u00a32,990 a head, saying it will give attenders the chance to interact with \u201ckey decision makers in the party\u201d.<\/p>\n
The day involves roundtables with senior party figures, a lunch with ministers and then ends with a dinner addressed by the new chancellor, who is expected to be Kwasi Kwarteng if Liz Truss wins the Tory leadership. The dinner alone costs \u00a3400 a head to attend.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is your chance to hear from the Conservative party\u2019s core team, put your questions directly to key decision makers in the party and network with other business leaders,\u201d the party\u2019s marketing material says.<\/p>\n
Alongside the business day, the Tories are also selling companies the chance to exhibit at the party conference in Birmingham, which costs more than \u00a351,000 for the biggest stands. Firms that go for that option are promised \u201cministerial visits from senior members of the cabinet\u201d.<\/p>\n
The party boasts that attending the conference gives businesses a \u201creach to thousands of party members, influential businesses, the senior Conservative team and more \u2013 both in-person in Birmingham, and globally online\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Conservatives have long held business days at their conference but the price tags have risen sharply since they started charging about \u00a31,000 a head under David Cameron.<\/p>\n
However, the price of the event and promise of access to ministers may reignite concerns about cash for access and ethical standards, which have arisen during the leadership of Boris Johnson.<\/p>\n
Steve Goodrich, head of research and investigations at Transparency International UK, said: \u201cSoliciting money for face time with senior government figures reinforces public concerns that cash buys privileged access and influence in our democracy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way these top-tier stands are advertised as buying time with ministers may give rise to the perception that you must pay to be heard in politics. For individuals and businesses struggling with the rising cost of living, this could signal their voice is not worth being listened to.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Conservative spokesperson said: \u201cThis event is an important opportunity to engage directly with businesses and to highlight how we continue to back business and enterprise as we build back from the pandemic and tackle the economic challenges ahead. All political parties hold business events at their conferences, and we have been holding such events at our conference for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n
The concerns over access could be exacerbated by Truss\u2019s plans to ditch ethical oversight for ministers by abolishing the post of independent adviser on ministerial interests.<\/p>\n
After being pressed on the subject of a new ethics adviser multiple times at a hustings on Tuesday, Truss said: \u201cI do think one of the problems we have got in this country in the way we approach things is we have numerous advisers and independent bodies, and rules and regulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me it\u2019s about understanding the difference between right and wrong, and I am somebody who has always acted with integrity [\u2026] and that is what I would do as prime minister.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chris Bryant, the chair of the committee on standards and a Labour MP, said he feared Truss was setting herself up as \u201cBoris Johnson mark two\u201d on standards and ethics.<\/p>\n
He said the credibility of ethical oversight in politics \u201cis already hanging by a pretty thin thread as we have seen over the past few years and it feels like she wants to cut that final thread\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis would take us back to a time before cash for questions. If she wants to rewrite this story as a rerun of the 1990s, we know where that ends,\u201d Bryant said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Tories are selling access to the new chancellor and senior ministers \u200bat almost \u00a33,000 a ticket for corporate leaders and lobbyists at their autumn conference, saying it will help firms \u201ctake your business to the next level\u201d. The party is advertising spaces for its \u201cprestigious\u201d annual business day at \u00a32,990 a head, saying it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":25130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4836,6370,5090,157,3782,7331,8924,1425,7777,10000,323,2512,6672,5262,1677,11606,2264,10954,7776,1828,9974,5840,12485,6864,5612,278,11973,6332,5485,5424,12103,3174,12524,4890,255,6258,12605,6348,3954,594],"class_list":["post-25129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-access","tag-birmingham","tag-boris","tag-boris-johnson","tag-cabinet","tag-cash","tag-chance","tag-chancellor","tag-chris-bryant","tag-conservative","tag-conservative-party","tag-conservatives","tag-cost-of-living","tag-cut","tag-david-cameron","tag-democracy","tag-government","tag-international","tag-kwesi-kwarteng","tag-labour","tag-leadership","tag-liz-truss","tag-lunch","tag-ministers","tag-money","tag-mp","tag-one","tag-online","tag-pandemic","tag-politics","tag-price","tag-prime-minister","tag-ticket","tag-tories","tag-tory","tag-transparency","tag-uk","tag-us","tag-will","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}