Liberal Democrat peer has shares in Tory owned PR company with private health links

The coalition has had its strains since it came together following the last general election, but few would imagine their bond would extend to financially supporting each other. 

But that’s exactly what is happening. 

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Alliance has shareholdings in a company called Huntsworth plc, which is owned by fellow peer Lord Chadlington of the Conservative party.

Huntsworth PLC, run a group of companies involved in ‘communications and lobbying.’ Lord Chadlington as the founder and CEO of Huntsworth PLC, also holds shares in the company. One arm of the group is Huntsworth Health, which operates in the U.S., Hong Kong, and Europe including here. Their website states how the company ‘provides a full continuum of consulting and communications services to the healthcare and well-being industry.’

One of Lord Chadlington's employees is Fiona Bride whose role at Huntsworth is the ‘director of market access.’ Her area of work is succinctly laid out on her personal profile page on the Huntsworth website: Fiona says she has: ‘expertise at leveraging commercial opportunities through market access at all levels of the NHS.’

In the same month as the white paper ‘liberating the NHS’ was released, Huntsworth Health acquired healthcare communications agency, ScopeMedical for £4.6m, thus expanding its health division. Lord Chadlington said of the takeover: "We are delighted to announce the acquisition of ScopeMedical," then added: "Healthcare is a major growth area and we are now very well positioned to take advantage of that growth with a fully integrated healthcare offering that supports the product lifecycle from discovery to patent expiry." 

One presumes Lord Alliance couldn’t agree more. The coalition is closer than we realised, so much so, it could be argued that ‘they are all in this together.’

Incidentally, Lord Alliance has provided £697,440 .48 to the Liberal Democrats central office and for local campaigns. In addition £2,000 to the free market collective UK Liberty League.