A former British spy who wrote a dossier on Donald Trump said he once spent hours with then home secretary Theresa May, briefing her on the Russia threat.
Christopher Steele also revealed he had been asked by a UK official to review sensitive government documents on Russia just days before his dossier, which alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow in the 2016 US election, became public.
It meant he was left feeling “surprised and disappointed”, he said, when Mrs May, as prime minister, then appeared to play down his links to the government.
“It was quite galling to have announcements made… to the effect that this was nothing, we were nothing to do with the government, we hadn’t worked with or for the government for years and so on,” the former senior MI6 officer said in an exclusive Sky News interview.
He was referring to remarks by Mrs May in January 2017 after the dosser ignited a political firestorm in the United States, drawing furious denials from then president-elect Trump.
“It is absolutely clear that the individual who produced this dossier has not worked for the UK government for years,” she said at the time.
Yet Mr Steele said staff from Whitehall’s Joint Intelligence Committee had been sitting in his office about 10 days before news of the dossier broke because of the unrelated request for him to review “highly sensitive government papers on Russia”.
He also said that Mrs May would have known who he was because he had met her with his business partner, Christopher Burrows, another former intelligence officer, at the house of a mutual friend back in 2010 when she had just become home secretary.
The friend had suggested, “that we should get together and talk about some of these issues so that she got off to a good start and understood the sort of playbook and MO (modus operandi) of some of these Russian actors,” Mr Steele said.
As for what they discussed, Mr Steele said: “There wasn’t really a lot of evidence of electoral meddling as such in 2010. But what we did say is that when you look at Russia, you can’t just take organised crime, oligarchs, government separately. You have to see them as a sort of plasma cloud that is linked in together and they are all operating with each other and for each other. And it’s a diffuse threat.”
In late 2016, before it became public, Mr Steele said he shared his work, investigating possible links between the Kremlin and Mr Trump, with senior British officials out of concern about what his sources were claiming.
He said he thought security officials had handled it correctly but he was not so sure about government ministers, noting how the focus had understandably been on delivering Brexit and adjusting to the unpredictability of an incoming Trump presidency.
“The overall impression I had was that this was a problem they didn’t want to face up to,” he said.
A spokesperson for former prime minister Mrs May did not respond to a request for a comment.
Lord Mark Sedwill, who was her national security adviser, pushed back on Mr Steele’s assertion.
“Just because people outside government can’t necessarily see action, particularly when it relates to matters of intelligence and security, they shouldn’t assume that the action isn’t happening and it isn’t being dealt with seriously,” he said in an interview.
“Now, of course, the British government, as both Theresa May and Boris Johnson have said, has to have a good relationship with the president of the United States, whoever that is.
“But because he didn’t see action at the time that he was hoping to see does not mean it wasn’t taken seriously and any allegation of that kind is, of course, investigated properly and professionally.”
People who are fit to work but do not accept job offers will have their benefits taken away after 12 months, the prime minister has pledged.
Outlining his plans to reform the welfare system if the Conservatives win the next general election, Rishi Sunak said “unemployment support should be a safety net, never a choice” as he promised to “make sure that hard work is always rewarded”.
Mr Sunak said his government would be “more ambitious about helping people back to work and more honest about the risk of over-medicalising the everyday challenges and worries of life” by introducing a raft of measures in the next parliament. They include:
• Removing benefits after 12 months for those deemed fit for work but who do not comply with conditions set by their work coach – such as accepting a job offer
• Tightening the work capability assessment so those with less severe conditions will be expected to seek employment
• A review of the fit note system to focus on what someone can do, to be carried out by independent assessors rather than GPs
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• Changes to the rules so someone working less than half of a full-time week will have to look for more work
• A consultation on PIP to look at eligibility changes and targeted support – such as offering talking therapies instead of cash payments
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• The introduction of a new fraud bill to treat benefit fraud like tax fraud, with new powers to make seizures and arrests.
He insisted the changes were not about making the benefits system “less generous”, adding: “I’m not prepared to balance the books on the backs of the most vulnerable.
“Instead, the critical questions are about eligibility, about who should be entitled to support and what kind of supports best matches their needs.”
But Labour said it was the Tories’ handling of the NHS that had left people “locked out” of work, and a disabled charity called the measures “dangerous”.
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The latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows 9.4 million people aged between 16 and 64 were “economically inactive”, with over 2.8 million citing long-term sickness as the reason.
Mr Sunak said 850,000 of them had been signed off since the COVID pandemic and half of those on long-term sickness said they had depression, with the biggest growth area being young people.
He also claimed the total being spent on benefits for people of working age with a disability or health condition had increased by almost two-thirds since the pandemic to £69bn – more than the entire budget for schools or policing.
“I will never dismiss or downplay the illnesses people have,” said the prime minister. “Anyone who has suffered mental ill health or had family and friends who have know these conditions are real and they matter.
“But just as it would be wrong to dismiss this growing trend, so it would be wrong to merely sit back and accept it because it’s too hard, too controversial, or for fear of causing offence.”
The prime minister said he knew critics would accuse him of “lacking compassion”, but he insisted “the exact opposite is true”, adding: “There is nothing compassionate about leaving a generation of young people to sit in the dark before a flickering screen, watching as their dreams slip further from reach every passing day.
“And there is nothing fair about expecting taxpayers to support those who could work but choose not to.
“It doesn’t have to be like this. We can change. We must change.”
But Labour said the “root cause of economic activity” was down to the Tories’ failure on the health service, with record NHS waiting lists hitting people’s ability to get back in the workplace.
Acting shadow work and pensions secretary Alison McGovern said: “After 14 years of Tory misery, Rishi Sunak has set out his failed government’s appalling record for Britain: a record number of people locked out of work due to long-term sickness and an unsustainable spiralling benefits bill.
“Rather than a proper plan to get Britain working, all we heard today were sweeping questions and reheated proposals without any concrete answers.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey called it “a desperate speech from a prime minister mired in sleaze and scandal”, adding: “Rishi Sunak is attempting to blame the British people for his own government’s failures on the economy and the NHS and it simply won’t wash.”
Meanwhile, disability charity Scope said the measures were a “full-on assault on disabled people”, adding they were “dangerous and risk leaving disabled people destitute”.
James Taylor, director of strategy at the charity, said calls were already “pouring in” to their helpline with people concerned about the impact on them, adding: “Sanctions and ending claims will only heap more misery on people at the sharp end of our cost of living crisis.”
The House of Lords has delayed the passing of the government’s Rwanda bill until next week – in a blow to Rishi Sunak’s attempts to get planes off the ground deporting illegal migrants to the country.
MPs overturned Tuesday’s attempts by the House of Lords to dilute the plan – but peers have now put forward even more changes to the proposed new law.
It is now expected that the Commons will consider the changes on Monday next week, dashing No 10’s hopes to get it through today.
Downing Street has been unwilling to concede any ground on the areas that peers are trying to amend, including on the treatment of people who served with or for the British armed forces abroad.
No 10 had set its sights on passing the legislation this week as part of its plans to get planes in the air in the spring.
The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill was tabled last year after the Supreme Court ruled the previous scheme to deport asylum seekers who arrived illegally in the UK was unlawful.
The current bill aims to declare Rwanda safe and not allow courts to consider the safety of the nation during appeals.
This is being done based on a new treaty agreed between the UK government and the government in Rwanda.
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Speaking earlier on Wednesday, the prime minister’s spokesperson ruled out doing a deal on any of these changes. “We are not considering concessions,” they said.
“We believe the bill as it stands is the right bill and the quickest way to get flights off the ground.”
The proposed changes sought to: • ensure the bill complies with domestic and international law; • that Rwanda would not be declared safe until a report was completed; • that appeals based on safety would be allowed; • and that exemptions would be allowed for people who served with or for the British armed forces.
Peers want to insist on the amendments about people who assisted the UK’s armed forces, and a report advising on the safety of Rwanda, in particular.
The government was defeated on the first by 245 votes to 208 – a majority of 37, and the second by 247 votes to 195 – a majority of 52.
Labour and crossbench peers – those who do not associate with a political party – worked together to outvote the Conservatives.
A government source told Sky News: “We wanted to get it done today, but it shows Labour for their true colours.”
