Last month Labour Deputy Leader-hopeful Caroline Flint was outed as having received donations for her campaign from corporate lobbyists Sovereign Strategy. Vice’s article points out Sovereign’s links to Maximus, the company contracted by the government (replacing ATOS) to carry out Work Capacity Assessments. Despite Flint soundbite calling for Labour to be a ‘grassroots movement – not a Westminster elite’, being in the pocket of corporations and abstaining on parliament’s vote on benefit caps suggests that her opposition to elites is little more than projection. The article is right to raise the question of ‘what influence those funders could have’.

Flint’s corporate sponsorship may conjure up images of smoke-filled backrooms in Westminster, but in this regard it is at the very least matched by another candidate: Ben Bradshaw’s links with the Henry Jackson Society. A neoconservative think-tank, recently exposed for its extraordinary influence within Westminster, the Henry Jackson Society was forced to withdraw its funding for two parliamentary groups ‘after refusing to disclose its donors to the Commons’ standards watchdog’. Continue reading →