Westminster Accounts: Baroness Cox forced to declare financial interests after leak reveals links to anti-Islam activists

Published

3 years ago

February 26, 2023

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A controversial member of the House of Lords has been forced to declare financial interests following a huge leak of documents that also revealed her links to prominent anti-Islam activists.

Baroness Cox said her failure to register support from the not-for-profit company Equal and Free Limited – which was used to pay for her parliamentary researcher – was an “oversight”.

The crossbench peer also failed to declare that she was an unpaid director of the company.

Minutes of meetings obtained by the anti-racism campaign group Hope not Hate and shared with Sky News reveal that Equal and Free Limited has received funding from an American organisation run by two evangelical philanthropists.

Based in Los Angeles, Fieldstead and Company handles the donations of Howard Ahmanson Jr and his wife Roberta Ahmanson, and focuses support on “religious liberty issues” as well as art, culture and humanitarian relief work.

In a 2011 interview with Christianity Today, Mrs Ahmanson said: “We are probably the single largest supporter of the intelligent design movement, and have been since the beginning.”

Intelligent design argues that aspects of life are best explained by the involvement of a higher being rather than evolution.

The couple has also been linked to orthodox Christian groups and political campaigns against same-sex marriage.

While parliamentary rules require peers to disclose support received from outside organisations, they are not required to detail where funding originated from initially.

‘Oversight’ corrected quickly

Jess Garland, head of policy at the Electoral Reform Society – which campaigns for an elected House of Lords – says the structure of the chamber can work against good transparency.

“They are encouraged to have outside interests and outside expertise, but this creates a real grey area when it comes to lobbying – who’s funding these interests and where’s the money coming from?” said Ms Garland.

Baroness Cox says she corrected her register of interests as soon as the “oversight” was brought to her attention.

A spokesman for the House of Lords said there was a “robust code of conduct” but this had “no locus over how companies or other organisations providing financial or research support to members generate their income”.

Fieldstead and Company has been approached for comment and there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on its part.

Among the documents leaked to Hope not Hate are minutes of regular meetings that have been convened by Baroness Cox on the parliamentary estate and attended by prominent and often controversial critics of Islam.

The documents show that non-affiliated peer Lord Pearson was also present at many of the meetings, which began in 2013 under the name “The New Issues Group” and have continued to take place in 2023.

Baroness Cox and Lord Pearson provoked controversy in 2010 when they brought the far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders to the UK.

Controversial meetings

Minutes for a 2015 meeting show a memo written by UKIP activist and group member Magnus Nielsen that describes Islam as having “hostile intentions to everyone who is not Muslim”.

The minutes go on to state that the West is in an “at present… ideological war” with Islam and predicts a “bloody mess” in the future.

Minutes from November 2013 state that one meeting attendee – the activist Anne Marie Waters – was asked if she would help draft a parliamentary question for Baroness Cox regarding a film about free speech.

Waters went on to set up Sharia Watch UK, a group that in 2015 tried to stage a “Muhammad cartoons” exhibition in London, and was later involved in anti-Islam Pegida UK alongside English Defence League (EDL) founder Tommy Robinson.

The documents also show that another group member, Alan Craig, was taken to a meeting with a government minister by Baroness Cox.

Mr Craig provoked controversy in 2018 after claiming in a UKIP conference speech that a “holocaust of our children” was being orchestrated by groups of men from Muslim backgrounds.

The leaked documents state that Equal and Free Limited was set up as a “channel” behind a private member’s bill put forward by Baroness Cox that is focused on equality in Muslim arbitration tribunals.

Baroness Cox told Sky News the New Issues Group “is a meeting of people who support the aims” of her private member’s bill, which would “provide protection for Muslim women whose sharia marriages are not legally registered”.

The peer added that she has “strong support from Muslim women, including the Muslim Women’s Advisory Group”.

Nick Lowles, chief executive of Hope not Hate – the organisation that obtained the documents – said they appear to show the group is not just concerned about radical and political Islam.

“This group views Islam per se as a danger to the West. They view Islam as in conflict with Western culture and Western civilisation,” said Mr Lowles.

Why it is important for the public to know what is going on behind the scenes

The Sky News Westminster Accounts tool revealed companies donating to MPs with little clarity about their owners or the original source of the funding.

This leak of documents has flagged a similar potential issue in the Lords.

Peers don’t get the same allowances as MPs for their office setup so it’s not unusual for researchers to earn money from external sources.

The question is about transparency.

Members of the Lords have access to parliament, government ministers and an influence on policy and lawmaking.

They also get public funding and – crucially for those in favour of reform – voters can’t get rid of them if they disapprove of what they’ve been doing.

All of this makes it important for the public to know what is going on behind the scenes.

