A political lobbying firm co-founded by the man who helped David Cameron and Boris Johnson win elections has been caught on tape offering to pay journalists to write flattering stories about its clients in British newspapers, a Guardian investigation has revealed.

CT Group, founded by campaign strategist Lynton Crosby, apparently believes that if you can't buy a politician, you can at least buy the news coverage that influences them. Undercover reporters were told the firm had paid journalists to place seemingly independent stories, offering hundreds of pounds in cash incentives for a property industry client in exchange for increased editorial control.

The investigation began after Gavin Stollar, head of CT's real estate division and a Liberal Democrat activist awarded an OBE in 2024, approached a freelance journalist with a proposal: write a piece blaming the Building Safety Regulator (set up after the Grenfell Tower fire that killed 72 people) for the UK's housing shortage, and CT Group would help with research and case studies. The journalist would get paid by both the newspaper and CT Group.

Other CT staffers then offered the journalist £100 per published story for a property guardianship company, Live-In Guardians, and £500 to chair a roundtable. They wanted pieces that didn't look like advertorials but would keep "our client's messaging and overall objective in mind." One suggested a "call to action from the industry for [Andy] Burnham to be smart about this."

When the journalist expressed discomfort about being paid without the newspaper knowing, a lobbyist replied that editors would "instantly bat it out of the room" if told. Another said CT had previously paid a journalist on retainer who "never discloses to editors where she gets her sources from." The firm's statement denied paying the undercover journalist, claiming he "chased us relentlessly" and that they "never ask journalists to behave otherwise than in accordance with their professional and ethical standards."

CT Group, which turns over £40m a year and counts Airbus Defence and Space, Philip Morris, and Manchester City's owner among its clients, has a code of conduct stating it "never do[es] anything we cannot justify publicly." The Guardian and Financial Times have codes requiring journalists to disclose such arrangements. The lobbyists suggested the journalist pitch stories to these papers without revealing CT's involvement, because "we kind of sit behind that."