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Establishment networking, sleaze and corruption. A handy compendium.

The FT/Private Eye Teeside tag-team continues.

Teesside mayor struck secret deal to transfer Hartlepool property - today's Financial Times (archived)

The Conservative party’s high-profile mayor, Ben Houchen, has again been accused of secrecy after plans for a third transfer of public assets in his north-east England region were leaked to the Financial Times. Houchen, mayor of the Tees Valley, privately struck a deal with Hartlepool council to take control of the community’s key civic buildings in a process that has not previously been public. (...) If agreed by the government, the Hartlepool properties — and planning powers over them — will be handed to the new Hartlepool Mayoral Development Corporation, a local regeneration body the mayor chairs.
Click to expand...

And in today's Private Eye

jquncek.jpg

Houchen appeared on the BBC's World at One and diverted questions away from his deals by calling Andy McDonald MP a liar and challenged him to repeat his allegations of "industrial-scale corruption" outside Parliament. McDonald was very happy to come on the programme later on and without repeating those words express his concerns.

View attachment World at One, 31⧸05⧸2023.mp4
 
Dystopiary said:


Mohamed Amersi calls himself “a renowned global communications entrepreneur, philanthropist and thought leader”. He's given some of his fortune to the Conservatives - a fortune made in part in Putin's Russia.

[...]

Switching to philanthropy, Amersi developed connections in the UK, where he holds citizenship.

[...]

Amersi, a Quintessentially client, became a Conservative donor - and [Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall's nephew Ben] Elliot the party's co-chair. The £500,000 Amersi has given to the Tories has bought him a place in the Leaders Group, with access to ministers.

[...]

Now Amersi has set up a new group to help manage Conservative relations with the Middle East. He says the patron will be Theresa May, the former prime minister, with other senior Tories also involved.

[...]

Last year Charlotte Leslie, an ex-MP who runs the current group that takes Tory delegations to the Middle East, wrote memos raising concerns about Amersi. In response he spent £300,000 on lawyers including Carter Ruck to demand she retract them.

‘Knowing the right people’: the embattled concierge with elite connections

The donor, the Russian deals and the Conservative money machine
Click to expand...

Just catching up on Amersi - this recent story about the failure of his libel action against ex-Tory MP Charlotte Leslie had passed me by until I was looking up the journalist (in relation to an unrelated potential corruption story last year which was pulled by The Times). Basically Leslie was seeking to warn fellow Tories about the source of Amersi's wealth and its potential as 'access capitalism' and he sued her to shut her up. The judge threw the case out because of the way Amersi had conducted the case and because it was a massive waste of court time.

snippage
Press freedom campaigners claimed a “landmark victory” today after a High Court judge threw out a libel action by a multi-millionaire Tory donor against a former Conservative MP.

The verdict by Mr Justice Nicklin came after a long-running legal battle between telecoms tycoon and philanthropist Mohamed Amersi and Charlotte Leslie, ex-MP for Bristol.


Mr Amersi, who along with his Russian partner has given £750,000 to the Tories, backed Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign and has dined with King Charles, claimed he had been defamed by Ms Leslie in a secret dossier.


They fell out in 2020 after she claimed he tried to use his wealth to take over a Tory group run by her which aims to boost UK-Middle East relations.

She sent a dossier which raised questions about Mr Amersi’s past business links Russia to a handful of senior Tories and figures in the intelligence services.
Click to expand...
www.independent.co.uk

Millionaire Tory donor’s libel action against ex-MP thrown out in ‘landmark’ ruling

Exclusive: Verdict comes after long-running legal battle between multi-millionaire donor and former Tory MP
www.independent.co.uk www.independent.co.uk
 
Northern Research Group under investigation by parliamentary expenses watchdog, IPSA

Westminster Accounts: Powerful group of Tory MPs scrutinised by expenses watchdog after Sky News investigation - Sky News

