Rishi Sunak faces prospect of by-election as MP Scott Benton recommended for 35-day suspension

Published

1 year ago

December 14, 2023

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Rishi Sunak is facing another by-election after the Commons standards committee recommended MP Scott Benton be suspended from the chamber for 35 days.

Mr Benton was suspended from the parliamentary Tory party in April after being caught by The Times suggesting he would be willing to break lobbying rules for money.

In its ruling handed down this morning, the committee said “by repeatedly indicating his willingness to disregard the House’s rules, and by giving the impression that many Members of the House had in the past and will in the future engage in such misconduct, Mr Benton committed a very serious breach” of the rules.

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A suspension of more than 10 days – if passed by a vote in the Commons – means that a recall petition is triggered.

This means Mr Benton’s constituents can decide whether they want to hold a by-election.

He was elected as the Tory MP for Blackpool South in 2019, and has a majority of just 3,690. It had been a Labour seat since 1997 – but was Conservative before that.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats have both overturned five-figure majorities in recent by-elections.

The committee highlighted aggravating factors in their decision about Mr Benton – including him providing an “incomplete and incorrect picture of what had transpired”.

They also noted that it was a “repeat offence, or indication that the offence was part of a pattern of behaviour”.

‘Toxic message about standards in parliament’

“Mr Benton’s comments about his past willingness to collude with companies in making false valuations of hospitality suggest that this could have been a pattern of conduct on his part,” they added.

The committee categorised what the former Tory MP did as an “extremely serious breach”.

The report added: “The message he gave to his interlocutors at the 7 March meeting was that he was corrupt and ‘for sale’, and that so were many other members of the House. He communicated a toxic message about standards in parliament.”

The 35-day suspension is one of the longest ever recommended by the committee – although Boris Johnson would have been recommended for a 90-day period if he had not resigned from the Commons first for misleading parliament over the Partygate scandal.

Mr Benton met undercover reporters from The Times who were posing as employees of a fake lobbying company.

The chair of the all-party parliamentary group for betting and gaming suggested he would be happy to be paid between £2,000 and £4,000 a month to help the fake company – complete with a logo, website and office addresses in London and Chennai in India.

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There are strict rules that prevent MPs from carrying out paid lobbying or advising how to influence parliament.

Mr Benton ultimately did not accept any financial payment arising from the meeting.

Politics

Robert Jenrick vows to ‘bring coalition together’ to end Tory-Reform fight

Published

2 hours ago

April 23, 2025

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Robert Jenrick vows to 'bring coalition together' to end Tory-Reform fight

Robert Jenrick has vowed to “bring this coalition together” to ensure that Conservatives and Reform UK are no longer fighting each other for votes by the time of the next election, according to a leaked recording obtained by Sky News.

The shadow justice secretary told an event with students last month he would try “one way or another” to make sure Reform UK and the Tories do not compete at another general election and hand a second term in office to Keir Starmer in the process.

In the exclusive audio, Mr Jenrick can be heard telling the students he is still working hard to put Reform UK out of business – the position of the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.

However, more controversially, the comments also suggest he can envisage a time when that position may no longer be viable and has to change. He denies any suggestion this means he is advocating a Tory-Reform UK pact.

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The shadow justice secretary came second to Mrs Badenoch in the last leadership contest and is the bookies’ favourite to replace her as the next Conservative leader.

Speaking to the UCL Conservative association dinner in late March, he can be heard saying: “[Reform UK] continues to do well in the polls. And my worry is that they become a kind of permanent or semi-permanent fixture on the British political scene. And if that is the case, and I say, I am trying to do everything I can to stop that being the case, then life becomes a lot harder for us, because the right is not united.

“And then you head towards the general election, where the nightmare scenario is that Keir Starmer sails in through the middle as a result of the two parties being disunited. I don’t know about you, but I’m not prepared for that to happen.

“I want the fight to be united. And so, one way or another, I’m determined to do that and to bring this coalition together and make sure we unite as a nation as well.”

This is the furthest a member of the shadow cabinet has gone in suggesting that they think the approach to Reform UK may evolve before the next general election.

Last night, Mr Jenrick denied this meant he was advocating a pact with Reform UK.

A source close to Mr Jenrick said: “Rob’s comments are about voters and not parties. He’s clear we have to put Reform out of business and make the Conservatives the natural home for all those on the right, rebuilding the coalition of voters we had in 2019 and can have again. But he’s under no illusions how difficult that is – we have to prove over time we’ve changed and can be trusted again.”

Mrs Badenoch has said in interviews that she cannot see any circumstances that the Tories under her leadership would do a deal with Reform UK.

In next week’s local elections, Reform UK will compete directly against the Tories in a series of contests from Kent to Lincolnshire. At last year’s general election, in more than 170 of the 251 constituencies lost by the Conservatives the Reform vote was greater than the margin of the Tories’ defeat.

