A major lobbying company called CT Group is under pressure after a Guardian investigation found it paid journalists to write news stories that looked like regular reporting but were secretly influenced by paying clients.

Lobbying is when a company or group hires professionals to persuade politicians, journalists, and the public to support their interests. CT Group's lobbyists told an undercover reporter they had paid journalists to place stories in British newspapers that appeared to be independent. They also offered hundreds of pounds in cash to place articles for a property industry client, and said they would have had extra control over what the final articles said, The Guardian reported on July 23, 2026.

The Guardian started looking into CT Group after the firm approached a freelance journalist, offering payment to pitch a story about the Building Safety Regulator to a British newspaper. That regulator was set up after the Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 people in 2017. The Guardian's first story, published July 22, 2026, reported that CT Group had also paid journalists for favourable stories connected to Boris Johnson.

CT Group brings in about £40 million a year. It was co-founded by Lynton Crosby, who worked as a campaign strategist for both David Cameron and Boris Johnson. Crosby is the firm's executive chairman, The Australian reported on July 21, 2026. The firm's recent clients include tobacco company Philip Morris and the owner of Manchester City football club.

CT Group issued a public statement: "We do not comment publicly on work we do for clients and we therefore cannot respond to the specific allegations you have made." The firm said events had been "deliberately mischaracterised" and stated it did not hire the undercover journalist.

That response has not stopped calls for answers. Alastair McCapra, who leads the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, called paying journalists for apparently independent articles "an attack on the ethics of journalism, public relations and, indeed, on democracy." CT Group is not a member of that institute, which means the institute cannot discipline the firm. Jemimah Steinfeld, chief executive of Index on Censorship, called on CT Group to launch an internal investigation.

In Parliament, Luke Taylor, a Liberal Democrat MP on the public administration and constitutional affairs committee, called for "full transparency on when money has changed hands when it comes to reporting." Rupa Huq, a Labour MP on the Commons media select committee, said: "We need more transparency in lobbying which almost feels like the wild west, such is the lack of regulation."

Steve Goodrich, head of research and investigations at Transparency International UK, said the investigation raises serious questions about CT Group's conduct and how widespread hidden arrangements are across the lobbying industry.

The broader context here is that the UK's rules for lobbying have long been criticised for being too weak. During a House of Commons debate in 2013 about a lobbying law, one MP pointed out that the new rules "does not even capture Lynton Crosby" — meaning someone as prominent as CT Group's co-founder would not be covered. The UK has a lobbying register, which is supposed to list who is paid to influence government. But transparency campaigners say it covers far less than similar systems in the United States or the EU, where lobbyists must disclose more details about how much they spend and who their clients are.

CT Group also operates internationally. The firm worked on an undisclosed political influence campaign in Zambia on behalf of mining interests, alongside election-related work, Global Witness reported on July 21, 2026. That report, combined with the payments-to-journalists investigation, has led critics to say the firm lacks transparency across every country where it works.

Think of a newspaper article like a restaurant review. You trust it because you believe the reviewer went to the restaurant, formed their own opinion, and wrote what they genuinely thought. Now imagine the restaurant secretly paid the reviewer and told them what to say. You would no longer trust that review, or any review in that publication. That is essentially what this investigation uncovered: paid advocacy disguised as independent journalism. The client at the centre of the story had a specific goal — shaping coverage of the Building Safety Regulator, an agency created in response to one of Britain's deadliest fire disasters.

Whether the pressure from MPs, civil society groups, and the CIPR leads to new laws is an open question. The calls for transparency come from two parliamentary committees, but neither has yet said it will hold formal hearings. What is clear is that the Guardian's findings have given fresh momentum to those who have long argued the UK's lobbying rules are too weak — and placed CT Group, a firm used to working out of public view, squarely in the spotlight.