Labour criticised for giving global banks access to parliament

theguardian.com:

Labour has been criticised for giving global banks access to parliament after taking an HSBC staffer into its shadow business team, despite the financial giant coming under fire over its links with China.

One senior policy manager from HSBC has been seconded to the team of Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, and has been given a parliamentary pass since February.

The HSBC staff member works part time in Reynolds’s team to help with stakeholder engagement – liaising with businesses – as well as working part time for the bank.

The secondment has not been declared on his MPs’ register of interests because the HSBC employee’s time is understood to be a donation in kind to the party, rather than him personally.

It comes after Reynolds previously gave a secondment to a NatWest staffer to help with business liaison and took another secondee from a lobbying firm last year.

Labour has been working hard to show it is open to working more constructively with business under Keir Starmer after relations were strained in the Jeremy Corbyn era.

Its business day at the Labour party conference was oversubscribed in 2022, with firms and lobbying companies increasingly giving the party attention because it is so far ahead in the polls. In relation to the secondments, it is understood that Labour insists on strict separation between work for the party and work for the employer during a placement.

However, the presence of an HSBC policy expert at the heart of the shadow business team was criticised by pressure groups and critics of the bank’s closeness to the Chinese government and treatment of those leaving Hong Kong.

Tom Brake, director of Unlock Democracy, a campaign group pressing for a more democratic society, said: “Political