Today’s YouGov/Sky voting intention figures put Reform UK in front on 25%, Labour on 23% and the Conservatives on 20%, with the Lib Dems on 16% and Greens on 10%.

Politics

SEC says it won’t re-file fraud case against Hex’s Richard Heart

Published

3 hours ago

April 23, 2025

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SEC says it won’t re-file fraud case against Hex’s Richard Heart

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has said it doesn’t intend to refile its securities fraud complaint against Hex founder Richard Schueler, who goes by Richard Heart.

“Plaintiff Securities and Exchange Commission provides this notice that it does not intend to file an amended complaint in this matter,” the regulator’s lawyer, Matthew Gulde, stated in an April 21 letter to New York District Court Judge Carol Bagley Amon.

The court had previously dismissed the SEC’s original complaint on Feb. 28 as Judge Amon said the regulator failed to establish that it had jurisdiction over Heart’s activities, which she said were not specifically targeted at US investors.

She granted leave for the SEC to file an amended complaint by March 20, later extending the deadline to April 21.

Heart posted to X on April 22 that “Richard Heart, PulseChain, PulseX, and HEX have defeated the SEC completely and have achieved regulatory clarity that nearly no other coins have.”

Heart added that the SEC walked away from some of its other cryptocurrency cases voluntarily, but claimed his was the only case where “the SEC lost and crypto won across the board, with a dismissal in court of every single claim the SEC brought.”

Heart said it was a victory for open-source software, cryptocurrency and free speech because the SEC “actually sued software code itself in this case.”

SEC hunted Heart in Finland

The SEC sued Heart in July 2023 for alleged unregistered securities offerings of three tokens, HEX, PulseChain (PLS), and PulseX (PSLX), claiming he made more than $1 billion by touting the tokens as a “pathway to grandiose wealth for investors.”

In April 2024, Heart tried to have the suit tossed, claiming the regulator “has no sway over him,” because he didn’t reside in the United States.

The SEC opposed this in August, claiming he touted the tokens at a Las Vegas event. In December 2024, Interpol issued a Red Notice for Heart, seeking his arrest in Finland, where he was also suspected of tax evasion.

The PulseChain native token (HEX) hit an all-time high of $0.031 in December 2024 but has since tanked 76% as most altcoins have failed to follow Bitcoin’s momentum this year.

The SEC has dropped or suspended several cases against crypto firms so far this year under the Trump administration.

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Politics

Australia’s top court sides with Block Earner, dismisses financial regulator’s suit

Published

5 hours ago

April 23, 2025

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<div>Australia’s top court sides with Block Earner, dismisses financial regulator's suit</div>

The Federal Court of Australia has sided with fintech firm Block Earner in an appeal against a ruling that found it was required to hold a financial services license for its now-discontinued crypto-related products.

Block Earner’s crypto-linked fixed-yield earning product is not a financial product, or a managed investment scheme, and is not a derivative under the Corporations Act, Justices David O’Callaghan, Wendy Abraham and Catherine Button said in an April 22 judgment.

The trio said Block Earner’s yield product couldn’t be classed as an investment or financial product because users loaned crypto under fixed terms for interest payments and didn’t pool contributions to generate further benefits. The terms and conditions framed it as a loan, and users had no exposure to the firm’s business outside of the agreed interest rate, they added.

Law, Australia, ASIC, Court — *A court has dismissed the legal proceedings against Block Earner and ordered Australia’s financial regulator to pay costs. Source:* *ASIC*

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), which first brought the case, has been ordered by the court to pay costs for the proceedings, including appeals. The regulator said in an April 22 press release that it is currently “considering this decision.”

Block Earner’s chief commercial officer, James Coombes, told Cointelegraph the court decision brings clarity that crypto assets shouldn’t be treated differently from other asset classes when applying existing laws.

“Our product was simply defined as one where customers would lend their assets to us for a fixed return, there was no share in the upside of the pool of assets and as such no Managed Investment Scheme existed,” he said.

“The fact that it included crypto assets should not alter that simple definition, and I believe this case forms a bedrock for ambitious brands around Australia to build from.”

An ASIC spokesperson declined further comment.

Earner product won’t make a return

Despite the win in court, Block Earner will not be reviving its Earner product after axing it when legal proceedings began, but Coombes said that “crypto-backed loans products remain the core focus of the company.”

“Regulation going forward is not an easy task, and we empathise with the regulators on this point,” Coombes added. “We hope a collaborative process can bring about positive change.”

ASIC launched civil legal proceedings in November 2022, arguing that Block Earner needed an Australian Financial Services License to offer its three crypto-linked fixed-yield earning products.

In February 2024, an Australian court initially found the fintech firm would need a financial services license to operate its crypto yield-bearing products.

Another June 2024 ruling released Block Earner from any financial penalties because it had “acted honestly” and pursued its legal opinions before launching the products, which ASIC appealed.

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