Westminster Accounts: Powerful group of Tory MPs scrutinised by expenses watchdog after Sky News investigation

Published

2 years ago

July 13, 2023

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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.

Westminster Accounts – search for your MP with our interactive tool

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.

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.”

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

Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda sign US-brokered peace deal – but doubts over success linger

Published

2 hours ago

June 28, 2025

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Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda sign US-brokered peace deal - but doubts over success linger

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda have signed a peace deal which Donald Trump said he brokered – resulting in the US getting “a lot” of mineral rights in the process.

The deal has been touted as an important step towards ending the decades-long conflict in eastern DRC which has caused the deaths of six million people.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio called it “an important moment after 30 years of war”.

The Congo-Rwanda conflict explained

Earlier on Friday, President Trump said he was able to broker a deal for “one of the worst wars anyone’s ever seen”.

“I was able to get them together and sell it,” Mr Trump said. “And not only that, we’re getting for the United States a lot of the mineral rights from Congo.”

‘Great deal of uncertainty’

The Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group, the most prominent armed group in the conflict, has suggested that the agreement won’t be binding for them.

It hasn’t been directly involved in the planned peace deal.

DRC foreign minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner invoked the millions of victims of the conflict in signing the agreement with Rwandan foreign minister Olivier Nduhungirehe.

The agreement, signed by the foreign ministers during a ceremony with Mr Rubio in Washington, pledges to implement a 2024 deal that would see Rwandan troops withdraw from eastern DRC within 90 days, according to a copy seen by Reuters.

“Some wounds will heal, but they will never fully disappear,” Ms Wagner said. “Those who have suffered the most are watching. They are expecting this agreement to be respected, and we cannot fail them.”

Mr Nduhungirehe noted the “great deal of uncertainty” because previous agreements were not put in place.

“There is no doubt that the road ahead will not be easy,” he said. “But with the continued support of the United States and other partners, we believe that a turning point has been reached.”

World

UN data on Gaza deaths ‘disinformation’, claims head of controversial aid group

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1 day ago

June 27, 2025

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UN data on Gaza deaths 'disinformation', claims head of controversial aid group

The chief of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has called figures by the United Nations on people killed at aid hubs “disinformation”.

The UN said at least 410 Palestinians have been killed seeking food since Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on 19 May, while the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said at least 549 people have been killed.

Johnnie Moore, executive director of GHF, told Sky News that there is a “disinformation campaign” that is “meant to shut down our efforts” in the Gaza Strip, fuelled by “some figures” coming out every day.

Mr Moore, an evangelical preacher who served as a White House adviser in the first Trump administration, said his aid group has delivered more than 44 million meals to Gazans since it began operations in May.

The controversial group, backed by Israel and the United States, has been rejected by the UN and other aid groups, which have refused to cooperate with the GHF.

The aid agencies claim Israel is weaponising food, and the new distribution system using the GHF will be ineffective and lead to further displacement of Palestinians.

They also argue the GHF will fail to meet local needs and violate humanitarian principles that prohibit a warring party from controlling humanitarian assistance.

The GHF is distributing food packages, which they say can feed 5.5 people for 3.5 days, in four locations, with the majority in the far south of Gaza.

GHF chief was ‘really political, really punchy’ in Sky News interview

Tom Cheshire

Data and forensics correspondent

@chesh

It was really political, really punchy, and I think the heart of the matter here is that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is too political.

The principle of aid, when applied traditionally, is that it has to be applied neutrally and that is what used to happen.

Trucks would go into Gaza, and the UN would distribute that food. Israel, for a long time, said that’s not working and they blame Hamas for that.

At a briefing by the Israeli prime minister’s office yesterday, they were saying that Hamas was still looting those aid vehicles, and it was coming out with a plan to stop that. It didn’t provide evidence for that.

When we asked for evidence, they said we shouldn’t swallow Hamas disinformation. That’s a word that’s been used. That’s very, very political.

This is a different model of doing things. And that is the concern: that rather than just handing it over to a neutral body, this is too close to Israel, it’s too close to the US, and is backed financially by the US.

What does that actually imply? Well, if you’re choosing where those sites are, it means people are going to move down there if you’re not putting them in certain places.

The number of distribution sites has dwindled. It’s attenuated. And so, actually, if there are only a few and if there are any in the south of Gaza, that encourages people to move there, that might fit a political goal as well as a humanitarian one.

Thousands of Palestinians walk for hours to reach the aid hubs and have to move through Israeli military zones, where witnesses say the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) regularly open fire with heavy barrages to control the crowds.

Both figures from the UN and the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry say hundreds of people have been killed or wounded.

In response to Mr Moore’s comments, Rachael Cummings, Save the Children’s team leader in Gaza, told Sky News that people in Gaza “are being forced into the decision to go to retrieve food from the American- and Israeli-backed, militarised, food distribution point”.

“We’re not contesting at all that there have been casualties in the Gaza Strip. I mean, there’s no ceasefire. This is an active conflict,” Mr Moore said.

“I think people may not understand as clearly what it means to operate a humanitarian operation on this scale, in an environment this complex, in a piece of land as small as the Gaza Strip, and may not appreciate that almost anything that happens in the Gaza Strip is going to take place in proximity to something.”

Mr Moore said that the GHF was not denying that there had been “those incidents”, but said the GHF was able to talk to the IDF, which would conduct an investigation, while Hamas was “intentionally harming people for he purpose of defaming what we’re doing”.

He said the GHF, “an independent organisation operating with the blessing of the US government”, was “achieving its aims” by feeding Gazans.

It comes after the US State Department announced on Thursday that it had approved $30m in funding for the GHF as it called on other countries to also support the controversial group delivering aid in Gaza.

A spokesperson from the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs told Sky News that they are “open to any practical solutions that address the crisis on the ground” and are “happy” to talk to the GHF.

The spokeswoman added that the aid distribution in Gaza was not “currently a dignified process and that the format doesn’t follow humanitarian principles”.

She said that people have to walk for miles, and that there is no scalability, with aid not reaching everyone in need.

World

Japan executes ‘Twitter killer’ who murdered and dismembered nine people

Published

1 day ago

June 27, 2025

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Japan executes 'Twitter killer' who murdered and dismembered nine people

A man guilty of murdering nine people, most of whom had posted suicidal thoughts on social media, has been executed in Japan.

Takahiro Shiraishi, known as the “Twitter killer”, was sentenced to death in 2020 for the 2017 killings of the nine victims, who he also dismembered in his apartment near Tokyo.

His execution was the first use of capital punishment in the country in nearly three years and it was carried out as calls grow to abolish the measure in Japan since the acquittal of the world’s longest-serving death-row inmate Iwao Hakamada last year.

He was freed after 56 years on death row, following a retrial which heard police had falsified and planted evidence against him over the 1966 murders of his boss, wife and two children.

Eight of Shiraishi’s victims were women, including teenagers, who he killed after raping them. He also killed a boyfriend of one of the women to silence him.

Police arrested him in 2017 after finding the bodies of eight females and one male in cold-storage cases in his apartment.

Investigators said Shiraishi approached the victims via Twitter, offering to assist them with their suicidal wishes.

Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki, who authorised Shiraishi’s hanging, said he made the decision after careful examination, taking into account the convict’s “extremely selfish” motive for crimes that “caused great shock and unrest to society”.

“It is not appropriate to abolish the death penalty while these violent crimes are still being committed,” Mr Suzuki said.

There are currently 105 death row inmates in Japan, he added.