Ex-army chief Lord Dannatt lobbied ministers for millions to support commercial deal | Richard Dannatt

The documents lobbyed the government to receive millions of pounds worth of financial support for a commercial agreement it directed.

Richard Dannatt, former president of the British army, has the rules of parliament that prohibits lobbying for the second time.

Following the secret film of Guardian, the Lords Assembly officials under investigation under the investigation.

The new documents reveal Lord Dannatt’s personally pressured ministers and a senior official to provide political and financial support in an attempt. To buy a Cheshire factory from a US owner in 2022.

After the owner announced that they aimed to close him, Dannatt increased the pressure and called on the government to help.

Crossbench peer made three basic approaches. First of all, he contacted a minister he knew and asked for the entrance to the minister, which was best placed to decide. Secondly, he sent an e -mail to a officer to meet a meeting. “My intervention is to raise the discussion to the ministry level,” he wrote.

Less than two weeks, Dannatt and a manager behind the proposal, to force the government support of the relevant Business Minister Lee Rowley.

What is in question is whether Dannatt has broken the rules of the House of Lords, who maintain their peers from lobbying in exchange for payment or financial incentives.

Dannatt said he didn’t get money because he interacted with the government. He said that the consortium helped a friend who is a leading businessman and helped him try to buy the factory because he believed that he would save things and help the country. “Simply told me, I was helping a friend of mine achieved a lot of results in national interests,” he said.

Dannatt later received four payments in the period he chaired the initiative. He described them as “honorary” payments, but he did not say how much he had received.

At the same time, the “embryonic” initiative was the public face and “president ..

Dannatt said his name and position to add reliability to discussions with the US company. “I am not sure how a retired four -star general sitting in the House of Lords could be defined to the Americans, but he agreed to receive the title despite the fact that there was no presidential board, no meetings or another job to participate”.

Ultimately, his relationship with the consortium failed in his proposal ended in February 2023.

Dannatt announced that Guardian offers to hold meetings with ministers for hidden journalists who act as commercial customers who want to lobby the government.

He was secretly filmed by saying that he could promote secret journalists within the government and that he would be the best place to “touch a point to recognize”.

Examining the allegations of making wrong in the upper room, the guard is being investigated by the Standards Commissioner of the Lords Assembly.

74 -year -old Dannatt rejected the allegations before: “I am very aware… Lords’ rules of behavior… I have always acted on my personal honor.”

It is one of the five peers to conduct an investigation after a month of investigation by Guardian.

The Lordlar Discussion Project examined the commercial interests of the members of the Lords Assembly due to concerns that their activities were not properly organized. This revealed that 91 peers were paid to give political or policy advice by commercial companies.

New documents on Dannatt’s communication with the government in June 2022 Freedom of Information is explained under the legislation.

At that time, Dannatt predicted a group of investors who wanted to buy a fertilizer factory in Cheshire. CF Industries planned to close the factory permanently after the US owners have made them unprofitable.

Investors argued that their consortium would save 500 jobs and keep important products used in agriculture and hospitality industries in the UK.

On June 10, 2022, Dannatt sent an e -mail to a young business minister he knew and asked him if he could tell him that he was responsible for this field. “Ideally, if you could direct me in the right direction with a presentation, and I can get it from there.”

He introduced his UK -based consortium as a better “economic and political alternative ına to the closure of the factory.

“The alternative scenario is that a hedge fund purchases the factory, sells its assets and exits with snow and allows 500 workers to be unnecessary, England₂ And there is no increase in fertilizer production, so the price remained high. “

The right minister was entered. Six days later, he sent E -Post to a senior official in the peer labor department: “ [Dannatt’s friend] He talks to the authorities, but my intervention is to raise the discussion to the ministry level. Here, there are very important issues about the works in the Northwest and the price of some key goods. “

On June 27, Dannatt and Mark Law, his friend Met Rowley, who also leads to my consortium, then a minister in the business department. Financial Times Previously He reported that the consortium was looking for a government loan up to 10 million pounds to help restart the factory.

The government rejected it, arguing that it was a completely commercial issue. The consortium then collapsed.

Dannatt said that he had no official regulation or contract with the consortium, or that his future role would be if he had managed to buy the factory. “My motivation and aim was to make an agreement on the line in national interests,” he said.

He said the assumption that “as president will develop an important and paid role and the company will take an active role in its work”. Authorized, if the offer was successful, he added, “It would be a very different issue,” he added.

In addition to the ongoing investigation by the officials of the Lords Assembly, another guard dog Dannatt examined the behavior of Dannatt. Last month, Dannatt cleared the government to pay the government to lobbying by the consortium.

Harry Rich, the registration officer of the consultant lobbyistsIt is responsible for investigating that individuals have received money from a third side to the ministers of lobby or the highest -level officials of Whitehall.

However, Lords House Watchdog thinks the issue under a cluster of a different rules that receives a wider perspective of the lobbying lobby.

Now, the question, as the chair of the consortium, at some point, does the understanding that it can benefit personally. This may be a violation of the rules of lords.

Dannatt agreed to correspond to the House of Lords, who investigated his behavior with the Guardian consortium and his behavior while talking to secret journalists.