The Government ’s majority has been reduced to a handful of seats in Westminster following last year’s snap General Election.

Political heavyweights are circling the PM just waiting for a chance to make their move.

It might seem like a crisis. But for another breed of political movers and shakers, it’s just like any other day at the office.

For the worldly career civil servants, the leaders of political parties and governments come and go – they’re easily replaced every few years – and they might be the ones who’ll need to get rid of them.

Because they’re in the army of globetrotting unelected, highly-paid bureaucrats and lobbyists lurking in the shadows who are the real

big hitters.

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The former spies and Whitehall mandarins – or Civil Service officials – are the ones pulling the strings on multi-million-pound government deals with multi-nationals, military contractors and pharmaceutical firms.

Their stomping ground isn’t the hustings or the press conference, but a dimly lit restaurant, or a meeting on a private airfield away from prying eyes.

All this is no shock to author Mike Lofgren, a Capitol Hill staffer who started out under Ronald Reagan , and whose book The Deep State paints a picture of all-out corruption in the corridors of power.

And while his expose is about the US and the abuse of the Constitution, he believes these same abuses occur in governments across the world, including Britain.

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Our very own John Le Carre – former MI6 agent turned author – gave Lofgren the idea for the title.

The protagonist in Le Carre’s novel A Delicate Truth describes Deep State as “the ever-expanding circle of non-governmental insiders from banking, industry and commerce who were cleared for highly classified information denied to large swathes of Whitehall and Westminster”.

Lofgren says: “That’s where I got the idea and I did some research to see that it existed.

“The term was originally used in Turkey to describe the sort of intelligence, high-level ­military officials, corrupt types and even organised crime who ran the show regardless of who was president or prime minister.”

Lofgren says it’s not that different in the UK with the additional frightening element that we’re in the pocket of the US – the 52nd State.

He says: “With respect to Britain, one of the things that jumped out at me was the NSA giving at least £100m in a year to GCHQ in Cheltenham.

"It is as if they were some third world country that needs special forces trainers amongst their tribal militias.”

Lofgren denies the Deep State is some sort of conspiracy though. He says it’s there in plain sight.

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“If you look at the relationship between the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and how they help each other,” he says.

"That’s not only an indication of a national component of Deep State but also an illustration of how it operates internationally.

“These days they’re totally dependent on Silicon Valley for the technology.

“That’s why the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff flew out to California to give a briefing to the heads of the tech industry.

“It’s incredible to think there is that much hold over the government.”

In fact, state department records released in January showed the big four silicon valley firms spent $50m on lobbying in Donald Trump’s first year in office.

But it’s the type of cosy back door relationships between government departments and all big business that is at the heart of the Deep State, according to Lofgren.

Data shows that the regulator of politicians taking up outside jobs waved through 176 out of 177 ex-ministerial appointments in the past few years.

The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACoBA) approved all but one of the jobs ex-ministers have taken up

since 2013.

The committee is meant to act as a watchdog against the revolving door where ex-politicians walk into jobs at companies that trade in sectors they oversaw

as ministers.

The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee called ACoBA “toothless” in a damning report published last year and called for major reform.

Lofgren sees echoes of this relationship between the political and business elite in the collapse of Carillion and the long-standing government policy of outsourcing work to the private sector.

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He says: “Maybe the state should be doing what they profitably contracted out.

“They should be the ones building the schools, prison and hospitals.

“Lobbyists running the country certainly beats having a competition.

"You call it the Old Boys’ Network in Britain. In Washington, it’s not know-how, it’s know-who.”

It’s the military complex that is where the Deep State is the most rapacious, according to Lofgren.

“Here in the US, the Department of Defense contracted out everything to the point where the US Army can’t even feed itself.”

At times there were more private contractors on the ground than military personnel.

Lofgren adds: “In WWII we had air transport command supplying all of this whereas now it tends to be contracting these services firms.

"So now you have to question who has a financial incentive in all these ­moderately large brush fire wars that go on, and on, and on.

"It’s big business, though it’s not a deeply hidden conspiracy. We know who all these people are. We know who the CEOs of these companies are.

“It’s not like they get together in a room all at once. In Davos there is a transcript and video evidence of what they are doing. That’s the biggest get-together of the Deep State.

“This is their little public PR show. It probably generates more negative publicity.

"You roll your eyes when you hear about Davos, but it’s just an example of the creeping status quo.

“They go into big firms, make a shedload of money for themselves.

"Then all of a sudden they have a global conscience about them and how they are going to help the world.

“But it always seems to me they do well by doing good.

“And for every rags to riches Silicon Valley guy, most of them tend to be from fairly wealthy families.”

Deep State at work - £2billion a year spent by lobbyists

Fewer than one in 20 lobbyists are covered by the government register.

The anti-corruption NGO Transparency International says that although it identified 2,735 lobbyists who met MPs in a single three- month period, only 96 professional lobbying firms were listed on the government’s register of consultant lobbyists.

More than 4,000 people are estimated to be working as professional lobbyists in the UK, and it is believed that £2bn a year is spent on their campaigns.

Under the regulations established in 2014, anyone lobbying on behalf of a third party has to sign up to the public register if they discuss policy, legislation or government contracts with a minister or the permanent secretary of a government department.

However, in-house lobbyists are not required to register.

Latest figures available from the government – from 2016 – showed there were just 116 registered lobbyists.

Climate change is glossed over PR

Oil giants employ an army of ex-government employees and politicians to paint a picture of the industry in an eco-friendly shade of green, according to campaigning investigators.

Corporate Europe Observatory’s The Climate Smokescreen report accused PR firms of making millions misleading governments about the threat of pollution from petrochemical giants.

A report released for the Paris Climate Summit claimed “public affairs and lobby firms working in Europe include clients who are some of the worst corporate perpetrators of climate change”.

Professional lobbyists’ tactics are numerous, including cocktail parties with politicians, business summits where those causing climate change and the officials charged with solving it mingle, according to the Brussels- based organisation.

The report said: “They train corporate executives in how to influence EU policy.

“They polish the image of environmentally destructive products with glossy publicity, far removed from the reality of melting glaciers or burning rainforest.”

Oil coup was the Deep State in action

It was the perfect plot, meticulously planned – an audacious and hugely lucrative takeover of a small country with massive oil riches.

And the perfect leader for the battle-hardened soldiers of fortune who would make it happen was an Old Etonian, bon viveur and former officer in the SAS.

But the operation collapsed even as it got underway amid recriminations and charges of betrayal, with the plotters scattered in prisons across Africa.

Even as the perpetrators were paraded for the cameras manacled hand and foot in their prison fatigues, it was claimed that a London- based oil trader was the mastermind behind the scheme.

There was more: the governments of South Africa and Spain not only knew what was being planned but they encouraged it to go ahead.

Where there's war, there's brass

The number of civilian contractors supporting coalition operations in Iraq against Islamic State is on the rise, according to figures released by the US military.

Although major military operations there have ceased, the number of contractors rose by 37% from 3,592 to 4,927 over the past 12 months.

Contractors supporting base operations rose from 564 to 827 with those involved in logistics and maintenance going up from 1,156 to 1,480.

Two Chinese companies have just won the contract for the Al Faw refinery which has a capacity of 300,000 barrels of oil a day and invitations have gone out to bid for contracts worth more than $10bn for a subway and monorail system to be built in Baghdad.