"Tory-linked lobbying firm agreed to help swing DRC election, leak suggests", 3 November 2022

"A lobbying firm with deep ties to the Conservative party planned a secretive campaign to influence elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in exchange for millions of pounds from a mining company...

The leaked files appear to show how, between its work on Tory election campaigns, CT Group sought to shape political events in multiple African countries on behalf of deep-pocketed commercial clients.

According to one document, marked draft, CT Group told representatives of the Canadian mining firm First Quantum Minerals that both Crosby and Fullbrook would work on the 2011 campaign against the DRC government.

The documents suggest CT Group stood to gain as much as £1.2m in fees from First Quantum for what it said would be a seven-month project, with a £1m bonus available if CT Group met certain targets...

Documents show CT Group – then known as CTF Partners – told First Quantum in May 2011 that elections in the DRC later that year represented “a real opportunity to influence the future of the country”. The firm’s “expertise and discretion”, executives promised, “can ensure this opportunity is harnessed”.

To “secure the most favourable possible outcome” and “add value” to the mining company, CTF said it would provide “direct support to the most likely person to beat the current president” and carry out “indirect activity” to undermine the president inside the DRC and internationally.

Another part of CTF’s plan proposed to discredit the country’s then president, Joseph Kabila, to “create a climate of opinion” that would encourage any international court to find in favour of First Quantum in its legal dispute with the DRC government...

Three years after the DRC campaign, CTF was working on another secret political project, in neighbouring Zambia, where First Quantum is the country’s biggest copper miner and largest foreign investor.

Documents suggest the firm’s client was involved in the mining sector and also active in Zambia, but it is unclear if the work was linked to First Quantum....

The files suggest that in 2014 CTF conducted polling and focus group research in Zambia and also fed political intelligence to its client about which political party “would likely have a more favourable and consistent approach towards the mining sector”.

In its statement, CT Group said: “It is no secret that we have worked on election campaigns internationally, and strictly adhere to all relevant laws and regulations in those jurisdictions..."