Tag: United Kingdom

An MP who was filmed offering to lobby for individuals posing as gambling industry executives faces a 35 day suspension.

Scott Benton, who was elected as the MP for Blackpool South at the 2019 election, was found to have committed a “very serious” breach of parliamentary rules. 

Parliament’s standards committee said the former Conservative MP, having had whip the removed from him over the incident, was “clearly motivated” by financial gain.

The report will now need to be approved by MPs, in the first part of a process which could trigger a by-election in his marginal “red wall” seat. 

The probe into Benton was launched after he made the remarks to undercover reporters, suggesting MPs were able to get around transparency rules on corporate hospitality by putting a falsely low value on tickets. 

It was implied that this would prevent the MP having to declare them.

In a ruling published today, the committee said Benton’s engagement with a fictitious company, set up by reporters at The Times, was “clearly motivated” by a desire for financial gain. 

In the footage, released by The Times, Benton agreed to a fee of up to £4,000 for two days’ work, boasting of his “direct” access to ministers. The Blackpool South MP did not act on the proposal.

The committee report, released today, said: “By repeatedly indicating his willingness to disregard the House’s rules, and by giving the impression that many Members of the House had in the past and will in the future engage in such misconduct, Mr Benton committed a very serious breach of Paragraph 11 of the Rules. 

“His comments gave a false impression of the morality of MPs in a way which, if the public were to accept them as accurate, would be corrosive to respect for Parliament and undermine the foundations of our democracy.”

It added: “A serious sanction is appropriate. We recommend that the House suspend Mr Benton from its service for a total of 35 days, with concomitant loss of salary”.

Any suspension of at least 10 days triggers a recall election in a member’s constituency. 

If more than a tenth of the voters in an MP’s constituency then sign the petition, a by-election is called.

Benton won his seat in 2019 with a majority of 3,690, with the red wall constituency previously held by Labour since 1997.

Polls show Labour would be expected to regain the seat if a contest were held.

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In May 2021, president Joe Biden declared a national state of emergency after a ransomware attack by Russian DarkSide forced one of the United States’ largest and most vital oil lines to shut down for six days.

Today in the UK we are at high risk of a catastrophic cyber-attack at any moment. Ransomware is a type of malicious software — ‘malware’ — designed to damage and destroy computer systems, usually to facilitate extortion.

It can cause severe disruption to the delivery of core government services, including healthcare and child protection, as well as ongoing economic losses. Swathes of UK critical national infrastructure (CNI) – much of which is operated by the private sector — remain vulnerable to ransomware, especially where sectors still rely on legacy IT systems. 

Victims have described going ‘back to a pre-computer era of the 1950s in mere minutes’ as they were locked out of digital systems and forced to resort to pen and paper. A coordinated and targeted attack has the real potential to bring the country to a standstill. 

The majority of ransomware attacks against the UK are from Russian-speaking perpetrators, and the government is almost certain that Russian actors sought to interfere in the 2019 general elections. With new UK and US elections on the horizon, we can expect to see the integrity of our democratic systems tested again soon.

But as the Joint Committee on National Security Strategy that I chair reports today, the UK’s response to this national security threat is severely lacking. Our main legislative framework, the Computer Misuse Act, is irresponsibly outdated – it was introduced before the arrival of the internet – and government missed another chance to rectify this in the latest King’s Speech.

The agencies tasked with detecting, responding to, and recovering from ransomware attacks – and degrading further attack capabilities – are under-resourced and lacking key skills and capabilities: a situation likened in evidence to having an international airport without yet having X-ray equipment, sniffer dogs or financial intelligence capability.

The result is that the UK’s civil and criminal asset recovery statistics make for ‘horrific reading’. Actors like the North Korean Lazarus Group – responsible for 2017’s Wannacry attack that affected over 200,000 computers in more than 150 countries including UK’s NHS, US FedEx, Deutsche Bahn, Honda, Nissan and LATAM Airlines – remain a persistent threat, their capabilities un-eroded by our current level of response.

