Guido reported last month that the APPG for Metaverse and Web 3.0, which is run by Baroness Uddin and Khalid Mahmood MP, was backed by the UKIIC, a Chinese front whose stated aim is “upgrading Chinese soft power and global influence“. The APPG has now held an AGM and replaced the dodgy secretariat. The only problem? The replacement is run by the same people. They’re taking the piss with this one…
Guido can reveal that the new secretariat is the “Surrey Academy for Blockchain and Metaverse Applications“, headed up by Professor Yu Xiong, who happens to also be the president of the disgraced Chinese front. UKIIC personnel also feature as members of the new secretariat. The “Academy” was founded with a £1 million donation from Chinese crypto company JKL Capital. It’s no surprise that Surrey University is hosting these characters – Guido seems to remember it signing an extensive exchange agreement with the Chinese, taking a £7.5 million donation from Huawei to fund a “5G/6G Innovation Centre“, and trying to shut down criticism of China’s lockdowns as “microaggressions“. The secretariat speaks at APPG meetings and organises events in Parliament. They’ve got to try harder than that, a sham replacement won’t fool Guido…
Lords sources tell Guido they have spotted one Baroness Uddin repeatedly clocking in to Parliament this week, despite not participating in any debates. Readers may remember Uddin as the expenses fiddler who was eventually ordered to repay £125,349 to the taxpayer and received an 18 month suspension from the Lords over the affair. Even the Labour Party handed her an indefinite suspension when the allegations surfaced, so she now sits as an independent…
Guido wonders why Uddin, who sits on no committees, has not spoken in any debates, is no longer a member of any political party, could have joined sessions remotely if she wanted to, and has a history of dodgy expenses claims, has been seen popping in and out of Parliament during the pandemic. On an unrelated note, on Monday a Lords commission will decide whether Peers should receive their £323 a day for clocking in during the pandemic…
The Sunday Times reports this morning that after fiddling £125,000 from the taxpayer Baroness Uddin plans to return after her 18-month suspension to the House of Lords to claim expenses, which she will use to pay back what she fiddled over three years. The Lords authorities claim they are powerless to force her to pay back the money before she sits on the red benches again. Ridiculous.
Allegedly she has the right to sit in House of Lords regardless of her outstanding debts. Allow Guido to explain to the authorities how this situation can be resolved. Send her a statutory demand for repayment, if she doesn’t sell one of her many properties to repay the £125,000, apply to bankrupt her, then apply for a restriction order. She will as a result be disbarred from sitting in the House of Lords. It isn’t rocket science.
This is the line-up of Labour figures who are either facing criminal charges for theft, have been suspended from the party, suspended from the Lords, found to be expense fiddling, offering to whore themselves out or some permutation of all of the above. Byers, Hewitt, Hoon, Devine, Chaytor, Morley, Baroness Uddin, Lords Blackburn, Truscott, Snape and Moonie, last but not least, Margaret Moran. To describe these people as morally flawed fails to capture their essence. These are just some of the Labour politicians who have been caught.
The majority of Labour MPs were ordered to repay expense “over-claims” – fiddles in normal language. In the real world employees caught fiddling on this scale would be fired. MPs are supposed to work for you, remember that on election day…
Think the public have a right to know what happens to public money? The Sunday Times reports that expense receipts to be released in July will be cesored so that we don’t know what they were for, where the taxis went, the names of shops or hotels.
Labour MP Jim Devine has fiddled a total of nearly £17,000 in “car” and “mileage” costs, but the office manager, Marion Kinley, told the Sunday Herald she did all the driving and “I received only £60.” Devine has some improbable excuses.
The Sunday Times reports that the Labour peer Baroness Uddin has named a flat in Maidstone, Kent as her main residence and claimed around £100,000 in Parliamentary expenses for it. This is despite the flat being empty and Baroness Uddin living in Wapping, East London – just four miles from the House of Lords.
After the Sunday Times challenged Uddin about her “main residence”, she appears to have done a quick “move in”. This is prima facie fraud.
David Miliband wants a private jet and spare on standby according to the News of the World. Despite the fact that he invariably could fly commercial for a fraction of the price.
Well, even so, it is going to be hard for a Labour MP to cover up building a sauna on expenses…
