Call for probe into senior Tory’s coaching of witnesses for MPs’ committees

Published

3 years ago

August 8, 2021

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Labour are calling for a senior Conservative to be investigated for training witnesses before they give crucial evidence to MPs.

Parliament’s standards watchdog has been told to “urgently” look into payments made to James Gray for coaching witnesses ahead of appearances before select committees.

The Tory MP has been receiving the cash while sitting on three House of Commons’ committees himself.

The Mail on Sunday, which first reported on Mr Gray’s training sessions, quoted one MP as comparing the work to “insider dealing”.

Select committees scrutinise both government departments and other public bodies, as well as investigating various areas of public interest.

They are able to compel witnesses to give evidence, which often forms a key part of committees’ final reports and recommendations.

In his register of financial interests, Mr Gray has listed two payments from a company named as Electric Airwaves.

One £550 payment from February this year was listed as being for “helping train a potential witness coming before the Public Accounts Committee”.

Another £550 payment registered last month was for “training witnesses coming before a select committee hearing”.

On its website, Electric Airwaves state that “some parliamentary committee hearings have taken on the air of ‘public courts'” in recent years.

They say they have “worked at the highest levels, preparing CEOs and other senior managers to present to best effect in front of parliamentary hearings”.

The firm’s training sessions “allows you to anchor your presentation, particularly if the questioning becomes hostile” and offers “coaching on how to build rapport with committee members and not antagonise them”, its website adds.

The sessions are also said to “find a carefully crafted soundbite that will resonate with committee members, the media and the public”.

One testimony from accountancy firm PKF Littlejohn states: “I’m just glad it’s all over and can’t thank you… enough for the assistance in preparing for the session.

“I dread to think how it would have gone without the time spent… absolutely invaluable.”

In 2015, PKF Littlejohn were criticised by MPs over the collapse of the Kids Company charity.

Other clients of Electric Airwaves, according to the firm’s website, are G4S and Tata Steel – who have both previously been condemned by select committees – as well as JCB, who have donated large sums to the Conservative Party in recent years.

Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds said: “Parliament’s standards watchdog needs to look at this case urgently.

“We need to know who James Gray trained and which committees they have given evidence to.

“There cannot be one rule for senior Conservatives and their cronies, and another rule for everyone else.”

Mr Gray has sat on 12 different Commons committees since first being elected to parliament in 1997.

Electric Airwaves managing director Andrew Caesar-Gordon was quoted by the Mail on Sunday as saying there was “nothing illegal” about hiring MPs to provide committee training.

Mr Gray did not respond to Sky News’ request for comment.

Politics

Rishi Sunak apologises to infected blood scandal victims and says it is ‘day of shame for British state’

Published

3 hours ago

May 20, 2024

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Rishi Sunak apologises to infected blood scandal victims and says it is 'day of shame for British state'

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has offered a “wholehearted and unequivocal” apology to the victims of the infected blood scandal, saying it was a “day of shame for the British state”.

Mr Sunak said the findings of the Infected Blood Inquiry’s final report should “shake our nation to its core”, as he promised to pay “comprehensive compensation to those infected and those affected”, adding: “Whatever it costs to deliver this scheme, we will pay it.”

The report from the inquiry’s chair Sir Brian Langstaff blamed “successive governments, the NHS, and blood services” for failures that led to 30,000 people being “knowingly” infected with either HIV or Hepatitis C through blood products. Around 3,000 people have now died.

The prime minister said for any government apology to be “meaningful”, it had to be “accompanied by action”.

Politics live: Thatcher’s health secretary ‘disparaging’ to infected blood victims

Speaking in the Commons, Mr Sunak called it a “calamity”, saying the report showed a “decades-long moral failure at the heart of our national life”, as he condemned the actions of the NHS, civil service and ministers – “institutions in which we place our trust failed in the most harrowing and devastating way”.

The prime minister said they “failed this country”, adding: “Time and again, people in positions of power and trust had the chance to stop the transmission of those infections. Time and again, they failed to do so.

“I want to make a whole-hearted and unequivocal apology for this terrible injustice.”

Pointing to key findings in the report – from the destruction of documents through to failures over screening – Mr Sunak said there had been “layer upon layer of hurt endured across decades”.

He also apologised for the “institutional refusal to face up to these failings and worse, to deny and even attempt to cover them up”, adding: “This is an apology from the state to every single person impacted by this scandal.

“It did not have to be this way. It should never have been this way. And on behalf of this and every government stretching back to the 1970s, I am truly sorry.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer also apologised for his party’s part in the scandal, telling the Commons: “I want to acknowledge to every single person who has suffered that in addition to all of the other failings, politics itself failed you.

“That failure applies to all parties, including my own. There is only one word, sorry.”

In his report, released earlier on Monday, Sir Brian issued 12 recommendations – including an immediate compensation scheme and ensuring anyone who received a blood transfusion before 1996 was urgently tested for Hepatitis C.

He also called for compensation – something Mr Sunak said would come and would be outlined in the Commons on Tuesday.

But speaking to Sky News’ Sarah-Jane Mee, he warned the “disaster” of the scandal still wasn’t over, saying: “More than 3,000 have died, and deaths keep on happening week after week.

“I’d like people to take away the fact that this is not just something which happened. It is happening.”

Sir Brian said what had happened to the victims was “no accident”, adding: “People put their trust in the doctors and the government to keep them safe. That trust was betrayed.

“And then the government compounded the agony by repeatedly saying that no wrong had been done.”

But he hoped the report would ensure “these mistakes are not repeated”.

He told Sky News: “We don’t want another 30,000 people to go into hospital and come out with infections which were avoidable, which are life-shattering, which were no accident.

“And we don’t want the government to end up being defensive about them – but instead to be candid [and] forthcoming in the ways which I’ve just suggested.”

Politics

SEC rumored to be reconsidering spot Ether ETF denial, say analysts

Published

3 hours ago

May 20, 2024

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SEC rumored to be reconsidering spot Ether ETF denial, say analysts

ETF analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas said they had increased their odds of the SEC approving a spot Ether exchange-traded fund from 25% to 75%.