From 2h ago Murrell used false accounting records and fake invoices to cover up his embezzlement, court told The money embezzled by Peter Murrell came from SNP membership fees and donations by party members, the Edinburgh court was told. The Press Association report: double quotation markAlan Cameron KC told the high court in Edinburgh that the former SNP chief executive had embezzled the funds from SNP party bank accounts “over which he had control”. He went on: “The accused made direct transfers of money and used his party charge card…
Tag: Keir Starmer
Key questions over Mandelson vetting: did ‘mitigations’ cover links to China and Russia?
Ever since the Guardian revealed last month that Peter Mandelson was given security clearance against the advice of the UK government’s vetting agency, one question has dominated in Westminster. What were the concerns that led United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) to tell the Foreign Office that his clearance should be denied in late January 2025, weeks before he was due to take up his post as ambassador to Washington? On Wednesday, the Guardian revealed several areas that multiple sources say contributed to that decision. UKSV identified concerns about associations Mandelson…
‘We wanted a taste of what they had’: the Beijing restaurant dining out on Starmer visit
Whatever the ins and outs of Westminster politics, Keir Starmer can take small comfort in the fact that there is one place where he is consistently popular. It just happens to be 5,000 miles away. In and Out, an upmarket restaurant in Beijing, has been fully booked since Starmer and his team dined there in January during the first visit by a British prime minister to China since 2018. His visit, pictures of which were widely shared on Chinese social media, has caused such a buzz that diners can now…
In the UK, Keir Starmer has few fans. I learned that in China it’s a very different story | Martin Rowson
The prime minister’s meal in a Yunnan restaurant in Beijing has spawned a national menu. The man has, bizarrely, become a phenomenon It’s always heartening when people agree with you. I had Keir Starmer down as a non-ideological technocratic centrist dad the moment I first clocked him, with a tin ear for both simple human interaction and the darker subtleties of the political arts. So despite carrying his famous “Ming vase” over the line in the 2024 election, I’ve been wholly unsurprised by him flatfooting and pratfalling through jagged shards…
UK, UN and EU deplore ‘monumental injustice’ of Jimmy Lai’s 20-year jail sentence
The UK, the UN, EU and rights groups have condemned the sentencing of the pro-democracy activist and publisher Jimmy Lai, a British citizen who has been jailed for 20 years in Hong Kong for national security convictions that critics say are politically motivated. Yvette Cooper, the UK foreign secretary, said: “For 78-year-old Jimmy Lai, 20 years is an effective life sentence, following a politically motivated prosecution under a law that was imposed to silence China’s critics. The Hong Kong authorities must end Jimmy Lai’s appalling ordeal and release him to…
Jimmy Lai’s son says UK government did not do enough to help him on China visit
The British son of the jailed Hong Kong media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai has criticised the UK government for failing to place conditions on his father’s release during the prime minister’s visit to China last week. Speaking at a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday, Sebastien Lai said his father’s incarceration was not only a humanitarian and national security issue, but an issue “where our values are being locked up” along with him. Sebastien Lai says time is running out for his father, who is in poor health. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian The…
Mandelson’s conduct with Epstein ‘far below standard expected’, says minister as Brown calls for inquiry into ‘shocking’ leak – UK politics live
From 2h ago Mandelson’s conduct with Epstein ‘unequivocally wrong’ and ‘far below standard expected of any minister’, Jones says Jones says Jeffrey Epstein was “a despicable criminal who committed disgusting crimes and destroyed the lives of countless women and girls”. He goes on: On Friday, the Department of Justice in the United States released around 3 million pages from the case files relating to Jeffrey Epstein. It is increasingly clear that his awful crimes involved and were facilitated by many, often powerful people, both by actively participating in the crimes…
China is leading the charge to nuclear Armageddon – and Starmer barely noticed | Simon Tisdall
Keir Starmer’s tentative pivot to the Dragon Throne has played well in Beijing, though not in Trumpland. That’s partly because, like other needy western leaders, Britain’s prime minister did not dwell on awkward subjects such as human rights abuses, the Jimmy Lai travesty, spying and Taiwan. But in talks with President Xi Jinping, one vital issue was avoided altogether and should not have been: China’s dangerous, unexplained, secretive and rapid buildup of nuclear weapons. More than the climate crisis, global hunger, Kaiser Trump’s Prussian militarism and the ever prevalent threat…
Starmer hopes his China trip will begin the thaw after recent ice age
The last British prime minister to visit China was Theresa May in 2018. Before the visit, she and her team were advised to get dressed under the covers because of the risk of hidden cameras having been placed in their hotel rooms to record compromising material. Keir Starmer, in Beijing this week, was more sanguine about his privacy, even though the security risks have, if anything, increased since the former Tory prime minister was in town. China has been accused of spying on parliament, has sanctioned British MPs and peers,…
The Guardian view on China’s military purge: the risks grow in an age of strongmen | Editorial
Sir Keir Starmer is only one of the middle power leaders trekking to Beijing to renew relations. No one has forgotten China’s increasing international forcefulness, its handling of the pandemic and its closer relations with Russia as war engulfed Ukraine. But the wildness of Donald Trump’s first year back in power is spurring Canada, France and others to hedge their bets. This, not whisky tariff cuts, is what the British prime minister sought. Mr Trump called the move “dangerous”, but threatens allies and describes Xi Jinping as a “friend”. Set…