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# Finance industry made up one-third of top Treasury officials' external meetings
- URL: https://abolishwestminster.com/finance-industry-made-up-one-third-of-top-treasury-officials-external-meetings/
- Published: 2026-10-26T16:40:15.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-26T18:35:16.000Z
- Author: Adam Ramsay
- Tags: lobbying, budget, Treasury

About a third of all external meetings taken by senior Treasury officials were with financial services companies while none reported so far this year has been with a trade union representative or an environmental expert, new analysis by *Abolish Westminster* reveals. The analysis casts light on who is really shaping the decisions made in the budget this week.

Speaking to this website ahead of this week’s budget, one former Shadow Chancellor described the figures as “worrying,” while an economist and campaigner called them “shocking”. 

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Out of 417 meetings so far this year between top Treasury staff and people outside the organisation listed in documents published by the department, there were 133 with people from the financial services industry, including banks, insurance companies and investment firms, amounting to 32% of all meetings. 

The second most common type of meeting - 40 of them, or just under 10% - was those held with people from other public bodies - mostly staff at regional combined authorities. Other significant groups included academics, lobbyists, the oil industry, think tanks, management consultants, arms companies and the airline industry. 

The Labour MP John McDonnell, who served as shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn, called the findings “worrying,” and added that “economic policy, including taxation policies, have worryingly for too long reflected the pressure vested interests have brought to bear behind the scenes”.

The data mostly comes from before Andy Burnham took over as prime minister, and McDonnell hoped the new prime minister would deliver change. “My hope is that the open ministerial door policy to trade unions and campaigners will redress this history of undue influence,” he said.

Jesse Griffiths, an economist and CEO of the Finance Innovation Lab, described the findings as “shocking,” adding that “it points to a fundamental problem with policy making, which is that vested interests have a lot of access and power, but the Treasury doesn’t make enough effort to meet with representatives of the public interest”.

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