19 August 2020. Update: The Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists has concluded in its investigation into CTF Partners that CTF Partners had robust compliance procedures in place and was not engaging in activities that would require registration under the Act. It said that CTF Partners had provided satisfactory clarification and explicit assurance as to the particular services it does (and does not) offer to clients, as well as full details of compliance training and monitoring materials it has used since the Act came into force. Further, this article is also the subject of a legal complaint from lawyers for CTF.

Sir Lynton Crosby’s CTF Partners is under investigation for a potential breach of lobbying laws amid suspicions that its employees’ work for senior Conservatives including Boris Johnson could have overlapped with their day jobs representing paying clients.

The Guardian can disclose that the inquiry began in the summer after concerns were raised that the business or its staff could be illegally operating as an unregistered lobbyist. CTF Partners has so far failed to provide sufficient information to satisfy regulators that it did not use its employees’ access to senior politicians to improperly influence government policy.

This has prompted the registrar of consultant lobbyists to take the rare decision to exert its legal powers and formally demand CTF Partners provides detailed evidence showing how the company ensured it did not allow the aims of its clients – which include major corporates and foreign governments – to influence their staff’s unpaid work with senior politicians including the prime minister.

Evidence uncovered by the Guardian in a series of stories this year shows CTF has worked with the Saudi Arabian government, major fossil fuel producers, and anti-cycling campaigners, tobacco firms and sugary drinks producers on campaigns.

“What do they have in place to ensure their representatives, if they’re working with government ministers, stop talking about what their other paying clients are doing? Whether intentionally or inadvertently they may be doing consultant lobbying activity,” said a spokesperson for the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists.

The spokesperson emphasised that the investigation is still ongoing and they are merely seeking information. They asked anyone with evidence that CTF Partners may have been acting as an unregistered lobbyist of ministers or senior civil servants to contact the organisation.

Since 2015 any company or individual engaged in verbal or written lobbying of ministers or top civil servants in an attempt to influence government policy on behalf of a paying third party has been legally required to enter their name and client on the public register of consultant lobbyists. CTF Partners is not currently registered.

Members of the CTF staff worked closely with Tory MPs – including some current ministers – to undermine Theresa May’s Brexit deal, while several senior employees including founding partner Mark Fullbrook and David Canzini took leave this summer to run Johnson’s successful Tory leadership campaign.

Crosby’s company strongly denied the claims it could have broken the law governing lobbyists, insisting that its senior employees’ decision to spend the summer volunteering on Johnson’s Tory leadership campaign was unconnected with their day jobs at CTF Partners.

It also said that there was no attempt by the employees to influence any legislation through their connection with the prime minister during the leadership contest, that its staff carry out all work in accordance with the law, and that in any eventuality the lobbying act did not apply during the leadership campaign as Johnson was a backbench MP rather than a minister.

The request for information could potentially lead to Crosby’s company being required to provide detailed evidence that it has compliance procedures in place to avoid a conflict of interest and does not influence politicians on behalf of third parties.

This could include evidence that CTF Partners staff kept a list of meetings with senior politicians and the topics discussed, to show the company did not take advantage of its staff’s work with ministers to benefit paying clients.

The investigation was triggered by press reports about CTF Partners and its staff’s involvement in politics, including the recruitment of longstanding Crosby associate Fullbrook to run Johnson’s party leadership campaign. Despite months of correspondence between the government body and CTF Partners, the company has so far failed to satisfy the regulator that it has sufficient compliance procedures in place.

It is only the fourth time that the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists, which was established in 2015, has used its powers to demand information, with Crosby’s firm now having until the end of October to provide detailed evidence.

News of the investigation could be an incentive for Downing Street to keep Johnson away from his old political adviser. It came after reports that Crosby has fallen out with his old friend, with Johnson instead seeking the guidance of his chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, and his partner, Carrie Symonds.

A spokesperson for CT Group, the parent company of CTF Partners, said Fullbrook and Canzini worked on the Johnson leadership campaign in a personal capacity “unconnected to their employment”.

“Neither had any communications of any sort on any legislative or policy matters relating to any clients. Their activities on the leadership campaign were focused on the leadership campaign and were directed at the membership of the Conservative party, the relevant electorate. Neither Mr Fullbrook nor Mr Canzini undertook any activities which required registration under the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014.”

The company said the leadership campaign focused on ensuring Johnson’s election as the leader of the Conservative party and did not involve approaching government ministers to influence government policy.

“What’s more Boris Johnson was a backbencher and not a minister during the leadership campaign when Messrs Canzini and Fullbrook worked for his campaign and therefore at any rate he was not covered by the Lobbying Act. To suggest or imply that either of them, or indeed CT Group, used this leadership campaign to lobby ministers of the crown or permanent secretaries, or to undertake any work which requires registration under the act, is demonstrably false.

“CT carries out its work in strict adherence to all relevant laws and regulations, it is a condition of staff’s employment, and all staff are regularly trained on all compliance issues to ensure adherence to them.”