London Influence: In the tank for Liz Man of Mistry Meet Rud Pedersen – POLITICO Europe

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By MATT HONEYCOMBE-FOSTER

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Which think tanks are winning big as Team Truss marches on?

Meaty comms gig going at the CBI as a top spinner moves on.

European consultancy Rud Pedersen has big things planned for London.

IN THE TANK FOR TRUSS: Look, were not saying politicians arent incredible policy brains, but we have a sneaking suspicion they dont come up with all these killer ideas themselves.

And so: With a bit of help from agency Public Firsts handy Tory campaign policy tracker, we decided to treat ourselves to a proper look at the major Truss policies to see which think tanks are making a splash as she eyes No. 10.

What jumps out: It feels like a very good campaign if youre working at the Institute of Economic Affairs, the Centre for Policy Studies, or the Adam Smith Institute. A free-market fellow traveler, Truss has long had ties to the IEA in particular, and is a parliamentary member of its Free Market Forum. But there are a fair few ideas shamelessly ripped o sorry, gently inspired by, a wider crop of think tanks too.

Its the economy stupid: First up, Truss headline economic promises are very much in line with tax-cutting calls from the IEA, CPS and ASI. Each has pushed for the Sunak-era rise in national insurance to be reversed, as well as for the planned hike in corporation tax to be junked.

Bank of England mandate: With inflation soaring, Truss grabbed attention with her call to a review the mandate agreed between the government and the Bank of England something pitched by Policy Exchanges Gerard Lyons and the IEAs Andrew Lilico.

Death and taxes: Trusss vow to review inheritance tax whatever that actually means will be music to the ears of the IEA, which has branded the death levy nonsensical and called for its abolition. The ASIs not exactly a big IHT fan either, while center-right Bright Blue just wrapped up a massive piece of work on tax reform which hit out at the current design of IHT.

Wait, theres even more hot tax action: A fair few think tanks can also lay claim to Truss big vow to review the way families are taxed. In case you missed it, shes floated the idea of helping stay-at-home parents and carers by allowing them to transfer their entire tax-free allowance to a partner.

Onward and upwards: Onward, the centre-right policy shop run by former Theresa May adviser Will Tanner, did some serious thinking late last year on exactly this, arguing it would reduce cost of living pressures on families, broaden the base of beneficiaries and further strengthen the institution of the family. Fellow centre-right think tank Bright Blue has called for that transferable tax allowance to be open to all couples with young children, not just those who are married something Truss is on board with. And Policy Exchange made its own big push for a family taxation shake-up earlier this year.

The kids are alright: As well as being the ultimate act of revenge upon Nick Clegg, Trusss promise to relax staff-to-kid ratios in childcare is also an idea strongly championed by the ASI in a report that now looks very much like a mini-Truss manifesto. The CPS has made a similar plea, warning that current ratios are responsible for driving up staffing costs for nurseries, and so piling the pain on parents.

My ports are freer than yours: Truss and rival Rishi Sunak had a bit of a bust-up over who loves freeports the low-tax, regulation-reducing port zones meant to spur growth the most. Truss is going all in on full-fat investment zones, which sound remarkably like the CPS 2019 Opportunity Zones, meant to target neglected parts of the U.K. with simplified or reduced taxes.

Frack to the future: Trusss pledge to allow fracking where local communities support it has a very big caveat attached, but its as pro-fracking as someone No. 10-adjacent has sounded in quite some time. The ASIs been among those calling for an end to the moratorium on the controversial fossil fuel extraction method, while the IEAs gone a bit late-era Rishi, declaring that the the moral and economic choice is to frack amid the current energy crisis.

When the levies break: Moving green levies off energy bills and into general taxes in a bid to provide some relief from the soaring cost of, er, everything is another Truss crowd-pleaser. The CPS called for exactly that back in May.

Solvency abuse: Now were getting to the real party chat. Trusss promise to reform Solvency II banking rules inherited from the EU may sound obscure, but its a big deal in the City and a long-standing gripe of the IEA, which reckons the rules distort the insurance market and deter useful investment. The CPS, meanwhile, pressed for Solvency II reform earlier this year in a report pitched at making the U.K. a more attractive investment prospect and Policy Exchanges Lyons has also been banging the drum for change.

IEA hearts Stalinism: Its not all a love-in between Truss and Tufton Street, though. The Conservative contender made waves with a promise to ditch Whitehall-inspired Stalinist housing targets. But the IEAs Kristian Niemietz, not exactly known for his love of Uncle Joe, reckons government targets are actually a lesser evil in the face of the NIMBYism that has a stronghold on new supply. The IEA also had a right old pop at Truss for promising to outlaw cat-calling.

