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Labor says the No 10 chief of staff position is unacceptable amid lobbying allegations.lobbying

The Labor Party argued that Mark Fulbrook’s position as Chief of Staff Downing Street could no longer be supported by the Wagner Group.

The Guardian previously reported that Fulbrook, CEO of Fulbrook Strategies, said: Lobbyed on behalf of BashaghaHowever Sunday Times He claimed that Bashaga had arranged for him to come to London in June, where he met his then-business secretary, Kwasi Kwarten, and his then-educational secretary, Nadim Zahawi.

Neither minister registered the meeting, but it appears that the meeting was intended to persuade the British government to adopt a broad policy of neutrality. Libya I support Bashaga.

Shortly after his visit to London, the Special Committee on Foreign Relations held a rare off-evidence session via satellite link with Bashaga.

Given that the commission was not conducting an inquiry into Libya at the time, the session was highly unusual and did not appear to be related to any other work, and was primarily used to lobby Basaga for British assistance. provided a platform for

Commission members, few of whom were present at the session, rarely disputed Basaga’s claim to be Libya’s legitimate prime minister.

Libya is roughly divided into two camps. One relies on Turkish support and is based in Tripoli led by Abdul Hamid Dubeiba, the other is based in the east and relies on Russian and UAE support.

Before visiting London, Basaga entered Tripoli in the hope that his arrival would foment an uprising in his favor. However, when the militia support he sought did not materialize, he was forced to make a hasty retreat.

Bashagha had a strange alliance of convenience not only with Aguila Saleh, the influential speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives (HoR), but also with Khalifa Haftar, a strongman in the eastern Libyan army accused of war crimes.

Haftar’s Libyan Arab Army (LAAF), aided by thousands of Kremlin-affiliated Wagner Group mercenaries, laid a bloody siege to Tripoli in 2019-2020. The brutal and economically damaging siege was only defeated when Turkey intervened to provide military training and equipment to the forces of the National Unity government.

Basaga’s claim to be Libya’s prime minister stems from a vote of confidence decision issued by the HoR and the recommendation of members of the High Council (HCS). The HoR claims Dbeibah should have resigned because it was impossible to hold elections as planned in December.

British ambassador to Libya, Caroline Hahndal, herself met Bashaga, but the UK has adopted a broadly neutral stance, focusing on the need for both sides to agree on the terms of national elections.

Kwarteng has previously defended Haftar and has written a pamphlet calling on the UK to endorse the heavyweights. He visited Libya before meeting Haftar there with Leo Docherty, the foreign minister in charge of Europe.

Fulbrook defended himself by renouncing any responsibility for Libya’s policies, but at least nine countries – Italy, France, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Turkey, Germany, Egypt, Qatar and Tunisia – are internationalized. direct interest in Libya. It is a power struggle that makes it difficult for Fulbrook to compartmentalize his involvement in Libya.

in a joint letter to Liz Truss, Labor deputy leader Angela Rayner and shadow foreign minister David Lamy warned the prime minister. ”. Fulbrook “has no place at number 10,” they said.

Labor has called for a full and independent inquiry into the episode and its impact on UK foreign policy and the ethics and propriety of the government. This included not only the failure of the scrutiny and process at Downing Street, but also the role of ministers and officials in facilitating Basaga’s visit and subsequent engagement, in clear violation of established British diplomatic positions. includes action.

“This raises serious questions about the prime minister’s own chief of staff’s involvement in shady paid lobbying for foreign clients,” Lamy said.

“This was work done on behalf of overseas entities to subvert the UK’s diplomatic position through visits not authorized by the Foreign Office or No 10 and meetings with undeclared ministers.”

Since the Truss has not appointed an ethics advisor on the Ministerial Covenant, the adequacy of the Council of Ministers, which clearly contradicts the UK’s official foreign policy, may not be formally investigated.

Fulbrook’s position became even more precarious on Sunday, when he was forced to recuse himself from discussions about changing the government’s smoking strategy because of his past as a tobacco industry lobbyist.

Fulbrook worked for Philip Morris, makers of British American Tobacco and Marlboro cigarettes.

According to media reports, the government is considering shelving an action plan on fighting smoking.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/16/no-10-chief-staff-position-untenable-lobbying-claims-labour-mark-fullbrook Labor says the No 10 chief of staff position is unacceptable amid lobbying allegations.lobbying

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