PUBLIC bodies are spending about £2m a year on political consultants to help them lobby ministers and MPs for more taxpayers’ money, it was claimed last night.

The close ties between state-funded quangos and the lobbying industry are disclosed in a dossier listing 71 separate contracts worth almost £10m over five years.

The biggest beneficiary is Weber Shandwick, headed by Labour’s former chief press officer, Colin Byrne, which has lucrative relationships with organisations including the Crown Estate, the Meat and Livestock Commission and the British Museum, worth a total of £1.8m over five years. The firm also employs Priti Patel, a Tory parliamentary candidate and former aide to William Hague.

Also profiting from quango contracts is Grayling Political Strategy, whose managing director, Tanya Joseph, is a former spin doctor for Tony Blair. The lobbying firm offers an “information, intelligence and advisory service” to institutions ranging from the grand, such as the Royal Mint, to the obscure, such as the Northern Lighthouse Board, whose beacons guard the coasts of Scotland and the Isle of Man.

The report, compiled from dozens of parliamentary questions and freedom of information requests, provides an extraordinary glimpse into the reach of the lobbying industry within the public sector.

Because of the failure of some departments to respond to queries, there could be many more lobbying contracts that remain hidden.

The quangos use a variety of euphemisms to justify the hiring of lobbyists, including “strategic counsel”, “policy tracking”, “political consultancy” or even “stakeholder relationship advice”. Some admit that consultants had been used to coach their managers on what to say when they appeared before Commons committees.

Lobbyists often provide their clients with detailed biographies of committee members, listing their interests and the questions they are likely to ask.

However, the Conservatives, who compiled the dossier, claimed that the main reason quangos hire political consultants was to help them persuade the government and parliament to increase their funding or introduce helpful legislation.

In America, there is a ban on public bodies hiring lobbyists, with the Byrd Amendment of 1996 prohibiting the use of “federal contracts, grants, loans or monies to influence or attempt to influence, the executive or legislative branch”.

Last night, Nick Hurd, the shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, promised that a Tory government would introduce similar restrictions.

“The hiring of lobbyists by government bodies to grab more government cash is a financial scandal,” said Hurd.

“No wonder the bureaucratic state has ballooned under Labour, given lobbyists are routinely in the pay of the government to justify ever more state spending. I fear this is symptomatic of a corrosive culture of spin in Whitehall.”

The report highlights how firms with links to Labour have profited from public sector contracts. Connect Public Affairs, run by Gill Morris, a former Labour staffer, secured work worth £421,046 from the Department for Communities and Local Government and its predecessor, John Prescott’s Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Lexington Communications, whose founding partner is Mike Craven, a former adviser to John Prescott, is among the firms hired by the Heritage Lottery Fund, from which it has received £330,066. The head of public affairs at Fishburn Hedges is Lucy Burns, who worked as a researcher to Estelle Morris, the former education secretary. Her firm has a contract with the East of England Development Agency that has earned it about £0.5m.

Lobbying industry leaders defended their work with public sector bodies.

Robbie MacDuff, chairman of the Association of Professional Political Consultants, said: “There is nothing illegal in this. It is part of the democratic process. All businesses and organisations - including public sector organisations - have a right to represent their views to government.”

MacDuff said the hiring of lobbyists had been just as prevalent under the previous Tory government.

A spokesman for Grayling said: “All of our public sector clients have been won through open tenders [which] have been highly competitive.”

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