Farage reported to parliament’s standards watchdog over undeclared £5m donation, as Tories say ‘this stinks’
The Conservatives have announced that they are referring Nigel Farage to the parliamentary commissioner over the Guardian’s report saying he was given £5m by the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne shortly before announcing that he would be a candidate at the 2024 election.
Kevin Hollinrake, the Tory chair, said:
As a new member of parliament, Farage was obliged to report to the House of Commons all political donations and political gifts he had received during the previous 12 months.
The Conservatives are today referring Nigel Farage to the parliamentary standards commissioner.
This £5m from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne raises serious questions. What is Nigel Farage hiding? And why does Reform think the rules don’t apply to them? This stinks and Reform should come clean now.
Key events
Afternoon summary
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Keir Starmer has called a Cobra meeting following the stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green, north London. For more coverage, you can read Tom Ambrose’s live blog.
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
Sarwar sets out Scottish Labour’s priorities for 1st 100 days in government, including declaring waiting times emergency
Anas Sarwar is vowing to show Scots “what change looks like” within the first 100 days of a Labour government, if he wins next week’s Holyrood election, the Press Association reports. PA says:
The Scottish Labour leader is setting out his plans for the first 100, should his party be successful in ousting John Swinney’s SNP from power on 7 May.
A week out from polling day, Sarwar appealed to voters to give him five years in power to “fix the mess” he said was caused by almost 20 years of the SNP in power.
A Scottish Labour government would declare a waiting times emergency within its first 100 days – with Sarwar adding plans would also be drawn up to ensure patients are treated wherever there is capacity.
If the conflict in the Gulf continues, he is also promising a £100m of emergency support to help with the cost of living – with this including proposals to bring down the price of petrol and diesel at the pump and support for businesses.
In addition, Scottish Labour would transfer the first £70m into a new fund for councils to repair potholes on the roads, ban mobile phones in Scotland’s classrooms and end the SNP’s “ideological” ban on new nuclear power stations.
Labour also says it would create a new ending homelessness unit in the first 100 days, to start work to end rough-sleeping, create a Scottish Treasury in a bid to boost government efficiency and cut waste, and work with CalMac and others to prevent a “summer ferry crisis” from hitting Scotland’s islands.
Tories and pensions industry welcome concession leading to passing of Pension Schemes Act
The Conservatives have welcomed what they describe as a government U-turn that has led to the passing of the Pension Schemes Act. (See 10.53am.)
Commenting on the announcement last night, Helen Whately, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said:
Rachel Reeves wanted unfettered control over more than £400bn of private pension savings. But we have cut Labour’s pensions power grab off at the knees … Crucially, the bill now protects fiduciary duty – the foundation upon which trust in our pension system rests. In any conflict between savers’ interests and minister’s ambitions, savers will now win. We welcome the government’s U-turn on this fundamental flaw in the bill.
Pensions UK, which represents the pensions industry, has also welcomed the concession. Julian Mund, its chief executive, said:
The passage of the Pension Schemes Act is a victory for pension savers.
The legislation enacts a series of critical reforms that will improve the value savers get from pensions and make the system easier to navigate for employers and savers.
The power that enables government to direct how schemes invest has been drastically scaled back, with amendments built around demands Pensions UK has made from day one.
Describing what the act will do, Pensions UK says:
The legislation delivers a series of positive reforms that we expect to increase the value schemes can deliver and, in doing so, improve retirements for millions.
This includes a requirement on schemes to deliver incomes from pension savings at retirement, rather than leaving savers to make complex decisions by themselves. The bill enables the automatic consolidation of small pension pots, saving money and making the system simpler to navigate for savers. And it underpins the new Value for Money framework, which should enable employers to choose schemes based on overall value, not just price.
Parliament prorogues, with hereditary peers sitting in Lords for last time
Parliament has been formally prorogued, marking the end of hereditary peers in the House of Lords, the Press Association reports. PA says:
The announcement formally ending the current parliamentary session was read out on behalf of King Charles at a traditional ceremony in the House of Lords today, attended by both MPs and peers.
The event marks the last time hereditary peers will sit in the upper chamber.
