ONE sign that Labour is a step closer to power is that the lobbying industry and corporate “public affairs” departments are hiring ex-Labour staff to help guide them should Jeremy Corbyn get elected.

I can understand the “influence” companies wanting to hire “insiders” to guide them around Labour.

It’s harder to understand why Labour people want to join these companies, with their ugly client lists.

It’s notable, however, that the recent Labour “insider” hires by lobbyists were “inside” Labour but not “inside” the actual Corbyn project.

“Strategic Communications Consultancy” MHP has hired Tom Hamilton. He was head of policy and research for deputy leader Tom Watson and before that Labour’s head of “rebuttal.” Hamilton prepared Ed Miliband for facing David Cameron in Parliament and recently co-wrote a (not bad) book on Prime Minister’s Questions.

MHP says “We advise companies on achieving favourable regulatory outcomes, avoiding intervention, influencing legislation, winning public contracts.”

Those clients include Atos, the disability testing firm, several big drug companies and Vitol, an oil trading company that pleaded guilty to “grand larceny” in relation to bribery and corruption with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

An MHP spokesperson told Public Affairs News that its “clients are increasingly asking what a Labour government would mean for their businesses. As one of the most experienced and recent Labour advisers working in our industry, there is nobody better placed to tell them” than Hamilton.

That’s a bit of a talk-up. Hamilton was not close to Corbyn’s Labour people and is mostly fairly negative about the current Labour leader.

Meanwhile “Strategic Communications” firm Edelman announced in October it had “strengthened its offer to clients seeking to understand and prepare for the advent of a Labour government, with the hiring of the Labour Party’s Head of Briefing Emily Richards.”

She mostly worked under Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband, though briefly for Corbyn. Edelman’s clients that need to be “offered” help from an ex-Labour bod include the Association of British Bookmakers, Coca-Cola GB and a bunch of private water firms including Pennon Group (owner of South West Water), United Utilities and Severn Trent. Lobbying is one industry where ex-Labour and ex-Tory staff work together. At Edelman, Richards will be working for their top consultants, including former advisers to Theresa May and Boris Johnson.

Meanwhile Hanbury Strategy, a very Tory “strategic communications” firm is hiring a bunch of ex-Labour staff. Hanbury was founded and is run by Ameet Gill, who was David Cameron’s “director of strategy” and Paul Stephenson, former communications director for “Vote Leave.” Hanbury has taken on Spencer Powers as an “associate director” after two years in the Labour environment policy team. It has also hired former Labour education adviser Colette Collins-Walsh. They join James McBride, a Hanbury director who until 2017 was in the Labour policy unit.

Hanbury boss Paul Stephenson, who was a Tory full-timer and Jeremy Hunt’s aide before he joined Vote Leave, told Public Affairs News, which does the best reporting in the lobbying world, that the hires were good because, “given the level of uncertainty, a lot of companies now are thinking, what do we need to do to prepare for a Corbyn government?” Whether a bunch of mostly New Labour people who generally don’t like Corbyn’s leadership have any special insight into how a Corbyn government would work is another issue.

Big corporations also hire ex-Labour staff directly. Politics website Politico reports Georgina Smith, special adviser to shadow defence secretary Nia Griffiths, has left to join Thales, a French defence giant. Thales make warships, warplanes and other weapons. They have repeatedly been involved in bribery scandals, notably in South Africa and Taiwan.