Former Welsh secretary Alun Cairns provided advice to a private equity firm before he took on a £30,000-a-year role with the same company.
Mr Cairns, who is Conservative MP for the Vale of Glamorgan, quit as Welsh secretary in November 2019 after he had initially denied knowing a Tory Welsh assembly candidate had made claims about a woman's sexual history in a rape trial in April 2018, causing the case to collapse before an email showing he knew about it a year previously.
Mr Cairns was re-elected in the General Election the following month.
In April 2021 he asked for permission to become a paid part-time adviser to Elite Partners Capital (EPC) to advise on "investment strategy".
It has now emerged that two years before that, when he was still secretary of state for Wales, he held meetings with the company including an "informal" meeting while he was on holiday in Singapore. The meetings were discussing the company's wish to invest in Swansea, particularly the Waterfront project.
The work MPs and ministers can carry out has come under the spotlight after MP Owen Paterson resigned over a lobbying row which engulfed the Prime Minister.
A number of Welsh MPs receive extra money, on top of their MP salary, from other sources. You can read the full list of Welsh MPs and their extra income here.
Minutes from a meeting between Mr Cairns and Elite Partners Capital, from August 14, 2019, at the Regent Hotel while he was on holiday in Singapore and released under the Freedom of Information Act, show:
the company wanted to invest in the Swansea City and Waterfront project but were "finding progress with Swansea Council on the commercial, technical, structuring and financing aspects slow and wanted to understand how things can be accelerated";
Mr Cairns hosted EPC's chief executive officer Victor Song and chief operating officer Charles Hoon at a dinner on July 11. Then, at the time of the meeting on August 14, he was "currently on holiday in Singapore and an opportunity to meet EPC for an informal meeting arose";
His office was tasked with arranging a tour of Parliament later in August, and;
the Wales Office was asked to give "key information to allow EPC to assess attractiveness of projects".
The objectives of the meeting are listed as "for Alun Cairns to get an update of EPC's second visit to Swansea"; "for Alun Cairns to provide further background information on Her Majesty's Government, and his office's commitments to regeneration in the area", and; for EPC to be reassured of "additional support" from the government.
The minutes show Mr Cairns gave "further background on the project and some of the potential causes of delay" and the company's interest was, in particular, in student accommodation and office space. At the meeting Mr Cairns "suggested there was real value" to the firm becoming a "long-term partner of the council". Brexit was also discussed.
The document lists the "action points" from the meeting which includes the Wales Office providing an "updated fact sheet on the 12 projects around Swansea providing key information to allow EPC to assess attractiveness of projects" and also providing separate details of student accommodation development projects and university expansions projects "which would be suitable for investment".
The Wales Office were also asked to send the latest employment data and for Mr Cairns' office to check his diary "if he can meet EPC late August and provide tour of Parliament".
From June 1, 2021, Mr Cairns' register of members' financial interests lists him as an "adviser to Elite Partners Capital Pte Ltd (global property investment firm)".
It says "until further notice" he will receive £30,000, paid monthly, for 84 hours work a year "providing strategic advice to the board"
In April 2021 Mr Cairns had approached the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) to ask about the appointment.
That committee exists to advise on the conditions that should apply to appointments or employment under the Government’s Business Appointments Rules for Former Ministers which apply to former ministers for two years after they leave office.
The committee says the rules seek to "counter suspicion" that:
the decisions and statements of a serving minister might be influenced by the hope or expectation of future employment with a particular firm or organisation; or
an employer could make improper use of official information to which a former minister has had access; or
there may be cause for concern about the appointment in some other particular respect.
The application, detailed online, says he asked for permission to become a paid part-time adviser to Elite Partners Capital (EPC) to advise on "investment strategy".
EPC is a Singaporean-based property investment company and Mr Cairns told ACOBA he would be updating the board on "economic and political developments in the UK that could impact the group's international investments". He also confirmed he did not expect the role to involve any contact with the government.
Mr Cairns said he met the company at a Department for International Trade (DIT) seminar in 2019 at a meeting to "highlight City and Growth Deal policies around Wales and the UK; and were organised by the Wales Office and DIT to raise awareness and to attract investors to the programmes".
