Our Insight

Connect merges with Stratagem to build ‘unrivalled’ public affairs offer

17 June 2019

• Projecting £3m revenue, the company will be one of the UK’s leading independents focussed on public affairs
• Acquisition is first deal by fast-growing Connect since 2016 MBO
• Gráinne Walsh will lead Stratagem in Belfast and joins Connect’s top team

Connect, the Westminster-based public affairs and planning communications specialist, has today joined with Stratagem, Northern Ireland’s largest public affairs agency. While technically an acquisition, it is positioned as a merger, with Stratagem continuing to operate with its own highly successful brand.   

The initiative comes at a pivotal political moment, with Northern Ireland playing a key role in Westminster politics and Brexit negotiations.

The move grows the overall Connect group team to 35 consultants and its projected group fee income to £3m, making it one of the UK’s largest public affairs focussed agencies that is independently owned.  

Gráinne Walsh, Stratagem’s head of consultancy since 2013, will take over the role of director from Quintin Oliver. Gráinne will lead the Stratagem team in Belfast and become a member of the Connect leadership team. 

Andy Sawford, managing partner of Connect, said: “Having grown our income organically by 50 per cent since 2016’s management buyout, Connect has been looking for the right opportunity to catalyse the next phase of our growth. There is a huge opportunity for us and Stratagem to grow together. Connect and Stratagem are a great fit, with closely aligned values, complementary products and services, and a shared commitment to setting high standards. Joining up with Belfast’s biggest public affairs firm creates an unrivalled client offer at a time when Northern Ireland is playing a pivotal role in UK and European affairs.”

Gráinne Walsh, director of Stratagem, said: “Today’s news represents an exciting opportunity for Stratagem. We would like to thank and pay tribute to Quintin for his vision in founding Stratagem and leadership to make us Northern Ireland’s number one public affairs agency. Quintin’s dedication and passion for politics and our business has seen Stratagem thrive and deliver outstanding results. These are changing times in politics and public policy, and it is now the right time for Stratagem to become part of a UK wide team with Connect and broaden our client offer.” 

Quintin Oliver, founder of Stratagem, explained: “Stratagem has defined the public affairs market in Northern Ireland ever since the Good Friday Agreement two decades ago. Bringing Stratagem together with Connect makes huge sense at this stage, with talks underway, hopefully for the Assembly and Executive to return, and with the Brexit drama unfolding around us, across these islands.   

“The joint business will bring added scale, investment and strong relationships with key policy-makers, opinion-formers and political institutions. I am pleased that the team at Stratagem will continue, headed by Gráinne Walsh and I wish them well as I now take a step away to concentrate on other projects.”

What now?

13 December 2019

Ten points on what happens now:

1. Boris Johnson will start forming his new Government over the weekend. Most of the current Cabinet could be reappointed but briefs will be reshuffled. Michael Gove, who has had a good election, is tipped to become International Trade Secretary. Former Defence Secretary, Penny Mordaunt will hope for a return, while rising stars, such as Rishi Sunak, who represented the party in election tv debates, could be promoted.
2. Parliament meets next week. MPs start ‘swearing in’ on Tuesday and the Queens Speech takes place next Thursday 19^th December, setting out the Government’s priorities.
3. Boris Johnson’s ‘Brexit Deal’ with the EU will be put before Parliament on Friday 20^th December and will be approved with a big majority. The EU Parliament will approve the deal in early January and the UK will be out of the EU by 31^st January 2020, with a ‘transition period’ to the end of the year.
4. Brexit thoughts then turn to negotiating the future trade relationship between the UK and the EU. The timing is a challenge – trade deals usually take many years to negotiate. The draft ‘declaration’ by the UK and the EU, published in late October, envisages “an ambitious, wide-ranging and balanced economic partnership. This partnership will be comprehensive, encompassing a Free Trade Agreement, as well as wider sectoral co-operation… It should facilitate trade to the extent possible, while respecting the integrity of the Single Market and the Customs Union”. That roughly translates as “it’s complicated”!
5. Public spending is due to rise.  The Conservative manifesto commits to increase spending on the NHS, education and policing.  It pledges a rise in teachers pay, help for student nurses, and pensions to rise by at least 2.5% a year.
6. Social care reform must be a priority. The Conservative manifesto contains only the principle that no-one will have to sell their home to pay for care, but as a government with a majority and a clear five year term, there will be pressure for a long term solution to the social care crisis.
7. Climate change featured in all the manifestos, with the Conservative’s pledging to reach net zero by 2050. Linked to this is a pledge to spend £6.3bn on improving the energy efficiency of social housing.
8. Scottish Independence is on the agenda as far as the triumphant SNP are concerned. Nicola Sturgeon will press Boris Johnson for a timetable for a new referendum.  Johnson will resist.
9. Labour will spend some time in a blame game and gearing up for a leadership election. Jeremy Corbyn has said he will not lead Labour into the next election and John McDonnel has ruled himself out.  Angela Rayner, Emily Thornberry, Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long Bailey and Jess Philipps are all contenders. The Lib Dems also need a new leader after Jo Swinson lost her seat – Layla Moran is the favourite.
10. We have a stable government and a Parliament that will start to function again. The make up of Parliament has changed significantly and there are many new MPs to engage with, including some who weren’t expecting to be there. However you voted yesterday, we can all celebrate Parliament becoming more equal with the most women MPs ever elected. Assume it is a five year Parliament, develop your engagement plans and, of course, ask Connect to help!

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What does Theresa May’s resignation, and the arrival of a new Prime Minister, mean for Brexit? The fundamentals are the same: a divided country, a divided Parliament and a ticking clock.   What changes with Theresa May’s resignation?  First, we may revert to a ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’ standpoint from the UK Government.  Second, we may have a PM who has ruled out an extension beyond October 31^st.  So a No Deal exit from the EU this year, is now a much greater possibility.    

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