Mark Fullbrook, an ally of Boris Johnson’s former chief of staff Lyndon Crosby, is expected to enter Downing Street as Truss’ chief of staff after working on her campaign this summer. The political consultant set up his own firm, Fullbrook Strategies, this spring and has been lobbying the UK government ever since. Among his clients were Libya’s house of representatives, which has twice tried to topple the UN-installed government of national unity in Tripoli, and Sante Global, formerly Unispace Health, which was awarded a £680m PPE contract in 2020. The parliament, which was last elected in 2014, is seen by some as a bloc in Libya’s democratic elections and is an ally of the rival government in the east of the country, which is seeking recognition from the UK and others. When elections in Libya were postponed last year, the UK diplomatic mission in Libya posted a message on its Twitter account saying it continued to recognize the interim government of national unity “as the authority tasked with leading Libya to elections and does not support the creation of parallel governments or institutions”. Fullbrook Strategies also lobbied this year on behalf of Sante Global, formerly known as Unispace Health, which was one of the biggest beneficiaries of £680m of Covid contracts during the pandemic, despite previously being a subsidiary of an Australian office design firm. Unispace was referred to the VIP lane to fast-track offers of Covid PPE from companies, with the referral revealed to have come from “GCF Covid-19 Enquiries, mailbox, Cabinet Office”. In February, the Department of Health said Unispace Health, now Sante Global, had supplied the NHS with £484 million worth of PPE from April 2020 to December 2021, adding: “We are working with the company on a commercial solution to the remainder of the contract.” In June, the government said it had “set up a contract resolution team to maximize value from contracts for personal protective equipment”. Chris Bryant, a Labor MP and chairman of the standards committee, said Fullbrook should “come clean about all his financial interests and clients over the last year before he goes into Downing Street”. A spokesman for the Truss campaign said: “All commercial clients of Fullbrook Strategies Ltd are registered on the UK Lobbying Register. The company suspended commercial activities on August 31.” If he enters No 10 as chief of staff or in another senior advisory role, he will have to declare interests and take advice from the government’s fitness and ethics team on how to avoid any conflicts. A source in the Truss campaign said Fullbrook did not put pressure on Truss while she was foreign secretary. His company’s website now carries a message saying it is no longer operational. However, until recently, it boasted that it was “trusted by presidents, prime ministers and international business leaders around the world”, while describing Crosby’s C|T Group as a cousin company. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Fullbrook’s biography on the website described him as having advised politicians not only in the UK, “but from South America to Sri Lanka and much of Africa and the Middle East”. “As a recognized campaigner and strategist, Boris Johnson personally asked him to organize his campaign to become UK Prime Minister in June 2019. This resulted in Boris becoming UK Prime Minister,” it said. “Others he has advised range from former Speaker of the US House of Representatives Newt Gidrich on his successful campaign to win control of the US Congress, to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lord David Trimble on the peace process and elections in during the… Last year, Mark spent significant time on political campaigns in Lebanon and Iraq. He regularly acts as a consultant to some CEOs of large international companies. If he gets the No 10 job, Fullbrook would be one of the most experienced political minds in the building. Others likely to land top jobs are Ruth Porter, Truss’s joint campaign manager, and Adam Jones, her communications director. David Canzini, a former deputy chief of staff who has worked with Fulbrook in the past, could be one of the few former Johnson-era advisers to remain.
