The House Article | “Lightweight but entertaining”: Baroness Brown reviews ‘The Lobbyist’

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3 min read7 min

This novel is set at the beginning of a new government. Labour has just been elected. The prime minister is a human rights lawyer and he commands a thumping majority.

There are thinly disguised political characters we know and love so well, which adds to the enjoyment of the book. I appreciated some of the political analysis, including a readout of the problems that the new Labour government faces.

At Chequers, the prime minister sums up the situation that the new Labour government has found itself in. He observes, “we have a collapsing criminal justice system, no friends aboard, a rebellious Parliamentary Labour Party, and no money. The Torys are just leaving it to us, subcontracting the job of the opposition to our own backbenchers”.

Into the mix rides a former prime minister, who has an impressive institute in his name; one that conducts polling and dares to think the unthinkable. His big idea, seized upon by the new prime minister, is to rejoin the EU.

It would be wrong to characterise this novel as being about the new Labour government. It is in fact a story of intrigue and espionage, of warring factions of the British intelligence services, of high finance, low morals and treachery, of ratting and re-ratting, of murder and sex.

The inevitable international baddies are the Russians, who are busy infiltrating the highest levels of government with an aim to neutralise the UK, and stop them being a bridge between Europe and America. Thrown into this explosive mix are MI5 and MI6 with their own agendas, jockeying for position and power, subverting democracy, and saving the country from interfering prime ministers and politicians.

There are a number of pertinent political observations within the novel, including a chilling remark from the Russian FSB commander who raises his vodka glass, salutes the “Little Tsar” and states: “Mr president, this is our time. Democracy is dying. This is the age of the autocrat.”

Enter into this world a successful lobbyist, a lifelong Tory who is “undeniably manipulative, scheming and ruthless” and who has effectively lost his business due to the new political order.

To say more would be to spoil the plot for readers.

Is it a good book? To be honest, I was not sold on the plot’s premise of a Russian attempted intervention. I did like some of the political analysis, and the Westminster intrigue made me smile – but I tend to like my novels with a little more meat on the characters. It’s entertaining, however, and serves as a warning against single-sex parliamentary delegations and lobbyists…

Baroness Brown of Silvertown is a Labour peer

The Lobbyist

By: Lionel Zetter

Publisher: Nine Elms Books