Most victims — including important elements of the public sector, local authorities struggling under deep budget cuts, schools and colleges – currently receive next-to-no support from law enforcement or government agencies. This is in stark contrast to victim support for comparable thefts or ransom demands in the offline world. There is a woeful lack of UK coverage for cyber insurance and premiums are unaffordable: the sector needs intervention to establish a re-insurance scheme for major cyber-attacks, akin to Flood Re.

The official position is that UK victims should report attacks and should not pay ransoms — but paying is the only viable option for many to keep their businesses afloat and prevent damaging data leaks, and the reputational risk discourages most from systematic reporting. This means we are also lacking the information about these attacks that would enable us to respond more effectively.

If the UK is to avoid being held hostage to fortune, it is vital that ransomware becomes a more pressing political priority, and that more resources are devoted to this pernicious threat to the UK’s national security. Despite the clear and present danger, the Home Office has appeared disinterested, focused instead on illegal migration and small boats. 

Responsibility for tackling ransomware should be shifted to the Cabinet Office, overseen directly by the deputy prime minister, in concert with a National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and NCA. The NCSC and NCA should be resourced to provide negotiation, recovery and remediation capabilities to all public sector victims of ransomware to the point of full recovery. They need resourcing to fight back, to erode malign actors’ capabilities: we cannot only tackle this threat defensively.

The UK has the dubious distinction of being one of the world’s most cyber-attacked nations. It is clear to the committee that the government’s investment in and response to this threat are not equally world-beating, exposing us to catastrophic costs and destabilising political interference. In the likely event of a massive, catastrophic ransomware attack, the failure to rise to meet this challenge will rightly be seen as an inexcusable strategic failure.

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With Christmas recess looming, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer clashed in the final prime minister’s questions of the year this afternoon.

Welcomed back to the commons umpire’s chair this week was Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle — after his deputy Dame Eleanor Laing covered for his Covid-induced absence last week. Fortunately, in his isolation, Sir Lindsay had clearly been practising his lines.

“It’s Christmas, but you might not want the Christmas present I could give you!”, he warned the chamber on at least two occasions. This was the Speaker embracing the inevitable quasi-pantomime feel of a pre-Christmas PMQs. 

Keir Starmer, himself feeling festive, began his line of questioning by pressing the PM on whether the Conservative Party had got the memo about Christmas “goodwill”. Sunak, to his credit, opted to see the funny side of his rebels’ Rwanda misfire yesterday: “It is also a time for families and under the Conservatives, we have a record number of them!”, he responded.

The PM’s quip here was a reference to the self-styled “five families” of Conservative right-wing groupings, who have dominated so much of SW1’s attention in recent days.

Why the Conservative Party still can’t break free from the ERG

Still, despite the fever pitch speculation, the aforementioned “families” could at best muster 29 abstentions in the vote on the Rwanda bill yesterday. It meant Rishi Sunak had good reason to feel jubilant today — and his improved standing in his party may have reflected by the roar from Conservative MPs that greeted his entry to the chamber.

But behind this wall of noise lays a difficult reality. Because while the mafia-cosplayers in his party may have merely abstained yesterday, the threat of a fuller rebellion when the Rwanda bill enters its committee stage in the New Year looms ominously over proceedings. 

This was the brutal reality that Starmer intended to assess and expose with his questions today. Indeed, the Labour leader stared down the benches opposite to him, amassed as they are with Sunak’s critics; going over the prime minister’s head, he engaged them directly in a novel session of Tory Backbenchers’ Questions. 

“Who was it who said ‘[Sunak] is a really bad politician’?”, he queried. “What about ‘inexperienced’?”, he added. “Oh, and there’s got to be some hands for this — [who said] ‘he’s got to go!’?”.

It was peak pantomime PMQs. And in the subtext sat the punchline: they’re behind you, prime minister!

With the Conservative benches quieted, Starmer continued: the PM is holding a Christmas party next week, “how’s the invite list looking?”. 

After “thanking” Starmer for his comments, Rishi Sunak mustered in response: “He should hear what [Labour backbenchers] have to say about him”. 