Responding to the latest defeats, Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker told Sky News that he was “extremely disappointed” with the delays.
He denied the government had “slammed the door” on people like interpreters in Afghanistan who worked with UK armed forces.
But Mr Baker said people wanting to come to the UK who had served with British armed forces had to go through the Ministry of Defence.
“They shouldn’t be travelling with people smugglers illegally across the channel – and that’s what we’ve got to break,” he said.
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Approach to military interpreters ‘shameful’ – Labour
The amendment on people who helped the armed forces has been at the centre of a heated debate – with the government saying it is waiting for a report on the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) before setting out its steps.
But Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Tory MPs just voted to insist that Afghan interpreters who served British armed forces can be sent to Rwanda.
“A scheme which costs £2m per asylum seeker. A £500m plus scheme for less than 1% of asylum seekers. Which now includes those who worked with our troops
Johnny Mercer, a former soldier and the government’s veterans minister, replied: “My team have worked night and day to find permanent accommodation for circa 25,000 Afghans who the UK have provided sanctuary to, without you lifting a finger to help.
“We want them to use safe routes, not undertake lethal channel crossings. Your concern is fake.”
Having forced the House of Commons to vote down the Lords’ amendments to the prime minister’s flagship illegal immigration bill three times, peers would typically have bowed out of the battle this time around and passed the Rwanda bill.
There is obvious frustration in government, with one senior figure saying: “We wanted to get it done today, but it shows Labour for their true colours.”
The Rwanda bill now comes back to the Commons next week, and could finally be passed on Monday.
All the while, the clock is ticking down on the prime minister‘s promise to get flights away by the end of spring.
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With that timetable already in doubt, at least this ping pong can help ministers pin this on peers should that deadline be missed.
But there is also huge frustration amongst some MPs with Number 10.
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‘We need to get it through’
Many are asking why the government didn’t just table late night sittings and force Lords to sit into the night to ram through the legislation.
Tory MP Rehman Chishti spoke for many colleagues when he told me he didn’t understand why the whips hadn’t chosen this course.
“I think the programme motion could easily have ensured that we had a vote tomorrow because at the end of day the public want us to get on and get it done. Labour have delayed, dithered, delayed. We’ve got a plan, but we need to get it through,” he said.
“If you would have asked me, I would have put it in tomorrow and I would have a vote on it. And therefore we get those planes off and make sure that this policy delivers what it needs to be delivering, which is deterrence.”
Another senior minister told me it was “clear” to them that these were “delaying tactics because they know the version of the policy doesn’t work and they want more time and to put off the day of reckoning”.
As Labour blames the government for refusing to compromise on amendments, and “going home” instead of looking again at the bill this evening, the government blames Labour for delaying the bill because – to quote minister Steve Baker – “they are terrified it will work”.
There is talk that had the government accepted the amendment to exempt Afghans who served alongside UK forces from deportation to Rwanda, the Lords might have passed the bill.
Labour had received an assurance from the Home Office that this amendment, tabled by former Labour defence secretary Des Browne, was going to be accepted – only for it then to be blocked.
For all the drama and irritation, it is likely that the prime minister will still have his moment.
At some point, the House of Lords will have to cave. Unelected peers cannot keep ignoring the will of the Commons.
But the question then is whether he can assuage the frustration of voters who are watching the small boats still coming, with the most crossings in a single day this year – 534 people – happening this week.
‘Another failed thing they promised’
In our Sky News election target town of Cleethorpes, part of a key bellwether seat in the next general election, voters we spoke to are sceptical the government will deliver the flights at all.
One resident told us: “They tell you what they think you want to hear but when it comes down to it, they don’t deliver that.”
Another said: “No one’s gone to Rwanda. They get on the plane, and they take them off. So that’s another failed thing they’ve promised.”
And really that’s the rub of it – the prime minister will get this legislation passed.
Then the challenge is to get those planes off the ground. Anything less won’t be acceptable.
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But with even some of his own backbenchers believing the policy won’t work, a parliamentary win is only the end of the beginning.
The next question is will he, if he has to, not just take on the Lords, but take on the European courts – and those in his own cabinet – and if necessary ignore court rulings to get flights away.