Ousted Lib Dem special advisers Peter Carroll and Will de Peyer turn to lobbying

Former ministers and high-ranking civil servants have to receive approval from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments if they take jobs within two years of office or Crown service

Joanna Lumley backs the Gurkhas – a successful campaign (EPA)

A pair of special advisers to Danny Alexander, the former chief secretary to the Treasury, have started advising big business on improving their contacts within the Westminster bubble.

Peter Carroll, who founded the Fair Fuel UK campaign before moving to the Treasury in 2013, and Will de Peyer, who worked for Mr Alexander throughout the coalition years and was previously at Citigroup, have been given Whitehall approval to set up Tendo Consulting.

The Liberal Democrat pair’s first client is the Road Haulage Association, a 70-year-old trade association.

Mr Carroll told The Independent: “We can raise their profile in Westminster and in the national media. Organisations can be more effective in the way they communicate with MPs and engage with them.”

Mr Carroll and Mr de Peyer lost their jobs when Mr Alexander lost his seat in the Scottish Highlands in the general election.

Former ministers and high-ranking civil servants, including special advisers, have to receive approval from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments if they take jobs within two years of office or Crown service.

Under the terms of their approval to establish Tendo, Mr Carroll and Mr de Peyer are forbidden from using privileged information passed on to them when they were at the Treasury. They are also barred from lobbying the Government on behalf of the new company or its clients for the next two years.

Mr Carroll once part-owned a freight business. As well as his campaign for lower petrol prices, he helped to oversee the Gurkha Justice Campaign, securing the support of the actress Joanna Lumley in 2008. That campaign saw Gurkhas who had retired before 1997 given the right to settle in the UK six years ago. Some 8,000 former soldiers and their Nepalese families had moved to Britain by 2011.