Tag: scandal

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Gove compares election betting scandal to Partygate

Mason is being investigated by betting regulators, accused of placing dozens of bets on the election date according to the Times. He is the fourth Tory figure to be implicated in the affair…reports Asian Lite News

A senior British minister compared the latest scandal involving Tory candidates accused of betting on the election date to Partygate, a series of Covid-era parties that brought down Boris Johnson.

Housing minister Michael Gove compared the betting allegations to the Partygate scandal in an interview with the Times newspaper on Saturday.

“It looks like one rule for them and one rule for us… That’s the most potentially damaging thing,” said Gove, who is standing down this election after 14 years as an MP.

“That was damaging at the time of Partygate and is damaging here,” he added.

Prime minister Johnson was forced from office in 2022 following public anger at the revelations of parties held in Downing Street when the rest of the country was under lockdown during the pandemic.

Now another senior Conservative Party figure has been caught up in the latest scandal. The party’s chief data officer, Nick Mason, has taken a leave of absence, following claims he placed bets on the timing of the election, the PA news agency reported Saturday.

Mason is being investigated by betting regulators, accused of placing dozens of bets on the election date according to the Times. He is the fourth Tory figure to be implicated in the affair.

The party’s campaign director stepped aside following reports on Thursday that he and his wife, a Tory candidate in the July 4 election, were under investigation by the Gambling Commission.

The scandal broke a week earlier, when Tory candidate and Sunak’s ministerial aide Craig Williams said he was being probed for staking a bet on the snap election date before it was called. On Wednesday, London police said one of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s security detail had been arrested for allegedly placing a bet on the date.

Sunak has said he is “incredibly angry” over the revelations. “If anyone is found to have broken the rules, not only should they face the full consequences of the law, I will make sure that they are booted out of the Conservative Party,” he said earlier this week.

Political bets are allowed in the UK, including on the date of elections, but using insider knowledge to do so is against the law. The inquiries heap further misery on Sunak, whose party has trailed Labour by about 20 points in the polls for nearly two years, making it odds-on to be dumped out of office after 14 years.

Gove said that those involved in the betting scandal were “sucking the oxygen out of the campaign.” Comparing it to Partygate again, he added: “A few individuals end up creating an incredibly damaging atmosphere for the party.

“So it’s both bad in itself, but also destructive to the efforts of all of those good people who are currently fighting hard for the Conservative vote.”

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-Top News Europe UK News

Sunak vows action over Post Office scandal  

The government, which formally owns Post Office Ltd, has paid out millions in compensation to many of the sub-postmasters impacted but there are many others still waiting for years…reports Asian Lite News

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Sunday said that the government is reviewing the compensation process in an accounting scandal that wrongly accused hundreds of sub-postmasters of fraud, many of them of Indian heritage.

During an interview with the BBC, Sunak was asked about the historic scandal involving a faulty IT system named Horizon dating back to the late 1990s and confirmed that his justice minister is “looking at” how the process of overturning wrongful convictions and providing compensations can be speeded up.

The government, which formally owns Post Office Ltd, has paid out millions in compensation to many of the sub-postmasters impacted but there are many others still waiting for years.

“Obviously it’s something that happened in the ’90s but actually seeing it and hearing about it again just shows what an appalling miscarriage of justice it is for everyone affected and it’s important that those people now get the justice they deserve, and that’s what the compensation schemes are about,” said Sunak.

“The government has paid out about GBP 150 million to thousands of people already. Of course, we want to get the money to the people as quickly as possible, that’s why there are interim payments of up to, I think, GBP 600,000 that can be made. There are three different schemes available and for anyone affected, they should come forward,” he said.

The issue has been brought back into focus again with a hard-hitting real-life ITV drama series ‘Mr Bates Vs The Post Office’, which aired in the UK this month, and the Metropolitan Police confirmed soon after that it is investigating the Post Office over potential fraud offences.

Dozens more impacted by the faulty accounting system have since sought legal help, adding to the already over 700 sub-postmasters impacted by the scandal.

Back in April 2021, the case of Seema Biswas, now 47, came to light when she had her conviction quashed alongside Vijay Parekh – two British Indian sub-postmasters among a group of 39 who won a Court of Appeal case.

Misra took over her post office in Surrey in 2005 and was pregnant when she was wrongly handed a 15-month sentence over 12 years ago after being accused of stealing GBP 75,000 from her branch.

“I would have killed myself if I hadn’t been pregnant,” said Misra, a mother of two who had hailed the Court of Appeal verdict as a “huge moment”.

Sub-postmasters like her had appealed their convictions on two grounds: that they had been denied a fair trial, and that the circumstances in which the prosecutions went ahead “represents an affront to public conscience”.