But there can be no denying the fact that Sunak and Starmer’s relative positions in their parties could not be more different. Indeed, in a largely unnoticed speech in Milton Keynes yesterday, Starmer continued to prosecute his war on the Labour Party — not only critiquing Labour under Jeremy Corbyn, but also his pre-Corbyn predecessors. One can only wonder what Ed Miliband made of it. 

But this unsubtle swipe at those many Labour MPs who served enthusiastically during the Miliband and Corbyn years simply did not register in his own party — much less inspire some crippling bout of party infighting.

Compare and contrast this to events in the Conservative Party yesterday. Of course, nor does Rishi Sunak dare criticise his predecessors as Conservative leader — lest he invoke the ire of their respective acolytes. 

Having assessed the state of the Conservative Party and subtly restated his own power within Labour, half way through his questioning today, Starmer subtly switched — pivoting from SW1 psychodramas to take stock of the state of the nation beyond. 

In this way, with Christmassy quips dispensed, Starmer showed the heart of his argument this afternoon to be deeply serious: while the Conservatives “fight amongst themselves, there’s a country out here that isn’t being governed”, he declared .

The Labour leader informed the House that there will be 140,000 children without a home over the festive season, as he rubbished Sunak’s responses as “tone-deaf”. “He just can’t see the country in front of him or what [his government has] done”.

“Doesn’t he think the government would be better off fixing the messes they’ve already made rather than scrambling to create new ones?”, he asked. 

Rishi Sunak entirely rejected the line of questioning, accusing the Labour leader of himself indulging in Westminster tittle-tattle with his preceding questions. 

So Sunak — buoyed perhaps by his commons victory today — took the fight to Starmer, launching into a staunch defence of his party’s record in government. Schools in England, he told the House, are performing better than any other UK nation “thanks to the reforms of this Conservative government”.

“Where are they plummeting down?”, he pondered, before unleashing that timeless Tory taunt: “In Labour-run Wales”. (Poor Mark Drakeford, who the PM paid tribute to in his opening remarks today). 

Mark Drakeford announces resignation as first minister of Wales

Responding to Starmer’s question about homelessness during the festive season, Sunak cited Labour’s opposition to government reforms of EU laws — reforms he claimed would unlock 100,000 new homes.

“Typical, shameless opportunism”, Sunak shrieked as his mic flared — clearly unable to contain his confected rage. 

Sunak’s Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) Craig Williams leaned in to tell the PM to tone it down — that is, according to Labour MP Ben Bradshaw’s live tweeting.

Sunak’s PPS Craig Williams just told him to calm down after he lost it at the despatch box. #pmqs

— Ben Bradshaw (@BenPBradshaw) December 13, 2023

With Keir Starmer’s despatch box duties wrapped up for another year, there was time for a genuinely substantive development at PMQs today. In response to a question from DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, Sunak said the government stands “ready to legislate” to guarantee Northern Ireland’s place in the UK as part of efforts to restore the assembly in Stormont, in what looked like a rehearsed exchange. 

Could this be a sign that Stormont, out of action for 22 months, might be on the path to returning — with the DUP appeased with legislation on the UK internal market?

But, just in case you thought proceedings were getting rather too serious, Labour MP Sir Chris Bryant soon rose to ask about Rishi Sunak’s appearance in front of the Covid inquiry on Monday. He said:

“What’s worse? Losing your WhatsApp messages as a tech bro? Losing £11.8bn to fraud as chancellor? Presiding over the biggest fall in living standards in our history? Or desperately clinging on to power when you’ve become even more unpopular than Boris Johnson?”

It wouldn’t be a festive PMQs without a reference to Sunak’s Ghost of Christmas Past, his ever-conspicuous predecessor-but-one. 

Still, the prime minister refused to engage, instead telling the commons: “What matters to me is delivering for the British people, and that’s exactly what we’re doing”.

PMQs Verdict: Keir Starmer 4, Rishi Sunak 2

Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Twitter here.

Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website, providing comprehensive coverage of UK politics. Subscribe to our daily newsletter here.

