Barry Gardiner received £500k from a Chinese government agent, and tbh if that was a Tory it would be on here for weeks, some even didn’t seem to understand the implications, especially since MI6 or MI5 basically stated that he can keep the money to pay staffing costs etc, the fact that the secret service was to have the last word on what happens with that money should get people wondering about how much background chatter was being discussed in regards to security concerns.
I think mascot was 100% on the money with his original views on that in regards to what we should accept , basically anyone taking money from foreign agents/governments in my view do not have the best interests of the country.
I’m sure I read somewhere that Corbyn’s Stop the War Coalition has run out of funding because of the sanctions imposed against Russia. Is that the definition of irony?
To what part don’t I know? It was stated in the mail article as the headline that MI6 (or MI5 ) stated that he could keep the money to pay staffing costs
The Mail is certainly batshit crazy but that doesn’t detract from the point that if a Labour MP received money then he needs to be held to account for it.
Similarly, at a time when we need an opposition that is squeaky clean, to hear Boris Johnson come back with the “whataboutism” in PMQ’s that one of Labours largest donors has links to the Chinese government is an equally big concern. It just undermines everything and basically just proves that UK politics and the system stinks
The Chinese spy as they put it also had meetings with Cameron and some links to May, but the weird part was Barry Gardiner story is the first time I’ve ever seen MI5 being linked directly to a sitting MP, her son was also on the pay roll for the mp in question.
Worse still though is that it’s all about Russian money etc now, but if China starts getting ideas for Taiwan, I think it will show how completely bankrupt our political set ups really are.
Think I’ve covered this earlier in this thread, either with you or someone else. I don’t like that they accept donations from foreign parties either. However, I’m not sure what @odin_telamon’s muddying the waters was hoping to achieve.
The MI5/6 involvement was solely to vet the donations to see if they were permitted because of the obvious security reasons around that. If anything it would suggest that it was scrutinised closely, although I’m not sure if the same applied to the Conservatives.
Not muddying any waters pal, was genuinely asking if certain people would be so constantly outraged if this was a Labour government doing the same things, the answer was supplied .
But yes, even if I was aligned ideologically 100% with a government that was doing this, I’d be calling them out. But then again, that wouldn’t be 100% alignment since that goes against my beliefs about political integrity to begin with…
That said though, it doesn’t look like there was any influence on Gardiner. I’ve always thought that if your actions/thoughts can be 100% independent of any donations, it shouldn’t matter where they come from. E.g. taking money from tobacco companies but still supporting a tobacco ban.
I get that, but it just doesn’t feel logical, MPs are paid a decent wage, and most of their costs are paid for by the tax payer, I find it disgusting that other countries/companies can “fund” them and we just accept it.
If it was any of us having a similar process there would be questions being asked about every aspect and issue, for example if an ordinary citizen was being paid by some Russian affiliated to Putin how would the government/ media react?
Sadly we know the answer because we saw a load of examples of how the democracies work when it comes to the public after 911
About the Gardiner case, it was specifically to fund a researcher, above and beyond the budget MPs get for that (the allowance isn’t a lot if I recall correctly), so it wasn’t benefiting him personally.
I agree with this. It just should not be allowed, whoever is doing it.
Having said this, when it comes to MPs on the take the Tories will always leave Labour in the dust. Not excusing Gardiner, but there is a magnitude issue here. It reminds me of when Labour were getting absolutely pelted for supposed Antisemitism, while the Tories barely needed to hide racism, antisemitism and islamophobia within their tanks. For fucks sake, their leader has written dodgy novels about swarthy Jewish money grabbing stereotypes and no-one bats a fucking eyelid.
As an aside, I’ve met Barry Gardiner a few times. Always came across as a decent guy, for what it’s worth. But I suppose part of the art of being a politician is to be able to come across as a decent guy.
