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Philip Hammond rebuked over bank lobbying allegations

By:   []

Date: 2021-09

The former UK chancellor, Philip Hammond, has been reprimanded by Westminster’s lobbying watchdog after he wrote to a Treasury official on behalf of a bank he was paid to advise.

In July 2020, Hammond emailed with a pitch from OakNorth Bank for a new “financial toolkit” that the government could use in response to the pandemic.

In the correspondence, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, the Conservative lord asked for the Treasury’s second most senior official to “pass it to anyone else who might be appropriate”.

Westminster’s lobbying watchdog, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA), condemned Hammond’s conduct as “not acceptable” saying it was “an unwise step to contact senior officials at the Treasury on OakNorth’s behalf”.

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The watchdog’s chair, Eric Pickles, said there was “a reasonable concern” that Hammond’s engagement with the Treasury “was only made available to OakNorth as a direct result of your time as chancellor”.

Letters reveal that Hammond tried to block the watchdog from publishing its ruling, and even considered a legal injunction. He demanded that the verdict be withdrawn and redrafted, telling Pickles: “What is appropriate or inappropriate is ultimately a matter of individual judgement… You cannot move the goalposts.”

But Pickles responded saying the decision had been final, and that Hammond’s behaviour had not been “in keeping with the purpose of the rules”.
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