Labour MPs defend accepting tens of thousands from 'suspicious' firm

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
10 Jan 2023 10:57
1 Shares

MPM Connect, which has no evident line of business, made "donations" to Wes Streeting, Dan Jarvis, and Yvette Cooper.

Labour frontbenchers Wes Streeting (left) and Yvette Cooper received thousands from a little-known firm. (PA)

Labour MPs have defended accepting funds from a little-known firm that has grown as one of Westminster's largest political donors.

Wes Streeting, Dan Jarvis, and Yvette Cooper have all stated that collecting tens of thousands of pounds from MPM Connect, which is part-owned by Peter Hearn, a Labour donor, but has no discernible line of business, was not illegal.

Sky News and Tortoise disclosed, on Monday, that MPM Connect was one of two virtually completely unknown corporations that have donated substantial sums of money to MPs in recent years. IX Wireless, on the other hand, has given more than £100,000 to Conservative MPs since 2019.

Simultaneously, all three Labour MPs issued statements defending the "gifts", noting that they had been reported to parliamentary authorities. MPM Connect was described by Jarvis and Streeting as an "investment business in the employment sector," despite the fact that the company has no website and has not responded to media inquiries regarding its investments.

It is also worth noting that IX Wireless has also come under fire for contributing more than £138,000 to 24 Conservative MPs since 2019.

In response to complaints over phone masts installed without consultation, local people have accused IX Wireless of bullying and intimidation.

The company is based in Blackburn and specializes in communication infrastructure such as mobile phone masts. It is owned by another business called Cohiba Communications, whose director is Conservative peer James Wharton.

In the past, the company has been involved in local debacles over its developments, such as in Hyndburn, Lancashire, when a residents' committee objected to its "unnecessary" intentions to install masts in the town.

The business targeted a group of northern Conservative MPs, many of whom represent constituencies near where it builds its networks.

Christian Wakeford, the Bury South MP who defected to Labour this year, told Tortoise that the Conservative party chair at the time, Jake Berry, had requested him to submit a proposal accepting funds from IX Wireless. He said the money arrived a month later, despite the fact that he had never heard of the company before.

“The first I ever heard of IX Wireless is when I was told: ‘This is something you need to put on the register of interests for compliance purposes’ – that was all I ever heard of them,” Wakeford said.