Chinese ‘state-affiliated’ organisations behind cyber-attacks on MPs and Electoral Commission, Dowden says – as it happened

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative party leader, has said that MPs will “bullied into silence by Beijing”.

Addressing a press conference in Westminster, after he and other prominent critics of China were briefed on how they have been targeted by the Chinese, Duncan Smith said:

We have been subjected to harassment, impersonation and attempted hacking from China for some time.

While that was “extremely unwelcome”, Duncan Smith said “our discomfort pales in comparison to Chinese dissidents who risk their lives to oppose the Chinese Communist party”.

Referring to the announcement from Oliver Dowden, Duncan Smith said:

We must now enter a new era of relations with China, dealing with the contemporary Chinese Communist party as it really is, not as we would wish it to be.

Today’s announcement should mark a watershed moment where the UK takes a stand for values of human rights and the international rules-based system on which we all depend.

The Treasury has confirmed that Scott Benton has been appointed steward and bailiff of the Manor of Northstead. That means his resignation as an MP has been accepted (because being steward and bailiff of the Manor of Northstead is a so-called office of profit under the crown and, under Britain’s quaint Ruritanian traditions, holding one disbars someone from remaining as an MP.)

Rishi Sunak faces another probable byelection drubbing following Scott Benton’s resignation as an MP, Christopher Hope from GB News reports.

Benton, MP for Blackpool South, was suspended from the Commons last month for 35 days after undercover reporters from the Times recorded him offering to engage in lobbying activities that would break Commons rules.

His suspension triggered the recall process, allowing voters in his constituency to sign a petition if they wanted a byelection. The petition was not due to close until 22 April, but Hope says Benton has announced his resignation as an MP today. Hope quotes Benton as saying:

It’s with a heavy heart that I have written to the chancellor this morning to tender my resignation as your MP.

I’d like to thank the hundreds of residents who have sent supportive messages, cards and letters over the last few months and who have urged me to continue and fight the next election.

By resigning today, Benton should enable the byelection to be held on Thursday 2 May, the date of the local elections.

Benton had a majority of just 3,690 over Labour at the 2019 general election and Keir Starmer’s party should be able to win the seat very easily. Holding the byelection at the same time as the local elections, which are also expected to involve terrible results for the Tories, will at least mean Sunak won’t have to worry about a byelection disaster in mid summer.

Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, has apologised for what has been described as a “minor” breach of the rules requiring MPs to register their financial interests.

He issued the apology in a letter to the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Daniel Greensberg, who launched an investigation following a Guardian report saying Gove had received VIP hospitality at a Queens Park Rangers (QPR) football match that he had not declared.

After being contacted by the Guardian, Gove declared the two tickets he had received for the chairman’s box, for Gove and his son. He said the hospitality had not orginally been declared due to an “oversight”.

Gove also established that on two other occasions he and his son had been given tickets for the chairman’s box that had not been included in the register, and he declared those too.

The value of the three pairs of tickets not declared at the right time was £650, £552, and £552.

Greenberg said that these three interests, and a fourth (Gove being an unpaid governor of the Ditchley Foundation) should all have been declared promptly in the register of members’ interests. But he said these were “minor” breaches of the rules, and he dealt with them through the “rectification” process, which avoids the need for a reference to the Commons standards committee.

The original Guardian story, by David Conn, pointed out that when Gove attended a QPR match in August 2021, he was spent time with David Meller, a donor to the Conservative party whose fashion products company had been awarded £164m PPE contracts after Gove referred them to the government’s so-called VIP lane for PPE proposals during the pandemic. Conn said Meller’s son Johnny organised the tickets.

In his declaration, Gove said the tickets were paid for by QPR football club.

David Meller did not respond to Conn’s request for a comment, and Johnny Meller said he did not remember going to the match with Gove. Gove and other ministers have always said that decisions to actually award PPE contracts were taken by civil servants, not members of the government.

Greenberg did not ask Gove about the Mellers in his correspondence with Gove about the undeclared tickets, and Gove did not mention this aspect of the Guardian’s report in his replies either.

Downing Street has rejected suggestions that the government has abandoned plans to cut ground rents to zero.

Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, reportedly wants to cut ground rents to an effective rate of zero (“peppercorn”), but the Sunday Times said yesterday that he was being overruled by No 10 and the Treasury, who are worried about the consequences.

