London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Sep 01, 2025

UK lobbying watchdog clears oil sector post for ex-minister despite alleged conflicts of interest – reports

UK lobbying watchdog clears oil sector post for ex-minister despite alleged conflicts of interest – reports

Despite scrutiny of the “revolving door” between political office and the corporate sector, a former UK foreign minister has been allowed to accept a senior post at an oil firm to which he reportedly had links while in service.

Alan Duncan, a former Tory member of Parliament who held British minister of state positions between 2010 and 2019, was cleared in May by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) to take up the role of business development director at Dutch company Vitol, one of the world’s largest oil traders.

In its advice letter to Duncan, ACOBA, which oversees all applications for private sector employment from former ministers and senior bureaucrats within two years of leaving public service, approved his move on the grounds that he not “draw on any privileged information available to [him] from [his] time in Ministerial office.”

Duncan was also barred from lobbying the UK government on behalf of Vitol or advising the company on any bid or contract relating directly to the work of the government for two years dating from his last day in office.

The letter also mentioned that the former minister had told the committee he “did not meet with Vitol” during his time in office and that “there was no relationship” between his former department and the company.

However, news outlet Declassified UK has reported that Duncan had a number of social meetings with Vitol’s former chief executive Ian Taylor while he was in office and even lobbied two prime ministers for a knighthood for Taylor while he was a minister.

Citing Duncan’s recently-released diaries, titled ‘In The Thick of It’, the outlet noted that the former minister had five social meetings with Taylor, who died in June 2020, and added that Duncan and Taylor had been friends for nearly 40 years. It also reported that Duncan’s new position was “lined up” within four months of leaving office in July 2019.

However, Duncan told the outlet he did not lobby for Taylor “at his request” and said his meetings with Taylor were “entirely personal”.

According to the report, this information has been in the public domain since April, but did not feature in ACOBA’s approval letter. A representative of the watchdog body told the outlet that “not all of the points [raised in the report] relate to the consideration that the Committee is required to make under the government’s Rules.”

In recent months, ACOBA has raised the alarm about an apparent lack of “boundaries” between Whitehall and the private sector, but has also drawn criticism for being toothless.

In April, news emerged that former government procurement officer Bill Crothers had been cleared by the Cabinet Office to join Greensill Capital – the now-failed financial company at the centre of the ongoing lobbying scandal involving former PM David Cameron – as an adviser in 2015 while still working as a civil servant.

Following the revelations, ACOBA chair Eric Pickles told a parliamentary committee that the episode highlighted a “number of anomalies with the system that require... immediate address”, adding that a “revolving door” of officials landing lucrative corporate positions had created a sense among officials they they’ll be “looked after” by their successors.

Pickles also revealed that ACOBA had only scrutinised 108 appointments out of some 34,000 people who left public service over the past year. That admission reignited long-running criticism of the watchdog body as being “ineffectual”.

In 2018, a report by the Public Accounts and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) concluded that ACOBA was “part of an ineffectual system for regulating the ‘revolving door’ between the public and private sector” and admonished the government for not taking the matter seriously.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
Ukrainian Nationalist Politician Andriy Parubiy Assassinated in Lviv
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
Federal Reserve Independence Questioned Amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Central Bank
British Politics Faces Tumultuous Autumn After Summer of Rebellions and Rising Farage Momentum
US Appeals Court Rules Against Most Trump-Era Tariffs
UK Sought Broad Access to Apple Users’ Data, Court Filing Reveals
UK Bank Shares Dive Over Potential Tax on Sector
Germany’s Auto Industry Sheds 51,500 Jobs in First Half of 2025 Amid Deepening Crisis
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
French and Korean Nuclear Majors Clash As EU Launches Foreign Subsidy Probe
EU Stands Firm on Digital Rules as Trump Warns of Retaliation
Getting Ready for the 3rd Time in Its History, Germany Approves Voluntary Military Service for Teenagers
Argentine President Javier Milei Evacuated After Stones Thrown During Campaign Event
Denmark Confronts U.S. Diplomat Over Covert Trump-Linked Influence in Greenland
Starmer Should Back Away from ECHR, Says Jack Straw
Trump Demands RICO Charges Against George Soros and Son for Funding Violent Protests
Taylor Swift Announces Engagement to NFL Star Travis Kelce
France May Need IMF Bailout, Warns Finance Minister
Chinese AI Chipmaker Cambricon Posts Record Profit as Beijing Pushes Pivot from Nvidia
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
Ukraine Finally Allows Young Men Aged Eighteen to Twenty-Two to Leave the Country
The Porn Remains, Privacy Disappears: How Britain Broke the Internet in Ten Days
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Welcome to The Definition of Insanity: Germany Edition
Just a reminder, this is Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris.
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
×