Decision

Advice Letter: Suella Braverman, Columnist, Global Media and Entertainment/LBC

Updated 2 October 2025

1. BUSINESS APPOINTMENT APPLICATION: The Rt Hon Suella Braverman KC, former Secretary of State for the Home Department. Paid appointment with LBC.

You approached the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (the Committee) under the government’s Business Appointment Rules for Former Ministers (the Rules) seeking advice on taking up a paid role as Columnist with LBC.

The purpose of the Rules is to protect the integrity of the government. The Committee has considered the risks associated with the actions and decisions taken during your time in office, alongside the information and influence you may offer LBC as a former minister. The material information taken into consideration by the Committee is set out in the annex.

The Committee’s advice is not an endorsement of the appointment - it imposes a number of conditions to mitigate the potential risks to the government associated with the appointment under the Rules.

The Ministerial Code sets out that ministers must abide by the Committee’s advice.  It is an applicant’s personal responsibility to manage the propriety of any appointment. Former ministers of the Crown, and Members of Parliament, are expected to uphold the highest standards of propriety and act in accordance with the 7 Principles of Public Life.

2. The Committee’s consideration of the risks presented

LBC is a news outlet owned by Global Media and Entertainment. It operates through several platforms including radio, podcasts, a website and an app. You said that your role will be to write articles for LBC’s app.

You carried out media interviews with LBC and other media outlets in discharge of your ministerial duties as Home Secretary. The Home Office confirmed that you made no decisions specifically related to LBC or Global Media and Entertainment. The Committee^{[footnote 1]} considered the risk you could be seen to have been offered this role as a reward for decisions or actions taken in office was low.

As a former Cabinet Minister, there are inherent risks associated with your privileged access to information, influence and contacts which may be seen to be of general benefit to any media company. These risks are limited given the public and transparent nature of this role. Further, you have been out of office for over one year and will not have contact with government in this role.

3. The Committee’s advice

The Committee did not consider that this appointment raises any propriety concerns under the government’s Rules. The standard conditions below appropriately mitigate the risks associated with drawing on privileged information and making improper use of contacts and influence within government to the unfair advantage of LBC/Global Media and Entertainment.

It is an individual’s responsibility to manage the propriety of the specific pieces of work undertaken. As the former Home Secretary you must be careful not to offer any unfair insight as a result of your access to information and potential influence in government.

In accordance with the government’s Business Appointment Rules, the Committee advises this role with Global Media and Entertainment be subject to the following conditions:

• you should not draw on (disclose or use for the benefit of yourself or the persons or organisations to which this advice refers) any privileged information available to you from your time in ministerial office;

• for two years from your last day in ministerial office, you should not become personally involved in lobbying the UK government or its arm’s length bodies on behalf of Global Media and Entertainment (including parent companies, subsidiaries, partners and clients); nor should you make use, directly or indirectly, of your contacts in the government and/or ministerial office to influence policy, secure business/funding or otherwise unfairly advantage Global Media and Entertainment (including parent companies, subsidiaries, partners and clients); and

• for two years from your last day in ministerial office, you should not undertake any work with Global Media and Entertainment (including parent companies, subsidiaries, partners and clients) that involves providing advice on the terms of, or with regard to the subject matter of a bid with, or contract relating directly to, the work of the UK government or its arm’s length bodies.

The advice and the conditions under the government’s Business Appointment Rules relate to your previous role in government only; they are separate from rules administered by other bodies such as the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and the Registrar of Lords’ Interests.^{[footnote 2]} You are reminded that as a Member of Parliament you have a separate ban on paid lobbying under the Parliamentary Code of Conduct. It is an applicant’s personal responsibility to understand any other rules and regulations they may be subject to in parallel with this Committee’s advice.

By ‘privileged information’ we mean official information to which a minister or Crown servant has had access as a consequence of his or her office or employment and which has not been made publicly available. Applicants are also reminded that they may be subject to other duties of confidentiality, whether under the Official Secrets Act, the Ministerial Code or otherwise.

The Business Appointment Rules explain that the restriction on lobbying means that the former Crown servant/minister ‘should not engage in communication with government (ministers, civil servants, including special advisers, and other relevant officials/public office holders) – wherever it takes place - with a view to influencing a government decision, policy or contract award/grant in relation to their own interests or the interests of the organisation by which they are employed, or to whom they are contracted or with which they hold office’. This Rule is separate and not a replacement for the Rules in the House.

You must inform us as soon as you take up employment with this organisation, or if it is announced that you will do so. You must also inform us if you propose to extend or otherwise change the nature of your role as, depending on the circumstances, it may be necessary for you to make a fresh application.

Once the appointment has been publicly announced or taken up, we will publish this letter on the Committee’s website, and where appropriate, refer to it in the relevant annual report.

4. Annex - Material information 

4.1 The role 

You wish to take up a paid role as a columnist, writing ad hoc articles for LBC’s smart phone app. LBC is a UK news outlet that operates on the radio, a website, podcasts, and an app. It is owned by Global Media and Entertainment. You stated your role will not involve contact with government. 

You informed the Committee that you have done one-off pieces of work for LBC, but that this is now becoming more regular.

4.2 Dealings in office

You advised the Committee that during your time in office you periodically did interviews with LBC and other media outlets. You stated you did not make any decisions specific to the newspapers nor do you have access to sensitive information specific to LBC or Global Media and Entertainment. 

4.3 Departmental assessment 

The Home Office confirmed the details in your application and recommended the standard conditions.

1. This application for advice was considered by Sarah de Gay; Isabel Doverty; Hedley Finn OBE; Dawid Konotey-Ahulu DL; Michael Prescott; and The Baroness Thornton. ↩

2. All Peers and Members of Parliament are prevented from paid lobbying under the House of Commons Code of Conduct and the Code of Conduct for Members of the House of Lords. Advice on your obligations under the Code can be sought from the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, in the case of MPs, or the Registrar of Lords’ Interests, in the case of peers. ↩