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The Owen Jones Podcast

This Tory Scandal Is A Shocker

The Owen Jones Podcast

Owen Jones

Politics, Government, News & Politics, News

4.41.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 April 2023

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Oh dear oh dear: as Tory MP Scott Benton is embroiled in scandal - after being caught out by a newspaper sting - there is a much wider issue to look at: how our so-called democracy is in total crisis.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

What's that? A Tori's Lee story. It must be a day ending in why. Who's the latest one then?

0:05.2

So it's his dude called Scott Benton, who's a particularly charming example of a

0:09.9

Tori, if you don't mind me saying so. We'll come onto that.

0:12.1

Now Benton's been caught out by a sting operation. Let's just have a little look at this clip.

0:16.9

We've heard some house commons two or three times a day, but Minister has to pass you,

0:22.5

and then you've got ten minutes while you walk around to the next boat to have his ear.

0:27.6

There's written questions as well where we can table things on the public record and get an

0:32.0

instant response from five working days, and thirdly, we have access to papers and information

0:38.1

which PR companies will be. So to sum it up, he reportedly offered to lobby ministers at the

0:44.4

behest of the gambling industry when there is a government review of gambling laws currently

0:49.6

going on and to leak a confidential policy document all for the princely sum of four

0:55.1

grand a month. Now, this was the Times newspaper pretending to be a fake investment fund.

1:00.0

They approached eight MPs seeking an expert advisor. Some of them were clearly not stupid enough

1:05.8

to fall for that one. So he said he'd call in favour some other Tori politicians,

1:10.1

and as you can hear, emphasised he could get ease access to ministers when they're waiting

1:14.8

to vote in Parliament. He read out one question he'd submitted on behalf of one business

1:19.3

essentially, though he didn't say whether he received a financial reward for doing so,

1:24.1

and he said he could guarantee he could pass on a copy of the white paper. It's just important

1:28.4

to sum up what we've listened to. And on gambling law changes at least two days before it's

1:34.0

publicly available. Now, the House of Commons, Code of Conduct, says, taking payment in return for

1:39.4

advocating a particular matter in the House is strictly forbidden. Members may not speak on the

1:43.3

House vote to initiate Parliamentary proceedings for payment in cash or kind. That's to stop the

...

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