Payment

Scotland Yard is looking at two £250,000 donations to the party by Britain Means Business before the 2024 electionPayments to Reform UK first revealed by the Guardian are now being investigated by the Metropolitan police.The inquiry is scrutinising payments made to the party via a company controlled by its deputy leader, Richard Tice. Continue reading...

MPs and others condemn behaviour of CT Group, which offered cash for positive coverage of clientsA political lobbying firm secretly paying journalists for articles favourable to its clients is facing calls to reveal full details of the payments, after the practice was denounced as a dangerous “attack on democracy”.MPs, senior lobbyists and transparency campaigners all condemned the behaviour of CT Group, the firm co-founded by the campaign strategist Lynton Crosby, an election guru previously hired by both David Cameron and Boris Johnson. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Guardian investigation of CT Group uncovers practice that appears to seek hidden influence over public opinionA political lobbying firm founded by the former electoral strategist for David Cameron and Boris Johnson secretly pays journalists to write pieces for British newspapers that are favourable to their clients, a Guardian investigation can reveal.In a practice that appears to create a backdoor for private companies to influence public opinion, lobbyists for CT Group – co-founded by the campaign strategist, Lynton Crosby – told an undercover reporter that they had paid journalists to place apparently independent stories in newspapers. Continue reading...

• The European Central Bank released the monthly balance of payments data for the euro area for May 2026. • Euro area residents recorded net acquisitions of non-euro area assets totaling €702 billion over the 12 months leading to May 2026, a significant increase from €442 billion the previous year. • Net incurrence of liabilities also rose sharply to €583 billion, compared to €178 billion in the prior year's period.

Director general, Matt Brittin, says funding model ties corporation to the past as number of licences falls by 539,000The number of people paying the BBC’s licence fee has fallen faster than expected in the last year, with half a million more households opting out of the payment.Matt Brittin, the BBC’s director general, said the broadcaster faced a “moment of real jeopardy”, as the licence fee funding model “ties us to the past”. Continue reading...

Trump’s request stems from the supreme court’s 29 June decision not to review his appeal Donald Trump has asked a judge not to order the release of more than $5m in court-held funds that he owes E Jean Carroll in her successful 2023 sexual abuse and defamation civil trial against him.Trump had deposited this multimillion jury award, plus 11% interest, into a court-controlled account about six weeks after Carroll’s win. For this money, which now totals about $5.8m, to be released, a judge has to order directing the court-controlled fund to do so. Trump has denied all wrongdoing. Continue reading...

Carroll was awarded damages after New York jury concluded Trump sexually abused her, then defamed her after she publicly described the attackDonald Trump’s latest attempt to delay payment of a $5.8m judgment for defaming a magazine columnist whom a jury determined he sexually abused has been emphatically rejected by a federal court judge.In a single-sentence 4 July order, US district Judge Lewis Kaplan denied the president’s request for more time to pay the civil judgment owed to E Jean Carroll, who was awarded the damages after a New York jury concluded that Trump sexually abused her in 1996 – then defamed her after she publicly described the attack in 2019. Continue reading...