Complaints may now be put into the Lords Commissioner for Standards over Baroness Cox’s failure to make appropriate financial declarations in the past.

But political sources in the Lords also suggest there could be propriety concerns about the peer inviting such controversial anti-Islam figures into parliament.

Questions about US funding

Minutes from a meeting attended by Baroness Cox in 2014 state that “money has come in from USA mainly to pay for Muslim women coming to give evidence… $40,000 from Fieldstead & Company; and £8,000 has been promised from another source”.

The organisation has been reported to have links to a 2008 campaign in California to ban same-sex marriage and the American Anglican Council – an orthodox Christian group.

Its founder Howard Ahmanson Jr is the son of the late multi-millionaire and businessman Howard Ahmanson Sr.

He sits on the board of the Discovery Institute, a Seattle organisation that promotes intelligent design and critiques Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Roberta Ahmanson is heavily involved with Fieldstead and Company. On the organisation’s website, she describes herself as a “writer and explorer focused on discovering the nature of reality, the role of religion, and the meaning of history and the arts”.

The California-based organisation has also funded numerous cultural causes including the National Gallery in London.

A recently published document sent to Sky News by Baroness Cox states that Equal and Free “remain sincerely grateful for Fieldstead and Company’s support”.

The peer declined to clarify how much money her firm has received from the Los Angeles organisation. However, parliamentary records show that Equal and Free began funding a House of Lords researcher in 2014.

Two other members of the Lords are also known to have contributed funding to Equal and Free Limited.

World

Ukraine ‘hits Russian tanker in Mediterranean Sea for first time’

Published

17 hours ago

December 19, 2025

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Ukraine 'hits Russian tanker in Mediterranean Sea for first time'

Ukraine has struck a Russian tanker in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time, a Kyiv intelligence source has said.

The ship, called the Qendil, suffered “critical damage” in the attack, according to a member of the SBU, Ukraine’s internal security agency.

The tanker is said to be part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” – a group of ageing vessels that Kyiv alleges helps Moscow exports large quantities of crude oil despite Western sanctions.

The ‌SBU source said Ukrainian drones hit the ship in neutral waters more than 2,000 kilometres (1,243 miles) ‌from Ukraine.

They said: “Russia used this tanker to circumvent sanctions and earn money that went to the war against Ukraine.

“Therefore, from the point of view of international law and the laws and customs of war, this is an absolutely legitimate target for the SBU.

“The enemy must understand that Ukraine will not stop and will strike it anywhere in the world, wherever it may be.”

The vessel ‍was empty at the time of the attack, the Ukrainian source added.

Speaking during a live TV event, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, claimed the attack would not disrupt supplies, but vowed that Russia would retaliate nonetheless.

He added that Russia regularly responded with “much stronger strikes” against Ukraine.

Putin also warned against any threat to blockade Russia’s coastal exclave Kaliningrad, which he said would “just lead to unseen escalation of the conflict” and could trigger a “large-scale international conflict”.

Sky military analyst Michael Clarke said Ukraine’s claim about causing significant damage to the ship was “probably true”.

He added: “The Ukrainians obviously feel that they can legitimise this sort of operation.”

The attack comes after the European Union announced it would provide a €90bn (£79bn) interest-free loan to Ukraine.

Oleksandr Merezhko, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the Ukrainian parliament, told Sky News that the money would “tremendously enhance” Kyiv’s defensive capabilities.

However, he said the International Monetary Fund estimated that Ukraine needed $137bn to “keep running”.

“The aggressor should be punished”, Mr Merezhko added, as he argued that frozen Russian assets in Europe should be used to help fund his country’s defence.

He vowed that Ukraine would “continue to fight” for the move, adding that it was “a matter of justice”.

World

Trapped journalists rescued after mob sets fire to Bangladesh newspaper offices

Published

17 hours ago

December 19, 2025

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Trapped journalists rescued after mob sets fire to Bangladesh newspaper offices

Protesters have stormed the headquarters of two major newspapers in Bangladesh, amid widespread unrest following the death of a political activist.

A mob set fire to the offices of the Bengali-language Prothom Alo daily newspaper and the English-language Daily Star in the capital Dhaka, leaving journalists and other staff stuck inside.

One of the Daily Star’s journalists, Zyma Islam, wrote on Facebook: “I can’t breathe anymore. There’s too much smoke.”

Both dailies stopped updating their online editions after the attacks and did not publish broadsheets on Friday.

Troops were deployed to the Star building and firefighters had to rescue the journalists trapped inside. The blaze was brought under control early on Friday.

Political activist Sharif Osman Hadi died in hospital late on Thursday, six days after the youth leader was shot while riding on a rickshaw in Dhaka.

