Tories want to create dividing lines with Labour – but small boats week shows that can backfire
To sanitise a quote from fictional government spin doctor Malcolm Tucker, “no one talks about dodgy donors okay? Because it makes everybody look bad.”
The real-life Downing Street operation may be learning a similar lesson to this during their summer campaign to try and create dividing lines with Labour on key election issues.
Put plainly: is it wise to throw the spotlight onto policy areas like housing, migration and health when the Conservative’s own record is patchy at best?
Take the so-called “small boats week”.
The aim was to demonstrate tangible progress and restate Tory commitment to hard-line measures to discourage channel crossings.
In reality, we ended the week with 39 migrants being taken off a barge in Dorset because of a Legionella alert; an uptick in channel crossings and the total number of people recorded making the journey passing the 100,000 mark; and six people losing their lives in the Channel after their boat began to sink off the French coast.
A rescue operation this weekend after a migrant boat capsized
The Bibby Stockholm affair is arguably the biggest backfire.
It’s important to remember that – despite the endless media attention – the vessel was never much of an answer to the vexed question of what to do with the 50,000 or so asylum seekers housed in hotels.
Even at full capacity, the Bibby would only take 1% of that number.
No, the aim of the barge was for it to be a symbol of the government’s no holds barred approach to irregular migration.
It’s now warped into something quite different.
Tory MPs and voters may be forgiven for wondering what chance there is of hundreds of asylum seekers being permanently settled in Rwanda if the government can’t even keep a few dozen on a barge in Dorset for more than a week.
Or to put it another way, this is about competency.
And that’s what makes it dangerous for Rishi Sunak, because he has staked his premiership on his broader ability to fix problems and get things done.
But that’s not to say there aren’t some questions for Labour as well.
Part of the political strategy behind the Bibby Stockholm was to force Labour to take a position on this divisive election issue.
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Campaigners: ‘More people will die’ in Channel
The party appeared to do that this week with the shadow immigration minister calling the measure a “mess” but also suggesting they would initially keep the barge if in government.
The partial implosion of the policy now shows the potential dangers of this flavour of political triangulation and will likely fuel calls from the left of the party for the leadership to be bolder in speaking out on divisive so-called “wedge” issues.
So what next?
We’re told to expect a focus on the NHS in the coming days with the Health Secretary Steve Barclay provocatively writing to the Labour and SNP-run governments in Wales and Scotland to offer help with waiting lists.
But again, how wise is this given the health service in England starts the week with junior doctors on strike and with NHS leaders warning it may not be possible to meet the prime minister’s promise of cutting waiting lists?
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Of course, the reason these strategies look risky is because of the unstable domestic backdrop the government is presiding over.
The hope in Downing Street is that by the time of the next election, progress on the economy, healthcare and migration will give ministers a firmer footing to launch attacks from.
The calculation for this current campaign may simply be “why not?” – given Labour’s huge poll lead and the fact that public attention is largely elsewhere during the summer break.
Or to put it another way: such is the state of the glass house Rishi Sunak is currently sat in, there’s probably little harm in throwing a few stones.
Shuttered crypto exchange Garantex is reportedly back under a new name after laundering millions in ruble-backed stablecoins and sending them to a freshly created exchange, according to a Swiss blockchain analytics company.
Global Ledger claims the operators of the Russian exchange have shifted liquidity and customer deposits to Grinex, which they say is “Garantex’s full-fledged successor,” in a report released to X on March 19.
“We can confidently state that Grinex and Garantex are directly connected both onchain and offchain.”
“The movement of funds, including the systematic transfer of A7A5 liquidity, the use of one-time-use wallets, and the involvement of addresses previously associated with Garantex, provides clear onchain proof of their link,” the Global Ledger team said in the report.
After completing its investigation on March 13, Global Ledger says it had found onchain data showing Garantex laundered over $60 million worth of ruble-backed stablecoins called A7A5 and sent them to addresses associated with Grinex.
Global Ledger claims Garantex has moved all its funds over to a newly launched exchange and is back in business. Source: Global Ledger
“In this case, the burning and subsequent minting process was used to launder funds from Garantex, allowing new coins to be minted from a system address with a clean history,” the team said.
A Garantex manager also reportedly told Global Ledger that customers have been visiting the exchange office in person and moving funds from Garantex to Grinex.
“Additionally, offchain indicators, such as transactional patterns, commentaries and exchange behaviors, further reinforce this connection,” it said.
The report also points to a description of Grinex on the Russian crypto tracking site CoinMarketRating, claiming that the owners of Garantex created it. The reports said this shows “Grinex is not an independent entity but rather a full-fledged successor to Garantex, continuing its financial operations despite the exchange’s official shutdown.”
Source: Global Ledger
By March 14, the volume of incoming transactions on Grinex was nearly $30 million, according to Global Ledger. CoinMarketRating shows that the trade volume for the month is now over $68 million, with spot trading topping $2 million.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control first hit Garantex with sanctions in April 2022 for allegedly money laundering violations.
