Menzies claims should be investigated by police, Labour says as Starmer has full confidence in Rayner - live

Mark Menzies accused of using campaign funds to pay off ‘bad people’ and medical expenses after being locked in a flat late at night

Related video: Tory MP who reported Rayner to police refuses to say what alleged offences he thinks she has committed

Sir Keir Starmer said he has “complete confidence” in Angela Rayner as he faced further questions on the row over whether Labour’s deputy should have paid capital gains tax on the sale of her former council house.

Speaking on a visit to Teeside on Thursday, the Labour leader said Ms Rayner had already answered questions on the row and would fully cooperate with the investigation set up by Greater Manchester Police.

He told broadcasters: “Angela’s answered no end of questions on this, she said she’s happy to answer any further questions. I have complete confidence in her and the police investigation, I think, allows a line to be drawn in relation to this.”

Earlier, Labour demanded that the police launch a probe into allegations a suspended Tory MP misused campaign funds in the latest sleaze scandal to rock Rishi Sunak’s party.

Mark Menzies has lost the Conservative whip after reportedly using thousands of pounds given by donors to fund medical expenses and having made a late-night call to a 78-year-old aide asking for help because he had been locked up by “bad people” demanding money for his release.

Labour chair Anneliese Dodds slammed the “stagnation, scandal and sleaze” engulfing Mr Sunak’s party and asked her Conservative counterpart Richard Holden whether the police had been informed about the allegations, which the party has known about for months.

Key Points

• Starmer: I have complete confidence in Rayner
• Tory MP ‘used campaign funds to pay off bad people'
• Mark Menzies suspended as Conservative Party investigates
• Labour demands police probe into Menzies claims

[18 April 2024 13:33 · Matt Mathers]

Liz Truss, lettuce and the Deep State: Seven car crash moments from former PM’s book tour Britain’s shor

In the lead-up to the release of her memoirs, Liz Truss may have spent more days promoting the book than she did serving as prime minister.

The Tory MP, who took over from Boris Johnson in the summer of 2022, offered a look behind the scenes of Ten Years to Save the West in a series of television and radio interviews.

Full report:

[18 April 2024 13:45 · Matt Mathers]

For the West it’s a nuclear nightmare, but the Israel-Iran conflict is helping their leaders cling to power

Jack Straw was the first foreign secretary to visit Iran after the 1979 revolution and is used to negotiating with its leaders – even, on one occasion, from a train loo.

Here, he explains why Netanyahu and Khamenei are throwing each other a lifeline to stay in power, and warns we could all pay a terrible price...

Read Jack’s piece in full here:

[18 April 2024 13:46 · Matt Mathers]

Police should investigate Menzies claims - Starmer

Sir Keir Starmer said the police should be involved in the case of MP Mark Menzies, who lost the Tory whip amid allegations he misused campaign funds.

The Labour leader told reporters during a visit to Teesside: “There are obviously a lot of unanswered questions in relation to these allegations. Not least why it seems the Conservative Party took so long to act and whether they’ve reported this to the police, who it seems to me should be involved in this.

“I’ll be honest, there’s a degree of frustration as well. We’re two weeks away from really important political and mayoral elections, where there’s a lot of positive arguments that we want to make about the change we will bring about in these elections.

“And yet again we’re talking about misbehaviour by Tory MPs and if ever you needed evidence of why we need to turn the page on this … and have a fresh start with Labour, I think it’s in these allegations coming out today.”

Keir Starmer on a visit to Teeside (Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)

[18 April 2024 13:48 · Matt Mathers]

In full: Angela Rayner to claim kitchen renovation means no tax is due after her council house sale

Angela Rayner is expected to claim that she did not have to pay capital gains tax when she sold her former house due to a kitchen renovation, as the row over her housing affairs rumbles on.

The deputy Labour leader is likely to argue that enhancements she made to her former council house have offset the tax she would have paid had it not been her primary property, according to TheTimes.

Full report:

[18 April 2024 14:00 · Matt Mathers]

Westminster sleaze and scandals: All the MPs who are suspended or have lost the whip

Another day in Westminster, another party whip suspended or withdrawn – as allegations of sleaze, dishonesty or failure to uphold parliamentary standards land yet another MP in hot water.

Mark Menzies, the Tory MP for Fylde and a government trade envoy, 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” demanding thousands of pounds.

Full report:

[18 April 2024 14:13 · Matt Mathers]

Starmer says he has ‘complete confidence’ in deputy

Sir Keir Starmer said he has “complete confidence” in Angela Rayner as he faced further questions on the row over whether Labour’s deputy should have paid capital gains tax on the sale of her former council house.

Speaking on a visit to Teeside on Thursday, the Labour leader said his Ms Rayner had already answered questions on the row and would fully cooperate with the police investigation set up by Greater Manchester Police.

He told broadcasters: “Angela’s answered no eng of questions on this, she said she’s happy to answer any further questions. I have complete confidence in her and the police investigation, I think, allows a line to be drawn in relation to this.”

[18 April 2024 14:15 · Matt Mathers]

In full: Labour demands police probe into suspended Tory MP over ‘bad people’ payoff claims

Labour is demanding a police probe into allegations a suspended Tory MP misused campaign funds in the latest sleaze scandal to rock Rishi Sunak’s party.

Mark Menzies has lost the Conservative whip after reportedly using thousands of pounds given by donors to fund medical expenses and having made a late-night call to a 78-year-old aide asking for help because he had been locked up by “bad people” demanding money for his release.

Full report:

[18 April 2024 14:40 · Matt Mathers]

Mark Menzies once investigated over claim he got dog drunk

Suspended MP Mark Menzies was once investigated by police over claims that he got a dog drunk.

The Daily Mirror reported in 2017 that the MP got his friend’s canine intoxicated and left the pet’s owner with a £500 vet bill.

He denied the claims, which he branded “false and malicious” and no charges were brought by police.

The pair were said to have become embroiled in a drunken row that spilled out onto the street.

Mr Menzies said the police dropped their investigation after he supplied them with photographic evidence of his friend giving the dog a selection of alcoholic cocktails.

[18 April 2024 14:57 · Matt Mathers]

‘The clue is in the name’: Sunak gives short, sarcastic answer to MPs’squestion about court jurisdiction

Rishi Sunak told an MP “the clue is in the name” after being asked whether he thought the International Criminal Court was a foreign court.

The prime minister gave the unusually curt and sarcastic answer to a question by the SNP’s Patrick Grady.

(Parliament UK)

[18 April 2024 15:00 · Matt Mathers]

In full: Rishi Sunak delays Rwanda flight plans

Rishi Sunak has been forced to abandon his commitment to get flights off the ground to Rwanda by the end of spring, in a serious blow to the prime minister’s flagship policy.

Downing Street has admitted that the policy is now facing delays as the Lords refused to back down on amendments to the bill, meaning the government will not set out a new timeline for the first flight to take off until it is passed into law.

Full report: