Lobbying gives the wealthy unequal access
- Reasoning
- Former ministers offered access in return for pay.
- Evidence
- Byers said he could be hired for £5,000 a day.
- How it supports the argument
- He described himself as 'like a cab for hire'.
ApprovedConcludedEvent
Title
The 2010 'cab for hire' lobbying sting
Date
22 March 2010
Relevant topic(s)
Democracy and participationDirect and representative democracyDemocracy and participationPressure groups
What happened?
In March 2010 Channel 4's Dispatches secretly filmed former Labour cabinet ministers meeting a bogus American lobbying firm, set up by an undercover reporter. Stephen Byers described himself as being 'like a cab for hire'.
Labour suspended four of its MPs, and a Commons committee later recommended barring three former ministers from Parliament for periods of up to five years.
- Stephen Byers, Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt were among those filmed; Byers was recorded saying he could be hired for £5,000 a day.
- Labour suspended Byers, Hoon, Hewitt and Margaret Moran on 22 March 2010, after the programme aired.
- In December 2010 the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee recommended suspending the parliamentary passes of Hoon for five years, Byers for two years and Richard Caborn for six months. Hewitt was cleared.
- The committee found Byers' 'cab for hire' remarks 'ill-judged' but not a breach of the code, while Hoon had brought the House into disrepute.
Why is it politically significant?
Coming a year after the expenses scandal, the sting added to the impression that politicians could be bought, and fed demands for tighter rules on lobbying and on MPs' outside interests.
How to use
Which arguments does it support?
Which counterarguments exist?
Limits of the evidence
Not all those filmed broke the rules
The committee cleared Hewitt and others, and found Byers' remarks ill-judged rather than a breach of the code.
Other explanations
The sting was a media construct
The 'lobbying firm' was fake, so the programme showed what MPs said they could do rather than proven influence.
Concepts and connections
Concepts it illustrates
Sources and verification
Event22 March 2010
Added to bank11 November 2026
Last checked11 November 2026
Next check due11 May 2027
- 1Opened
- 2Opened
About this example
Is it still current?
Concluded
The development has ended or been reversed, but remains useful evidence.
Why it is in the bank
Shows concerns about lobbying and access, linking representative democracy with pressure groups.
- ✓Relevance to the specification
- ✓Strength and reliability of the evidence
- ✓Importance to a wider political debate
- ✓Usefulness in evaluative essays
- ✓Connections to other topics
- ✓Sufficiently current
- ✓Adds something new to the bank
Editorial status
Approved
Signed off for students.
Origin: AI draft (Claude) · Reviewer: Editor
Every fact on this page has been checked against original sources.