Aviation lobbyists enlisted to tackle rebel climate MPs, leaked papers show

Industry-funded lobby group Flying Matters consulted on keeping aircraft emissions out of climate change law, say documents

• John Vidal, environment editor
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 18 February 2009 13.59 GMT
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Civil servants at the Department for Transport (DfT) asked a top aviation lobby group for help to win the parliamentary battle over keeping aircraft emissions out of key climate change legislation, according to papers seen by the Guardian.

A Boeing 747-400 in the night sky. Photograph: Charles O'Rear/Corbis

The documents, leaked from industry-funded group Flying Matters, which is backed by Heathrow airport operator BAA and airlines including BA, Easyjet and Virgin Atlantic, also state that the group "helped ensure" that the Conservative party dropped plans by senior advisers for a tax on carbon dioxide emissions from aircraft.

In addition, Flying matters claims to have influenced the Soil Association's decision to drop plans to withdraw organic status from food flown in from developing countries.

The disclosures are contained in a draft of Flying Matters' confidential 2009 Strategy document and provide a unique insight into the closeness of the industry with the DfT. This was highlighted last month when MPs demanded a Commons investigation into evidence of a "revolving door" policy between government, Whitehall and Heathrow operator BAA after the government agreed to a third runway at the airport.

The approach by the DfT to Flying Matters came in October 2008 when the government was facing a back-bench revolt over plans to leave aviation and shipping out of the UK's targets for cutting CO² emissions from the climate change bill which was enacted last year.

The papers read: "The Department for Transport [is] independently approaching Flying Matters for support on key issues (Climate change bill)". One of the group's most important methods of political lobbying is to approach MPs directly to put the case for aviation.

Michelle Di Leo, Flying Matters chief executive, confirmed to the Guardian that the group was approached by civil servants. She said, "The department [for transport] came to us looking for assistance. They wanted to know if we were briefing MPs. I suspect they were going to different organisations. We did very little".

The documents also show that Flying Matters approached the All Party Parliamentary Aviation Group, one of many informal groups for backbench MPs and peers, with an offer to organise its secretarial services and pay for MPs foreign tours, conferences and publications of reports.

But this was rejected by the parliamentarians: "We felt we were getting pressurised [by Flying Matters] to go in a different direction. I thought it better to back off. The group had become too close to the airlines," said Brian Donohoe, chair of the group and Labour MP for central Ayrshire.

Michelle di Leo denied the suggestion Flying Matters had offered funding. "We did not offer the All Party Parliamentary Aviation Group money. We offered to help them with their secretarial work, not set their agenda. Our role is to get attention for issues. Yes we generated headlines. That's what PR people do. They place stories."

The Flying Matters papers claim that the group's lobbying of politicians, civil servants and the media persuaded MPs and ministers to adopt the industry line on airport expansion, despite environmental concerns. It adds: "A combination of media coverage and private briefings by Flying matters helped ensure the Conservatives backed away from Quality of Life recommendations on a [green] air tax. And The DfT [and] the secretary of state [are] adopting Flying Matters lines in public comment."

The Conservatives' quality of life policy review, led by John Gummer and Zac Goldsmith, proposed in 2007 that the Tories halt UK airport expansion and put higher taxes on short-haul flights and gas-guzzling cars. But Flying Matters says that "private briefings", conducted with unnamed MPs, and a poll it commissioned before the review was made public, convinced the Conservative party to back away from the proposals. "[Flying Matters' poll] demonstrated that a green tax was a voter loser," it says.

The group also claims that it has "generated" sympathetic headlines about the need to expand airports and avoid green taxes in the Sun, the Sunday Times, and the Evening Standard. It also claims to have placed stories in the Times and Independent. "FM-led stories [have been] placed and hundreds of FM comments and mentions [have been made] in articles", says the document.

Working with its airline members, Flying Matters also flew African farmers to London to testify that a proposal by the Soil Association to remove the organic status from any fresh produce flown from developing countries would devastate the livelihoods of some of the poorest people in the world. The proposal was dropped.

The closeness of government to the aviation industry has been exposed several times in the past year. A freedom of information request showed that BAA executives met the DfT 117 times between 2002 and 2007, including 24 meetings with the secretary of state. Papers leaked to the Sunday Times last year, exposed "collusion" between BAA and the DfT over the expansion of Heathrow airport, alleging that BAA executives "prevented the use of data in the consultation document, which showed the expansion would cause unlawful levels of pollution and extra noise".

Flying Matters is chaired by the former Labour trade and energy minister, Brian Wilson. It was set up in 2006 to make the case for aviation expansion and to ensure that the industry was not adversely affected by climate change legislation.

It is one of a network of aviation lobby groups close to the Labour party. Another is Freedom to Fly, which was set up by Stephen Hardwick, a former adviser to John Prescott and ex-head of public affairs at BAA. Freedom to Fly is directed by Dan Hodges, the son of Glenda Jackson, who was Labour's first aviation minister. Dan Hodge's wife, Michelle De Leo, is director of Flying Matters.

The Department for Transport denies asking Flying Matters to lobby on their behalf. "We did not ask them to lobby on our behalf. They are stakeholders like others and we keep in touch with them," said a spokesperson.