As everyone by now knows, Holly Walker's Lobbying Disclosure Bill was unanimously sent to select committee by the House on Wednesday night. The bill has flaws, and this will be a chance to fix them and bring some regulation to this area. Meanwhile, Labour has already put some stakes in the ground, offering amendments which would limit the bill to commercial organisations and exclude NGOs and trade unions from its scope.
Quite apart from introducing loopholes you could drive a busload of lobbyists through, this also undermines the objectives of the bill. "National, patriotic, religious, philanthropic, charitable, scientific, artistic, social, professional, or sporting" NGOs - and unions - are lobbyists just like everybody else, and therefore their lobbying should be disclosed. Trying to exempt them simply makes it look like Labour thinks the rules shouldn't apply to their mates. And that is neither principled nor fair.
I will be submitting on the bill specifically to oppose these proposed amendments. I suggest others who want proper transparency (rather than just transparency for people Labour doesn't like) do likewise.