Westminster Accounts: Baroness Cox forced to declare financial interests after leak reveals links to anti-Islam activists
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.
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‘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.
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Baroness Cox brought controversial far-right politician Geert Wilders to the UK in 2010
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”.
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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.
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.
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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.
Donald Trump has described crucial trade talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping as “amazing” – and says he will visit Beijing in April.
The leaders of the world’s two biggest economies met in South Korea as they tried to defuse growing tensions – with both countries imposing aggressive tariffs on exports since the president’s second term began.
Aboard Air Force One, Mr Trump confirmed tariffs on Chinese goods exported to the US will be reduced, which could prove much-needed relief to consumers.
It was also agreed that Beijing will work “hard” to stop fentanyl flowing into the US.
Semiconductor chips were another issue raised during their 100-minute meeting, but the president admitted certain issues weren’t discussed.
“On a scale of one to 10, the meeting with Xi was 12,” he told reporters en route back to the US.
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Xi a ‘tough negotiator’, says Trump
The talks conclude a whirlwind visit across Asia – with Mr Trump saying he was “too busy” to see Kim Jong Un.
However, the president said he would be willing to fly back to see the North Korean leader, with a view to discussing denuclearisation.
Mr Trump had predicted negotiations with his Chinese counterpart would last for three or four hours – but their meeting ended in less than two.
The pair shook hands before the summit, with the US president quipping: “He’s a tough negotiator – and that’s not good!”
It marks the first face-to-face meeting between both men since 2019 – back in Mr Trump’s first term.
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. Pic: AP
There were signs that Beijing had extended an olive branch to Washington ahead of the talks, with confirmation China will start buying US soybeans again.
American farmers have been feeling the pinch since China stopped making purchases earlier this year – not least because the country was their biggest overseas market.
Chinese stocks reached a 10-year high early on Thursday as investors digested their meeting, with the yuan rallying to a one-year high against the US dollar.
Analysis: A fascinating power play
Sky News Asia correspondent Helen-Ann Smith – who is in Busan where the talks took place – said it was fascinating to see the power play between both world leaders.
She said: “Trump moved quickly to dominate the space – leaning in, doing all the talking, even responding very briefly to a few thrown questions.
“That didn’t draw so much as an eyebrow raise from his counterpart, who was totally inscrutable. Xi does not like or respond well to unscripted moments, Trump lives for them.”
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On Truth Social, Mr Trump had described the summit as a gathering of the “G2” – a nod to America and China’s status as the world’s two biggest economies.
While en route to see President Xi, he also revealed that the US “Department of War” has now been ordered to start testing nuclear weapons for the first time since 1992.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the Sudanese city of Al Fashir by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in a two-day window after the paramilitary group captured the regional capital, analysts believe.
Sky News is not able to independently verify the claim by Yale Humanitarian Labs, as the city remains under a telecommunications blackout.
Stains and shapes resembling blood and corpses can be seen from space in satellite images analysed by the research lab.
Al Fashir University. Pic: Airbus DS/2025
Al Fashir University. Pic: Airbus DS/2025
Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of Yale Humanitarian Labs, said: “In the past 48 hours since we’ve had [satellite] imagery over Al Fashir, we see a proliferation of objects that weren’t there before RSF took control of Al Fashir – they are approximately 1.3m to 2m long which is critical because in satellite imagery at very high resolution, that’s the average length of a human body lying vertical.”
Mini Minawi, the governor of North Darfur, said on X that 460 civilians have been killed in the last functioning hospital in the city.
The Sudan Doctors Network has also shared that the RSF “cold-bloodedly killed everyone they found inside Al Saudi Hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone else present in the wards”.
World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was “appalled and deeply shocked” by the reports.
Satellite images support the claims of a massacre at Al Saudi Hospital, according to Mr Raymond, who said YHL’s report detailed “a large pile of them [objects believed to be bodies] against a wall at one building at Saudi hospital. And we believe that’s consistent with reports that patients and staff were executed en masse”.
In a video message released on Wednesday, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo acknowledged “violations in Al Fashir” and claimed “an investigation committee should start to hold any soldier or officer accountable”.
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Army soldiers ‘fled key Sudan city’ before capture
The Saudi Maternity Hospital in Al Fashir. Pic: Airbus DS /2025 via AP
The commander is known for committing atrocities in Darfur in the early 2000s as a Janjaweed militia leader, and the RSF has been accused of carrying out genocide in Darfur 20 years on.
Sources have told Sky News the RSF is holding doctors, journalists and politicians captive, demanding ransoms from some families to release their loved ones.
One video shows a man from Al Fashir with an armed man kneeling on the ground, telling his family to pay 15,000. The currency was not made clear.
In some cases, ransoms have been paid, but then more messages come demanding that more money be transferred to secure release.
Muammer Ibrahim, a journalist based in the city, is currently being held by the RSF, who initially shared videos of him crouched on the ground, surrounded by fighters, announcing his hometown had been captured under duress.
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He is being held incommunicado as his family scrambles to negotiate his release. Muammer courageously covered the siege of Al Fashir for months, enduring starvation and shelling.
The Committee to Protect Journalists regional director Sara Qudah said the abduction of Muammar Ibrahim “is a grave and alarming reminder that journalists in Al Fashir are being targeted simply for telling the truth”.
At least 30 people have died after Hurricane Melissa tore through the Caribbean on Wednesday.
The Red Cross said early indications show the storm has been a “disaster of unprecedented catastrophe”.
Storm Melissa has so far ravaged through Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba.
At least 34 are estimated to be dead in the Caribbean, with eight of those in Jamaica, one in the Dominican Republic and 25 in Haiti.
This was down from a previously reported 40.
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Later on Wednesday, the Jamaican government confirmed four people – three men and one woman – had been killed. This figure later rose to eight.
Local government minister, Desmond McKenzie, said: “They were discovered after being washed up by the flood waters generated by the hurricane.”
Devastating aerial footage shows towns destroyed by the storm.
The Jamaican prime minister, Andrew Holness, travelled to St Elizabeth, where the first deaths were reported, to inspect the storm’s impact.
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Sharing aerial footage of battered homes, he wrote: “The damage is great, but we are going to devote all our energy to mount a strong recovery.”
The storm made landfall in Cuba in the early hours of Wednesday morning before leaving mid-afternoon, heading towards the Bahamas.
Hurricane Melissa has ravaged through the Caribbean. Pic: Reuters
‘Whole communities are underwater’
Alexander Pendry, British Red Cross global response manager, said: “News is already coming through that whole communities are underwater and that the damage left by the strong winds has been devastating.
“The Jamaica Red Cross has been proactively supporting communities by preparing essential supplies and managing shelters. Their priority now is to reach people with aid as soon as possible.
“Across the Caribbean, Red Cross teams have been mobilising as Melissa continues its trajectory across Cuba, Dominican Republic and Haiti.”
He added: “Tragically, experience tells us that the impact on communities and individuals will be shattering and long lasting.
“We will be here for as long as people need us.”
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