Ethan Shone

After Green victory, the establishment will be out for blood After a stunning victory in the Gorton and Denton byelection, Green activists are preparing for a major establishment backlash

www.opendemocracy.net/en/the-green...

On Politics: Mandelson and the Private Life of Power Podcast Episode · The LRB Podcast · 02/11/2026 · 1h 7m

The Mandelson story is a rare glimpse into the private life of power, and the extent of state capture by unconstrained wealth. @petergeoghegan.bsky.social & @ethanshone.bsky.social joined me on @lrb.co.uk ON POLITICS to lay out just what that corruption means: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/o...

Taxpayers paid to send MoD official to work for elite bank The secondment, which comes as ministers court private finance, ended on same day we asked the government about it

SCOOP: As part of a wider move to increase the involvement of private finance in defence spending, an MoD official spent most of last year working at Rothschild & Co, under the former Cabinet Secretary Lord Mark Sedwill, who has also lobbied government on this

www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-mone...

Hakluyt has sought to distance itself from links to the intelligence community in the UK, but its US operation continues to hire directly from the services - it has just taken on another ex CIA & WH staffer

No 10's Varun Chandra ran Hakluyt's global operations until last July

UK finance lobby’s growing influence threatens our interests The government is overlooking the lessons of history – and the financial sector’s tendency to cause harm

Important piece by @MickMcAteer

"The UK’s financial lobbyists hold a more powerful role in developing our financial policy now than at any other time in my 30 years as a financial campaigner."

www.opendemocracy.net/en/uk-financ...

Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and Wes Streeting attended the annual Murdoch summer party last month

Starmer then had lunch with Lachlan Murdoch a few days later

And now Starmer is appointing a current senior exec at Murdoch to No 10

Exclusive: Watchdog probes Starmer aide’s lobbying of Tories openDemocracy findings on Varun Chandra’s activities at Hakluyt prompted official watchdog to launch investigation

Just last week, we revealed that Keir Starmer's business and investment adviser previously lobbied Tory ministers, and introduced private equity bosses to Kwasi Kwarteng at a secret meeting - his old firm is now under investigation as a result

www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-mone...

The veteran Tory and City lobbyist in Labour’s business team Iain Anderson’s newfound love for Labour has raised eyebrows across Westminster and worried some in the party

... and got a Liz Truss-backing veteran finance lobbyist to write their 'business engagement' strategy, then hired him as an adviser in the Department for Business & Trade

opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/iain-anderson-labour-starmer-h-advisors-cicero-lobbyist-business-conservative/

Revealed: What goes on in No 10’s mass lobbying calls? Not much at all, it turns out. But the growing stench of desperation is palpable, even over Microsoft Teams

The government hasn't just let corporate interests influence their policy in an abstract, indirect way - they literally hold regular calls with lobbyists...

www.opendemocracy.net/en/governmen...

The City’s investment in Labour is about to pay dividends Reeves’ Mansion House speech shows the corporate takeover of Labour is complete

We can understand what has happened to the Labour Party as a literal corporate takeover

Big business & the City in particular invested money and people into the project in its early phases - now they expect a return, in the form of deregulation and derisking

www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-mone...

Thanks @georgemonbiot.bsky.social

My analysis of this Labour Party since before the election has been that it is uniquely influenced and shaped by corporate interest... 'the first private sector Labour government'

Here are a few more recent articles I've written on this🧵

The Dark Arts | Substack The Dark Arts is a newsletter about dark money and illicit financial flows in politics, brought to you by openDemocracy’s award-winning investigations team. Click to read The Dark Arts, a Substack pub...

Regular reminder that the Dark Arts newsletter is totally free! (though support is appreciated, if you can afford it)

In the last few months I've revealed influential lobbying by JP Morgan and Blackstone, who's funding Reform and plans to bring US-style big money to the UK

thedarkarts.substack.com

From *last June*

www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-mone...

From March

www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-mone...

Revealed: What goes on in No 10’s mass lobbying calls? Not much at all, it turns out. But the growing stench of desperation is palpable, even over Microsoft Teams

No10 hosted two calls for lobbyists today, to encourage more cooperation between the government and business - I was on both

I wrote about that, what 'private sector government' means in practice, and how a year-old government seems already to be out of ideas

www.opendemocracy.net/en/governmen...

