There is a sickness at the heart of British politics. Mostly it goes unnoticed. But on occasion it becomes abundantly clear. Democracy, which is meant to secure the sovereignty of the people, is repeatedly undermined by a wealthy and powerful elite.

Don't see the IEA scandal as an aberration. Corporate interests and lobbyists hollowing out our politics is the norm

The Guardian and Greenpeace’s revelations about the Institute of Economics Affairs tell us much. As the Conservative government stumbles on the road to Brexit, a small group of establishment figures, funded to the tune of millions, are covertly pursuing a political campaign in favour of extreme free trade, acting in effect as lobbyists for secretive corporate interests.

In registering as a charity, the IEA declared itself to be an educational organisation. Charity regulations state that “an organisation will not be charitable if its purposes are political”. Urgent action must be taken to determine concretely whether the IEA has breached charity regulations – and I welcome the Charity Commission’s announcement of a formal investigation into its activities.

Another side to this story is that the IEA’s activities appear to have been favourably received by Conservative politicians, some of them ministers working in the IEA’s area of obsession: trade. While much is still unclear, there are serious questions that high-ranking Conservative ministers must now answer about their dealings with the IEA.

Earlier this year I sought to shed light on meetings between the IEA and Crawford Falconer, the UK’s chief trade negotiation adviser, and Steve Baker, then a Brexit minister. The government shut down any discussion, and my request for an investigation was not granted. I was told that proper oversight was not required because such meetings were not official – that is, they did not relate to policy.

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The government must now come clean about what was discussed at these and other meetings, and reveal how many of them there have been. The full extent of its relationship with the IEA and similar organisations must be revealed, and steps taken to expand the types of meetings that ministers and civil servants are legally obliged to disclose.

In the context of Brexit, where policy now being made could have profound long-term effects, the stakes are too high to sweep this under the carpet. It would, moreover, be a mistake to treat the IEA scandal as an aberration from the norm. Over the past few decades, corporate interests, with the aid of lobbyists, front organisations and unscrupulous politicians, have hollowed out our politics, and decision-making has too often been removed from the public realm.

In a democracy it cannot be right that there are back-room meetings such as the ones that took place between IEA and the Conservatives.

Whether through anonymised political donations or barely regulated lobbying, the revolving door between government and big business, or the reckless outsourcing of taxpayer-funded services, the views of the few too often trump those of the many. Much of this happens informally, outside official supervision. But, more worryingly, where legislation and institutions exist for the purpose of regulating these areas, they are woefully inadequate.

The Electoral Commission, for example, lacks the necessary powers, and the legislation governing political donations is easily exploited, allowing donors to remain anonymous and foreign money to be pumped into British politics. Meanwhile the body that is supposed to regulate the business appointment of former public officials is toothless. And the Lobbying Act, introduced in 2014, is equally weak. It does not cover in-house lobbying, or require the disclosure of what is discussed at private meetings – where, according to Transparency International, policymaking can take place.

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As for the Charity Commission, it has at times been too timid in standing up to the Conservative government and championing the true virtues of charities.

It may sound extreme, but as scandal after scandal comes to light it becomes increasingly hard to deny that our political system is rigged in the interests of the few, against the many. And the Conservatives have played a leading role in making this so.

At the Labour party conference in September I hope to set out in detail the policies that will fundamentally transform politics in this country, severely restricting the political influence of big money and freeing up civil society. And if some Tories are truly serious about taking back control, they should get behind us.

• Jon Trickett is Labour MP for Hemsworth and shadow Cabinet Office minister