Stephen Byers - Lobbyist Investigation

Lobbyist Investigation

In March 2010, Byers was among the politicians caught out by undercover journalists who were posing as lobbyists from an international company. The journalists were from The Sunday Times and filming for a Channel Four investigatory series called Dispatches. He was shown describing himself as a "cab for hire" and offering to lobby his parliamentary contacts in support of the fictitious company for a financial payment of between £3,000 and £5,000 per day. Byers claimed to have influenced outcomes for National Express and Tesco through his relationships with Lord Adonis, Transport Secretary, and Lord Mandelson, Business Secretary, respectively. He claimed that he had he phoned Mandelson to put a stop to “massively bureaucratic” food labelling regulations after he had been contacted by Tesco. He later withdrew his name for consideration by the fictitious lobbying company via email, claiming he had over-stated his role, writing, "I have not spoken to Andrew Adonis or Peter Mandelson about the matters I mentioned". When the story broke, National Express and Tesco also denied there was any truth in Byers' statements. Byers referred himself to John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. Byers expressed confidence that Lyon would clear his name, but he was eventually banned from the parliamentary estate. On 22 March 2010, Byers' administrative suspension from the membership of the Parliamentary Labour Party was announced alongside alongside those of Patricia Hewitt, Geoff Hoon and Margaret Moran. Although all four remained members of the Labour Party itself.