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On March 6, the US Department of Justice collaborated with authorities in Germany and Finland to freeze domains associated with Garantex, which they claim processed over $96 billion worth of criminal proceeds since launching in 2019.
Stablecoin operator Tether also froze $27 million in Tether (USDT), on March 6 which forced Garantex to halt all operations, including withdrawals.
Only a few days later, on March 12, officials with India’s Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Aleksej Bešciokov, who allegedly operated Garantex, on US charges that included conspiracy to commit money laundering.
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Ministers are drawing up plans restricting foreign donors from giving unlimited funds to UK political parties, Sky News understands.
Currently, political parties can accept donations from any company registered in the UK – and foreign donors can and have used these companies to make indirect contributions.
The rules allow for British companies to be used in this way even if they don’t make any money at all.
However, Sky News understands that officials are currently looking at restricting donations based on how much money a company makes – either using a profit or a share of revenue to calculate a potential cap for the amount each UK business can give.
The government says this is in line with its manifesto pledge to “protect democracy by strengthening the rules around donations to political parties”.
Senior government sources have told Sky News these changes are partially about Elon Musk.
Officials are said to be anxious about the rumoured donation of $100m (about £80m) that Musk has suggested he would make to Reform UK.
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Nigel Farage says ‘Musk is going to support Reform’
The government’s thinking is that the tech billionaire is likely to do this just before the next election, and they hope they can pass their Elections Bill – the legislation through which the donation loophole would be closed – through parliament before that happens.
The bill would enter parliament in the next session, but ministers have told MPs that they should expect an update to these plans within months.
Musk’s donation would be an astronomical amount in the context of British politics.
The sum would trump all political donations that have been made to any political party this year – and would inevitably make a big impact on campaigning.
Elon Musk is not on the electoral register and the British arm of his company X – X.AI London Limited – has not yet made any money.
Under the proposed changes, this avenue of donating money to Reform UK would not be possible.
Reform UK’s total received donations for 2024 would be considerably higher with £80m from Elon Musk
A government source said this is just one of the options on the table, adding that another change they are considering will mean enhanced due diligence checks on donations from unincorporated associations.
In exclusive polling, Sky News has found that any money given to parties by foreign donors is incredibly unpopular.
A total of 77% of respondents thought foreign nationals who are not registered to vote in the UK should not be allowed to donate to political parties, while only 7% thought they should be.
Even looking specifically at Reform UK voters, who would likely benefit from an Elon Musk donation, the percentage is roughly the same: 73% said they shouldn’t donate to British politics at all, while 7% said they should.
A total of 77% of respondents said foreign nationals should not be allowed to donate to UK political parties
There is a lot of cash swirling all around Westminster and foreign money can and does enter UK politics.
Transparency International found almost £1 in every £10 donated to parties and politicians came from unknown or dubious sources between 2001 and 2024.
Whatever the motivation, these changes could bring greater transparency to what’s behind any murky money swirling into Westminster.
Crypto regulations must be enacted through an act of Congress to become permanent and meaningful pieces of legislation, according to former Congressman Wiley Nickel.
In an exclusive video interview with Cointelegraph’s Turner Wright, Nickel urged bipartisan collaboration to push through comprehensive crypto regulations. The former Congressman added:
“I think it’s really important for anybody who cares about this issue to step back and realize that if you want lasting change in Washington, you must move legislation through Congress. Otherwise, if you’re talking about executive orders, it will just go back and forth.”
“You don’t want to have the mess that we saw just months ago with Gary Gensler’s SEC — you need to get legislation through Congress,” Nickel reiterated.
President Trump’s Jan. 23 executive order establishing the Working Group on Digital Assets, which also prohibited the development of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), and the order establishing a Bitcoin strategic reserve alongside a separate crypto stockpile, were both examples of executive actions that can be reversed at a later date.
Former Congressman Wiley Nickel is pictured sitting second from the left at the Blockworks Digital Asset Summit. Source: Cointelegraph
Related: Congress on track for stablecoin, market structure bills by August: Blockchain Association
Both chambers of Congress rush to push through meaningful legislation
Rep. Tom Emmer, the majority whip of the United States House of Representatives, reintroduced legislation banning a CBDC in the US on March 6.
Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis also reintroduced the Bitcoin Act in March, which builds upon an earlier bill of the same title but allows the US to purchase more than 1 million Bitcoin (BTC).
Senator Lummis’ Bitcoin Act of 2025. Source: Senator Cynthia Lummis
Rep. Byron Donalds recently announced that he would draft legislation to codify the Bitcoin strategic reserve into law — shielding President Trump’s original executive order from being overturned by a future administration.
On March 12, the House of Representatives repealed the IRS broker rule requiring decentralized finance platforms to report information to the Internal Revenue Service in a 292-131 vote.
Speaking at this year’s Blockworks Digital Asset Summit, Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna said that Congress should be able to pass comprehensive crypto regulation in 2025, including a stablecoin bill and a market structure bill.
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