Bangladesh’s interim government urged people on Friday to resist violence as police and paramilitary troops fanned out
across the capital and other cities following the protests overnight. They have sparked concerns of fresh unrest ahead of national elections, which Mr Hadi had been due to stand in.

He was a prominent activist in the political uprising last year that forced the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee the country. Mr Hadi spent six days on life support in a hospital in Singapore before he succumbed to his injuries.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets following news of Mr Hadi’s death on Thursday night, where they rallied at Shahbagh Square near the Dhaka University campus, according to media reports.

A group of demonstrators gathered outside the head office of the Muslim-majority country’s leading Bengali-language Prothom Alo daily, before vandalising the building and setting it on fire.

A few hundred yards away, another group of protesters pushed into the Daily Star offices and set fire to the building. The protesters are believed to have targeted the papers for their alleged links with India and closeness to Bangladesh‘s interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus.

Although calm had returned to much of the ⁠country on Friday morning, protesters carrying national flags and placards
continued demonstrating at Shahbagh Square in Dhaka, chanting slogans and vowing not to return until justice was served.

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Last year’s mass uprising erupted from student protests against a quota system that awarded 30% of government jobs to relatives of veterans.

The July 2024 protest, which resulted in as many as 1,400 deaths according to the United Nations, was dubbed the first “Gen Z” revolution.

Bangladesh’s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed was forced to resign in August 2024 and fled to India. She was later sentenced to death in absentia.

Dr Yunus was then sworn in as interim leader.

The country’s Islamists and other opponents of Ms Hasida have accused her government for being subservient to India.

Mr Hadi was a fierce critic of Ms Hasina and neighbouring India.

He had planned to run as an independent candidate in a constituency in Dhaka at the next national elections due to be held in February.

Authorities said they had identified the suspects in Mr Hadi’s shooting, and the assassin was also likely to have fled to India. Two men on a motorbike followed Hadi and one opened fire before they fled the scene.

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TikTok faces legal action over moderator cuts

Published

17 hours ago

December 19, 2025

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TikTok faces legal action over moderator cuts

TikTok is being threatened with legal action over cuts to its UK online safety teams.

In August, the social media company announced more than 400 workers would lose their jobs, with AI replacing some of the workers and other jobs being rehired abroad.

TikTok is being accused of threatening those safety workers with redundancy days before they were due to vote on forming a union.

Now, two moderators have sent a legal letter to TikTok laying out the terms of a potential legal case on grounds of unlawful detriment and automatic unfair dismissal.

Unlawful detriment is when an employer treats a worker unfairly because they used a protected employment right, for example, being a union representative, asking for flexible working or whistleblowing about the company.

“In June, TikTok said it was going to hire hundreds more content moderators, then two months later, they fired everyone,” said Stella Caram, head of legal at Foxglove, a non-profit supporting the moderators.

“What changed? Workers exercised their legal right to try to form a trade union. This is obvious, blatant and unlawful union-busting,” she said.

TikTok has been given one month to respond to the legal claim.

A TikTok spokesperson said: “We once again strongly reject this baseless claim.

“These changes were part of a wider global reorganisation, as we evolve our global operating model for Trust and Safety with the benefit of technological advancements to continue maximising safety for our users.”

As well as Foxglove, the two moderators launching the case are working with the United Tech & Allied Workers (UTAW), part of the Communication Workers’ Union, and law firm Leigh Day.

In exclusive interviews last month, three whistleblowers told Sky News the cuts would put UK users at risk, a claim repeated by Julio Miguel Franco, one of the moderators behind the legal action.

“TikTok needs to tell the truth,” he said.

“When it says AI can do our job of keeping people safe on TikTok, it knows that’s rubbish.

“Instead, they want to steal our jobs and send them to other countries where they can pay people less and treat them worse. The end result is TikTok becomes less safe for everyone.”

Internal documents seen by Sky News show that TikTok planned to keep its human moderators in London for at least the rest of 2025.

The documents lay out the increasing need for dedicated moderators because of the growing volume and complexity of moderation.

TikTok’s head of governance, Ali Law, also told MPs in February that “human moderators … have to use their nuance, skills and training” to be able to moderate hateful behaviour, misinformation and misleading information.

After a series of letters between TikTok and MPs, Dame Chi Onwurah, chair of the science and technology select committee, said she was “deeply” concerned about the cuts.

“There is a real risk to the lives of TikTok users,” she said.

Last month, in an exclusive sitdown with Sky News, however, Mr Law said user safety would not be compromised.

“We set a high benchmark when it comes to rolling out new moderation technology.

“In particular, we make sure that we satisfy ourselves that the output of existing moderation processes is either matched or exceeded by anything that we’re doing on a new basis.

“We also make sure the changes are introduced on a gradual basis with human oversight so that if there isn’t a level of delivery in line with what we expect, we can address that.”