Is it OK to break the law if you are a Tory?

Listening to PMQs - Wagner Group another scandal that should be closely looked at.

Sunak involved in that.

Whitewavemark2

Listening to PMQs - Wagner Group another scandal that should be closely looked at.

Sunak involved in that.

What makes you think that Mr.Sunak is involved in a Russian Paramilitary Group?

GrannyGravy13

Whitewavemark2

Listening to PMQs - Wagner Group another scandal that should be closely looked at.

Sunak involved in that.

What makes you think that Mr.Sunak is involved in a Russian Paramilitary Group?

No not involved😄😄😄

The war lord of this group was given help by the U.K. government

The Times report

“The UK government helped the head of Russia’s notorious Wagner Group of pro-Kremlin mercenaries get around its own sanctions to launch a legal attack on a British investigative journalist, it has been alleged.

The incident occurred in the months before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while Rishi Sunak was chancellor, according to documents published by openDemocracy, a British media outlet that focuses on human rights.”

I read that Sunak was directly involved.

Granny Gravy13 the latest shock horror story is explained by Jessica Elgot ‘Labour asks why Treasury let sanctioned oligarch bring UK libel case’. Today in the Guardian.

I also think that this line will be pushed hard over the next few months

PMQs

Starmer: "The Prime Minister's failure to sack [Zahawi]...shows how hopelessly weak he is. He is overwhelmed at every turn...he can't even deal with tax avoiders in his own cabinet. Is he starting to wonder if this job is just too big for him?"

I have just read the Open Democracy article, although it doesn’t mention Mr.Sunak, it does mention a treasury department OFSI.

Hard to imagine he was unaware of the legal case.

No but I have read he was involved somehow. I must stop reading these things and moving on before I make a note of where I see these things.

Giles Thomson is the civil servant heading up The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation.

I don’t for one minute imagine that he doesn’t have sufficient power to decide cases on their own merits.

Quite frankly Keir Starmer needs to raise his game. There are very serious problems facing this country and is he blissfully unaware of them? If he keeps up this psycho drama , it isn’t a new prime minister we need but an effective opposition! Seriously 😒

I really think you’re wrong there. His game is playing out pretty well judging by the polls. We need somebody competent, quiet and prepared leading the next government. That’s exactly what is happening now in the Labour Party - preparation. The very last thing Starmer needs to be doing now is showing his cards and banging the table.

Casdon he is banging the table jumping up and down about Mr Sunak’s involvement with a Russian when the department in question is headed up not by Rishi Sunak but by Giles Thomson!

Meanwhile I am freezing to death, paying £550 a month for energy, my kids can’t buy an affordable house, childcare is extortionate and the Nhs is collapsing along with everything else.

Get real

Casdon I too hope for anyone quiet, competent and prepared for government so for all our sakes, keep looking.

ronib

Casdon he is banging the table jumping up and down about Mr Sunak’s involvement with a Russian when the department in question is headed up not by Rishi Sunak but by Giles Thomson!

Meanwhile I am freezing to death, paying £550 a month for energy, my kids can’t buy an affordable house, childcare is extortionate and the Nhs is collapsing along with everything else.

Get real

I think you’ll find time will prove I’m right ronib. A leader of the opposition has no power, there’s nothing he can do about your power bills now. It’s all about the long game.

Casdon the prime function of the leader of the opposition is to hold the government to account.

Creating misleading scenarios about the Russians and Mr Sunak is very far away from this. First of all the department in question is involved with money laundering and I object to the wilful misrepresentation that Starmer gave to the House today.

I don’t understand why integrity is such a lost value these days.

Whitewavemark2

So that is what paid for his useless visit this week presumably?

Although Stewart and Campbell didn’t seem to know about what it was set up for.

The 'taxpayer' paid for his flight and security, apparently.

I wish that Starmer had asked why at PMQs today...

ronib

Casdon he is banging the table jumping up and down about Mr Sunak’s involvement with a Russian when the department in question is headed up not by Rishi Sunak but by Giles Thomson!

Meanwhile I am freezing to death, paying £550 a month for energy, my kids can’t buy an affordable house, childcare is extortionate and the Nhs is collapsing along with everything else.

Get real

I'm not sure what you are talking about there, ronib. Can you explain a bit more?

I've seen a shocking story about a department at the Treasury allowing lawyers for the sanctioned founder of the Wagner group (who was trying on a SLAPP case against a journalist) to fly to Russia to meet his Russian lawyers. This was pre the Ukraine invasion but, hey! what is going on that UK lawyers are able to work for sanctioned Russians?

www.opendemocracy.net/en/prigozhin-government-russia-ukraine-hack-libel-slapp/

MaizieD maybe we could offer to help Starmer next week?🙊

ronib

MaizieD maybe we could offer to help Starmer next week?🙊

He gets plenty of offers of help on twitter

Casdon my reading of this situation is that it was a matter of compliance and money laundering regulations as the Russian in question had been exiled abroad. I think he wanted to sue for libel against a journalist and it was to do with the transfer of funds. This is when the government department and not Mr Sunak became involved I imagine. I doubt that the merits or desirability of the court case for libel would have been a consideration at the department.

That’s my best understanding at the moment. If you have any influence in the Labour Party, please try to get David Miliband on board!

MaizieD sure Gransnet is in a league of its own!

ronib

Casdon my reading of this situation is that it was a matter of compliance and money laundering regulations as the Russian in question had been exiled abroad. I think he wanted to sue for libel against a journalist and it was to do with the transfer of funds. This is when the government department and not Mr Sunak became involved I imagine. I doubt that the merits or desirability of the court case for libel would have been a consideration at the department.

That’s my best understanding at the moment. If you have any influence in the Labour Party, please try to get David Miliband on board!

Was that the same thing that I mentioned in my 15.34 post?

If it is, it was a Treasury department and Sunak was Chancellor at the time. So completely responsible.

MaizieD exactly how do you know that The Chancellor had oversight of this sub department of The Treasury? Compliance is a separate department. How do you know, as opposed to guess, that Giles Thomson did not have autonomy in his decision making? It may not have been Giles Thomson but his predecessor in fact.

MaizieD I think much more likely that Rishi Sunak’s predecessor involved in the legality of the case now I reflect.

May 18 2022 Financial Times reports that Dominic Raab as Justice Secretary was framing new legislation to avoid oligarchs and corporations from using current rules to silence reporters.

Clearly had gone much wider than the Treasury!

ronib

MaizieD exactly how do you know that The Chancellor had oversight of this sub department of The Treasury? Compliance is a separate department. How do you know, as opposed to guess, that Giles Thomson did not have autonomy in his decision making? It may not have been Giles Thomson but his predecessor in fact.

Chancellor has over all responsibility for the Treasury. This other guy would have been a 'junior' minister. The buck stops with the Chancellor.

But a vast cache of hacked emails shows that, under the leadership of Rishi Sunak, the UK Treasury issued special licences in 2021 to let the oligarch override sanctions and launch an aggressive legal campaign against a journalist in the London courts.

(link in previous post)