Westminster Accounts: MPs challenged to provide more transparency over the source of donations

Published

2 years ago

January 9, 2023

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MPs have been accused of failing to provide “sufficient” transparency after a Sky News investigation struggled to uncover basic details about who is behind major donations.

Among the top donors to individual politicians are companies where little detail was provided in the MPs’ declarations about who they are, who is in charge and where they are based.

When asked for comment, some of the MPs concerned were reluctant to discuss the details.

In one case, Sky News discovered that nobody had heard of a company donating hundreds of thousands to Labour MPs when we went to its registered address, while the office of another company that donates to 24 Tory MPs was shut and apparently out of action.

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Responding, the director of the Institute for Government, Hannah White, told Sky News that MPs should be prepared to answer questions about the donations they accept

It follows an investigation as part of the Westminster Accounts that examines two companies ranked in the top 20 list of donors to individual MPs, where the declared donations provide the public with little information as to the true source of the money.

MPM Connect Ltd is the third biggest donor to MPs since the last general election. The only organisations that have given more to individual politicians in that period are the trade union giants Unite and GMB.

However, the company has no staff, no website, and is registered at an office where the secretary says she has never heard of them.

The £345,217 of donations that MPM Connect Ltd has made since the end of 2019 went to just three Labour politicians.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has received a total of £184,317, former mayor of South Yorkshire Dan Jarvis received £100,000 and shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has received £60,900.

Sky News asked each of the MPs to provide an explanation or comment in relation to who was behind the donations and why the money had been given to them.

How did the politicians respond?

Ms Cooper provided a statement which said it was not to be quoted, but her entry in the register of members’ interests states the funding is used to “support my offices”.

Mr Streeting said all the donations had been declared in the proper way, and his entry in the register of members’ interests says the money goes “towards staffing costs in my office”.

Mr Jarvis said all his donations support his work as an MP.

MPM Connect Ltd’s entry in the Companies House register lists two directors – recruitment mogul Peter Hearn and Simon Murphy, the entrepreneur behind the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station.

The company’s accounts do not disclose where it receives its funding, what it does, or why it donates so heavily.

When Sky News went to the office in Hertfordshire, where the company is registered, the receptionist in the building denied any knowledge of MPM Connect.

She told Sky News she did not recognise the names of the two directors.

“We’d rather not speak to you,” she said, before closing the door.

Mr Hearn and MPM Connect were approached for comment, but no response has so far been received.

Electoral Commission records show that over the past 20 years, Peter Hearn has made a number of significant donations to political parties. These have almost all been to the Labour Party, though he made a £10,000 donation to the Conservative campaign for the seat of Poplar and Limehouse ahead of the 2010 general election.

In 2015 he spent £100,000 on Ms Cooper’s unsuccessful campaign for the Labour leadership, and Rushanara Ali’s deputy leadership bid, before turning his attention to Mr Jarvis in a bid to dethrone Jeremy Corbyn and his deputy Tom Watson.

Mr Hearn and MPM Connect were approached for comment, but no response has so far been received.

IX Wireless donated money to Tory MPs

Another large donor where the public declarations leave ambiguity over the ultimate source of the funding is a little-known broadband provider from Blackburn.

IX Wireless has channelled more than £138,000 of campaign donations to Conservative MPs since 2019, despite only having two staff members, one of whom lives in the United Arab Emirates.

One of those politicians who received money from IX Wireless was Christian Wakeford, who was a Conservative MP at the time before defecting to the Labour Party in January 2022.

He told Sky News he had no “understanding or details as to who they were, what they were doing, or what they wanted” when the donation was made.

Mr Wakeford said he had been told by a senior Tory MP and former party chairman, Sir Jake Berry, that there was a block of money from a donor available, and to write an application for the funding.

“We’d put those applications in,” he said, “and we’d find out a month later whether those applications were successful and that the monies were going to our local Conservative association”.

“It was only at that time we were told the money had come from IX Wireless,” Mr Wakeford said. “I’d never heard of them. The first I’d heard of them was the email telling us.”

Mr Wakeford said he now knows more about the company.

Sir Jake Berry was approached for comment but did not respond.

Upon visiting the headquarters of IX Wireless, Sky News found the office empty with flooded floors.

Standing outside of the company’s front door, Sky News called IX Wireless and spoke to someone who said they were a receptionist.

She confirmed that the address was correct, but would not say that she was inside the headquarters. After placing the call on hold for several minutes, she declined to answer any questions.

Founded by entrepreneur Tahir Mohsan in 2017, the company was a successor to Time, a successful British personal computer brand in the 1980s and 1990s.

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In 2005, Mr Mohsan’s computer empire abruptly collapsed with £70m in debts, making as many as 1,500 people redundant.

Thousands of customers had to fight for refunds on products already ordered.

Shortly after the company failed, Mr Mohsan left Britain for Dubai in the UAE.

He has since turned his attention to installing broadband in the North West of England, receiving £675,000 of government funding to roll out high-speed internet in less connected areas of the country.

The company connected 500 premises between August 2018 and June 2020, according to government data seen by Sky News.

IX Wireless and Mr Mohsan did not return repeated requests for comment.

Hannah White, director of the Institute for Government, told Sky News that MPs needed to be more forthcoming about the money they were taking.

“I think there’s a bigger question here… is that transparency actually sufficient?”

Ms White questioned whether it was appropriate for politicians to avoid questions from members of the press and the public over the identities of donors.

“If an MP is asked for more information, should they feel that actually that is something that they’re willing and able to give? Do they actually know the answer to some of these questions if they’ve taken money from a company that they don’t necessarily know how that is funded? I think that’s actually quite important,” she said.

World

Fordow: What we know about Iran’s secretive ‘nuclear mountain’ – and how Israel might try to destroy it

Published

7 hours ago

June 20, 2025

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Fordow: What we know about Iran's secretive 'nuclear mountain' - and how Israel might try to destroy it

Deep beneath a mountain, hundreds of centrifuges spin, enriching Iran’s uranium that Israel suspects is destined for a nuclear weapon.

The Fordow plant is protected by tonnes upon tonnes of dirt and rock, far away from prying eyes – and foreign missiles.

But as Israeli warplanes fly unchecked above Tehran, with much of the Islamic Republic’s air defences turned to smoking ruins on the ground, attention has moved to the secretive facility.

Some say only the American B-2 stealth bomber and its massive payload could breach the so-called “nuclear mountain”, while others argue troops on the ground might be able to infiltrate its corridors. Or maybe it is simply impossible, short of a nuclear strike.

Iran has repeatedly denied that it is seeking a nuclear weapon and the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog said in June that it has no proof of a “systematic effort to move into a nuclear weapon”.

What is the Fordow facility?

The Fordow enrichment plant is one of three key pieces of nuclear infrastructure in Iran – the others being the Natanz enrichment plant and research facilities in Isfahan.

It is thought to be buried around 80m deep into the side of the mountain. It was previously protected by Iranian and Russian surface-to-air missile systems, but these may have wholly or partially knocked out during Israel’s recent attacks.

Construction is believed to have started in around 2006 and it first became operational in 2009 – the same year Tehran publicly acknowledged its existence.

In November 2020, it was believed there were 1,057 centrifuges at Fordow. These are used to separate isotopes and increase the concentration of uranium-235, needed for nuclear fuel and weapons.

In 2023, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – the nuclear watchdog – found uranium particles enriched to 83.7% purity – near the 90% needed for a bomb – at Fordow, the only Iranian facility where this has been found.

In June 2024, the Washington Post reported on a major expansion at Fordow, with nearly 1,400 new centrifuges earmarked for the subterranean facility.

Will Israel try to destroy Fordow?

Israel has made no secret of its desire to cripple or remove Iran’s nuclear programme, describing it as an existential threat.

There is much that remains elsewhere in Iran that is capable of producing and using nuclear material.

“But of course the real big piece remains at Fordow still and this has been in the headlines quite a bit,” says Dr Alexander Bollfrass, an expert on nuclear weapons from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) thinktank.

There is also the chance that an increased focus on diplomacy brings the war to an end before the IDF can make a run at Fordow.

Could bunker buster bombs be used?

There has been a lot of talk about bunker buster bombs. These are munitions that explode twice – once to breach the ground surface and again once the bomb has burrowed down to a certain depth.

The Israelis used 60 to 80 of them in the strike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in September last year, according to Martin “Sammy” Sampson, a former air marshal and executive director at the IISS.

But Nasrallah was only 10-15m underground, Mr Sampson said, while Fordow is believed to be 80m beneath the surface.

“An awful lot of planes would be in the same place for an awful long time” to drop enough bombs to have a chance of getting to the buried facility, he added.

There is also the possibility that the US, which operates the much more powerful GBU-57 bomb, could assist with any operation at Fordow.

“My sense is that it would still take multiple strikes,” Mr Sampson said, putting it in “more and more unknown territory”.

“It would be pretty disastrous… if you put 400 planes over the top of Fordow, or you put the might of the US over Fordow, and it survived.”

Israel’s ‘contingencies’ for dealing with Fordow

Israel has suggested that it could destroy or cripple Fordow without using bombs dropped from the air.

Speaking to Sky’s Yalda Hakim earlier this week, former Mossad director of intelligence Zohar Palti said it was “much easier for the Americans to do it”, possibly referring to the GBU-57.

“But as you see, we know how to run things alone,” he added. “And if we need to do some other stuff alone, we will do it.”

Israel’s ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, said last weekend that Israel has “a number of contingencies… which will enable us to deal with Fordow”.

“Not everything is a matter of, you know, taking to the skies and bombing from afar,” he told ABC News.

There has been talk of using special forces to raid the facility on the ground, but that has its downsides as well.

“This would be an incredibly high risk mission if you were to do something on the ground,” said Mr Sampson.

