‘I was not paid’: MP fights back in spy row

Denial: Labour MP Liam Byrne

A Labour MP has denied allegations he was paid to ask questions to discredit a City financier.

Liam Byrne, a former chief secretary to the Treasury, said claims by Viceroy Research boss Fraser Perring that he received cash to ask about the businessman’s links to Russia in Parliament were ‘patently false’.

The comments followed a row that erupted this week over comments the MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill made in the House of Commons last month.

At the time, Byrne said Perring was ‘a not infrequent visitor to Moscow’ and accused him of working ‘hand in glove’ with another firm, Boatman Capital, to launch a short-selling attack on UK defence group Babcock. 

Calling for a debate on ‘the activities of short-selling attack group Viceroy Research and its leader Fraser Perring’, the MP added: ‘We must ensure that short-selling groups are not another weapon in Putin’s arsenal.’

Byrne’s comments are protected by Parliamentary privilege, meaning he cannot be sued. But Perring challenged the MP to repeat his statements outside the chamber, and thus without legal protection. ‘If Liam Byrne has nothing to hide, he will make the statements publicly,’ the short seller wrote on Twitter.

Perring also claimed Byrne was ‘alleged to have taken payment for the comments made in Parliament’.

Byrne hit back, describing Perring’s claim as ‘patently false’.

Perring has denied any Russian connection, saying he has ‘never been to Moscow’ and has ‘no such links’ to the Kremlin. He has also called for Byrne to officially retract his comments on the Parliamentary record.

Byrne, an MP since 2004, was chief secretary to the Treasury under Gordon Brown before Labour were voted out of office in the 2010 general election.

He garnered widespread attention when he left a note behind saying there was ‘no money left’.

Despite it being a joke, the note was seized upon by the Conservatives and repeatedly used to attack Labour’s economic record. Aside from claims Perring had been involved in a short attack on Babcock, Byrne also said Viceroy had targeted homeless landlord Home REIT.

The company was the subject of a report from Viceroy in November and since then has become mired in crisis.

Home REIT is being investigated by the National Crime Agency amid allegations of bribery and also faces a potential lawsuit amid accusations it misled shareholders.

Perring has denied working with Boatman Capital to attack Babcock and that Home REIT was not targeted by Viceroy.

The former social worker shot to fame when he became one of the loudest voices to raise the alarm over German payments group Wirecard, which collapsed in 2020 after an accounting scandal that saw its chief executive arrested and chief operating officer go into hiding.

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk