Tory-linked lobbying firm agreed to help swing DRC election, leak suggests

A lobbying firm with deep ties to the Conservative party planned a secretive campaign to influence elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in exchange for millions of pounds from a mining company.

Leaked documents suggest the influential firm co-owned by the veteran Tory strategist Sir Lynton Crosby agreed to help the mining company swing a presidential election in the central African country.

Crosby is credited as the mastermind behind a series of Tory election campaigns for David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson. In recent years, multiple former CT Group employees have moved into senior roles at party headquarters and within government.

The leaked files appear to show how, between its work on Tory election campaigns, CT Group sought to shape political events in multiple African countries on behalf of deep-pocketed commercial clients.

According to one document, marked draft, CT Group told representatives of the Canadian mining firm First Quantum Minerals that both Crosby and Fullbrook would work on the 2011 campaign against the DRC government.

The documents suggest CT Group stood to gain as much as £1.2m in fees from First Quantum for what it said would be a seven-month project, with a £1m bonus available if CT Group met certain targets.

However, its work raises questions about the ethics of political consultants seeking to swing a political election on behalf of a company battling to secure substantial mining interests in a developing country.

There is no suggestion CT Group engaged in unlawful activities on behalf of clients in the mining sector.