A former head of the British army has joined a lobbying firm run by the veteran Conservative party strategist and well-known dog-whistler Sir Lynton Crosby (who had previously managed John Howard's four election campaigns in Australia), as it seeks to capitalise on business deals in the defence industry.
Gen Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, who until last year was one of the UK’s most senior military officers, will work as an adviser at Crosby’s influential Anglo-Australian consultancy, CT Group (formerly known as Crosby Textor).
The company announced this week that Carleton-Smith would support its work helping clients take advantage of “commercial opportunities” arising from the AUKUS defence pact between Australia, the UK and the US.
Under the trilateral agreement, Australia will buy a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines from the US and work with its American and British allies on developing a new class of submarine.
The complex multi-decade deal, which has been described as a “bonanza” for defence contractors, is expected to generate tens of billions of dollars of spending by the allies on technology, weapons and shipbuilding.
On Monday, 4 December 2023, Carleton-Smith heralded CT Group’s premium “AUKUS Advantage” service, which the company said would help “position clients to gain long-term business advantages from the AUKUS framework”.
In a promotional video, Carleton-Smith said the company could help clients to identify opportunities with the support of CT Group’s “peerless political, business, defence and intelligence networks”.
Carleton-Smith is the latest retired general to move into business after leaving the military. Campaigners on transparency and the arms industry have previously raised concerns about the “revolving door” between the armed forces and the defence industry.
CT Group was co-founded by Crosby, the Australian strategist credited as the mastermind behind a series of Conservative election campaigns. Multiple former employees have subsequently moved into senior roles in the Tory party and the UK government.
The company helps political clients around the world fight election campaigns and advises corporate clients on lobbying governments. In recent years it has expanded into the defence and security sector, establishing a private intelligence business.
CT Group has been involved in campaigns in Australia, Italy, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, and Yemen. According to the Electoral Commission in the UK, as of 2010, Crosby Textor has made over GBP 8 million from working with the Conservative Party and has also made several thousand-pound donations to the party.
Carleton-Smith served until June 2022 as chief of the general staff, a position that placed him at the highest levels of military decision-making and gave him direct accesses to the defence secretary and the prime minister.
The former army chief, an Old Etonian who has occasionally played cricket with Boris Johnson, was previously the director of the UK’s special forces and has held senior posts at the Ministry of Defence.
On Tuesday, 5 December 2023, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) gave a green light to the appointment but said that for two years from his last day in public office Carleton-Smith’s role “should be limited to CT Group’s work outside the UK and he must not advise on the UK defence sector”.
A spokesperson for CT Group said that since his departure from crown service over 12 months ago, Carleton-Smith had “engaged extensively” with Acoba, which was “fully satisfied with the appointment and the role”.
They said Carleton-Smith was “a distinguished individual who has served the United Kingdom in the highest positions, to the highest of professional standards. His integrity is beyond reproach.”
Firms such as CT Group profit from impacting politics worldwide, but remain opaque and unelected, and many of these firms manage and influence the political direction of political campaigns — and, therefore, the political environment — in several different countries. The companies collect data on individuals based in one country, analyzing the information to build profiles they can use to the advantage of their work internationally. The intelligence they hold on citizens creates risks, including data breaches, misuses of data, and changes of hands in political governance — especially those which come during or after divisive conflict. Their business structure — and often values — are focused on profit: content that brings them ad revenue or appeals to political parties with funds, rather than principles of political practices. The companies do not need to worry about whether voters are well informed, whether healthy deliberation is occurring among groups, or whether under-represented groups are being heard.
The rise of these firms, and the digital campaign tactics they support and engage in, is inextricably linked to increasing political polarization. This makes it important to understand and question the role of these firms in politics. Through asking questions, interrogating the firms, and building transparency, we can learn how to effectively regulate or manage our own political environments. The role of the influence industry is substantive, and identifying their political and profitable agenda is vital to understanding the magnitude of their power to influence political outcomes — and tensions — worldwide.