There is also the possibility Israel could replicate what happened at the Natanz enrichment plant, where the IAEA said 15,000 centrifuges were likely destroyed in the IDF bombardment of Iran.

This was possibly due to an Israeli airstrike disrupting the power supply to the centrifuges, rather than actual physical damage to the centrifuge hall, according to the nuclear watchdog.

World

Regime change in Iran is ‘unacceptable’, says the Kremlin

Published

10 hours ago

June 20, 2025

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Regime change in Iran is 'unacceptable', says the Kremlin

Regime change in Iran is “unacceptable” and the assassination of the country’s supreme leader would “open the Pandora’s box”, the Kremlin has said.

In a rare interview with a foreign media organisation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Sky News that Russia would react “very negatively” if Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed.

The comments came as US President Donald Trump said he will decide within two weeks whether America will join Israel’s military campaign against Tehran, after earlier speculating on social media about killing the Iranian leader.

“The situation is extremely tense and is dangerous not only for the region but globally,” Mr Peskov said in an interview at the Constantine Palace in Saint Petersburg.

“An enlargement of the composition of the participants of the conflict is potentially even more dangerous.

“It will lead only to another circle of confrontation and escalation of tension in the region.”

They are the Kremlin’s strongest comments yet regarding the Israel-Iran conflict, which has stoked fears in Moscow that it could be on the verge of losing its closest ally in the Middle East.

Russia has deepened its ties with Iran since invading Ukraine, and the two countries signed a strategic partnership in January.

“[Regime change in Iran] is unimaginable. It should be unacceptable, even talking about that should be unacceptable for everyone,” Mr Peskov said, in a thinly veiled reference to Washington.

But Mr Peskov refused to be drawn on what action Russia would take if Khamenei was killed, saying instead it would trigger action “from inside Iran”.

“It would lead to the birth of extremist moods inside Iran and those who are speaking about [killing Khamenei], they should keep it in mind. They will open the Pandora’s box.”

Vladimir Putin’s offers to mediate an end to the conflict have so far been rejected by Mr Trump, who said on Wednesday that he told the Russian president to “mediate your own [conflict]”, in reference to Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Mr Peskov denied the American president’s words were insulting, adding: “Everyone has a different language.

“President Trump has his own unique way of speaking and his unique language. We are quite tolerant and expect everyone to be tolerant of us.”

The Trump administration’s own mediation efforts to end the war in Ukraine have failed to yield any major breakthroughs, despite two rounds of direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv.

Moscow has stepped up its aerial bombardment of Ukraine in recent weeks and continues to reject Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s calls for a 30-day ceasefire.

“Now we have a strategic advantage. Why should we lose it? We are not going to lose it. We are going further. We’re advancing and we’ll continue to advance,” Mr Peskov said.

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Russia has previously said it would only commit to a ceasefire if Kyiv stops receiving foreign military support, fearing that a pause in the fighting would offer Ukraine a chance to rearm and regroup its forces.

Asked if Moscow could commit to not using a ceasefire in the same way, Mr Peskov said: “A ceasefire is a ceasefire, and you stop.

“But America is not saying that ‘we’ll quit any supplies’. Britain is not saying that as well. France is not saying that as well. This is the problem.”

World

China says British warship sailed through Taiwan Strait to ’cause trouble’

Published

10 hours ago

June 20, 2025

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China says British warship sailed through Taiwan Strait to 'cause trouble'

China has criticised a British warship’s passage through the Taiwan Strait as a deliberate move to “cause trouble”.

The Royal Navy said its patrol vessel HMS Spey was conducting a routine navigation through the contested waterway on Wednesday as part of a long-planned deployment in compliance with international law.

In response, the Eastern Theatre Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said the exercise was “public hyping”, adding that its forces followed and monitored the ship.

“The British side’s remarks distort legal principles and mislead the public; its actions deliberately cause trouble and disrupt things, undermining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” it said in a statement on Friday.

“Troops in the theatre are on high alert at all times and will resolutely counter all threats and provocations.”

The last time a British warship sailed through the strait was in 2021, when HMS Richmond was deployed in the East China Sea en route to Vietnam.

The strait is contested between Taiwan and China, which split in 1949.

Today, China views Taiwan as a breakaway province – with which it promises to one day reunify, and has not ruled out the use of force to do so – and regards the waterway as its own territory.

Taiwan, the US, and other Western powers regard the strait as international waters.

US navy ships sail through the strait around once every two months, sometimes accompanied by those of allied nations.

Responding to HMS Spey’s exercise, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said it “welcomes and affirms the British side once again taking concrete actions to defend the freedom of navigation in the Taiwan Strait”.

China has also carried out several military drills across the waterway, with exercises in October involving its army, navy and rocket forces. Beijing called it a “stern warning to the separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces” at the time.

It comes as Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te on Thursday ordered defence and security units to step up their monitoring and intelligence efforts in response to China’s military activities.

Taiwan’s defence ministry also reported another spike in Chinese movements close to the island over the previous 24 hours, involving 50 aircraft, concentrated in the strait and the top part of the South China Sea.