Since 1999, 92 hereditary peers have been able to sit in the Lords and cast their vote.
Under the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act, that number has been effectively reduced to zero – although several have subsequently been allowed to continue sitting as life peers.
Ahead of the prorogation, Lords Speaker Lord Forsyth of Drumlean paid tribute to those losing their seats on the red benches.
He said: “At the conclusion of this session, those noble lords who sit by virtue of hereditary peerages will cease to be members of this House.
“On behalf of the house, I pay tribute to their distinguished service and offer them our sincere thanks.”
MPs, led by Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, filed out of the Commons after their attendance in the upper chamber was requested by Black Rod Ed Davis – the senior officer responsible for ceremonial protocol.
The royal address, read out by the Lords Leader Lady Smith of Basildon, set out legislation passed during the parliamentary session and other measures taken by the Government.
A royal commission, comprising five peers, signalled nine new laws have received royal assent as the current parliamentary session comes to an end.
As each act was read out, the clerk said in Norman French “Le Roy le veult” or “The King wills it”, to indicate royal approval.
These were: the National Insurance Contributions (Employer Pensions Contributions) Act; the Grenfell Tower Memorial (Expenditure) Act; the Ministerial Salaries (Amendment) Act; the Tobacco and Vapes Act; the Victims and Courts Act; the Crime and Policing Act; the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act; the Pension Schemes Act; and the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act.
MPs and peers will return on 13 May for the king’s speech, which will set out the government’s future legislative agenda.
Gordon Brown calls for inquiry into Andrew’s trade envoy spending, saying ex-prince wanted fleet of planes for royals
Gordon Brown has revealed that, when he was chancellor, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor tried to persuade him to get the government to fund a fleet of aircaft for sole use by the royal family.
The former prime minister disclosed the request, which he refused, in a long article for the New Statesman in which he also calls for an inquiry into how Mountbatten-Windsor used public funds when he was a trade envoy.
In February Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested following the publication in the US of documents in the Jeffrey Epstein files suggesting that, when Mountbatten-Windsor was trade envoy, he improperly shared government information. He has not been charged, and it is understood that he denies wrongdoing.
Brown has already called for an inquiry into the UK links to Epstein’s sex trafficking operation in an article for the New Statesman published two months ago.
Today he has gone further, saying there is also a need for an inquiry into how Mountbatten-Windsor used public funds while doing the trade job between 2001 and 2011.
In a new article for the New Statesman, Brown says:
The investigation into Andrew should also consider his use of public funds. Police must now interview officials and ask for records from three government departments, the Ministry of Defence, the Department for Business and Trade, and the Foreign Office, all involved in managing his trips while serving as UK trade envoy.
While serving as trade envoy, the former prince regularly used RAF flights. We must now question whether public funds were used in pursuit not just of his public duties, but of his alleged private liaisons and even private business arrangements.
Brown says that at one point as PM he asked a business minister to speak to Mountbatten-Windsor about the “unacceptable costs” he was incurring in his envoy role. “I was told that his response was to ask whether the government seriously believed that he should have to travel on commercial flights,” Brown says.
Earlier Brown says Mountbatten-Windsor proposed a different solution to his travel difficulties.
When I was chancellor, I received a request at Andrew’s instigation for a Royal Fleet, solely available for the use of the royal family, separate from the RAF. Emails in the Epstein files show the then prince claiming credit for having secured the privatisation of helicopters used by the royal family. Now, Andrew wanted the same arrangement for airplanes. The then prince’s proposal was that the government pay for the royal family franchising its own fleet of planes. The costs seemed prohibitive. I turned down his proposal and reported directly to the Queen that the country could not afford such a plan.
Brown says he would like to see the British authorities “re-interview Andrew, not just over possible breaches of the Official Secrets Act, but over his use of public funds”. He also says “a select committee in parliament should examine how public funds were used, and whether a cover-up took place that prevented Andrew from being interviewed by US investigators”.
Torsten Bell, the pensions minister, has posted these on social media criticising saying Kemi Badenoch was talking “nonsense” at PMQs about employment and welfare. (See 12.04pm.)
