The comments made by Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP for Batley and Spen, on 8 February 2022.
I’m incredibly angry and upset by the scenes we saw yesterday. I keep thinking about Keir and David’s families and friends. But these things don’t just happen. Words have consequences, leaders have a duty to behave responsibly & politics is not a game. Our country deserves far better.
The comments made by Christian Wakeford, the Labour MP for Bury South, on Twitter on 7 February 2022.
Language is incredibly important in any debate, fake news like espoused recently leads to abuse we saw today. This absolutely needs to end now.
The comments made by Brendan Cox on 7 February 2022.
Absolutely vile intimidation of Keir Starmer this evening. No politician should have to put up with it. And all politicians have a responsibility not to encourage such thuggery with lazy lies.
The comments made by David Lammy, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, on 7 February 2022.
No surprise the conspiracy theorist thugs who harassed Keir Starmer and I repeated slurs we heard from Boris Johnson last week at the despatch box.
Intimidation, harassment and lies have no place in our democracy. And they won’t ever stop me doing my job.
The comments made by Guto Harri, the Director of Communications to Boris Johnson, on 7 February 2022.
I walked in, I gave him a salute and said ‘Prime Minister, Guto Harri reporting for duty’ and he stood up from behind his desk and started to salute but then said ‘What am I doing, I should take the knee for you’.
The comments made by Julian Smith, the Conservative MP for Skipton and Ripon, on 7 February 2022.
What happened to Keir Starmer tonight outside Parliament is appalling. It is really important for our democracy and for his security that the false Savile slurs made against him are withdrawn in full.
The article written by Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish First Minister, on 2 February 2022.
The prospect of war in our continent is more than enough to avert our gaze from the latest Whitehall troubles.
However, a prime minister who has found it so hard to speak the truth throughout his career surprised us all with a hard dose of it when he stood before parliament last week to address the situation in Ukraine, saying: “Ukraine asks for nothing except to be allowed to live in peace and to seek her own alliances, as every sovereign country has a right to do.”
It was a sentiment echoed by the leader of the opposition, by my own party’s Westminster group leader, Ian Blackford MP, and by every other SNP MP who responded to the statement.
As someone who has spent my life campaigning for the sovereign right of the people of Scotland to determine our own futures, sovereignty is a principle fundamental to my own worldview. To see such pressures being exerted on a state that has resolutely set itself on a path to integration with the liberal democratic order is unspeakable.
A Europe split into 19th-century “spheres of influence” is not one in which small independent countries would prosper. The wealthier and more equal the nations of Europe become, the more equitable the relations between them should be. Indeed, the great steps that the likes of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have taken in the past 30 years are testament to the invigorating effects of independence in Europe.
However, my agreement with the prime minister on these principles did not last long: question after question from the floor of the House of Commons brought him back to the issue of Russian funding in the Conservative party, and the continuing existence of “Londongrad”-style influence operations in the UK.
Meanwhile, as long as the fortunes of Russia’s elites are based abroad, threats of economic sanctions are limp and ineffective.
The UK’s allies are beginning to take note of the intractability of the problem.
A report from the Center for American Progress – a thinktank close to the Biden administration – stated last week that “uprooting Kremlin-linked oligarchs will be a challenge given the close ties between Russian money and the United Kingdom’s ruling Conservative party, the press, and its real estate and financial industry”.
After all, clear mechanisms to crack down on these practices exist.
My government has long called for Westminster to legislate on the improper use of Scottish limited partnerships – just one favourite instrument of financial exploitation – to ensure that they are no longer used to facilitate the sort of financial corruption that has benefited authoritarians and their wealthy cronies for far too long.
Corruption and lack of transparency are a drag on liberal democracy, and authoritarians have become adept at using these scandals as a way of saying to people ground down by them that all forms of government are the same, and all politicians are as bad as each other.
And so I can only call on the prime minister to finally take action. He must recognise that his government and his party have enabled this situation, and he must acknowledge that the most resolute action he can take is at home, to rebuild his government’s tattered reputation.
To quote the author and journalist Oliver Bullough from his book, Moneyland, which documented so much about the London “laundromat”: “Without trust, liberal democracy cannot function.” And as Bullough wrote more recently about the situation in Ukraine: “No one is more to blame than us for the fact that Russia’s richest can treat war like a spectator sport.”
And while during such periods the temptation is to focus on individuals in power, this can lead us to forget the role of the competing factions within the Russian security state and the pressures they are exerting on the situation, and it may lead some to forget the pressure this is putting on 40 million Ukrainians – our fellow European citizens – as they go about their daily lives.
In some ways, this is a reality many have been dealing with since 2014, especially those in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine.
So while Ukrainians must and will defend themselves from aggression if attempts at diplomacy fail, we cannot be blind to the circumstances that have led to the current crisis, and that includes the situation where wealth with direct links to the Putin regime has been allowed to proliferate here in the UK with often the scantest regard paid to its provenance or to the influence it seeks to exert on our democracy.
The joint letter send by David Lammy, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, and Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, to Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary and Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 7 February 2022.
