Thread by @TrialByTruth

It is a 'Labour smear campaign' but this is the Telegraph and this is 2023 UK

The backstory to some of this

Referenced 'smear' in parliament

This was the original reporting

Some apparent steamrollering to institute the Middlesbrough Development Corporation that will oversee related investment with Gove's direct intervention

But also media FOI applications blocked for Johnson BP meetings opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…

Pretty much everything about the Development Corporation was marked as confidential

There is also this - from The Times

Plus this from Yorkshire Post reporter @JayMitchinson when MP Simon Clarke and Houchen went off the deep end about some questions about shellfish continuing to wash up on beaches

For clarity this relates to this area becoming an Investment Zone - it is an adjacent, but linked issue to freeport questions

Sky picking up the Yorkshire post report

The day that story resulted in some notable reactions from Simon Clarke MP and Houchen

Local @NEBylines on reactions northeastbylines.co.uk/houchens-dead-…

We will see what the reaction is. I almost don't want to look. Do you feel this is a smear seeking to prevent valued local investment, or more a demand for transparency about costs and benefit?

This is more on the deregulation and other legislation associated with the creation of freeports and investment zones. A careful thread

Including this OBR assessment. No need to go to any extremes about fears, but it really would be good (for once), to have a robust investigation of all trade offs

To close some direct sources for you. This is a 14th March debate on the Middlesbrough Development Corporation hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2023-0…

I shared a 2022 video from Andy McDonald before. This is a more recent one on deal due diligence

Extracts from that debate. First @AndyMcDonaldMP then it is @ACunninghamMP with a very good question. Transparency is all we want #LocalElections2023

I went to check reactions. Deathly silence. Likely due to the elections tomorrow. Quoted on the airport

It would be good to go back to square one for one thing. Local child poverty. Never mentioned #LocalElections2023

There has been huge aversion to scrutiny and a reportedly huge PR budget

More reporting here on similar

As footer, I am not an activist trying to smear anyone, I am, ironically, a governance and risk specialist, hence digging into details of organisations and individuals to check my bias

The lack of transparency and attacks on media cause the threads. Feel free to counter

More now surfacing thanks to local elections, when Preston, the Middlesbrough Mayor, lost his seat and Turner, the local Police and Crime Commissioner, is also standing as councillor in the final seat awaiting recount

Both key members of the MDC

Houchen confirming the change in the MDC as a result, perhaps more to come depending on the Tuesday recount for that last seat and some questions about our PCCs conduct associated with it

This kind of reported conduct

Incidentally @leighsus had now been hired by @yorkshirepost to focus on this, so worth a follow

Please do browse replies to all the quoted tweets. It is not a political cabal trying to ruin the promise of local investment. It is a huge number of concerned locals

Something else for folk to look out for, from replies to this thread

I hope it will force some transparency

Facts should all be carefully checked and correlation is not causation, but that is why we need independent media and well resourced oversight bodies

'It was all about national issues' says Preston, ex-Mayor, on GB News. I decided not to link to it, but you can find it here easily enough

A prepared response now from Mayor Houchen - Alt Text split between this and the next tweet

Alt Text continued from above

It came with this tweet quoting the one where he first shared the statement

From Andy McDonald MP

From yesterday's Treasury questions

BP and Equinor reportedly satisfied

The Prime Minister did not comment

One does hope, given this involves millions in public money and sale of local assets, that there is more due diligence than just to leave commercial partners and local bodies to it

Devolution is very attractive, but so is effective governance

Mr Clarke has now had his say

Some other local colour while we wait for more. Thought the roundabout was an analogy, but no northeastbylines.co.uk/mayor-houchen-…

Thread continues here if you didn't hit 'show replies'. Just tucking stuff away in the Twitter back pocket

Incidentally, Mr Houchen did say that public coffers were going to be empty and wished Labour luck with that

Saying Conservatives would come up with some plans just before the election

A little debt burden context

It seems the site sale document is in the public domain. This is Private Eye responding to Houchen

