5th May 2010

The Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate and lobbyist for Hackney and Stoke Newington, Darren Caplan, has been spoofed by activist film makers ‘Don’t Panic’.

Joe Wade from ‘Don’t Panic’ joined Caplan on the campaign trail, confronting the PPC and exposing his links to lobbying to unsuspecting voters. Caplan, who is campaigning on a “support local business” ticket, heads up lobbying for the PR firm Brands2Life, whose clients include that notorious “friend” of small shops, Tesco.  You can see the film here.

 In addition to Caplan, the Tories have a large number of PPCs from the lobbying industry standing all around the country. They remain the only one of the main parties to refuse to sign up to a statutory register. David Miller, director of SpinWatch, said: “This shows once again that the Tories have got to come clean about their lobbying links.

If David Cameron is serious about changing Britain he’s got to support full political transparency, which includes a statutory register of lobbyists.” SpinWatch is part of the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency which is campaigning for the introduction of a compulsory register of lobbyists. The measure currently has the backing of the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats, with the Conservatives favouring self-regulation.