Gone but not forgotten: What about that brief Truss brainwave to introduce regional pay boards in the civil service? Its actually an idea thats been doing the rounds in think tank land for a while, with Alison Wolf arguing way back in 2010 for Centre Forum that Englands use of highly centralised pay-setting policies for most of its public services has major and negative consequences. Then-Policy Exchange wonks Ed Holmes and Matthew Oakley also warned in 2012 that national pay bargaining damages local growth and makes it harder for the public sector to recruit staff. The idea cropped up yet again in recent research by the TaxPayers Alliance, before being unceremoniously dumped by the Truss campaign barely 24 hours after being unveiled.

Look how shes grown: Truss was once a wonk herself, of course, serving as the deputy director of think tank Reform by her early thirties before getting into parliament and pretty swiftly storming into a ministerial post. Influences achievements by our mid-30s include eating a sandwich and buying, but then losing, several pens.

MISTRY JETS OFF: Senior move afoot at CBI towers the business groups head of news Mark Mistry is off to join spending watchdog the National Audit Office after an eight-year spinning stint, opening up a big gig in lobbying comms.

Its been eventful: Working at the CBI during four PMs, five chancellors, countless meaningful votes post EU referendum, a global pandemic, war in Ukraine and now the resulting economic crisis has been truly fascinating, and a genuine privilege, he tells Influence. I am still astounded by the sheer resilience of businesses the vast majority really are a force for good.

Best of times? Mistry picks working with the Treasury comms team to promote the COVID-19 furlough scheme, a joint effort between the CBI, government and the Trades Union Congress, as a CBI high.

Worst of times? Stepping in as security during the 2015 CBI annual conference, he says. Still, he outlasted that Cameron bloke in the end Mistry will be leaving the CBI in October.

All of which means: Theres now a sizeable job going at the CBI. Might any soon-to-be-unemployed SpAds fancy a punt?

CALLING ALL DORKS: Stack Data Strategy home to Red Wall inventor and graphs fan James Kanagasooriam is teaming up with Women in Political Data for an event next week aimed, according to organiser Jade Azim, at the dorky women in your life. Its the latest bid by Azim, a former Labour aide now at Purpose Union, to help women build their political data, polling and research skills and so level the playing field. You can sign up here.

SUGARMAN GETS SPICY: Apart from that thoroughly reassuring Liz Truss suggestion that government ethics advisers arent really necessary, there has been surprisingly little chat in this leadership contest about cleaning up politics. Max Sugarman, Chair of the CIPRs Public Affairs Group, reckons thats a mistake and hes got five ideas for change, including our old pal more lobbying transparency.

TIKTOKS COMMONS HIRING SPREE: Controversial social media giant TikTok has been tapping up plenty of ex-parliamentary staffers as it builds its U.K. team, the sharp-eyed Beijing to Britain newsletter clocked.

CONTRACTS WATCH: Departments have already spent more than 85 million lawyering up for the COVID-19 inquiry, my top colleague Emilio Casalicchio spotted And Whitehall coughed up 3.25 billion on consultancy fees in the past five years alone, according to Lib Dem number-crunchers (no, thankfully not the bar chart ones.)

WHAT FOI WAS MADE FOR: Hey, heres that FOI-derived lo-fi hip hop edit of every Scottish rail announcement you ordered.

MEET RUD PEDERSEN: European public affairs giant Rud Pedersen is betting big on London, and hoping to bridge some of the cross-Channel gaps it believes its nationally-focused rivals cant. Influence grabbed some time with its top brass.

Potted history: RP, named after its founder and CEO Morten Rud Pedersen, started life in Sweden in 2002. Its spent the past two decades spreading out across the continent, expanding into Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo, Helsinki, Brussels, Tallinn, Berlin and Vilnius among others.

The London look: Its been up and running in London since March, steadily stacking up hires (and on the hunt for a fair few more). Among those on board, Rud Pedersen tapped up Jon Aarons, former CIPR president and an FTI Consulting veteran, as group director and managing partner in the U.K., with Finsbury stalwart Hugo Fitzgerald coming in from Hawthorn Advisers to head up public affairs. It poached comms whizz Katie Frank of the Northern Research Group of Tory MPs as associate director earlier this year.

So why now? Pedersen tells Influence the London expansion has been on the cards for a while, as part of a 2023 Plan to definitively bust out of Scandinavia and establish a footprint in all the important capitals in Europe (Madrid and Rome are the next big targets). London is, of course, a pretty crowded field for consultancies, but the founder is confident in what Rud Pedersen can offer, saying its now been tested in 12 other European countries. He stresses its cross-Channel perspective as a key selling point. If you want to connect with issues or campaigns which will take you outside of the U.K. then we are one of only players who can do that, he says. Hes vowing to grow as fast as we can in London, with some of the 500 clients it has on the books in Europe already tapping up the team over here for British political insight.