In their story, Harry Yorke and Melissa York reported:

The plan was to add the provision to the [leasehold and freehold reform bill] after a consultation, which closed in January. This would have gone further than the cap on ground rents for new homes, introduced in 2022, and reforms in 1993 to enable leaseholders to reduce their ground rent to a peppercorn when extending their lease by 90 years.

However, the proposal was quietly abandoned after Gove and officials at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities met fierce resistance from the Treasury. It follows an intensive lobbying campaign by pension funds, some of which have invested billions in buying up freeholds for blocks of flats.

The Treasury has been warned that pressing ahead with Gove’s plans could wipe out between £15bn and £40bn of investment, which could significantly affect individual pensioners. Pension funds are big investors in housing and ministers are also concerned about the knock-on effects for investment in new developments. Housing campaigners say the potential impact has been greatly exaggerated.

At the No 10 lobby briefing, asked if leasehold reform had been abandoned, the PM’s spokesperson replied: “No.” He went on:

We are committed to strengthening protection for leaseholders and bringing forward reforms through the leasehold and freehold reform bill. The bill is continuing to progress through the House of Lords and will have its second reading later this week …

We have just consulted on a range of options to cap the ground rents for existing leases and are currently considering responses to that consultation and will set out our policy response to that in due course.

Asked to confirm that there would be a cap on ground rents, the spokesperson replied:

We have said that we do not believe it is fair that leaseholders face unregulated ground rents. That is why we have consulted on a range of options to cap ground rents for existing leases.

Noa Hoffman from the Sun thinks the compromise outcome will involve a transition to peppercorn rents – but over a very long period.

There has also been no final decision made yet, but the expectation (as The Sun reported last week) is a very slow transition to peppercorns

At the Downing Street lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesperson clarified how much the government is investing in the defence and civil nuclear submarine industry in Barrow-in-Furness. (See 11.28am.)

In its news release, the government says it will partner with industry “including BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, EDF and Babcock, to invest at least £763m by 2030 in skills, jobs and education”.

The spokesperson said that £350m would come from the government, and £413m from the private sector. He said the £350m was coming from the existing defence budget.

And he said the money for the town – a separate announcement – would be worth £220m – £20m now, and £20m a year for 10 years. The news release implied the total was £200m.

Asked where that money would come from, the spokesperson said that would be set out in future spending reviews. But he claimed it was “normal practice, on occasion, to pre-commit funding ahead of spending reviews”.

The Conservative MP Bob Seely is urging the government to take a robust approach to China. He posted this on X.

More evidence today, on top of all the wealth of evidence, that we need a robust and consistent approach to #China.

China’s #Communist leaders seek to dominate the West, not live on harmony with it. They make no secret of it.

Freedom anywhere is a threat to dictators everywhere.

We need to engage with #China, but let’s do so whilst doing more to protect our interests. The relationship is still too one-sided.

Downing Street has insisted that £100,000 a year is a high salary, while defending Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, over comments he made last week implying that it wasn’t.

At the No 10 lobby briefing, the prime minister’s spokesperson said that Hunt had been talking about a specific individual when he claimed £100,000 a year did not go far.

In a post on X at the end of last week, describing some calls with constituents, Hunt said:

Finally I spoke to a lady from Godalming about eligibility for the government’s childcare offer which is not available if one parent is earning over £100k. That is an issue I would really like to sort out after the next election as I am aware that it is not huge salary in our area if you have a mortgage to pay.

Hunt defended his comment in an interview yesterday, saying: “What sounds like a large salary – when you have house prices averaging around £670,000 in my area and you’ve got a mortgage and childcare costs – it doesn’t go as far as you might think.”

Asked if the prime minister thought £100,000 was not a high salary, the PM’s spokesperson said:

Clearly 100,000 pounds is a high salary.

The chancellor responded to questions on this at the weekend.

It is clear that he was referring to the views of an individual constituent whose personal circumstances I obviously can’t comment on.

Heather Stewart has a good explainer here explaining why, by any measure, £100,000 is a high salary.

There will be two statements in the Commons today: Oliver Dowden’s on cyber-attacks and China, at 3.30pm; and, about an hour later, Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, on the report published on Thursday saying women who did not receive adequate information about their state pension age rising should get compensation.