"You confirmed you were not involved in any decisions specific to EPC – as any deal discussions or negotiation around investments or proposals would be with the Welsh Government and/or relevant the local City of Growth Deal Boards and staff. You said you are not aware of EPC investing in any City or Growth Deal plan and confirmed there is no relationship between the Wales Office and EPC," the minutes read.
"You also said your former department, the Wales Office, is a non-executive department and policies on land, property, and regeneration are devolved to the Welsh Government, who have legislative competence in these areas, alongside economic development and regeneration policy. Therefore, your involvement here, and that of the Wales Office, was to champion investment opportunities in general and to highlight the benefits of investing and living in Wales. You noted that in your capacity, you regularly spoke at a range of events seeking to encourage investment into the UK generally and to highlight UK and Wales policies that could be seen as attractive to investors. However, you confirmed that had any organisation wanted to pursue an investment opportunity further, they would have been passed to the Welsh Government or to the local City or Growth Deal team to develop further.
"The Welsh Office was consulted on this appointment and confirmed the information you provided. The department told the committee potential competitors may have been at some of the events where you were present. However, it confirmed your role was to promote investment opportunities rather than conduct specific investment discussions.
"It also confirmed you did not make, nor had any involvement in, any decisions relevant to EPC. Nor were you involved in relevant policy decisions. It also stated any sensitive information you did have access to has now been made public or would no longer be relevant, due to the amount of time that has passed since you were in office.
"The department said it has no concerns about you taking up this role, under the Business Appointment Rules."
In its finding, the committee said:
- While he did meet with EPC "you made no decisions affecting EPC specifically and therefore, the committee considered the risk this appointment could be seen as a reward for decisions taken in office is low".
- The Wales Office had said it did not consider he had had "you had access to any specific information that was likely to provide an unfair advantage to EPC". The Wales Office noted "the amount of time that has passed since you were in office meaning any information you did have access to would be out of date or in the public domain". The risk was therefore "sufficiently mitigated".
There is a "low but inherent risk of unfair advantage in relation to access to the contacts you gained while in ministerial office.
It said due to that it was imposing a specific condition that because the company's clients are unknown "it is possible that you may be asked to offer advice in relation to clients who were affected by matters of policy that relate to policy areas you had direct involvement in".
So a specific condition on this appointment was added "which makes clear that in working with EPC, you should not advise EPC or its clients on work with regard to any policy you had specific involvement or responsibility for as Secretary of State of Wales or where you had a relationship with the company or organisation during your time as Secretary of State of Wales".
Mr Cairns' register of interest declaration also shows a number of payments from YouGov and Savanta ComRes for surveys. He receives £15,000 a year as senior adviser to the BBI Group as well as £15,000 a year as a senior adviser to Veezu Holdings Ltd and the money from Elite Partners Capital.
He also has a residential property in Cardiff and in August 2021 received payment for his family home being used in a photoshoot. Mr Cairns and EPC were all contacted for comment.
A spokesman for Mr Cairns said: "All rules were followed in line with Parliamentary procedure. Government Officials assessed and confirmed the information provided. ACOBA subsequently approved the role."
The Wales Office did not wish to comment.
Shadow Welsh secretary Jo Stevens said: "Alun Cairns was cleared by ACOBA to take up his £30k-a-year second job with Elite after he told them that his previous involvement with Elite Partners Capital was very limited but the notes of his meeting with the company in the middle of his family holiday in the Far East, and the detailed tasks he promised to take up for them afterwards, appear strongly to suggest otherwise.
"Alun Cairns should be focusing on his Vale of Glamorgan constituents who will wonder how, when they are trying to cope with a 30 year high inflation rate, rising energy bills and a Tory national insurance rise in April that he voted for, he has the time to be enriching himself working on behalf of a private equity company.
"It's time to ban MPs from taking private money for lobbying jobs and urgently reform ACOBA. Labour will establish a single Ethics and Integrity Commission with powers to oversee and enforce anti-corruption and ethics laws and regulations, which are currently too weak and fragmented."
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