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Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford has announced his intention to resign.

He announced he will stand down as Welsh Labour leader immediately and a leadership contest for a new first minister will be held.

In a statement five years to the day since he was confirmed as first minister in 2018, he said: “When I stood for election as leader of Welsh Labour, I said I would stand down during the current Senedd term. That time has now come.”

He said nominations for his replacement as Welsh Labour leader will open shortly, adding that the process should be concluded “by the end of the spring term”. 

He will then pave the way for the new leader to be formally confirmed by the Senedd as the new first minister shortly after. He said he will remain as first minister until his successor is picked by his party.

Drakeford, 69, the Cardiff West Member of the Senedd (MS) ,has been first minister for five years. He had planned to stand down in 2024 but the timing of his announcement is a surprise.

In a resignation statement posted to X (formerly Twitter), Drakeford said: “It has been a great privilege to serve as leader of this party. Together, we have achieved a huge amount over the last five years in some of the toughest times we have known.

“Despite all the chaos in Westminster, the ongoing impact of Brexit, climate change and the pandemic, by working together, we have delivered record results for Welsh Labour in the local government and Senedd elections.

“Our greatest task is still ahead of us – to return a Labour UK government and start repairing the huge damage which has been inflicted by the Tories over the last 13 years.

“I will work tirelessly to secure that Labour victory and to continue delivering on the promises we made to people all across Wales in 2021 to deliver a stronger, fairer and greener Wales.”

Drakeford had long said he would leave the post before the end of the current Senedd term in 2026. In the summer, he made it clear he would completely leave the Welsh parliament at the next election.

During his time as first minister, Drakeford led the fight against the coronavirus pandemic in Wales. 

In doing so, Drakeford at times, charted a different course to prime minister Boris Johnson and the UK government in London. Both Drakeford’s late wife, and his mother caught the virus.

Following a career as a probation officer and youth justice worker, Mark Drakeford’s first elected role was a Labour Councillor on South Glamorgan County Council. He served on the local authority for 8 years (1985-1993), before then opting for a job in academia

Drakeford later became a Special Adviser on health and social care to Rhodri Morgan, when Morgan was first minister. 

He held this role until Morgan’s resignation in 2011. 

Drakeford went on to succeed his former boss as the Welsh Assembly Member for Cardiff West.

Drakeford became Chair of the Welsh Assembly’s Health and Social Care Committee (2011-2013) before becoming Minister for Health and Social Services (2013-2016).

Drakeford moved to became Wales‘ Cabinet Secretary for Finance (2016-2018) and Brexit Minister (2017-2018).

Following Carwyn Jones’ resignation in 2018, Drakeford succeeded him as First Minister in the Senedd.

Although sometimes described as “more post office than box office”, Drakeford has proved popular with voters, and was re-elected in 2021, with Labour matching its best ever performance in the Welsh Assembly elections.

Drakeford, Mark

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Rishi Sunak managed to survive a crunch first vote over the Safety of Rwanda Bill last night, after spending the day in talks with potential rebels.

It came as 29 Conservative MPs abstained on the vote, following speculation throughout the day they could choose to vote against the legislation at its second reading. 

It sets up a January showdown for the PM over his flagship deportation legislation, with right-wing MPs urging the government to toughen up the bill, and party moderates urging Sunak to stay the course. 

‘Total Tory chaos!’: MPs debate Rwanda bill as Sunak seeks to diffuse backbench revolt

Reflecting on the days events, which were dominated by speculation that rebel Conservative factions might vote down the legislation, MP Ben Bradley suggested his party appears “ungovernable”. 

Bradley, the Conservative MP for Mansfield who backed the government yesterday, told BBC Newsnight: “We have been in government for 13 years. We have got a parliamentary party that has been built in all different directions, in different elections, by different leaders.

He added: “You might argue it’s kind of ungovernable. This situation suggests it’s certainly not easy to govern.”

Watch moment Rwanda bill passes second reading amid Conservative rebel abstentions

When it was put to home secretary James Cleverly this morning that the rebel right could return in the New Year to amend the legislation, he dismissed the characterisation. 

