Greg Hands has said he will not resign as Conservative Party chair despite the government suffering another two by-election defeats in safe Tory seats.
Mr Hands said the results in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire – where the Labour Party overturned substantial Tory majorities – were “clearly disappointing”, but blamed low turnout among traditional Conservative voters.
He sought to deflect blame away from Rishi Sunak, saying the defeats – which came on the back of two by-election losses in July – were the result of “legacy issues” that pre-dated Mr Sunak’s time in office.
Asked whether he would consider his position as party chair in light of the defeats, Mr Hands replied: “No.”
Mr Hands, who was appointed Tory party chair in February, said “clearly there’s unhappiness with the Conservative Party” as he admitted the party needed to “reflect” on why its voters did not go to the polls.
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“I might say that the big problem we have is still Conservative voters staying at home,” Mr Hands told Sky News.
“The Labour vote hardly went up at all, in fact it went down slightly in Mid Bedfordshire, no breakthrough for the Liberal Democrats.
“But clearly disappointing for us and we’ll have to reflect on the fact that a large number of Conservative voters stayed at home.”
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Double by-election defeat for Tories
However, he said the Tories will be “very hopeful of regaining those two seats” at the next election.
Mr Hands’s decision to stay in post comes in contrast to his predecessor, Oliver Dowden, who quit as party chair following two by-election defeats in Tiverton and Honiton and Wakefield last year.
The Labour Party is celebrating after it claimed two by-election victories in Tamworth, Staffordshire, and in Mid Bedfordshire.
The by-elections had been called following the resignations of the previous MPs Chris Pincher and Nadine Dorries.
Mr Pincher resigned in September after he lost an appeal against an eight-week suspension from the Commons following the groping allegations that precipitated the downfall of Boris Johnson as prime minister.
Former cabinet minister Ms Dorries officially resigned in August – 81 days after she announced she would quit the Commons with “immediate effect”.
In Tamworth, the Conservatives were defending a 19,600 majority, but a 23.9 percentage point swing to Labour saw that eradicated.
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‘Country is so desperate for change’
The historic result, declared shortly before 3am, was the second-highest-ever by-election swing to Labour.
Mid Bedfordshire saw the largest numeric Tory majority ever overturned by Labour at a by-election since 1945.
The Conservatives have held the rural seat since 1931, winning with a 24,664 majority in 2019.
Mr Hands stressed there were “very specific circumstances” surrounding the by-elections in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire and that he believed they were not a “good indicator” of how the general election will turn out.
The party’s defeats have been criticised by its own MPs, with Dame Andrea Jenkyns saying the Tories needed to make “far-reaching major changes now”.
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Writing on social media, Dame Andrea said: “Voter apathy is evident yet again in both the #ByElections, low turnout -20k failed to turnout in Tamworth, 24k failed to turnout in Mid Beds since the last election.
“We need to make far-reaching major changes now to instil confidence in the Conservative voters.”
David Frost, the UK’s former chief Brexit negotiator, said the results were “extremely bad for my party”.
“I don’t think it helps to suggest otherwise, as some party figures have done this morning,” he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“The current national polls are dreadful for us but these results are even worse.
“Yes, things are different at by-elections and there were probably special factors. But these results show that the national polls are broadly correct and that a strategy of denial is unlikely to work.”
But Labour’s national campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden said the results overnight were “not normal” for the Tories.
“These were not constituencies that were even on our target list, so really big, important results, indicating change in politics,” he told Sky News.
“We’re absolutely delighted with our victories last night but of course conscious as well that we’ve still got a lot of work to do between now and a general election.”
Ukraine’s financial regulator has proposed taxing certain crypto transactions as personal income at a rate of up to 23% but excluding crypto-to-crypto transactions and stablecoins.
Crypto transactions would be taxed at 18% with a 5% military levy on top as part of the proposed framework, released on April 8 by Ukraine’s National Securities and Stock Market Commission.
NSSMC Chairman Ruslan Magomedov said in an April 8 statement that “the issue of crypto taxes is not a hypothesis, but a reality that is fast approaching.”
He added that the agency created the framework to help lawmakers make an “informed resolution” by considering each suggestion’s advantages and disadvantages because “these aspects can have a critical impact on the market and tax liability.”
Under the NSSMC’s proposed crypto framework, a tax will be applied when crypto is cashed out for fiat currency or exchanged for goods or services.
Crypto-to-crypto transactions wouldn’t be taxed, bringing Ukraine in line with other European countries, including Austria and France, as well as crypto-friendly jurisdictions like Singapore, the NSSMC said.
The regulator says it “makes sense” to exclude stablecoins backed by foreign currencies or only apply a 5% or 9% tax because Ukraine’s tax code already excludes income from transactions in “foreign exchange values.”
A translated excerpt of the NSSMC’s report said stablecoins backed by foreign currencies could be exempt from taxation. Source: NSSMC
Mining, staking, hard forks and airdrops
Other crypto-related activities, such as mining, staking and airdrops, are also addressed in the framework which floated a few options for taxation.
The NSSMC said crypto mining is generally considered a business activity, but there might be a general tax-free limit for certain crypto transactions, including mining.
