What is Counter Lobbying?

Why is Corporate Lobbying a problem?

According to research by Fossil Free London, during the first year of the current Labour government, ministers met with fossil fuel industry lobbyists 506 times. That's 48% more ministerial meetings than in the last year of the Conservative government. 

Statistics like this open up a window into how polluting industries have infiltrated our politics, helping us to understand why progress on a just transition can feel frustratingly slow, despite a majority of the public backing a rapid shift away from fossil fuels. 

If we look at the companies which make up the bulk of corporate lobbying activity - a term which spans across direct meetings, political donations, media manipulation, advertising targeting legislatures, ‘gifts’ for politicians, a revolving door between government and industry - we find the industries which face the most public resistance. These industries include: gambling, the arms trade, fossil fuels, big tech, corporations benefitting from the privatisation of state services (e.g., the asset firms running our water systems), fossil fuelled transportation (aviation, motor vehicles) and serial polluters like Big Ag. 

Simply put: these industries are pouring money into influencing the government because they’re afraid of political advocates for climate and nature – they’re scared that popular movements will take away their ability to profit off the exploitation of people and the destruction of the planet. 

And, for now, their tactics are winning… 

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Amazing things can happen when people come together to say: ‘not in our name’, or ‘this can’t go on’. 

That's where Counter-Lobbying, the new approach from Hope for the Future, comes in. 

Counter-Lobbying asks

What can we learn from the successes of the corporate lobbyists? Are there elements of their tactics and approaches which we can integrate into our own campaigning?

And also: how can we become more powerful than the corporate lobbyists? 

A key approach is the argument that, instead of hearing from lobbyists who represent the polluting industries, our politicians should be hearing from us, the people they’ve been elected to represent. 

Thinking like this allows us to see how powerful our voice can be, and how we can reclaim our democracy from the vested interests who have held it captive. 

Filling the democratic void

One effect of corporate lobbying is that people increasingly see government as being rigged to serve the rich and influential - with three-quarters (74%) of the public holding this view according to recent research from UCL. This disincentivises political engagement, giving the impression that there’s no reason to – for example – meet with your MP, seeing as the whole system is rigged. 

This produces a disconnect between politicians and constituents, which makes corporate lobbyist’s jobs easier. 

But –  again – it doesn’t have to be like this. Campaign wins (for example on ending new licences for north sea oil & gas extraction) show that people can make a big difference by engaging with their politicians, especially if they’re backed by a wider movement. 

By speaking to our politicians we can act to close the political disconnect and drown out the paid voices of the polluting corporations. 

This can help to bring back trust in our political system - and build a real hope that can sustain our movements. 

Feeling inspired? How you can get involved

Over the last six months, we at Hope for the Future have been studying how corporate lobbying functions, in order to identify where we can learn from it, and where its weaknesses are. 

This has led us - alongside our partners in this space, campaigns such as Stop Rosebank and Parents for Future, and investigative journalists at DeSmog - to develop a new type of training full of powerful tips and frameworks for thinking about political engagement. 

We’ve now had the chance to deliver this approach across 3 different trainings - allowing us to experiment with new tools – such as ‘Corporate Power V People Power’, lessons from PR, and the campaigners ‘spectrum of influence’. 

Now we’re looking for partners to continue developing this powerful approach...