Dear Foreign Secretary and Chancellor,
Re: The Ukraine crisis and illicit finance
Since the crisis on Ukraine’s borders began, we have been clear in our robust support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and our opposition to Russian aggression. We have supported the government’s diplomatic efforts and the practical defensive support provided to Ukraine.
We believe however that there is much more that can be turn to address the UK’s openness to suspect Russian money.
This week in the House of Commons, the government outlined its plans to bring forward new legislation to enable a robust and extensive package of economic sanctions against Russia in the event of any incursion or attack on Ukraine. We believe such sanctions must be broad, severe and comprehensive.
However, these sanctions are all conditional on Russia’s actions. Their purpose is to form a serious deterrent, which, when matched by unified action across the West, will make President Putin think again.
There is much more we must do irrespective of the decisions made by President Putin; measures it should not have taken an army threatening Ukraine to put in place and which we have repeatedly urged the government to take.
For years, the Labour Party have raised the alarm about the role of dirty money in the UK and the lack of action from the Conservative government. Despite repeated warnings, the government has been asleep at the wheel and needlessly left our defences down at home.
London is the destination of choice for the world’s kleptocrats. It is home to the services and enablers who help corrupt elites to hide their ill-gotten wealth. Britain has a completely deficient system of corporate registration that permits layers of secrecy to obscure the proceeds of corruption and crime. It is shameful that Britain is repeatedly described as the money-laundering capital of the world.
Now this openness to illicit finance has begun to damage our diplomatic efforts, with the Biden administration being warned that the widespread presence of suspect Russian money in the UK could jeopardise Britain’s response to this crisis.
We welcome the Prime Minister’s answer at Prime Minister’s Questions this week committing the government to bring forward an Economic Crime Bill in the third session of parliament. I hope the government recognises that had we already legislated for this then the UK would be in a stronger position to address dirty money from Russia.
This is not simply a matter of targeting some individuals or entities through sanctions but about fixing a broken system – Britain’s openness to fraud and money laundering, inadequate regulation of political donations, lax mechanisms of corporate governance, and weakness to foreign interference.
We believe we must take a broad range of robust steps to address these deficiencies and the Conservatives must do more including with the donations it receives. We would therefore be grateful if you address the following questions:
When will the government undertake comprehensive reform of Companies House to prevent fraud at home and abuse from abroad?
On what date will the government bring forward the Register of Overseas Entities Bill it has promised for years?
Will the government bring forward a Foreign Agent Registration law?
Where are the new counter-espionage laws, announced in the Queen’s Speech but still delayed?
When will the government reform the Tier 1 so-called ‘Golden Visas’?
Where is the replacement to the outdated Computer Misuse Act, as recommended by the Russia Report?
Where is the additional resource and power for the Electoral Commission, which will strengthen our democracy’s defence from overseas governments and interests?
Why does the government’s Election Bill make these problems worse by enabling limitless political donations from donors based overseas?
Donors who have made money from Russia or have alleged links to the Putin regime have given £1.93m to either the Conservative Party or individual Conservative associations since Boris Johnson took power in July 2019. Will the Conservative Party agree to return it?
Will the government reform the rules on political donations to defend our democracy from overseas interests using loopholes to influence British politics?
These steps to strengthen our national security and democracy at home are not distinct from sanctions or diplomacy abroad – they must form part of a unified and coherent response.
We can’t stand up to Russia’s aggression abroad while ignoring Russian-linked corruption at home.
It is in our national and economic interests for the government to address the challenges of hostile influence and interference which the government’s inaction and behaviour have regrettably permitted.
The comments made by Robert Courts, Maritime Minister, on 7 February 2022.
Climate change is one of the biggest challenges this generation faces, and we will continue to lead international efforts to decarbonise the maritime sector.
Shore power will end the outdated practice of ships keeping their engines running while anchored in port, reducing the poisonous fumes entering the air and ensuring we meet our net zero 2050 goals.
The statement made by Grant Shapps, the Secretary of State for Transport, in the House of Commons on 7 February 2022.
Following my statement to the House on 5 January 2022, I am updating the House on an interim extension of the current Transport for London (TfL) funding settlement that was due to expire on 4 February 2022 by 2 weeks to 18 February 2022. This has been agreed by the Mayor of London.
Since the start of the pandemic, we have supported the transport network in London with over £4.5 billion funding through extraordinary funding settlements for TfL.
We have recognised the reliance of London’s transport network on fare revenue and government continues our commitment to mitigating loss of fare revenue because of the pandemic.
Government is committed to supporting London’s transport network as we have since the start of the pandemic and is in discussions with TfL on a fourth funding settlement.
This short extension will enable us to finalise the terms of a robust settlement for this period, ensuring TfL and the Mayor take steps to move towards financial sustainability.
In this extension, government will continue to ensure the provisions of the existing agreement are delivered while providing continued certainty to Londoners as we move out of Plan B restrictions.
Support to TfL has always been on the condition that TfL reaches financial sustainability as soon as possible and with a target date of April 2023, and government continues to press the Mayor of London and TfL to take the decisions needed to put the organisation on a sustainable footing.
I will update the House at my earliest opportunity on the details of the fourth funding settlement.