She also straight forward lied in claiming the number of unemployed people claiming benefits was up 1.5m – when she knows that number is largely about people transferring from legacy benefits onto UC. I’m sure she’ll be referring herself to the privileges committee any moment now
Davey calls for inquiry into US interference in UK politics
At his press conference, as well as announcing proposed amendments to the representation of the people bill (see 2.05pm and 2.17pm), Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, called for an inquiry into foreign interference in UK politics from the US.
He said:
The threats are there. Hiding in plain sight. And we ignore them at our peril.
Donald Trump – whose National Security Strategy used far right-tropes about “civilizational erasure” and talked about “cultivating resistance” in Europe.
Who tried his hardest to keep Viktor Orbán in power in Hungary – even trying to bribe the Hungarian people with a promise of money from the US.
And how wonderful it was to see the Hungarian people throw that back in Trump’s face.
But it’s clear that Trump and his team want to try the same thing here, with Nigel Farage as their man.
And Farage gave the game away recently didn’t he – calling Trump “the boss at Mar-a-Lago”.
We know who’s pulling his strings.
But it’s more insidious than that too.
With Trump’s state department plotting to funnel money to Reform via so-called thinktanks.
No wonder we see Farage and Reform importing so much of Trump’s destructive and divisive agenda –
From rolling back gun laws to taking free healthcare away.
Anti-vaccine conspiracy theories to get-rich-quick crypto scams.
That is Trump’s America. We can’t let it become Farage’s Britain …
The government commissioned the Rycroft Review but has so far committed to implement just two of the seventeen recommendations. It should act on them all in full, urgently.
To defend our democracy from Putin, Iran – all those who want to destroy it.
But sadly, we must also guard against the new threat from Trump and Maga.
The government should also set up a dedicated inquiry into foreign interference from the United States. So we can stop it.
UK expels Russian diplomat and summons ambassador in tit-for-tat move
The UK is expelling a Russian diplomat and summoning ambassador Andrey Kelin in a tit-for-tat move following similar action by Moscow last month, the Press Assocation reports. PA says:
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said it was taking “reciprocal action” for Russia’s “unjustified” decision in March to remove a British diplomat from the country.
A government spokesperson said: “We strongly condemn Russia’s unjustified decision last month to expel another British diplomat and the malicious public smear campaign that followed. This behaviour is wholly unacceptable, and we will not tolerate harassment or intimidation of our diplomatic staff.
“We have therefore summoned the Russian ambassador to announce we are taking reciprocal action, revoking the accreditation of a Russian diplomat.
“Russia’s repeated unprovoked and unjustified actions are designed to disrupt our diplomatic work and form part of a wider campaign of aggressive behaviour towards the UK.
“Any further action by Russia will be treated as an escalation and met with a firm and proportionate response.”
Q: What do you say to critics who say you spend too much time doing political stunts?
Davey says this is about focusing attention on policy. He says he will be on a tractor tomorrow. But he will be talking about food prices, which are going to go up because of the Iran war. The government is not doing anything about this, he says.
He says England is the only country in Europe that does not use farm payments to help farmers produce food. He says he raised this at PMQs.
If he gets on a tractor, cameras will turn up, and he will get a chance to talk about policy, he says.
Q: What are your views on a cap on political donations and on state funding for political parties?
Davey says the Lib Dems have always been in favour of a cap on political donations.
During the coalition, the Lib Dems tried to reform party political finance. But they failed because the Tories and Labour were both opposed, he says.
Q: How would you implement your proposed ban on politicians taking money from X?
Davey says this would be for Ofcom to regulate.
Q: Why are Reform UK doing better than the Lib Dems in the polls.
Davey says he likes it when the Lib Dems are fighting Reform UK, because the Lib Dems can beat Reform.
He cites Hull as an area where the Labour vote has collapsed, and he says the council battle there is between his party and Nigel Farage’s.
Q: Do you support Gordon Brown’s call for the police to reinterview Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in relation to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal?
Davey says he would go furthern that Brown. He says he wants a public inquiry into the British aspects of the Epstein scandal.
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