Downing Street lobby briefing on Lycamobile, Windrush, stop and search and Brexit
3 min read
At a briefing for journalists today a Downing Street spokesman was asked about the Lycamobile scandal, whether immigration rules were akin to Nazi Germany, and Brexit defeats last night in the House of Lords.
LYCAMOBILE PROBE
Asked about reports by BuzzFeed News that officials refused to assist an investigation into major Tory donor Lycamobile as part of a French money laundering probe, the spokesman said: “HMRC never takes political donations into account when it makes decisions on whether to investigate a business. The request was rejected because it did not contain sufficient information for HMRC to seek a search warrant...
“My understanding from HMRC is the information was only provided as background to offer a detailed profile of the company to their French counterparts but it was not taken into account by HMRC in deciding whether to support the French application."
Asked whether the decision to include the information in the letter was regrettable, the spokesman said: “There’s an HMRC statement on this. It’s been made clear that we are never influenced by political donations and always investigate rule-breaking professionally and objectively.”
Asked if the PM was serious about tackling money laundering, the spokesman said: “We are absolutely clear we take a zero approach to corruption.”
LORD KERSLAKE
Asked about the call by ex-top mandarin Lord Kerslake for an independent inquiry into the destruction of the Windrush landing cards, the spokesman said: “The Home Office has set out the position in terms of the fact that the decision was taken by UKBA in 2009 to destroy paper records and that this included the registry slips in 2010.”
Asked about Lord Kerslake saying ministers thought the new immigration rules brought in by the PM when she was Home Secretary were akin to Nazi Germany, the spokesman said: “I think I'll put to you the words of Michael Gove when it was put to him this morning, when he said he’d never heard anyone make that comparison before Lord Kerslake did. In terms of the PM I think you can look to her words yesterday when she said it’s absolutely right that we ensure that people who access services that are paid for by taxpayers and relied on by people living in this country have the right to do so and that we take action against people who are here illegally. The Windrush generation are here legally they; have a right to be here; they are British.”
STOP AND SEARCH
Asked if the PM agreed with Boris Johnson that stop and search powers should be more widely used to tackle violent crime in London, the spokesman said: “We have always been clear that where stop and search is used proportionately and legally it can be very effective in dealing with knife crime and other types of crime. We are catching and prosecuting more people who carry a knife or a blade and those convicted are more likely to go to prison. Individual decisions on this are an operational matter for the police but we have always been clear that when stop and search powers are used properly and in a targeted, intelligence-led way it is a vital policing tool.”
BREXIT BILL
Asked what the PM’s response was to the House of Lords giving the Government a “bloody nose” over its flagship Brexit legislation, the spokesman said: “I do not accept that characterisation. We are disappointed that parliament has voted for the amendments… we will review it when it comes back to the House.”