Plenty to get stuck into: Not least of all the B word. Pedersen says that while Brexit is now a political fact, its not always easy for businesses to work with, and he likens RPs role to that of a firefighter patrolling and running after Brexit and trying to fix things. He adds: There is enormous work to be done in making business work in Europe both British business in mainland Europe and European business in Britain. Keeping track of diverging regulation is, as many public affairs agencies are finding, pretty good for business.

Normal one: RP hasnt exactly picked a quiet time to expand into London, of course, and the tumultuous past few months have given the team plenty to be getting on with. Fitzgerald says theres a huge amount of interest in whats happening in the U.K. at the moment from global clients, who are keen to know what all the Conservative drama means for the countrys policy direction and investment climate. There are culture shocks, too. We had one or two international clients who just couldnt understand the furor around the parties earlier in the year, Fitzgerald says, of the scandal that helped bring down Boris Johnson. Part of the London teams role is to explain to them and educate them about the U.K. system, he says, including the big role gossip and intrigue plays in Westminster life.

Aint no party like a cross-party party: With the polls suggesting a rough time for the Tories ahead, Fitzgerald says clients are also keen to know what Labour and the Lib Dems are offering, and tells us hes trying to build a shop with a balance of people from different parties, as well as a good mix of skills. Pedersen says hes long been guided by the principle that, when it comes to political affiliation, RP is not a red consultancy with one blue elephant, or a blue consultancy with a red elephant, but instead a mix of people who can bounce ideas off each other and run a fantastic machine.

Fighting talk: Asked straight-up whether there are any agencies in London keeping him up at night, Pedersen says no without missing a beat. He wants to take on the big players here in small bites, but is clearly thinking big. The plan for the rest of Europe, in the countries where we are established, was to be among the five biggest, he says. I understand that is quite a big ambition to have in London, at least in the short term, so I would say that the most important [thing] for the moment is to grow, to do good work for our clients and to keep our culture intact internally. And then well be very aggressive.

Go on, convince us its not true.

Former Conservative special adviser and ex-party comms director Amy Fisher is joining WA Communications as a director. Fisher served as a SpAd in the Northern Ireland Office, Home Office, Ministry of Justice and Defra and shes also a former director of comms at Policy Exchange.

George Robinson is the new head of government affairs at mobile provider Three, joining from Trainline.

Katy Reade has been promoted to policy and advocacy manager at charity Hospice UK.

Philip Baker is joining the Energy Networks Association as media relations manager.

David Ahluwalia is leaving the Nursing and Midwifery Council to join the Care Quality Commission as parliamentary and stakeholder engagement manager.

Tom Riley joined Pagefield as a senior consultant after a spell at Teneo.

Alex Rowlands is joining political monitoring firm PoliMonitor in the newly-created position of head of growth. Hes previously worked for Vuelio and Hindsight.

Callum Delhoy is joining the Charterted Institute of Insurers as public policy advisor after a spell in the public affairs campaigns team at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation.

Mike Morgan-Giles ex-head of comms at the Education and Training Foundation is the first CEO of the Cannabis Industry Council.

ICYMI: Westminster Public affairs agencies Atticus Communications and Atlas Partners are teaming up to become: Atticus Partners. The combined client list includes Facebook parent company Meta, MoneySuperMarket and WWF. Snazzy new website here. Atticus just appointed Patrick Adams formerly of Sovereign Strategy and PLMR as a consultant, alongside Alex Tiley, ex-of the YMCA, the Scouts and Dods.

Jobs, jobs, jobs: Inflect Partners are searching for a communications account manager Oxfam are after a U.K. government relations adviser Beefy policy gig going at the International Meat Trade Association Eating disorder charity Beat is searching for a policy and public affairs officer Things will only get better if you become Tony Blairs net-zero policy lead.

Events horizon: Top brains at the Resolution Foundation size up the income squeeze to come in an event taking place next Thursday at 9:30 a.m. before Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi lays out his list of economic wishes for the PM at Policy Exchange the following day at 2 p.m. RUSI then digs into the security implications of net-zero, Thursday, 8th September at 3 p.m. and NextGen Public Affairs try to brace you for conference season, Friday, September 9th at 12 p.m.

Thanks: Imagine this newsletter but even longer and much worse. Thats the harsh reality confronting my editor Jack Blanchard every single week.

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London Influence: In the tank for Liz Man of Mistry Meet Rud Pedersen - POLITICO Europe