The Times - UK (2022-04-30)

2 2GM Saturday April 30 2022 | the times

News

Civil servants have been advised to

avoid visiting regional offices and hold-

ing meetings off site to meet Jacob

Rees-Mogg’s demand for officials to be

at their desks in Whitehall.

Ministers in some departments are

understood to have told senior officials

to find ways of getting Rees-Mogg “off

their backs” by increasing staff at their

Whitehall headquarters. Under the

Cabinet Office’s measure of attendance

only staff at each department’s main

Whitehall office are counted.

Matthew Rycroft, permanent secre-

tary at the Home Office, robustly

defended the head of the Passport

Office after claims that she had been

working some of the time from home.

Rycroft said that Abi Tierney was a

“hugely talented leader” and her work

location had “precisely zero bearing”

on delays in issuing passports.

He also implicitly attacked Rees-

Mogg, minister for Brexit opportunities

Sir Keir Starmer has said it makes “no

difference” whether Angela Rayner, his

deputy, was present when he was seen

drinking a beer with party workers dur-

ing Covid restrictions.

The Labour leader said there was a

stark contrast between the gathering in

the Durham constituency office of the

local MP in April last year and the rule-

breaking in Downing Street that led to

Boris Johnson being fined by the police.

Starmer is facing renewed scrutiny

after Labour acknowledged that Ray-

ner was at the event, despite having pre-

viously told journalists she had not

been. A source insisted it was a “mistake

made in good faith”.

During a visit to Edinburgh, Starmer

said: “Whether Angela Rayner was

there or not makes absolutely no differ-

ence — there was no breach of the

rules, the matter has already been

looked into. Stark contrast between

that and the goings-on at Downing

Street where we know there were 50

fines issued already and an investi-

gation still going on — so there’s abso-

lutely no comparison to be made here.

“Obviously I do understand, with

elections coming, why the Tories are

trying to throw as much mud as they

possibly can, but the issue that I’m

utterly focused on is the cost-of-living

crisis, helping people with their energy

bills and calling the government out for

imposing even more tax on people.”

Tory MPs have been pressing the

police to reconsider their decision not

to investigate the Labour event follow-

ing the fine issued to the prime minister

for attending a gathering in No 10 for

his 56th birthday in June 2020.

Durham police confirmed that they

had received “a number of further com-

munications” but said they were not

investigating the matter at present.

The gathering, which included an

online Labour Party event, was on April

30 last year. Non-essential retail and

outdoor venues including pub gardens

were open at the time but social-

distancing rules remained in place.

The Daily Mail said that when its

reporters approached Labour Party

officials in January, they had been told

Rayner was not present. However, after

it produced video evidence that she had

joined Starmer at the gathering, they

admitted she had been there.

A Labour source said: “There is sim-

ply no comparison between standing in

a kitchen having something to eat

between meetings, with multiple,

flagrant rule-breaking drinks parties at

the heart of government, dismissed by

lies at the dispatch box.”

So what if Rayner joined drinks, says Starmer

Stay in office, civil servants

urged in Rees-Mogg row

Oliver Wright Policy Editor and government efficiency, saying the

department was “proud” to be moving

away from the “outdated notion that

everything must be done in London”.

He said: “With sites spread across the

UK, Abi works day in, day out with

teams around the country delivering

vital services for the British public. Our

teams are working flat out to meet the

demand.”

Dave Penman, general secretary of

the FDA union, which represents

senior civil servants, said the move to

advise staff to avoid leaving the office

for visits was counterproductive.

“This is inevitably where you end up

after the political stunts that Jacob

Rees-Mogg has been conducting over

the last few weeks — decisions based on

the political pressure for presenteeism

and headcounts at desks, rather than

the effective delivery of public

services,” he said. “It’s all the more iron-

ic given this government claims to be

committed to levelling up and moving

jobs out of the capital.”

month David Warburton had the whip

withdrawn after allegations were made

that he had sexually harassed three

women.

Both Labour and the Liberal Demo-

crats called for Parish to stand down as

an MP. “The Conservatives knew for

days about the disgusting behaviour of

one of their MPs and tried to cover it

up,” Thangam Debbonaire, shadow

leader of the Commons, said.

