'Sleaze, campaign funds and a 3am phonecall: Another Westminster scandal'.. enjoyed talking to The News Agents about this The Times and The Sunday Times story globalplayer.com/podcasts/episo…

The story behind the Mark Menzies scoop: the Tory MP, 'bad people' and thousands of pounds in campaign funds. Listen here: shows.acast.com/35669120-6056-…

ELECTORAL DYSFUNCTION: The Menzies story isn’t just a marmalade dropper, it’s a tale so astonishing you have to pick yourself up off the floor. A huge political headache for Sunak - as things feel more like the Major years of scandal (look what followed..)
news.sky.com/story/another-…

Mark Menzies has relinquished the whip pending the outcome of this investigation. Follows this Times story tonight. Questions will no doubt continue about why Tories didn’t take action earlier, they’ve known about this for 3 1/2 months

🔺 EXCLUSIVE: A Tory MP is under investigation over allegations that he misused campaign funds and abused his position after making a late-night phone call saying he’d been locked up by “bad people” who were demanding thousands of pounds | ✍️ Billy Kenber thetimes.co.uk/article/tory-m…

Revealed: Tory MP allegedly demanded campaign cash to pay ‘bad people’

thetimes.co.uk/article/28f948…

New: A Labour MP and a prominent journalist were targeted with unsolicited WhatsApp messages four years ago in a similar manner to the recent Westminster honeytrap scandal

thetimes.co.uk/article/b96b77…

Times investigation:

MPs targeted in the Westminster honeytrap were lured in by a scammer using photographs showing two students who were then in their late teens.

Images were stolen from the Facebook pages of a financial analyst working in London and a lawyer in Birmingham.…

New: MPs who responded to a Westminster honeytrap were lured in by a scammer using photographs showing two students who were then in their late teens thetimes.co.uk/article/westmi… with
Aubrey Allegretti

Last month I worked undercover at HMP Bedford, one of the most dangerous jails in the country.

I was hired by an agency without thorough checks - they didn’t even Google my name! - and then I was able to walk inside and interact with prisoners without security searches.

Scott Benton, the former Tory MP exposed by a Times undercover investigation, has now resigned rather than wait for the outcome of the recall petition. By-election in Blackpool South (3,690 Conservative majority) incoming

BREAKING: Former Tory Scott Benton quits as Blackpool South MP rather than wait for recall petition - meaning another tricky by-election for Rishi Sunak - Christopher Hope📝 reports

British American Tobacco's chief executive tells today's Financial Times he supports the incoming UK tax on vapes...but a campaign group quietly funded by the tobacco company has spent years arguing against it: thetimes.co.uk/article/tobacc…

MPs have approved motion to suspend Blackpool South MP Scott Benton from the Commons for 35 days

For more on this and other news visit trib.al/Rx0iR33

Today the Commons will be asked to approve the suspension of Scott Benton from the service of the House for 35 days, beginning on Wednesday 28 February 2024.

Are you an early career British journalist who wants to work at The Washington Post? And follow in the footsteps of Billy Kenber James Ball Michael Savage Alexi Mostrous? Applications are now open for the Stern-Bryan Fellowship. Spread the word. city.ac.uk/prospective-st…

Government confirms it is banning disposable vapes and plans to restrict flavours..our deep dive from December on the missed warnings which led to the UK’s youth vaping epidemic 👇

Drugmakers including Pfizer , Sanofi and Takeda Pharmaceutical plan to raise prices in the United States on more than 500 unique drugs in early January, according to data analyzed by healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors. reut.rs/47pqb9e reut.rs/47pqb9e