Shanker Singham

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He's a good blue-sky thinker, but on the practicalities and details he gets blown apart.[1]

The Legatum Institute's key lobbyist Shanker Singham, now director of international trade at the Institute for Economic Affairs, has strong ties to the US climate science denial lobby, and has slotted neatly into a network of transatlantic climate science deniers pushing for a hard Brexit. ref. See also How Brexit Lobbyists Give Climate Science Deniers Privileged Access to the UK Govt

ToDo: How A Former Washington Lobbyist Became “The Brexiteers’ Brain”

Funding

Singham said he has secured a $1.1m grant for a 3-year research project on anticompetitive distortions in international trade from the US libertarian and religious right Templeton Foundation, which funds research on science, free markets, and religion.[1]

Articles

  • Jun.21.2018: Liam Fox caught in fresh “lobbyists as advisers” scandal. Transparency campaigners have accused international trade minister Liam Fox of “having trouble again seeing the line between adviser and privately-backed lobbyist”. Singham, a one-time Washington lobbyist, is also a director of the International Trade and Competition Unit at the Institute for Economic Affairs, a position he took after he left the controversial think tank Legatum earlier this year. Grayling is one of the UK’s leading PR and lobbying firms. The client it lists most regularly in its entry in the official register of lobbyists is the National Casino Forum, and the company also represents a number of major sugar manufacturers, and has previously worked for arms companies BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin. Speaking to openDemocracy, Singham said that he was advising Grayling itself, rather than any of its clients. Singham will also assist Grayling’s stablemates Citigate Dewe Rogerson and Quiller. Quiller’s past clients include the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Last week, openDemocracy revealed the extent of Singham’s access to govt ministers since the Brexit vote, showing that he has held dozens of meetings with figures including foreign secretary Boris Johnson, Brexit minister David Davis, as well as Liam Fox. Singham also had undeclared meetings with another Brexit minister, Steve Baker. Adam Ramsay, Peter Geoghegan, openDemocracy. See also Trade guru Shanker Singham quits over role at lobbying firm.
  • Jun.15.2018: Grayling signs up ‘hard Brexit svengali’ to serve as senior adviser. Grayling is beefing up its Brexit offer to clients by enlisting the help of one of the country’s most influential and controversial Brexit policy specialists. The PR and lobbying firm is set to weaponise leading trade and competition lawyer Shanker Singham in the fight to win clients seeking advice on how to navigate the post-Brexit landscape. Singham has been signed up by Grayling’s parent firm Huntsworth as a senior advisor with a brief to develop the group’s Brexit and trade offer to clients. He will also assist Citigate Dewe Rogerson and Quiller. The 48-year-old lawyer is currently director of the international trade and competition unit at the right wing think tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs. He also sits on the 5-member “committee of experts” set up by international trade secretary Liam Fox to advise on trade and investment and has been described by top Tory Michael Gove as probably the UK’s “leading expert on trade deals”. Singham previously built close links to Eurosceptic Tories during his time as director of economic policy at the Legatum Institute and in 2017 the Mail on Sunday accused him of being the “third man” in an alleged plot by Michael Gove and Boris Johnson to steer 10 Downing Street into a hard Brexit. Data compiled by openDemocracy and published this week also shows that since the Brexit vote in June 2016, Singham has also had dozens of meetings with British govt ministers including Boris Johnson, David Davis and Liam Fox. “It beggars belief that ministers and officials are spending hour after hour with Hard Brexit svengali, Shanker Singham,” said Labour MP Liam Byrne in response to the findings. David Singleton, Public Affairs News.

References