Business is booming for the lobbying firm set up by former Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy, with assets doubling in the course of a year, according to the latest accounts filed with Companies House.
The substantial uptick in income comes as a Keir Starmer victory at the next general election looks increasingly likely.
The former MP's firm — which recently established a Labour directorate — promises UK-based and global corporate clients "unrivalled insights into Labour policies, priorities, and personalities."
READ MORE: Labour rules out self-id in U-turn on gender recognition reform
Though Arden is non-partisan Mr Murphy has remained close to the party and recently took part in an away weekend for candidates selected for the next election, where he shared a stage with Sir Keir.
The accounts show Arden Strategies had £643,627 in the bank and was due £342,175 from debtors for work carried out in the year up to October 31 2021. Minus the £342,058 due to creditors, this gave them net current assets of £661,744.
In the year up to October 31 2022, they had £1,039,060 in the bank and £782,193 due from debtors, giving them net current assets of £1,362,124 when the £459,199 owed to creditors is subtracted.
It’s a remarkable turnaround for the company set up by Mr Murphy, in October 2015, shortly after he led Scottish Labour to its worst ever election result, with the party losing 40 of its 41, including the East Renfrewshire constituency he had held since 1997.
We reported that in 2017, Arden had just £3,792 in net current assets.
READ MORE: SNP activist mulls plot to depose Humza Yousaf as party leader
The surge in business comes as the firm continues to recruit high profile Labour figures. Former Holyrood presiding officer, Ken Macintosh, ex-Better Together strategist Blair McDougall and former transport minister Tom Harris are all part of Mr Murphy’s team.
The company’s site says they can offer "proven expertise in corporate advisory work with our team’s combined understanding of how Labour operates and thinks.”
The services offered include “high-level strategy sessions” to help clients “understand how the Labour Party works, its influences and policy priorities.”
They also promise “unrivalled expertise in the workings and dynamics of Labour, to help you understand how to interact with Labour politicians, including in local government, Metro Mayors and devolved administrations.”
Firms can also be provided with “analysis of politicians and advisors’ perceptions” of their business and “recommendations for improving perceptions.”
Arden also says they can deliver “a comprehensive support package for companies attending the Labour Party conference, including arranging meetings and fringe events, supporting you in organising an exhibition stand, and providing briefings and insights ahead of specific business engagement events.”
Arden Strategies has been approached for comment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here