“I don’t agree”, he told Sky News. 

He said it was “absolutely wrong” to say a lot of Conservatives don’t want the bill to work, insisting that the party is “united”.

Pressed on the potential for changes to be made to the bill: “We of course are more than willing to listen to good faith amendments that are designed to make the bill better, keep it within the bounds of international law.”

Asked specifically about European Research Group (ERG) chairman Mark Francois’ objections of the legislation, Cleverly said: “I will talk to Mark and I’ll talk to others … to understand their thinking on this and try to harvest their ideas to make things better.”

“But I can’t see if someone’s got a concern that the bill might not be as strong as they would like, killing the bill doesn’t strike me as the best way of doing that, because if the bill isn’t on the statute books it can’t possibly succeed.”

Why the Conservative Party still can’t break free from the ERG

Former home secretary Suella Braverman and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick were among some of the rebels who disobeyed the party whip to abstain yesterday. 

Speaking in the debate that preceded the vote, Jenrick told MPs: said: “I will never elevate contested notions of international law over the interests of my constituents, over vital national interests like national security, like border security.

“This bill could be so much better. Let’s make it better. Let’s make it work”.

Rwanda bill: Robert Jenrick dismisses ‘contested notions of international law’

But amid the threat of hostile amendments from his party right in the New Year, the One Nation group of moderate Conservatives is encouraging the PM to hold his ground. 

Damian Green, the Chairman of the 106-strong One Nation group, told Newsnight the PM had secured a “pretty solid” majority for his proposal and that he hoped the “third reading would go through reasonably easily”.

“On today’s vote, the government has more or less managed the narrow landing strip that it is aiming at, and so it should stick to that landing strip”, he added.

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How the factional tides turn — and how quickly. Just a short six months ago, the European Research Group (ERG) of eurosceptic, backbench Conservative MPs was considered a mere Brexit hangover, a shell — utterly enervated after years of rebellion and months of consecutive governments awarding their leading lights with ministerial briefs. 

Having fallen on hard times after Boris Johnson finally “got Brexit done” in 2020, the clearest signal of the ERG’s new beleaguered existence came with the recent House of Commons vote on the so-called “Windsor Framework”. The ERG’s “star chamber” of assembled lawyers had declared Rishi Sunak’s solution to the sticky Norther Ireland Protocol problem “practically useless”. But few were listening. 

Having for weeks conjured the prospect of a Brexit rebellion of yore, when the time came on 22 March the old “spartan” gang could at best usher a mere 22 colleagues into the “No” lobby. Included among their number were Liz Truss and Boris Johnson — the latter grateful to be excused from his “partygate” grilling to indulge in his final Brexit wheeze. 

This “no” lobby, it was roundly judged, provided a snapshot of the dispossessed and discontented in the modern-day Conservative Party — a pro-Brexit rump rabbled, ostensibly, by the Windsor Framework, but united, actually, by their lack of political promise. 

A Spectator column surmised the prevailing SW1 consensus: “The remarkable fall of the once-mighty ERG”, it held. 

What is more, the ERG’s framework misfire came just months after the grouping proved unable to endorse a candidate in the October 2022 leadership election. As its membership split variously into Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak’s camps, ERG chair Mark Francois issued a statement in lieu of a statement. “We were unable to collectively endorse either candidate”, he sighed. 

But, still, the political humiliations flowed thick and fast for the ERG. In May this year, the grouping’s decries were once more dismissed as the government watered down its so-called “bonfire” of EU legislation. “Secretary of state, what on earth are you playing at?”, ERG chair Mark Francois thundered. Kemi Badenoch could not give him the “purist” answer he so craved. 

Week-in-Review: A reckoning for the Brexit ‘bonfire’, and for Kemi Badenoch

Indeed, that Francois emerged as grouping chair last year might, in some readings, be viewed as illustrative of the ERG’s enduring travails. With pro-Brexit bastions such as Steve Baker, Suella Braverman and Chris Heaton-Harris absorbed into Rishi Sunak’s regime, the ERG has long been denied some of its most outspoken advocates by the PM’s “big tent” mode of governance.

