“I’m a Labour donor”: ex-Tory MP exposed in cash-for-access sting

Exclusive: Details of Ben Howlett’s fundraising for Labour prompts Green leader Zack Polanski to call on Starmer's party to “come clean” about its relationship with him.

Ben Howlett meets Keir Starmer in June

We recently revealed just how easy - and how cheap - it is to buy access in Westminster.

For just £5,000, former Conservative MP Ben Howlett introduced our undercover reporter, Ross - posing as an adviser to a fake Chinese AI investor - to more than 10 Labour MPs and government ministers.

The investigation prompted a major response. It was broadcast to millions on ITV News. Labour MP Phil Brickell MP told Parliament that our work showed the “desperate need” for lobbying reform.

But many Democracy for Sale readers asked the same question about the story: why is an obscure 39-year-old former Tory MP such a well-connected fixer at the heart of Labour Party politics?

Today, we can provide an answer.

Howlett is not just an ex-Conservative MP who sells political access through his consultancy Chamber Group and his ownership of the influential PoliticsUK X/Twitter account. He has also been involved in Labour Party fundraising - while privately boasting of his access to senior figures.

We can report, amongst other things, that:

• Howlett told an undercover reporter from Democracy for Sale and Led By Donkeys that he “is a Labour donor”. He appears to have been involved in at least one donation to a Labour MP.

• The former Conservative MP discussed fundraising with four Labour different MPs. All of these meetings took place after Howlett had been charged with sexual assault, a charge he denies.

• A dozen Labour ministers have joined events and fundraising dinners with Howlett’s Chamber Group without declaring them in official transparency releases. A number of these events included Chamber’s corporate clients.

• After Rachel Reeves cancelled a Chamber event, Howlett told a Labour MP that if the chancellor agreed to an event in London “I can fill that room pretty easily” with “ten people [who] are each putting in fifteen thousand pounds.”

Green Party leader Zack Polanski said Labour must “come clean on its relationship” with Howlett and strengthen transparency laws.

“This is more proof that our politics is broken,” Polanski told us. “Former MPs slip effortlessly between Conservative, Labour and Reform UK, making it harder to tell them apart.”

Political experts told Democracy for Sale that the closeness between a former Tory MP and Labour politicians helps explain the broader collapse in public trust in politics.

“When MPs cosy up to former colleagues like this, it reinforces the worst suspicions about Westminster, that it is still an old boys’ club where loyalty trumps integrity,” said Jennifer Nadel, founder of Compassion in Politics.

“This kind of clubbiness feeds the populist narrative that politics is a ‘swamp’ in need of draining, a narrative that figures like Donald Trump have weaponised to erode faith in democratic institutions,” she added.

A Labour spokesperson said that the party “is not affiliated with Chamber UK” and that “attendance at an event hosted by a third-party organisation should not be interpreted as an endorsement of that organisation or its staff.”

Howlett and Chamber Group did not respond to our questions.

On a bright September lunchtime, our fake Chinese business adviser met Howlett at a five-star restaurant on the Thames. The former Tory MP boasted about his relationships with Labour MPs and joked about buying the PoliticsUK account for just £100.

Then he casually dropped a line that surprised our reporter: “I’m a Labour donor.”

Over the following weeks, as Howlett introduced us to more Labour MPs, the scale of his involvement in Labour’s finances became clearer.

In four separate meetings he arranged with Labour MPs, Howlett discussed fundraising for the party.

On a call with Halesowen MP Alex Ballinger, Howlett said: “I appreciate you weren’t one of my flock in terms of fundraising before the election… but some of your local Black Country MPs were. But if there are things you ever need from us, just let us know.”

Ballinger responded enthusiastically, saying he would be “very, very open to a conversation about fundraising” and “very, very warm to those sort of chances.”

Halesowen MP Alex Ballinger: “very, very open to a conversation about fundraising”

In another meeting, Howlett told a Labour MP that he had “helped out with some fundraising before the election in a personal capacity” after introducing our supposed Chinese investor.”.

