Westminster Accounts: Powerful group of Tory MPs scrutinised by expenses watchdog after Sky News investigation
A powerful group of northern Tory MPs are being scrutinised by the parliamentary expenses watchdog after a Sky News investigation into the way they use public money.
The investigation found nearly two dozen MPs received political donations from a private donor to help them with campaigning – weeks after they joined the Northern Research Group (NRG) and authorised thousands of pounds of taxpayer-funded expenses to be spent on its work.
This raises questions about whether MPs authorised public funding to be spent on the NRG because they knew they would be rewarded with a campaign donation.
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What are MPs doing with your cash?
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), the expenses watchdog, is examining whether the group “contravened the rules surrounding direct payment of subscriptions from MP business cost budgets”.
One Tory MP who received the money told Sky News they signed up to the NRG, putting public money towards it, because they knew they would get a donation.
“There was a deadline. That’s why so many did at same time. You knew there’d be money at the end of it,” they said.
Public money is given to MPs to fund staffing and building costs, and its spending is tightly controlled. Political donations come with far fewer restrictions and, importantly, can be used to fund re-election campaigns.
The donations were organised by the NRG founder Jake Berry and came from northern broadband firm IX Wireless. Mr Berry denied a link between the donations and the use of public money for the NRG.
Jake Berry MP founded the Northern Research Group
In 2021 and 2022, 24 MPs received money from IX Wireless; 22 of those MPs have previously diverted public money to the NRG.
In the case of Matt Vickers, Tory MP for Stockton South, he authorised £2,500 from his office allowance to go to the NRG in mid-June 2021. Three weeks later, he was the recipient of a £2,500 campaign donation from IX Wireless. Mr Vickers did not respond to a request for comment.
However, in an interview, Mr Berry denied a link between the donations and public funding decisions, as did other Tory MPs who spoke on camera to Sky News.
Mr Berry said: “It is completely wrong when businesses want to go out and support northern MPs who are transforming the business community for them, for those businesses then to be trashed in the media for doing something completely legal and straightforward.
“There is no connection between your membership and receiving political donations.”
Westminster Accounts at a glance: use the table below to see how much money has gone to parties, MPs and APPGs in the form of donations and earnings since the 2019 election – and the individuals or organisations behind the funding.
This is part of a broader examination by Sky News of the use of public money to fund party political research groups like the NRG and the European Research Group – which played a key role in the Brexit debate over the past decade – and the Socialist Campaign Group.
Tens of thousands of pounds of public money goes to these organisations to fund research under a parliamentary arrangement that has existed for decades.
For the first time, Sky News can reveal the sums of public money received by these research groups since the last election:
• Parliamentary Research Unit – £3,050,972
• Parliamentary Research Service – £1,724,924
• SNP Research Team – £1,475,278
• Parliamentary Support Team – £208,854
• Northern Research Group – £139,760
• European Research Group – £96,000
• Socialist Campaign Group – £67,500
• Common Sense – £6,000
In a statement to Sky News, IPSA said: “In light of research by Sky News, IPSA has started an assurance review to assess whether the NRG has contravened the rules surrounding direct payment of subscriptions from MP business cost budgets.
“IPSA’s remit is the use of taxpayer funding, not the receipt of other sources of income by MPs, and has therefore informed the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards of its action.
“IPSA will also conduct assurance reviews of the other new pooled services to check that they are meeting the requirements for IPSA funding, which they commit to in writing, and of the rules regarding pooled services.”
Read more:
Westminster Accounts – the story so far
Johnson’s pay accounts for 85% of all outside earnings declared by MPs this year
How APPGs have received more than £20m in funding from external organisations since 2019
An IX Wireless spokesperson said: “As a North West-headquartered company we want to ensure the region truly benefits from the government’s Levelling Up agenda. This includes ensuring all areas across the North see an increase in their standard of living so that each area can reach its full productivity potential.
“To do this, we have backed the Northern Research Group, which aims to ensure that the voices of people across the region are heard by the government while also boosting employment, productivity and growth.
“Our support of the NRG is on public record. The funds to the NRG will help support MPs to focus central government for more spending across the North, boost infrastructure such as improved roads and rail, and support northern institutions.
“The funds will also support MPs, many who were new to the role, with training and support.
“As a northern company that is delivering gigabit capable broadband services to the communities across the region, we want to see the interests of those same communities represented at a national level via the NRG.”