A couple of small snippets from a related conversation with a local h/t @Anthdunn @skatothecore

Bring the latest Private Eye report that kicked all this off to the top again

Mr Clarke has now issued a long statement on Facebook 1/6

2/6

3/6

4/6

5/6

6/6

Do please reach out if you can simplify all of this for me. I am more than happy to trust in the benefit of this for the area in the medium / long-term, I just want a bit more clarity on what money goes to whom (aside from jobs)

For more context, I did work very hard to try and understand the law being passed for these new zones. Most listed in this thread

A somewhat shorter rebuttal to Clarke

The first mention quickly found of Teesside job creation estimates

What are the current estimates? It is a rapidly moving picture, but it is not clear how figures are arrived at. Just one of the queries. Exchange here between the Private Eye and Houchen

A useful thread on how this tests robustness of devolved arrangements. All want this to work for locals

This is a balanced assessment from the @yorkshirepost reporter

From the Tees Valley Combined Authority demanding Yorkshire Post delete an article recently

A past look at TVCA make up, establishment and terms for operation

A resonse to the PM's statement at #PMQs that this is just the business of the local entities involved

A response from Houchen on the author of the article published by Private Eye

*response

A reply to Houchen on his post about this on Facebook. This shocked me

A related historical Private Eye podcast. Why trust this? Not necessarily doing so. Just more context private-eye.co.uk/podcast/76

This goes back to the last seat that was counted where Steve Turner, Middlesbrough PCC, was also running as councillor

The news report to go with it

Some context for change in police numbers in Cleveland. It is the bar at the very bottom

Other local policing context, so I wonder how pleased officers were to be sent on these visits gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-…

Corroborates this in days preceding

His response to @SamCoatesSky

@SamCoatesSky As a little more context for the complaint about size of imprint denoting party on leaflets. This is from @clearpolitic5. These are all Conservative candidates

A campaign well worth supporting

Recent @yorkshirepost reporting on the site sale value that is the main bone of contention yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/politics/…

@yorkshirepost Mr Houchen views this as all the questions answered. Still unsure how a 2021 document valuing the site at £15m relates to the sale?

There do still appear to be questions

While I try to work out if I have the wrong end of sticks. This is on the Freeports that Thatcher tried

This is @TomLarkinSky who was working on the Sky report with a thread

A key part of this thread here

A related statement earlier

A reminder of why I'm skipping between Turner and freeport stories

The charm offensive

Something from the House of Lords

Now it has hit the Financial Times ft.com/content/c5c6a3…

Will this outlet and author be called raging communists and be accused of working with Labour?

That was Ben Houchen's response to Private Eye in case you missed it

Prior claim re National Audit Office

Something more recent from Private Eye. Alt Text across 2 tweets

I suspect little motivates most journalists more than being attacked

Pertinent @FT extract re transparency

One of the two key developers who own 90% of the site under discussion has bought a local hotel. Perhaps that will come in handy for media that visit? gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-…

Yorkshire Post on the investors

It would seem judicious to have the National Audit Office do a review if a project is beset by questions about transparency and due diligence. It is part of a flagship strategy, surely it makes sense to counter concerns vs ever more aggressively attack critics?

If there is central government intervention to establish the investment oversight bodies, counter to an initial local vote, should there not be central governance of later conduct?