Under the framework, staking could be considered as “business captive income” or only taxed if the crypto is cashed out for fiat currencies. While hard forks and airdrops could be taxed either as ordinary income or when the tokens are cashed.
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The regulator suggests a tax-free threshold could help “relieve the burden on small investors” and is common in other jurisdictions.
Exemptions for donations, transfers between family members, and holders who keep their crypto for a set amount of time are also flagged as possibilities. However, the NSSMC says the exemption might not apply to non-custodial crypto wallets.
Last December, Daniil Getmantsev, head of the tax committee of Ukraine’s parliament, said a draft bill to legalize cryptocurrencies was under review and expected to be finalized early this year.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy first signed a law establishing a legal framework for the country to operate a regulated crypto market in March 2022.
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Digital asset manager 21Shares has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a spot Dogecoin exchange-traded fund, following similar filings from rivals Bitwise and Grayscale.
The 21Shares Dogecoin ETF would seek to track the price of the memecoin Dogecoin (DOGE), according to the firm’s April 9 Form S-1 registration statement. The Dogecoin Foundation’s corporate arm, House of Doge, plans to assist 21Shares with marketing the fund.
21Shares said Coinbase Custody would be the proposed custodian of its Dogecoin ETF but did not specify a fee, ticker or what stock exchange it would list on.
Source: James Seyffart
21Shares must also file a 19b-4 filing with the SEC to kickstart the regulator’s approval process for the fund.
DOGE currently has a $24.2 billion market cap and is the eighth-largest cryptocurrency by value. It was created in 2013 as a joke and is a fork of Lucky Coin, which itself is a fork of Bitcoin.
21Shares’ proposed Dogecoin ETF is the company’s latest effort to expand its spot crypto ETF offerings, which currently includes only a spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) fund.
The issuer also filed with the SEC in February to launch a spot Polkadot (DOT) ETF and last year, it filed to create a spot XRP (XRP) ETF.
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The recent surge in crypto ETF filings reflects a “spaghetti cannon approach” from issuers testing which products the new SEC leadership might approve, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said in February.
“Issuers will try to launch many many different things and see what sticks,” Seyffart said.
Seyffart and fellow Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said in February that there is a 75% chance that the SEC will approve a spot Dogecoin ETF this year, while the betting platform Polymarket currently gives approval odds of 64%.
21Shares and House of Doge partner for DOGE funds in Switzerland
21Shares also said on April 9 that it partnered with House of Doge to launch a fully backed Dogecoin exchange-traded product on Switzerland’s SIX Swiss Exchange.
The 21Shares Dogecoin product will trade under the ticker “DOGE” with a 2.5% fee.
21Shares president Duncan Moir said that Dogecoin “has become more than a cryptocurrency: it represents a cultural and financial movement that continues to drive mainstream adoption, and DOGE offers investors a regulated avenue to be part of this exciting project.”
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Update April 10 at 1:41am UTC: This article has been updated to include more background on Paul Atkins before becoming SEC chair.
The US Senate has confirmed US President Donald Trump’s nominee, Paul Atkins, as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission in a 51-45 vote largely along party lines.
Atkins’ confirmation on April 9 comes after Trump named the pro-crypto former Wall Street consultant to lead the agency late last year. Atkins also served as an SEC commissioner between 2002 and 2008, during the global financial crisis.
”A veteran of our Commission, we look forward to him joining with us, along with our dedicated staff, to fulfill our mission on behalf of the investing public,” the agency’s commissioners wrote in an April 9 statement.
Atkins founded financial consulting firm Patomak Global Partners in 2009, specializing in regulatory compliance and risk management, and served as co-chair of crypto advocacy group Token Alliance between 2017 and late 2024.
After he’s sworn in, Atkins will take over from Mark Uyeda, who has been the SEC’s acting chair since Jan. 20, after former chair Gary Gensler stepped down. Gensler’s tenure saw the SEC launch multiple lawsuits and investigations against crypto firms over alleged breaches of securities laws.
Source: Cynthia Lummis
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott expressed confidence that Atkins would continue the SEC’s crypto-friendly approach that it has taken under the Trump administration.
“Atkins will also provide regulatory clarity for digital assets, allowing American innovation to flourish, and ensuring we remain competitive on the global stage.”
Under Trump, the SEC created a Crypto Task Force to consult with the industry on regulation and dropped several crypto-related investigations and enforcement actions undertaken by the Gensler-led SEC.
Atkins is expected to take a different approach, telling a Senate confirmation hearing in March that a top priority of his at the SEC would be “to provide a firm regulatory foundation for digital assets through a rational, coherent, and principled approach.”
Atkins’ confirmation delayed by disclosures
Atkins’ confirmation was reportedly delayed due to several financial disclosures he needed to file as a result of marrying into a billionaire family.
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He married Sarah Humphreys Atkins in 1990 — whose family is tied to TAMKO Building Products LLC, a manufacturer of residential roofing shingles that turned over $1.2 billion in revenue in 2023, Forbes reported in December. The couple have a reported combined net worth of at least $327 million.
Some of those financial disclosures revealed that Atkins owned up to $6 million worth of crypto-related investments, including crypto custody platform Anchorage Digital and blockchain tokenization platform Securitize, Fortune reported last month.
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