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A campaign to radically reform and open up the secretive workings of the powerful local authority governing the City of London has been launched by a diverse group whose supporters include activists from the Occupy movement, clerics and the Tory MP David Davis.
In one of the most robust challenges yet faced by the deeply conservative local authority that governs the Square Mile – derided by some critics as the UK's "last rotten borough" – the City Reform Group will back candidates who sign up to a series of pledges during elections to the City of London Corporation this March.
The non-party-political group claims that the corporation is "failing to live up to its leadership role" at a time when the City, which is home to hundreds of banks and is described as the world's premier financial centre, has been rocked by crisis.
One of the group's key goals will be to bring about the publication of a multimillion-pound fund – the so-called City Cash, some of which the corporation spends each year lobbying for the financial services sector – and to open up the body to unprecedented public scrutiny.
"We believe that this is unavoidable following the recent costs to all the citizens of the UK as a result of banking failures, mismanagement and improper practices," said a spokesperson for the City Reform Group.
"We are arguing for the need for the corporation to return to its best traditions, to reform itself and to lend a voice to all UK citizens who wish to see the capital markets serve the common good and a public purpose."
As the financial services sector fought renewed calls for root-and-branch reform in response to the Libor rate-fixing scandal, an investigation published earlier this year by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism revealed the firepower of the City's lobbying machine – in which the City of London plays a key role – prompting concern that its scale and influence put the interests of the wider economy in the shade.
The launch of the City Reform Group at Christ Church in Spitalfields, central London, was hosted by Adrian Newman, the bishop of Stepney. As well as Davis – who chaired the Future of Banking Commission – supporters present included Pula Houghton, executive director of Which?, Simon Walker, the director general of the Institute of Directors, David Pitt Watson of the charity RSA and Giles Fraser, a former canon of St Paul's Cathedral.
Speaking at the launch, David Davis said it was important to create pressure for reform of the financial services sector, adding: "For example, we have to work towards giving people working in that sector a code to do the right thing even if it is at odds with their own company and their own personal interests."
The Conservative MP also said that the Occupy movement had "raised a lot of important issues" even if he did not agree with a lot what it had done.
However, a Conservative Party colleague of Davis who is a serving councillor on the City of London Corporation claimed that the City Reform Group was a "front" for Occupy.
"I think that the people who were on the panel at its launch have been misled about the nature of it," said Mark Clarke, a member of the Corporation's finance committee who was in the audience at the launch.
"This isn't a campaign group. This is a pseudo-political party being launched and this was effectively the manifesto being launched."
"They are essentially running as pseudo political party, and I think that raises questions for the electoral commission," added Clarke.
Those backed by the group in this March's elections will be asked to sign up to pledges including commitments to promote responsible business practice and speak out when they encounter "practice that falls below the highest standards".
Elections to the corporation, whose elite are steeped in the ancient traditions, societies and conventions of the City, differ markedly from those elsewhere in other respects which, critics charge, make organised challenge to City consensus all but impossible.
Firstly, businesses as well as individual residents of the City can vote and bodies including banks and others based in the city can nominate voters based on the size of their workforce. Secondly, political parties are not involved, leaving candidates to stand alone as independents even though many have allegiances to parties.
• This article was amended on 30 November 2012 to correct the spelling of David Davis's name.
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