Independent media outlet Open Democracy last week reported that the US lobbying firm run by Lynton Crosby, the person also running Boris Johnson’s campaign to become leader of the Conservative Party, is advertising its links to British politicians.

Open Democracy also report that Crosby’s firm is a registered lobbyist for British American Tobacco on “‘issues impacting domestic tobacco industry’, and has run a ‘covert campaign’ globally for the coal industry, and against renewable energy”.

I’ve said it time and time again, but big business and corporate lobbyists are too close to politicians, and its gives off the impression that politics is a rigged game, working in the interests of the few. This needs to change.

I told Open Democracy that Johnson’s man of the people routine is nothing more than a cheap ruse to distract from his cosy relationships with vested interests, and that a Labour government will end the influence of money in politics and overhaul lobbying, bringing much-needed transparency and accountability.