Public First

Background

Public First is a Westminster-based research and PR firm founded in 2016 by political strategists and former Conservative advisers, Rachel Wolf and James Frayne.¹

Public First helps its clients “understand and influence public opinion through research and targeted communications campaigns,” crafting “policy ideas that Governments can realistically apply to difficult issues,” according to its website.²

According to its entries in the UK’s lobbying register, its clients have included shale gas exploration company Cuadrilla Resources as well as the trade body, the Internet Association, which represents big tech firms including Uber, Google and Amazon.³

The firm was until recently based on Tufton Street which is home to a network of free-market thinktanks and lobby groups with links to climate science denial. Several members of staff have previously worked for Tufton Street groups including the TaxPayers’ Alliance and official Vote Leave campaign.⁴

Wolf and Frayne have both worked with Cabinet Office Minister, Michael Gove, and government Chief Adviser, Dominic Cummings while Wolf is a previous adviser to Boris Johnson.⁵ ⁶ ⁷

During the COVID-19 crisis, the firm received over £1 million in contracts from the government without going through a legally required tender process. While this was justified as part of the government’s emergency COVID-19 response, it later emerged that parts of the work related to Brexit.⁸ ⁹

Stance on Climate Change

Public First has worked on behalf of shale gas exploration company Cuadrilla Resources and at least two current and former members of staff have worked on behalf of the shale gas developers.¹⁰

Former Labour MP, INEOS consultant and Commissioner for Shale Gas, Natascha Engel, is a Public First Partner, while former head of Westbourne Communications’ Energy Unit, Jennifer Powers, recently worked for the firm as an Associate.¹¹ ¹² ¹³

Although she has been criticised for Public First’s links with the fracking industry, co-founder Rachel Wolf, has said she is supportive of the UK’s net zero target and provides the Secretariat to the “Zero Carbon Commission.”¹⁴ ¹⁵ ¹⁶

The Commission is part of the “Zero Carbon Campaign” which advocates a policy of carbon pricing to meet the UK’s climate targets, and which was founded by Stephen Fitzpatrick, founder and CEO of independent electricity provider, Ovo.¹⁷ ¹⁸

Funding

Public First clients have included:¹⁹ ²⁰

Cuadrilla Resources
The Internet Association
Oxford University
The University of Nottingham
Universities UK
Pearson Publishing

Annual Reports

Public First reported net assets of £656,623 up from £226,874 in 2018, according to Companies House. ²¹

Key People

Rachel Wolf is the Founding Partner of Public First. She began her career in politics in 2006 working for then Shadow Higher Education Minister, Boris Johnson before working for then Shadow Education Secretary Michael Gove alongside then civil servant Dominic Cummings.²² ²³

Wolf went on to establish the New Schools Network, (NSN) in 2010, a registered charity which was assisted by Cummings, and which attracted controversy after it received £500,000 funding from Gove’s Department of Education without the competitive tender process usually required by law.²⁴ ²⁵ ²⁶

In 2016, Wolf and Frayne established, “Parents and Teachers for Excellence,” (PTE) an educational reform group for which Vote Leave’s Jon Moynihan was a Board Member and which was accused of “astroturfing”, a strategy where professional lobbyists pose as a grassroots body in order to gain support. ²⁷

In 2019, Wolf was appointed by Boris Johnson to co-write the Conservative Party’s 2019 manifesto alongside head of Downing Street’s Policy Unit and former Spiked contributor, Munira Mirza. Wolf has described Public First as a “campaigning thinktank.”²⁸ ²⁹ ³⁰

James Frayne is the husband of Rachel Wolf and the other Founding Partner of Public First.³¹

Frayne has held roles at PR companies Westbourne Communications and Portland Communications, and as campaign director at the anti-tax group, the TaxPayers’ Alliance.³² ³³

In 2011, he was appointed Director of Communications at the Department for Education by then Education Secretary Michael Gove where he worked alongside Gove’s then Special Adviser, Dominic Cummings.³⁴ ³⁵

In 2004, Frayne and Cummings worked on the successful campaign against the creation of a devolved regional assembly in the North East and which Cummings, who was later to become Director of Vote Leave, described as “a training exercise for an EU referendum.” ³⁶

Frayne and Cummings also worked together on the “Business for Sterling” campaign in 2000.³⁷

Natascha Engel is a Partner at Public First.³⁸

Engel was Labour MP for North East Derbyshire from 2005 to 2017 and Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons from 2015 to 2017. Following her election defeat, Engel was employed as a consultant for the fracking and chemicals firm INEOS.³⁹ ⁴⁰

In October 2018, Engel was appointed by the Conservative government to the role of “Commissioner for Shale Gas,” a role from which she resigned six months later, criticising the government’s policy on seismic tremors as too sensitive.⁴¹ ⁴²

Engel was revealed to have deleted routine email correspondence with fracking companies during her time as Commissioner, following a Freedom of Information request from Greenpeace’s investigative journalism unit, Unearthed.⁴³ ⁴⁴

Actions

June 2020

Between March and June 2020, Public First received £840,000 worth of contracts from the Cabinet Office without going through a competitive tendering process.⁴⁵

The government justified the absence of such a process through policies put in place for the rapid delivery of an emergency COVID-19 response. However it later emerged that portions of the work contracted to Public First related to Brexit, with entries in the Cabinet Office’s register referring to “EU Exit Comms,” and “EU Exit prog.”⁴⁶

Wolf, Frayne and Public First Partner Gabriel Milland had all previously worked for Minister for Michael Gove and with his Government Chief Adviser, Dominic Cummings.⁴⁷

October 2019

In October 2019, Wolf was appointed to co-write the Conservative Party’s manifesto for the upcoming General Election in a move which received criticism over conflict of interest due to Wolf and Public First’s work for private clients including Cuadrilla Resources.⁴⁸