With CT Group, the conflict of interest examples are many. For example former UK PM Liz Truss’s chief of staff owned a 10% a stake in Sir Lynton Crosby’s lobbying company despite his Downing Street role, meaning he could benefit financially from the firm’s work for corporate clients. Mark Fullbrook, who was in charge of the prime minister’s political operation, co-founded the British arm of the lobbying business CT Group with Crosby. Its clients have included the tobacco company Philip Morris, the Saudi Arabian government, and the mining firm Glencore. Fullbrook returned to lobbying for Fullbrook Strategies Limited in February 2023, though senior government officials leaving their posts are normally not permitted to lobby for two years. As of April 2023, Lynton Crosby is listed as an “Advisory Board Member” to Fullbrook Strategies.
CT Group was lobbying ministers on behalf of a coal trader, a tobacco company, and property firms at the same time as providing political advice to Boris Johnson. Crosby provided “strategic political advice” to Johnson and his party after the Partygate scandal, with the then prime minister promising discontented Conservative MPs in February that Crosby would be playing a bigger role.
Crosby’s CT Group said his role was purely advising the Conservative party, and dismissed the potential for a conflict of interest with his private commercial interests. However, there are persistent questions about the crossover between Crosby’s political and private work since he returned to advise Johnson as Conservative leader, with Labour at the time querying his presence at some of the former prime minister’s political 8.30am meetings. In June 2022, a report published by The Guardian revealed that Crosby had been attending regular meetings at No. 10 Downing Street. A No. 10 source insisted that these meetings were party political rather than dealing with official government business.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson received a £20,000 loan and £3,000 donation to his leadership campaign from CTF Partners (Crosby, Textor, Fullbrook), a company with long links and financial ties to the tobacco industry. One of the company’s co-founders, Lynton Crosby, was at the centre of a controversy in 2013 over the government abandoning its plans to introduce plain packaging. At that time, Crosby was an election advisor for the ruling Conservative Party.
Crosby also helped Johnson with his London mayoral election campaigns in 2008 and 2012.270, Boris Johnson also received a payment for a speech of up to £10,000 from the Association of Tobacco in June 2007.
In February 2022, Johnson appointed David Canzini as deputy chief of staff. Prior to this appointment, Canzini had been a director at the Crosby Textor Group (CT Group), a polling and research company founded by Lynton Crosby and Mark Textor which has in the past represented tobacco companies including PMI and BAT.
In July 2022, a confidential document produced by the CT Group entitled “Project Homer” was leaked. It outlined a strategy to urgently create 39 new Conservative-supporting peers in the House of Lords, in order to allow the government to push through controversial legislation such as the Brexit Freedoms Bill, the Northern Ireland Protocol and the Public Order Bill. The document also suggests that amendment 158 to the Health and Care Bill – which forced a consultation into tighter tobacco control regulations at the cost of importers and manufacturers – could be scrapped, in favour of a more “laissez-faire” approach.
In November 2022, The Guardian reported that CT Group documents revealed that one of Crosby’s companies had been lobbying ministers or senior civil servants on behalf of PMI. This was during 2022, when the government was considering its new tobacco control strategy, including raising the legal smoking age to 21. In the same article, a spokesperson for PMI denied that Crosby had been consulting on its behalf.
In Australia, Canberra is overrun by ‘operatives’ of big corporations and consultancy firms: like Crosby Textor (CT). It’s been “infiltrated”. It’s not just about lobbying – it’s been “captured”: State Capture.
Crosby Textor infiltration is a great case study that is very relevant to AUKUS. The last Prime Minister’s private secretary had been CEO for Crosby Textor. Crosby Textor also did electioneering for Boris in the UK and the LNP in Australia. AND Crosby Textor has major contracts with General Dynamics. It’s basically funded by General Dynamics.
A detailed story about Crosby Textor's/CT Group's influence with AUKUS decision-making was written by Crikey on 31 May 2023 as part of a series.
In spite of all this background we have a so-called Labor Federal government - spearheaded by right -wing hawk Richard Marles - beating the drum for AUKUS like there's no tomorrow. Companies which will mainly benefit, like CT Group's favourite client General Dynamics, will be applauded by their shareholders. Oh yes, they'd be the major shareholders: Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street which are also the major shareholders of the big players within the military industrial complex, such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing and BAE which will no doubt share in the AUKUS spoils.
And individual investors? Well, they'll be profiting from the suffering, death and destruction that their investments are promoting.
In the meantime there's apparently no taxpayer funds left for the environment, social housing, health, welfare and education - you know - all the things that are supposed to be government priorities.
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." -- former U.S. President Eisenhower
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