But with the return of bitter Conservative infighting over the government’s new Rwanda bill, so too does the ERG march, once more, to the fore. And with factional torches relit and pitchforks raised, Francois’ few now look set to stare down Rishi Sunak over his plan to implement the still-unimplemented Rwanda plan.

Cue a classic sop from Sunak as he — in the wake of Robert Jenrick’s resignation — apportioned the new post of illegal migration minister to Michael Tomlinson, a former ERG deputy chairman. That this tried and tested gambit has failed to stem Sunak’s enduring travails may, itself, be highly revealing of how far the debate has shifted since March.

For factionalism — as it is practised by the ERG — is something of a performance art. And having carefully stewarded rebellions of Brexit yore with a savvy shadow whipping operation, the ERG has resolved that its old colourful gambits are needed once more. 

With its Brexit instincts kicking in, therefore, the group last week resurrected its “star chamber” of expert lawyers to pore over the new Rwanda bill and issue a judgment. In turn, journalists were herded into a cramped corridor yesterday as the ERG faithful disappeared for a full 45 minutes to conclude their deliberations. 

Upon emerging, ERGers brandished press releases for assembled hacks. The note was singularly unsparing. Sunak’s legislation was deemed a “partial and incomplete solution” to the Rwanda plan impasse, as the star chamber raised the spectre of “numerous” legal challenges with a “high rate of success” further delaying the deportation scheme. 

Conservative grandees issue warning to Rwanda rebels: do not ‘wreck’ Sunak’s government

Next, with the 10-page legal verdict of Sir Bill Cash and co. lumbered online, Mark Francois, breathlessly, expressed his hope that Sunak would “pull the legislation and come back with something that is fit for purpose”. 

It simply has “so many holes in it”, the ERG chief lamented

Then, yesterday evening at 6 pm, a constellation of Conservative right caucuses met in another committee room to discuss a potential pathway forward, with the foundation provided by the ERG’s “star chamber” ruling. To coordinate their criticisms better still — and with the voting lobby doors gaping — another meeting will be held at 5 pm today.

This collection of Conservative right factions, it is reported, like to refer to themselves as the “five families” — a reference to the leading mafia dynasties that operate in New York City. But of these “families”, it is the ERG’s legal and political acumen, as well as its resources, that are being leaned on most in this latest instance of Conservative infighting. 

In fact, the very existence of the “New Conservatives”, the “Common Sense Group”, the “Conservative Growth Group” and the “Northern Research Group” speaks to the ERG’s enduring political legacy. As Sunak’s abbreviated antagonists amass, there can be no doubt that it was the ERG who blazed the trail for its connected copycat caucuses. 

Thus, the grandaddy of anti-government grifting stands tall once more. It underlines that the myriad reports of the ERG’s death — filed earlier this year — were after all greatly exaggerated. 

Indeed, with Labour planning to vote against the new Rwanda bill at its second reading in the commons this evening, only 57 Conservative MPs need to abstain, or 29 to vote against the government, for the government to be defeated. A second reading is usually a formality — but thanks in part to the ERG’s recent activism there is the genuine prospect that Sunak could be the first PM to be defeated at this stage since 1986.

A final breakdown, if you will: 29 Conservative rebels, all else being equal, are needed to defeat the bill; the ERG, not to mention its factional off-shoots, numbers around 30-strong; and, at the Windsor Framework vote in March (with the ERG’s at a low ebb), 22 Conservative MPs skulked into the “No” lobby.

Now, Rishi Sunak likes his maths. But the numbers here are deeply foreboding — if not for this stage, then certainly for future readings of the bill. And in the PM’s burgeoning tumult, the ERG has featured centrally — and will continue to feature centrally, for some time to come.

Rwanda plan cost will surpass £290 million over full five year deal, Home Office admits

Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Twitter here.

Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website, providing comprehensive coverage of UK politics. Subscribe to our daily newsletter here.

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