Smells Like Cash For Access
Co-published with
September 25, 2026
Leaked documents show Tony Blair Institute charges unlisted companies $25,000 to join network with active role in policy programmes as it hosts record number of serving UK ministers at ruling party conference
The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) calls itself a “mission-driven not-for-profit organisation.” The former UK prime minister set it up after closing his lobbying firm, Tony Blair Associates, in 2016, saying he would focus on charitable and non-profit work. Since then it has grown into one of the most influential policy organisations in the world. It advises more than 45 governments, employs over 700 staff and reported turnover of $161 million in its 2024 accounts.
Amid its corporate offerings, TBI operates a Global Network for Change, a suite of paid-for services including “networking” at “selected policy moments such as UK Conference programming.”
Internal documents seen by Lighthouse Reports and UK investigative team, Democracy for Sale, show that corporate members include BP, Uber, AstraZeneca, Microsoft, Octopus Energy, Amazon, crypto outfit Coinbase, and Bridgepoint, an investment company chaired by former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn. Associate membership costs $25,000 a year, and higher tiers cost more.
TBI has never disclosed who the members are, what they pay or what they get in return.
This year TBI is hosting 21 events at the governing Labour Party’s annual conference, more than other think tank counterparts such as IPPR, Demos and ThinkLabour. Fourteen ministers are due to speak, including home secretary Shabana Mahmood and chief secretary to the treasury Emma Reynolds. Ahead of Sunday’s conference opening, TBI’s senior director of policy Ryan Wain celebrated having “more serving cabinet ministers than we’ve ever hosted,” and described the institute’s venue as a place where “people with power, meet people with ideas.”
A previous Lighthouse investigation, Blair and the Billionaire revealed the full extent of Larry Ellison’s support for and involvement in TBI. Ellison invested $130 million in the TBI between 2021 and 2023, with a further $218 million pledged since then. The scale of funding took the TBI from a headcount of 200 to approaching 1,000. It has subsequently downsized significantly, with these cuts attributed by some staff to the need to reduce dependence on Ellison.
METHODS
This investigation saw and analysed internal TBI documents, including pitch decks used to recruit corporate members, which set out membership tiers, fees and benefits. We compared the list of network members against this year’s published conference programmes to find where paying members were appearing next to ministers who oversee their industries.
We interviewed former TBI staff, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as well as anti-corruption experts and a member of the Ethics and Integrity Commission. We sent TBI a detailed list of questions.
STORYLINES
Dr Sue Hawley, the executive director of the UK-based Spotlight on Corruption said the scheme “looks and smells like a cash for access scheme with TBI able to trade on its unparalleled access and influence with those in government to facilitate secretive corporate lobbying.
She added that “there must be real questions here as to whether TBI is bending the rules around consultant lobbying.”
Several network members are set to share TBI stages with the ministers who regulate them. ServiceNow’s president will introduce a conversation with defence secretary Wes Streeting. Uber’s UK policy director will discuss self-driving cars alongside roads minister Justin Madders. An executive from investment firm General Catalyst, an investor in the prediction market app Polymarket, will join chief secretary to the treasury Emma Reynolds to talk about “unleashing the animal spirits in Britain’s economy.” TBI labels these events as “supported” by the companies but does not mention that they are network members.
TBI network members also include Netafim, an Israeli drip irrigation company accused by the UN of “perfecting age-old techniques of colonial exploitation” in Palestine. The company “has enabled intensive exploitation of water and land in the West Bank…depleting Palestinian natural resources” according to a report by Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Palestine.
Former TBI staff raised concerns from inside the institute. One employee, who has since left, said they were warned to be “really careful not to make it seem as if they [GNC members] are paying money for access,” and described that warning as “like an admission of guilt.” Another accused TBI of “trying to peddle influence for wealthy donors in a knowingly and intentionally opaque way.”
The documents also appear to show TBI selling its policy proximity. A pitch aimed at tech companies highlighted its “track record of shaping AI conversations” and its links to the UK AI Opportunities Action Plan, where a TBI staff member was seconded for almost a year. Coinbase gave feedback on early drafts of a TBI policy paper on blockchain.
In July, the Ethics and Integrity Commission called for informal meetings at party conferences to be disclosed. Commissioner Ian Blackford said TBI was “finding ways to grant access for corporates to ministers.”
In response to this investigation, TBI said it “does not engage in any lobbying on behalf of GNC members,” that it has a “rigorous independence policy” and that its conference events are comparable to those of other think tanks. It declined to say how much money the network has generated.
“In operating the Global Network for Change (GNC), TBI is no different to any other organisation that has sponsorship for events to cover their costs. TBI is an impartial and nonpartisan not-for-profit organisation, which presents its own views and does not engage in any lobbying on behalf of GNC members or others, nor are we asked to by them.
“The GNC membership scheme complies with all rules and guidance. The TBI events around party conferences are comparable to many other think tanks and dozens of private and public sector organisations will be attending fringe events at conference to participate in policy discussions.