Burnham’s pick for chief of staff led firm that advised BP, Apple and Amazon

The advisory firm led by Andy Burnham’s incoming chief of staff counted BP, Amazon, Jaguar Land Rover and Uber among its clients, transparency records reveal. Burnham is facing unease within Labour over the lobbying links of James Purnell , a longstanding friend and former cabinet minister who was most recently chief executive of Flint Global. Flint Global does not publish a list of clients but is a registered lobbyist, with two entries in the past five years showing it had contact with government ministers or officials on behalf of companies. The company says it advises international businesses and investors on policy, politics, regulation and competition. Until recently, Purnell held shares in the firm, which is owned through a holding company based in Jersey, making its structure opaque. It is majority owned by the private equity firm Cinven. Despite not publishing who it works for in the UK, a list of its clients from last year is registered on the transparency register of the EU, which includes Google, Microsoft and the mining firm Glencore. Apple appeared to be its biggest client in Europe, paying the company more than €1m in the last year for which data is available. It is understood Purnell has given up his shares, will no longer have a connection to the firm, and has no access to Flint emails or systems with immediate effect. A Burnham team spokesperson said: “James has left Flint. …