The senior Labour MP Harriet Har-

man added: “This marks a new low for

the Commons. Clearly he is not fit to be

in parliament. He should accept that

and not drag the processes out.”

Lord Hague of Richmond, the former

Tory party leader, said the whip should

have acted to suspend Parish earlier

and that the behaviour was “completely

unacceptable” and “utterly depressing”.

He added: “I think we will end up

with MPs having to vacate their seats.

There are going to be resignations from

parliament over this and the political

parties really have to clamp down on it.”

Politics reports, pages 8-

Watching porn in public should be

illegal, Janice Turner, page 29

Tory WhatsApp group, Our Week, page 40

Hostile states are infiltrating parlia-

ment and using MPs as an “attractive

and accessible target” for spies, accord-

ing to a report being released today.

An investigation by the Commons

standards committee found that

parliamentary groups allow foreign

governments unregulated access to

Westminster with the potential for

“inappropriate influence” on MPs.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons

Speaker, described the threat as “very

worrying”. He said: “Parliamentarians

tend to underestimate the extent to

which they are of interest to foreign

governments. Whether that is getting

access to MPs, effectively paying for re-

ports to be written or trying to influence

legislation, there is much more we need

to do to protect the integrity of the

parliamentary system.”

In January MI5 issued a security alert

over the activities of Christine Lee, a

UK-based Chinese lawyer. It said she

had infiltrated parliament on behalf of

the Chinese government, funnelling

hundreds of thousands of pounds to a

shadow cabinet minister and an

informal parliamentary group that

Lax parliament security ‘allows

hostile states to influence MPs’

Oliver Wright, Fiona Hamilton focused on China. Sources said there

was “serious work going on behind the

scenes” to close down infiltration

attempts but the system had “too many

loopholes” that needed to be closed.

In its report, the Commons sleaze

watchdog said that all-party

parliamentary groups (APPGs) had the

potential to become “the next great

scandal”, with commercial and foreign

entities “effectively buying access to,

and influence of, parliamentarians and

decision makers”.

It called for rules to be brought in to

vet groups being set up and their

sources of funding, and said that

APPGs should be required to register

whether a foreign government or

organisation was the ultimate funder of

any benefit or benefit in kind that was

given to MPs.

Alison Giles, the head of parliament-

ary security, told the committee that

Lee had been “instrumental” in setting

up an APPG on Chinese interests and

sending money to the office of the

Labour MP who ran the group. Giles

said that APPGs were an “attractive

route of access to parliamentarians”.

“The fact that they are relatively

unregulated and, crucially, dependent

on outside interests for funding and

support makes them very easy to

engage with,” she said.

Hoyle told the committee: “I worry

that we are not joining up our security

and the threats that we have. These

people are not our friends. Some are

our friends, but they have intentions

and objectives, which worries me.”

A security source said: “Elected offi-

cials are among the hostile state targets

that have been examined, but they are

by no means alone”, adding that anyone

working in the military or technology

arenas, scientific research or certain

export markets could be considered a

potential target.

Chris Bryant, the chairman of the

standards committee, said that APPGs

could be “really useful” but “must never

be a backdoor means of peddling influ-

ence around the corridors of power or

pursuing a commercial interest”. He

added: “The evidence we have gathered

is chilling and points towards an urgent

need for the House to take action.”

The committee will now consult on

its proposals for tightening up regula-

tions around APPGs before issuing a

final report with recommendations for

the Commons to consider.

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drugs at a time after

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The daughter of a
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missed her father
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one of them eight life
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Russians came “within

minutes” of seizing

President Zelensky

shortly after the

invasion of his country,

according to interviews

with Ukraine’s leader

and his staff. Page 14

COMMENT 27

WEEKEND ESSAY 34

MONEY 57

CROSSWORD 83

TV & RADIO

SATURDAY REVIEW

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of Tesla shares

Elon Musk has sold

shares worth

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whose market value

has fallen by more

than $150 billion after

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DAB RADIO l ONLINE l SMART SPEAKER l APP

To day’s highlights

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Rachel Maclean, the minister for safeguarding

Bridget Phillipson, shadow secretary of state

for education

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Lord Heseltine, the former deputy

prime minister

The former prime minister Tony Blair,

right, 25 years after his landslide

victory with New Labour

continued from page 1

MP porn allegations

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