In the ruling at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, a three-judge bench granted the appeal on both grounds.

“Post Office Limited’s failures of investigation and disclosure were so egregious as to make the prosecution of any of the ‘Horizon cases’ an affront to the conscience of the court,” said Lord Justice Timothy Holroyde, sitting with Justice Simon Picken and Justice Judith Farbey, at the time.

He said the Post Office “knew there were serious issues about the reliability of Horizon” and had a “clear duty to investigate” the system’s defects.

The ruling meant the former postmasters could bring new civil cases for malicious prosecution. However, the process has been a long-drawn one for the victims, many of whom are still waiting for their rightful exoneration and compensation in what has been branded as one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British history.

Post Office Chief Executive Nick Read said in a statement on the agency’s website that he hoped the TV show “encourages anyone affected who has not yet come forward to seek the redress and compensation they deserve.”

The series, aired on UK channel ITV, has grown public sympathy for victims as well as demands for accountability.   In an interview with the BBC, Lee Castleton, a former sub-postmaster who says the Post Office ruined his life, shared that he is “really, really angry” over the ongoing situation.   

Speaking about the impact of the ITV drama, Castleton said he hoped “that pressure comes to bear. That’s what we’ve tried to do for years. It’s been very difficult to try to push our cause.”

“We’re just people from your village shop or your local post office,” he continued. “And it’s been really hard to drum up support, it’s been very difficult to get people to believe.” He said he hoped those listening would put pressure on those in power to help their cause.

Nobody from the Post Office or Fujitsu had been held accountable as of last year.

The Post Office still retains a role in the appeals process for the prosecutions it brought forward, the BBC reported. In Sunday’s interview, BBC journalist and show host Laura Kuenssberg asked Sunak if Justice Secretary Alex Chalk would look at removing the Post Office from that role or exonerating everyone convicted.

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-Top News Europe

Portugal PM resigns over corruption scandal

Infrastructure Minister Joao Galamba, and the President of the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA), Nuno Lacasta, were also named as formal suspects…reports Asian Lite News

Antonio Costa, prime minister of Portugal, resigned on Tuesday afternoon after becoming the target of an investigation into alleged government corruption.

Costa submitted his resignation to President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa earlier in the day. In a statement, Costa denied corruption accusations but said he preferred to step down to focus on his defense.

The country’s attorney general (AG) has already announced that a criminal case will be filed against Costa. The AG was also received by the Portuguese president, who was informed about the search operations that resulted in the arrest of five people, including Vitor Escaria, Costa’s chief of staff.

Infrastructure Minister Joao Galamba, and the President of the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA), Nuno Lacasta, were also named as formal suspects. According to the AG’s office, the inquiry focuses on the alleged crimes of prevarication, active and passive corruption, and influence peddling.

The investigation also focuses on lithium exploration concessions in Portugal, as well as a hydrogen energy production plant project.

ALSO READ-Jaishankar addresses Indian diaspora in Portugal

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-Top News PAKISTAN

Imran Khan, sister summoned in land corruption scandal

Imran was summoned by the ACE on June 16 but he did not appear before it. The summon was affixed at Imran’s Lahore Zaman Park residence…reports Asian Lite News

The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) of Pakistan’s Punjab has summoned the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, his sister Uzma Khan and her husband Ahad Majeed in the Layyah land corruption case, media reported.

According to a notification issued by the spokesperson, the PTI chief has been asked to appear before the ACE headquarters on June 19 whereas Uzma and her husband have been asked to present themselves before the ACE Director General.

Earlier, Imran was summoned by the ACE on June 16 but he did not appear before it. The summon was affixed at Imran’s Lahore Zaman Park residence.

The spokesperson maintained that the ACE had “clear evidence” of Imran’s involvement in the Layyah corruption scandal, adding that pressure was exerted on revenue officials from Bani Gala- Imran’s residence in Islamabad — for illegal transfer of land, Express Tribune reported.

Uzma is accused of alleged fraud in purchase of 5,261-kanal of land in Layyah district, reportedly worth billions of rupees, for a mere Rs 130 million. The ACE said that an FIR had been registered against the couple.

According to the spokesperson, the land was bought in 2021-22 through fraud, adding that Uzma and Majeed made a fake transfer of the land on their names.

He said the marker value of the land was about Rs six billion. The purchase, he added, was made when the ADB announced aid for the Greater Thal Canal project, which aimed at irrigating the barren lands through Thal canal.

The spokesperson said Uzma had prior knowledge of the project, so the couple forced the landowner to sell it to them. He added that the land owners had filed complaints against Uzma and others to the police for forcibly buying the land, Express Tribune reported.

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