(Bloomberg) -- A lobbyist who worked closely with Rachel Reeves during this year’s general election campaign has facilitated high-level UK government access for Donald Tang, the head of Chinese fast-fashion firm Shein which is considering a listing on the London Stock Exchange, a person familiar with the matter said.
Kamella Hudson, a partner at FGS Global, accompanied Tang to at least two meetings with Treasury ministers last week to discuss its hopes of a London listing that could value the fast fashion giant at about £50 billion ($65 billion), according to the person, who requested anonymity discussing behind-closed-doors meetings. Hudson arranged the meetings - one with the new investment minister, Poppy Gustafsson, and another with the City minister, Tulip Siddiq - on her client’s behalf and was his sole adviser at the meetings, they said.
The meetings come less than a month after Hudson was pictured accompanying Reeves — now the Chancellor of the Exchequer — to media interviews at the Labour Party’s annual conference in September, having been allowed by FGS to advise her in the run-up to the UK’s July 4 general election. FGS gifted Reeves “the services of a campaign adviser” between February and May, according to four entries in the parliamentary register of members’ financial interests totaling £14,213 in value.
FGS acknowledged in an email that Hudson volunteered for Labour earlier this year, while stressing she has never been a government employee. It declined to comment on its clients. Hudson didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment, while Shein and the Treasury declined to comment.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised in January to put an end to the “revolving doors between government and the companies they regulate.” But the revelation about Hudson raises questions about Labour’s commitment to establishing clearer boundaries between government and business. In opposition, Starmer criticized previous Tory administrations over the way contracts were awarded during the Covid-19 pandemic, and how former Prime Minister David Cameron lobbied ministers on behalf of Greensill Capital.
A Shein listing would likely be London’s biggest in more than a decade, helping the exchange claw back a chunk of the market value it has lost from companies shifting their primary listings to New York. But there’s also some political peril for Labour if it’s seen to be courting a company that’s faced allegations — which it denies — of using cotton tied to forced labor in the Chinese region of Xinjiang. Shein has said that it has “zero tolerance against forced labor.”
Asked about concerns surrounding Shein’s potential listing in the UK, Starmer told Bloomberg Television earlier this month that while he wouldn’t comment on individual companies, “high standards do matter to us.”
“We’ll be looking at any issue that goes to high standards, with a particular feature on the rights of the workforce,” he said.
Shein earlier this year confidentially filed papers with UK authorities to seek a listing in London after its initial plan to do so in the US turned sour. Any listing would still require regulatory approvals in China and the UK.
The Times first reported Hudson’s work for Reeves over the general election campaign and at the Labour party conference, while revealing that FGS counts Shein as one of its clients, but it was not previously known that Hudson was personally lobbying for the Chinese firm or the extent of the access she has facilitated.
“Kamella is a long-standing Labour Party activist and an ex-employee of the Labour Party” FGS said in an emailed response to questions. “Kamella took the decision to volunteer and support the Labour Party in the lead up to the general election and at Labour Party Conference, focusing on visits, events and logistics. As a firm, where our staff wish to do so, FGS Global has supported employees who want to contribute to public and civic life, including as candidates and volunteers to political parties.”
FGS declined to say when Shein became a client, and when Hudson was added to their account.
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