If we think of the payments made to Reform MPs for presenting gigs as essentially political donations, GB News was the second largest donor to Reform last year

I think we massively underrate these aspects of the importance of building left media — it’s not just about message/comms, but cadre-building

GB News not only shapes discourse but directly funds its preferred politicians, gives stable jobs & training to the next generation of right wing activists

Guaranteed there will be a GBN alumni in cabinet within 15 years

Text: “We don’t have time for ‘briefcase politics’” - Zack Polanski’s pitch to lead the left Image: Polanski addresses striking Science Museum and Natural History Museum security workers represented by the United Voices of the World trade union on a picket line outside the Science Museum on 26th October 2024

Deputy leader of the Green Party @zackpolanski.bsky.social talks to @ethanshone.bsky.social about his bid to lead not just the Greens, but the wider progressive movement.

Read the full interview here ⤵️
www.opendemocracy.net/en/green-par...

‘Deeply alarming’ new group could change UK politics forever Great British PAC wants to unite the right. To do so, it hopes to Americanise UK politics with help of donors like Elon Musk

Great piece by my colleague @ethanshone.bsky.social into the odd GB Pac that seeks to unite the right (its website leans heavy on AI images of armed lions).

www.opendemocracy.net/en/gb-pac-uk...

‘Deeply alarming’ new group could change UK politics forever Great British PAC wants to unite the right. To do so, it hopes to Americanise UK politics with help of donors like Elon Musk

A network of ‘media watchers’, legal challenges, Brainfart Policy, the threat/promise of Musk money, and ‘uniting the right’ ahead of 2029

I profiled a new group in UK politics, who’ve imported the ‘PAC’ model — much to the alarm of transparency groups

www.opendemocracy.net/en/gb-pac-uk...

Dark Arts Dispatch: SW1 is a ‘safe space’ for lobbyist Plus, how Peter Mandelson might find common ground with Trump in rumoured new role as UK ambassador to Washington

SW1 is a ‘safe space’ for lobbyists. Read the latest Dark Arts Dispatch from @ethanshone.bsky.social here 👇
www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-mone...

Dark Arts Dispatch: Westminster is a ‘safe space’ for lobbyists Plus, how Peter Mandelson might find common ground with Trump in rumoured new role as UK ambassador to Washington

Which 5-star hotel, favoured by royalty, recently played host to a secretive lobbying meeting with a Labour minister?

How might Peter Mandelson bond with Trump if he becomes ambassador to the US?

Why does the financial lobby keep winning?

This and much more ⬇️

open.substack.com/pub/thedarka...

Just to illustrate the distorting effect that a £10m donation from Elon Musk (or anyone else) would have on UK politics:

New data for total donations to all major political parties - Labour, Cons, Greens, LDs, Reform and SNP - shows a total of around £6m for Q3

The BlackRock letters: inside Labour's 'close partnership' The business secretary told the head of a major global investment banker that he looked forward to working together to “change the face of our United Kingdom"

“Dear Secretary of State on behalf of all of us here at BlackRock, please find attached a formal letter of congratulations from myself and our UK Chair, Sandra Boss. And may I add, on a personal note, it is a pleasure after all these years to address you as such!”

open.substack.com/pub/thedarka...

Dark Arts Dispatch: Westminster’s revolving door just keeps spinning Failed MPs and outgoing spads turn to lobbying, plus the new shadow science minister’s links to arms firms and tech giants

Here’s the newsletter, which you can get directly in your inbox for free via Substack

open.substack.com/pub/thedarka...

In my newsletter yesterday I wrote that Miliband, whose work in government treads most directly on the toes of big corporate interests, will come under increasingly direct and sustained fire

And right on cue, today’s DM splash

Lovebombed by lobbyists: How Labour became party of business An openDemocracy investigation reveals the secretive mass lobbying campaign that shaped Starmer's policies

'Unlike in many other democracies, such as Canada, Germany and Scotland, voters have no right to know who is lobbying opposition politicians in Westminster'
How and why Labour is indulging the worst corporations on the planet for their growth obsession BS.
www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-mone...

Quite nice to join a new platform and find that my writing has already been quoted !

Sharing today, as it feels particularly relevant after Starmer tweeted about his meeting and partnership with BlackRock

Dark Arts Dispatch: Westminster’s revolving door just keeps Failed MPs and outgoing spads turn to lobbying, plus the new shadow science minister’s link to arms firms and tech giants

꩜ Westminster’s revolving door just keeps spinning.
The latest Dark Arts Dispatch from @ethanshone.bsky.social looks into how failed MPs and outgoing spads turn to lobbying, plus the new shadow science minister’s link to arms firms and tech giants ⤵️
www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-mone...