World
Russia wants ‘quick peace’ in Ukraine and London is ‘head of those resisting it’, ambassador to UK tells Sky News
Russia wants “quick peace” in Ukraine and London is at the “head of those resisting” it, the Russian ambassador to the UK has told Sky News.
In an interview on The World With Yalda Hakim, Andrei Kelin accused the UK, France and other European nations of not wanting to end the war in Ukraine.
“We are prepared to negotiate and to talk,” he said. “We have our position. If we can strike a negotiated settlement… we need a very serious approach to that and a very serious agreement about all of that – and about security in Europe.”
Russian ambassador Andrei Kelin speaks to Yalda Hakim
US President Donald Trump held a surprise phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin last month, shocking America’s European allies. He went on to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” and relations between the pair were left in tatters after a meeting in the Oval Office descended into a shouting match.
Days later, the US leader suspended military aid to Ukraine, though there were signs the relationship between the two leaders appeared to be on the mend following the contentious White House meeting last week, with Mr Trump saying he “appreciated” a letter from Mr Zelenskyy saying Kyiv was ready to sign a minerals agreement with Washington “at any time”.
In his interview with Sky News’ Yalda Hakim, Mr Kelin said he was “not surprised” the US has changed its position on Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2022, claiming Mr Trump “knows the history of the conflict”.
“He knows history and is very different from European leaders,” he added.
No doubt Russia is welcoming shift in world order
I’ve interviewed the Russian ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin, on a number of occasions, at times the conversation has been tense and heated.
But today, I found a diplomat full of confidence and cautiously optimistic.
The optics of course have suddenly changed in Russia’s favour since Donald Trump was elected.
I asked him if Russia couldn’t believe its luck. “I would not exaggerate this too much,” he quipped.
Mr Kelin also “categorically” ruled out European troops on the ground and said the flurry of diplomatic activity and summits over the course of the past few weeks is not because Europeans want to talk to Moscow but because they want to present something to Mr Trump.
He appeared to relish the split the world is witnessing in transatlantic relations.
Of course the ambassador remained cagey about the conversations that have taken place between President Trump and Vladimir Putin.
There is no doubt however that Russia is welcoming what Mr Kelin says is a shift in the world order.
Peace deal ‘should recognise Russian advances’
The Russian ambassador said Moscow had told Washington it believed its territorial advances in Ukraine “should be recognised” as part of any peace deal.
“What we will need is a new Ukraine as a neutral, non-nuclear state,” he said. “The territorial situation should be recognised. These territories have been included in our constitution and we will continue to push that all forces of the Ukrainian government will leave these territories.”
Asked if he thought the Americans would agree to give occupied Ukrainian land to Russia, he said: “I don’t think we have discussed it seriously. [From] what I have read, the Americans actually understand the reality.”
Read more:
What you need to know from a monumental week in Ukraine
US ‘destroying’ world order by trying to meet Russia ‘halfway’
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In full: Russian ambassador’s interview with Sky’s Yalda Hakim
Moscow rules out NATO peacekeepers in Ukraine
He said Russia “categorically ruled out” the prospect of NATO peacekeepers on the ground in Ukraine – a proposal made by UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron – saying “they have no rules of engagement” and so would just be “sitting in cities”.
“It’s senseless” and “not for reality,” Mr Kelin added.
He branded the temporary ceasefire raised by Mr Zelenskyy “a crazy idea”, and said: “We will never accept it and they perfectly are aware of that.
“We will only accept the final version, when we are going to sign it. Until then things are very shaky.”
He added: “We’re trying to find a resolution on the battlefield, until the US administration suggest something constructive.”
World
US ‘destroying’ international rules-based order by trying to meet Russia ‘halfway’, Ukraine’s UK ambassador warns
The United States is “finally destroying” the international rules-based order by trying to meet Russia “halfway”, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK has warned.
Valerii Zaluzhnyi said Washington’s recent actions in relation to Moscow could lead to the collapse of NATO – with Europe becoming Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s next target.
“The failure to qualify actions of Russia as an aggression is a huge challenge for the entire world and Europe, in particular,” he told a conference at the Chatham House think tank.
Ukraine latest: ‘Watershed moment’ as Kremlin blasts Macron
“We see that it is not just the axis of evil and Russia trying to revise the world order, but the US is finally destroying this order.”
Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Pic: Reuters
Mr Zaluzhnyi, who took over as Kyiv’s ambassador to London in 2024 following three years as commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, also warned that the White House had “questioned the unity of the whole Western world” – suggesting NATO could cease to exist as a result.
It comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy scrambles to repair relations with US President Donald Trump following a dramatic row between the two men in the Oval Office last week.
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Mr Trump signalled on Tuesday that tensions could be easing, telling Congress he had received a letter from Mr Zelenskyy saying he was ready to sign a peace deal “at any time”.
Zelenskyy and Trump during their extraordinary Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Read more:
New Zealand fires UK envoy for Trump comments
US stops sharing all intelligence with Ukraine
But on the same day, the US president ordered a sudden freeze on shipments of US military aid to Ukraine, and Washington has since paused intelligence sharing with Kyiv and halted cyber operations against Russia.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Mr Zaluzhnyi said the pause in cyber operations and an earlier decision by the US to oppose a UN resolution condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine were “a huge challenge for the entire world”.
He added that talks between the US and Russia – “headed by a war criminal” – showed the White House “makes steps towards the Kremlin, trying to meet them halfway”, warning Moscow’s next target “could be Europe”.
World
Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh being forced to fight for same military accused of genocide against their people
Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh is a sprawling mass of humanity.Â
It’s a sea of makeshift bamboo shelters, home to more than one million Rohingya refugees – a mainly Muslim minority from Rakhine state in Myanmar.
Some 700,000 fled their homeland back in 2017 – after the Myanmar military massacred thousands.
The army was accused of genocide by the United Nations.
The Rohingya refugees didn’t escape danger though.
Right now, violence is at its worst levels in the camps since 2017 and Rohingya people face a particularly cruel new threat – they’re being forced back to fight for the same Myanmar military accused of trying to wipe out their people.
A child at the refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar
Militant groups are recruiting Rohingya men in the camps, some at gunpoint, and taking them back to Myanmar to fight for a force that’s losing ground.
Jaker is just 19.
We’ve changed his name to protect his identity.
He says he was abducted at gunpoint last year by a group of nine men in Cox’s.
They tied his hands with rope he says and took him to the border where he was taken by boat with three other men to fight for the Myanmar military.
“It was heartbreaking,” he told me. “They targeted poor children. The children of wealthy families only avoided it by paying money.”
And he says the impact has been deadly.
“Many of our Rohingya boys, who were taken by force from the camps, were killed in battle.”
Jaker speaks to Sky’s Cordelia Lynch
An aerial view of the refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar
The situation in Cox’s is desperate.
People are disillusioned by poverty, violence and the plight of their own people and the civil war they ran from is getting worse.
In Rakhine, just across the border, there’s been a big shift in dynamics.
The Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic armed group has all but taken control of the state from the ruling military junta.
Both the military and the AA are accused of committing atrocities against Rohingya Muslims.
And whilst some Rohingya claim they’re being forced into the fray – dragged back to Myanmar from Bangladesh, others are willing to go.
Read more from Sky News:
Bangladesh leader reacts to ‘House of Mirrors’ prison
Inside Bangladesh’s ‘death squad’ jails
Sri Lanka rescues more than 100 people believed to be Rohingya refugees
Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar – where refugees arrive from Myanmar after crossing the Naf River
Some are so aggrieved with the AA, they’re willing to support their former persecutors.
Abu Zar is one of those willing to take up arms.
But not for the military or AA, he says.
Everyone praying in the mosque with him is prepared to go back to protect their own cause he says – not anyone else’s.
“We want to fight for our rights because we have been demanding justice for a long time. But the situation has become unbearable,” he tells me.
Abu Zar has said he is willing to take up arms for his own cause
It’s estimated between 3,000 and 5,000 Rohingya have joined armed groups from this camp.
But the fight they are joining has become increasingly bloody.
In a cramped shelter, we meet Safura.
Safura came under fire as she fled Myanmar
Safura’s son Aman had his foot blown off
Five days ago she managed to get out of Myanmar but she had to be carried part of the way.
Her legs are riddled with bullet wounds and the pain is severe.
Her son, Aman, who lies on the floor next to her, has had his foot blown off.
They were injured she said, during an attack on her family home in the middle of the night.
“They entered our house and shot all my family members. My husband and mother-in-law were killed on the spot.”
The military denies forcing Rohingya to the battlefield. But the camps tell a different story- one of surging violence and vulnerability.
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