(...) nearly two dozen MPs received political donations from a private donor to help them with campaigning - weeks after they joined the Northern Research Group (NRG) and authorised thousands of pounds of taxpayer-funded expenses to be spent on its work. (...)
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One Tory MP who received the money told Sky News they signed up to the NRG, putting public money towards it, because they knew they would get a donation.
"There was a deadline. That's why so many did at the same time. You knew there'd be money at the end of it," they said. (...)
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The donations were organised by the NRG founder Sir Jake Berry and came from northern broadband firm IX Wireless. Mr Berry denied a link between the donations and the use of public money for the NRG.
In 2021 and 2022, 24 MPs received money from IX Wireless; 22 of those MPs have previously diverted public money to the NRG. In the case of Matt Vickers, Tory MP for Stockton South, he authorised £2,500 from his office allowance to go to the NRG in mid-June 2021. Three weeks later, he was the recipient of a £2,500 campaign donation from IX Wireless. Mr Vickers did not respond to a request for comment.
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NRG founder Sir James Jacob Gilchrist Berry said:

"It is completely wrong when businesses want to go out and support northern MPs who are transforming the business community for them, for those businesses then to be trashed in the media for doing something completely legal and straightforward."
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Tick-tock:

Questions over who really owns PPE firm linked to Mone given £200m

E2a full report from Tax Policy Associates:

www.taxpolicy.org.uk

The PPE cover-up: Douglas Barrowman's hidden ownership and the potentially criminal consequences

The Guardian recently reported that two UK companies ultimately controlled by businessman Douglas Barrowman were the subject of PPE contract lobbying by his wife. I've no expertise or interest in the PPE contract issue. But I am interested in the fact that, while the Guardian says Barrowman con
www.taxpolicy.org.uk www.taxpolicy.org.uk
 
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Last week, Craig Whittaker, MP for Calder Valley in West Yorkshire, criticised the gambling regulator for being too "heavy-handed".

He dissed the regulator's consultation on affordability checks, stating they would be "invasive for customers [and]threaten to seriously damage an industry that makes a sizeable contribution to our economy – £7.1 billion to UK Gross Value Added in 2021-22"

He's received over £8,000 in payments and "hospitality" just this year from the betting industry.

Whittaker has previously been criticised after he spoke out against reform of the gambling industry during a Westminster Hall debate, without revealing that he had accepted tickets worth more than £3,000 to England’s Euro 2020 semi-final match from Entain, the owner of Ladbrokes and Coral.
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Tory MP who chided gambling regulator received £8,000 from betting industry
 
Mone has gone on a PR offensive with a youtube documentary (already linked to on the Tory stupidity thread), but it turns out surprise surprise that Medpro paid for the documentary so in effect the Mones have used our money for this PR stunt. And in a further shocking revelation Gove is a lying piece of shit:

www.independent.co.uk

Tory peer Michelle Mone admits she was wrong to deny links to PPE firm

The Tory peer has launched a public fightback to allegations surrounding the multi-million pound contract.
www.independent.co.uk www.independent.co.uk
 
Last edited:
This is the first time that I have seen this thread.
I suppose that one of the arguments that the Labour Party leadership could have for voting for their party is that, although they will continue many Conservative policies, they will not be as corrupt. I think that this approach would be undermined by the fact that Labour MPs receive donations from various businesses. The Labour Party should not allow its MPs to receive any corporate donations, and it should propose a law banning corporate donations.
 
Nothing to see here....

www.mirror.co.uk

Firm part-owned by ex-Tory Treasurer awarded North Sea oil and gas licences

Ex-Tory Treasurer Lord Michael Spencer is the largest shareholder at Deltic Energy - one of 17 companies including giants Shell and BP awarded provisional licences on Wednesday
www.mirror.co.uk www.mirror.co.uk

or here.....

www.theguardian.com

Tory donor’s oil and gas company given North Sea licence after £150,000 fine

Subsidiary of EnQuest, which was fined in 2022 for illegal gas flaring, awarded one of 24 new drilling licences
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
teqniq said:
Well, there's a thing:



Meanwhile the likes of the Fail would have us believe that Angela Rayner's alleged avoidance of capital gains tax on the selling of her ex-council house is the crime of the century.
Click to expand...

... and people who are making real contributions to the state by caring for someone who can't care for themselves get shafted for a 30p a week error that the DWP is complicit in.
 
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