To promote the Tom Burgis book, Cuckooland, in the week leading up to its publication the full cabal supporting Burgis and Charlotte Leslie attempted an ambush on my character.
On February 22nd, 2024, Kathy Newman invited me for an interview on Channel 4 News to address accusations Charlotte Leslie had made about me in a report on our legal case, which she claimed was a SLAPP. Her approach during the interview was confrontational and aggressive; I was depicted as the villain of the piece and Leslie as the victim. It was not fair or balanced journalism. Whilst her claims were taken at face value my counterclaims against her were ridiculed.
The version of the interview broadcast on Channel 4 was heavily edited; my responses were taken out of context and incomplete answers were relayed. In the interview, I was constantly and rudely interrupted when my answer did not suit Newman’s pre-conceived narrative and I was not given the opportunity to put my case across properly.
A colleague who accompanied me to the TV studios recorded the interview in full and I reproduce it here – these are my full responses which Channel 4 and Newman chose not to show their viewers.
Following this, Margaret Hodge appeared on Newsnight on February 27th to make false allegations that donations from Nadezhda Rodicheva to the Conservative Party had instead come from me. This is a baseless claim that Tom Burgis makes in his book. Hodge repeated the allegations verbatim from Cuckooland; she had clearly been briefed by Tom Burgis and the intention was to promote his book and diminish me – but she had been given duff information. Ironically, The Guardian did not dare publish the allegations after extensive correspondence during which I provided documentation disproving the allegations.
A complaint by Hodge to the Electoral Commission led nowhere because it had no legal basis. But it suited Hodge to peddle her false narrative – just as she refused to retract false allegations made against me by a discredited academic in a Policy Institute paper, even after King’s College London and Chatham House had offered to withdraw the report and/or correct it; indeed, she dishonestly repeated the original allegations and under cloak of parliamentary issued the original unedited report even after she was notified in writing of the inaccuracies. Correspondence in which Hodge is copied is reproduced here.
Lastly, it was the turn of David Davis, who abused parliamentary privilege on February 28th, insisting in the House of Commons that the NCA should investigate me for facilitating criminal payments. His choice to do this in parliament, where he cannot be pursued for libel, was telling. All the deals he refers to have been the subject of review by various enforcement agencies around the world and no wrongdoing on my part was advanced or established.
Surprisingly, a senior and “distinguished” MP did not have the sense nor courage nor integrity to fact check with me in advance.
When I reported him and Hodge to the Parliamentary standards office, the implicit response was that there is tolerance for small lies i.e. lies are a gradation. I suggested installing a lie-meter in Parliament and MPs who lie 3 times ought to be suspended and those who form a habit of lying should be barred from holding public office.
It is no coincidence that interventions from all three of these actors came in the immediate run-up to the launch of Cuckooland. This was a coordinated attempt to besmirch my character, using friends in the media and in Parliament – all in the interest of promoting Tom Burgis’ book and protecting Charlotte Leslie
Documents provided