ITV and S4C stand by political correspondent and lobbyist whose firm stands to gain millions
By Marc Edwards
Image: Guto Harri & other Hydro Industries bosses outside Number 10.
A Welsh firm that won a multi-million-pound contract in the Middle East, backed by the UK Government and personally endorsed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has donated £71,000 to the Conservative Party over five years.
The revelation has fuelled the concerns of transparency campaigners who say the Government has encouraged cronyism and sleaze and enabled fast-track VIP access to Ministers and senior public officials.
Hydro Industries Ltd gifted the cash to Tory Party coffers between 2015 and 2020, a time-span that coincided with a period of spectacular growth for the company.
In March 2020 the firm agreed a deal worth £150 million to treat sludge from oil and gas exploitation in Egypt and has another lucrative Government-backed contract in Saudi Arabia.
The Egypt deal was signed in 10 Downing Street. Boris Johnson is believed to have been in the room when the signing took place, together with his former spin doctor Guto Harri, who became a director of Hydro Industries in 2018.
It was announced just four days after Harri and fellow Hydro directors and executives met Johnson at a reception in Number 10.
Welcoming the deal in March last year the Prime Minister said: “This is exactly the type of contract in the post-Brexit era that showcases the best of UK industry.”
Last night a spokesperson for Boris Johnson told voice.wales: “The Prime Minister had no involvement in the signing of this deal or any private meetings with members of Hydro Industries. Any suggestion of a conflict of interest or impropriety on the Prime Minister’s behalf is categorically untrue.”
When asked about Hydro’s contact with the Prime Minister, Guto Harri declined to say whether the company was given fast-track VIP treatment in gaining access to Boris Johnson and bidding for taxpayers’ money to further its business interests. And he was not forthcoming about how many meetings Hydro Industries Limited has had with Government Ministers or senior Government officials since 2018.
But searching questions will be asked about big cash sums Hydro Industries gifted to the Conservative Party over a five-year period.
The Electoral Commission, the independent body that regulates donations to political parties, has confirmed that Hydro Industries has made several large contributions to Tory Party funds:
· £10,000 10/02/2015
· £10,000 16/10/2015
· £20,000 15/04/2016
· £11,000 25/09/2018
· £20,000 30/07/2020
Guto Harri told voice.wales: “Any political donations are properly declared – which is how you are aware of them. Hydro is proud to be harnessing our technology to clean up and protect the Red Sea whilst creating decent jobs and opportunities back home in Wales.”
But democracy and transparency campaign groups Open Democracy and the Good Law Project want answers from the Prime Minister and the Department for International Trade about how the Egypt deal was struck. It fuels their concerns about cronyism and sleaze at the top of the Conservative Party and fast-track VIP access to Ministers and senior officials. Their intervention comes at a time when Boris Johnson and his Government are struggling to contain a growing list of cash-for-contracts scandals.
The Welsh firm’s links to Government were formalised in February this year. The British Business Bank, a state-owned economic development bank which helps small and medium-sized businesses to access credit, took an equity stake in Hydro Industries and now owns a 2.5 per cent share of the company.
Hydro, whose headquarters is in Llangennech, Carmarthenshire, has secured £3.5m from the UK Government’s £1bn Future Fund.
The fund provides convertible loan backing to more than 1,000 tech firms across the UK. It means the companies can leverage public funds at preferential rates and are enabled in turn to raise further private sector capital.
Critics, including some venture capitalists, say the scheme is a potential misuse of taxpayers’ money because it risks misdirecting much-needed funds to the wrong part of the economy.
The revelations about Hydro’s donations to the Tory Party are a further blow to the reputation of embattled political lobbyist and spin-doctor Guto Harri. Two of Hydro’s payments to the Conservatives – totalling £31,000 – were made during his tenure on the company’s board of directors. He remains a director of the firm and is a bullish and vociferous cheerleader for Hydro’s home-grown Welsh technology and its role in wealth creation and safeguarding the environment.
Harri is also a prominent political broadcaster with his own TV show on S4C, Y Byd yn ei Le (‘Setting the World to Rights’). When asked in April 2021 about any potential conflict of interest arising from his directorship of Hydro Industries and his activity as a political lobbyist, he told voice.wales that he had never been a member of a political party. He said everything he did was on his LinkedIn profile and was “completely transparent”.
Last night Harri told voice.wales: “I am completely open about all my professional roles and commitments. I am grateful of the opportunity to present Y Byd yn ei Le and extremely proud to be part of a pioneering Welsh company like Hydro.”
Harri’s reputation has already been damaged through his short-lived association with GB News.
But despite his involvement in the opinion-based and right-leaning venture, together with revelations on voice.wales in April about his business activities and influence peddling, he has held on to his politics show on S4C. Y Byd yn ei Le returned to the screen in September and another series is slated for the New Year.
The programme has been criticised for giving disproportionate airtime to senior Tories. Now, following new revelations about his company’s gifts to Conservative Party coffers, Harri’s claim to be a fair and impartial journalist has been brought into question by others in the industry.
Marc Jones, a former BBC investigative journalist and a member of the National Union of Journalists for 35 years, commenting on the voice.wales revelations, said: “Guto Harri appears to be at the centre of a tangled web of Tory sleaze. He clearly has contacts with the top of the Tory party. I think this latest revelation calls into question his role fronting S4C’s flagship politics programme.”
S4C Chief Executive Owen Evans and Chairman Rhodri Williams declined to say what questions they asked Guto Harri about his outside interests. They also refused to be drawn on whether Guto Harri was a suitable choice to present political programmes given his company’s donations to the Conservative Party.
But a spokesperson on behalf of the S4C Unitary Board said: “S4C is aware that as a freelance presenter Guto Harri has other media and business interests, but he displays a total professionalism in his approach to our programming and is always prepared to challenge the views of politicians whichever party they represent. Y Byd yn ei Le is subject to the editorial control of both the ITV Cymru Wales production team and the Commissioner of News and Current Affairs at S4C and as such the channel is content that Guto continues to present one of its current affairs strands.”
ITV Cymru Wales, which produces Y Byd yn ei Le for S4C, also declined to say what checks they did on Guto Harri’s business interests when they contracted him to work on the series. They also declined to tell us whether he would continue work on any future ITV political or current affairs productions.
But a spokesman for ITV Cymru Wales responded: “Guto Harri is a well-established and respected presenter of political programming and we have strict editorial and compliance controls in place within our production teams to ensure fairness and due impartiality within all our output, including our political programming for S4C.”
*Marc Edwards is an investigative journalist and freelance TV producer. He has held senior editorial roles at BBC Cymru Wales and ITV Cymru Wales.
*This article has been amended to specify that Hydro Industries receives UK Government support through the British Business Bank and not UK Export Finance as previously stated. We are happy to make this clear.
