Lord Bell has defended David Cameron's decision to raise his client's business concerns during a state visit by the Chinese prime minister, after he was reportedly asked to do so by Bell's lobbying company.As the government faced criticism for allowing lobbyists to get too close to ministers, Bell did not deny claims that his lobbying and public relations firm contacted Downing Street to ask the prime minister to complain to Wen Jiabao about copyright infringement in China of products designed by Dyson, a client of Bell Pottinger.
"What happened with the copyright issue with the Chinese was in the national interest," Bell said.
Senior Bell Pottinger executives were caught on film by undercover reporters from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism pitching their services to fake representatives of the government of Uzbekistan. They said they managed to get the prime minister to raise Dyson's copyright issue with Wen during a state visit in June 2010.
"We were rung up at 2.30 on a Friday afternoon, by one of our clients, Dyson," Tim Collins, managing director of Bell Pottinger, said. "He said, 'we've got a huge issue. A lot of our products are being ripped off in China'.