The Observer provides more details on the lobbying firm, Weber Shandwick:
Weber Shandwick, whose chief executive, Colin Byrne, used to run Labour's press office, has been touting the controversial academy programme to hundreds of companies with a view to securing desperately needed sponsorship. The company, which acts as a lobbyist for Coca- Cola, Nestlé, Microsoft and the US defence giant Lockheed Martin, is being paid £2.5m over two years by the Department for Education to attract business investment into schools.
The Observer has established that prospective supporters of Tony Blair's flagship academies are sometimes introduced by the firm to the education minister Lord Adonis, the architect of the city academy programme, the funding of which forms part of the police investigation into the cash-for-honours scandal. Police are probing allegations that Labour donors who supported city academies financially were recommended for peerages.
The ecology of networks, think-tanks, lobbying firms and info-brokers that grow out of all governments has proved an unproductive tool for ensuring the success of policies. This is what when you provide perverse incentives for your political policies, ineffectively disguised as public service.