The former chancellor Philip Hammond’s private consultancy has generated almost £1m in profits while working for controversial clients including the government of Saudi Arabia, company filings suggest. Accounts filed this month suggest the Conservative peer has built a lucrative business since leaving government in 2019 providing “advisory services” to an array of private sector and foreign government clients. The accounts for Lord Hammond’s company, Matrix Partners Ltd, cover a period in which he worked for the governments of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, both autocratic regimes accused by human rights groups of widespread abuses. For the financial year ending March 2022, the accounts suggest Matrix Partners generated profits in its first two years of existence of at least £991,465 and possibly as much as £1.4m. Hammond owns the firm through his holding company Chiswell (Moorgate) Ltd. He did not respond to requests for comment. Hammond, who was at the helm of the Treasury between 2016 and 2019, stepped down as an MP in November 2019 and formed Matrix Partners two months later. He had previously held senior positions in government, including foreign secretary and defence secretary; he was made a peer in September 2020. According the Lords register of interests, his company’s clients have included the Japanese investment bank Nomura, the US hedge fund Davidson Kempner and the London property developer Canary Wharf Group. Last year, the Whitehall watchdog that assesses former ministers’ jobs after leaving government rebuked Hammond for using his government connections to assist a bank, OakNorth, that was paying him for advice. The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) said the former chancellor’s use of his contacts at the Treasury was “not acceptable” and inconsistent with the rules that sought to prevent former ministers from providing private sector clients with unfair access or influence in government. Months earlier, Acoba approved his work via Matrix Partners for Saudi Arabia’s finance minister, but acknowledged Hammond’s inside knowledge of the UK government “could be perceived to offer an unfair advantage” to the Saudis.
Acoba also signed off on Hammond’s work for the government of Bahrain. He told the committee that this would include working for its finance ministry as well as providing “strategic advice as part of an advisory council of British senior figures” with defence, security and foreign policy backgrounds. Hammond, who worked as a property developer before becoming an MP, has also returned to the real estate sector. Earlier this year, he went into business with the former Conservative party election strategist Sir Lynton Crosby in a new venture, Municipal Partners, a “for-profit social impact business” that plans to lease homes to local authorities with shortages in social housing.