Nigel Farage did not declare financial benefits provided to him by his long-standing supporter George Cottrell in the year before he was elected, the Sunday Times reports today.
Cottrell is a crypto entrepreneur who was convicted of wire fraud in 2017. Farage is already under investigation over the £5 million given to him by crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. He says that money was a personal gift, and his spokesperson has described the Sunday Times‘s story as ‘baseless and contrived’.
On Sky News, Trevor Phillips asked Reform’s Robert Jenrick whether Cottrell had been paying for Farage’s security. Jenrick accused the Sunday Times of being a ‘Labour supporting newspaper’ that has ‘dredged up’ an old story. He said that Cottrell is an old friend of Farage who supported him before he became a member of parliament, and accused the media of being ‘fixated’ on the Reform leader. Phillips suggested that the British public would be interested in knowing what company a potential future prime minister is keeping. Jenrick claimed that Andy Burnham is not receiving any scrutiny, and said the public want change, not ‘muckraking about Nigel Farage’.
James Murray: No.10 of the North is a ‘hugely symbolic move’
Andy Burnham has pledged to set up a northern centre of government in Manchester as part of his devolution plans. Trevor Phillips asked Health Secretary James Murray what difference it would make apart from creating a ‘government-funded lobby group to take money away from London’.
Murray said the plan is a ‘hugely symbolic move’ which would show the government has a ‘top priority of being focused on every part of the country’. Phillips asked whether that meant Burnham’s first action is just ‘symbolics’. Murray said it is indicative of Burnham’s wider approach, and pointed out that Burnham has called for extra local powers in London as well. The Health Secretary said he had seen the benefits of devolved powers when working as the deputy Mayor of London for housing.
James Murray: Government trying everything they can to deport Rochdale grooming gang leader
Shabir Ahmed, one of the nine men convicted of offences against children in the Rochdale grooming gang trial in 2012, was released from prison this week. The government have been trying to deport Ahmed back to Pakistan, but are currently unable to because of a 1971 law barring the removal of Commonwealth citizens who arrived in the UK before 1973 and have been in the country for five years. Pakistan would also have to agree to take Ahmed back.
On GB News, Camilla Tominey asked Health Secretary James Murray why the government can pass emergency legislation to keep pubs open late for the football, but not to remove a rape gang leader. Murray said that everyone wants Ahmed out of the country, and that the home secretary and the foreign secretary are doing everything they can.
Tominey noted that the government could threaten to suspend visas for Pakistan. Murray said he couldn’t ‘step on the toes’ of his colleagues, but claimed there is a ‘real sense of urgency’ to get Ahmed out of the country.
James Murray: Decision making on puberty blocker trial has always been with the health secretary
The Daily Telegraph ran a story suggesting that junior minister Preet Kaur Gill was sidelined from the Pathways puberty blocker trial after expressing alarm that ‘credible safeguarding warnings’ were being ignored. On Sky News, Health Secretary James Murray said the story was ‘completely untrue’, and that there had been no change to ministerial responsibilities. Phillips noted that the report made it seem like Kaur Gill had been ‘taken out of the picture’ because she did agree with the trial.
Murray acknowledged that the trial is a ‘difficult issue’, and that he himself has felt ‘uneasy and uncomfortable’, but said that after looking at the clinical advice, he decided that Pathways should go ahead.
Lord Blunkett: With Andy Burnham, ‘we can deliver to the people of Great Britain’
On the BBC, Laura Kuenssberg spoke to Labour peer Lord Blunkett about the prospect of an Andy Burnham government. Blunkett said he has known Burnham for a long time, and backed a ‘revitalised Labour Party’ under Burnham to be successful.
Kuenssberg questioned whether the public want devolution, and asked whether it would make a difference to people’s lives. Blunkett argued that devolution has to deliver actual change and connectivity to communities and neighbourhoods, rather than just administrative structure changes, but called on Labour to ‘give it a go’. Kuenssberg asked if there was a danger that Burnham might overpromise and then disappoint when he’s in power. Blunkett suggested that people need hope and momentum, and said that his advice to Burnham was simply: ‘be yourself, stay yourself’.
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