All of these meetings took place in October - a month after Labour revoked Howlett’s conference pass following reporting that he is awaiting trial next year on a sexual assault charge, which he denies.

Labour said the MPs involved had been told the meetings concerned potential local investment.

Howlett’s involvement did not stop once Labour entered government.

Our reporter paid £350 to attend what was advertised as a Chamber Group event with Manchester mayor Andy Burnham on boosting the British economy and sponsored by Heathrow Airport. But when he arrived in Liverpool, he discovered it was also a Labour Northwest fundraising dinner.

Afterwards, Howlett offered Labour MP Peter Dowd help raising more money - if cabinet ministers could be involved.

“If you’re doing another Northwest fundraising dinner, just let us know,” Howlett told Dowd. “We got some sponsors, obviously, like Heathrow and all the rest.”

Howlett talked up his fundraising experience for Labour “in other regions” and suggested that the Bootle MP would “find it a lot easier to get the sort of national sponsorship in for those sorts of things with Cabinet [involved].” There is no suggestion that Dowd took up Howlett’s offers of help.

Howlett certainly seems to have ministerial contacts. Our review of online posts shows that since last July’s general election Chamber Group has advertised events involving 16 Labour ministers, 30 Labour MPs, and 10 Labour peers, often involving Chamber’s corporate clients.

Some appear to have doubled as Labour fundraisers. Emails seen by Democracy for Sale show Howlett promoting £250-a-head tickets for an “exclusive dinner” with Wes Streeting, and offering “top table participation” and “speaking opportunities” at a “short notice dinner” with then environment secretary Steve Reed.

Ministers are required to disclose their meetings with outside groups. But there is no public record of these events, or many others involving Chamber and government ministers.

£250 for dinner with Wes?

In total, we found 12 Labour ministers who were listed at events involving Howlett and his Chamber Group but which were not recorded in official transparency releases. This includes a meeting between Keir Starmer and Howlett in North Wales in June, to discuss AI.

Neither Labour nor the government responded to questions about why these meetings have not been disclosed on ministerial transparency registers.

Corporate members of Howlett’s ‘policy institute’ Curia have also sponsored events attended by Labour ministers that are missing from the transparency register.

Life Sciences minister Andrew Gwynne, launched a Curia report at a parliamentary event sponsored by the life sciences company Revvity last year. Karin Smyth, health minister, spoke at a Curia event on gender equality and women’s health sponsored by pharmaceutical giant Bayer. Neither event was declared in official transparency releases.

Transparency campaigners told us that the involvement of senior Labour party figures in so many undisclosed events organised by Howlett’s businesses “raises serious red flags about where political fundraising ends and private influence begins.”

“The government needs to urgently improve transparency around meetings with lobbyists and party donors to make it clear that political influence must never be for sale,” said Kamila Kingstone of Spotlight on Corruption.

Howlett is not recorded as a Labour donor on the Electoral Commission, but his name has appeared on the register of MP’s interests, where the threshold for disclosure is much lower.

Labour MP Sonia Kumar registered a £1,500 donation from Howlett in May - the cash gift came a week after she spoke at a Chamber-hosted Westminster dinner sponsored by an investment firm.

In July, Kumar amended her register to list the donor instead as SME4Labour, a group run by Ibrahim Dogus. A Labour councillor, Dogus is well-known in Westminster as the man behind the British Kebab Awards, an annual shindig for lobby journalists and politicos.

Labour said the original entry was an administrative error and that the donation came from SME4Labour, not Howlett. SME4Labour said the funds donated to Kumar were raised through events and that any corrections were a matter for the MP’s office.

SME4Labour confirmed Chamber had bought tickets or tables at its events, and said Howlett and Dogus had crossed paths professionally but had no business relationship.

Howlett and Chamber Group did not respond to requests for comment. Following our recent investigation, a Chamber spokesperson said the firm “fully understands the importance of transparency, propriety and public confidence” in work involving policymakers.”

Additional reporting on this story came from Jenna Corderoy.

Democracy for Sale has repeatedly exposed dark money and hidden influence in British politics. We have many more stories in the works and leads to follow.

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