The direct link to the debate in Hansard hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2023-0…

From the author of the @FT piece

Some local scrutiny of reporters

Local politics remains fraught. The deputy Mayor lost her post along with Preston. Separately election as councillor argued to be grounds to stay on the board of the Development Corporation gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-…

Contrary to assurances from local Tory MPs Clarke and Mortimer

Another small detail. An apparent change to a TVCA payment between the time of a Tees Valley Monitor screenshot and review by the author of the FT story

The first report by @leighsus in his new @yorkshirepost role yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/people/le…

Back to embattled PCC Turner gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-…

Related point of order in parliament

As an aside, a 2020 Open Democracy article. Extra fighting funds for some Red Wall candidates including Clarke opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…

Journalists investigating have now appealed directly to the national audit office for more scrutiny

As has Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Lisa Nandy

As will, believe it or not, Houchen

I suspect the NAO have rarely been this popular. Will wait to see what transpires

All in the spirit we now expect

Mr Clarke has not reacted here, but this is on the recent @FT story

From the thread by @JenWilliams_FT

@JenWilliams_FT It appears Mr Clarke will be on GB News with Mr Wootton to respond

For those who are interested

The story so far here if easier threadreaderapp.com/thread/1653714…

Tomorrow's @yorkshirepost frontpage

The PR budget mentioned previously

Broader Commons scrutiny for all the freeports and investment zones

We owe quite the debt to @NEBylines @PrivateEyeNews @TeesVMonitor @JayMitchinson @SamCoatesSky @leighsus @TomLarkinSky @JenWilliams_FT and a raft of locals who kept attention on this. Independent media is a key pillar of democracy

@NEBylines @PrivateEyeNews @TeesVMonitor @JayMitchinson @SamCoatesSky @leighsus @TomLarkinSky @JenWilliams_FT ICYMI The 44 page digest of local Bylines articles on freeports mentioned in the HoL h/t @BylinesCymru bylines.cymru/wp-content/upl…

A response from government

May I humbly suggest that lack of prior scrutiny may explain the lack of evidence. In addition it is best to robustly refute claims of corruption vs denying, when this is the acknowledged history of events

It mirrors the PM's line and does not inspire confidence in extent of laissez faire for these freeports

About the same at #PMQs

The exchange in question. Some of the context above may help #PMQs

Time to revisit the top of the thread

There is an audit stumbling block. The government

This was quoted there. There is no block, but needs to be signed off

Discussions reportedly underway

@leighsus noting the PM, a reply to them, Davison, and Clarke at PMQs are all aligned on the 'leave it to the local entities' position

Some pre-reading above for #NewsNight

Coffey is also accountable for any environmental issues in Teesside

Counterpoints / Misinformation?

Coffey on 2021 and more recently reported impact on Teesside sealife

In other news, Private Eye again

Renewed calls for an inquiry now from Lisa Nandy

Some perspective on the gaps in governance from @JenWilliams_FT

Some history on prior enterprises northeastbylines.co.uk/how-tees-valle…

Noting which local journalists were interviewed by #NewsNight. Just the Northern Echo

A state aid and public funding legal specialist with 3 key questions

A clip from #NewsNight

Financial risk is just one element of this. Another is how people seek redress for any issue. If NAO is not given leave to review in detail, then all transparency depends on those with most to gain and most to lose, including the local PCC

Now a reaction from Houchen

This is what he is referring to

May I suggest that a politicised push to align with the party in the run up to an election, is not quite the same thing as locals finding they have no defined recourse to an independent oversight body re potentially material environmental risks and contract due diligence?

Another useful point. It was not do nothing, or do this. Questions are about the path to current state and likely outcomes

As a slight departure. I had reason to look back at some Vote Leave site content recently. This is from the internet archive. It is very reminiscent of the TVCA ticker of money that would have been spent.

I do not claim to be impartial in this thread. I am not happy with this government for many reasons. But I am doing my utmost to keep this factual. The lack of clarity is what motivates me most. No-one can manage risk without transparency and effective accountability

Meanwhile one local paper is reporting a bin fire. The irony is not lost on me

Some perspective on original plans

Waiting for the furore to die down?

Apparently not. Ministers refused

Response to adjacent calls for for assessment of Brexit impact

Benn with complementary points: If transparency is denied after issues arise, how can we a) deem change to have a mandate and b) have means to strategically plan?

Stray *for there

How is this now being left to the local entities if the block is Gove?

Can the government have this both ways? Leave it to locals, but Gove intervening to establish the MDC and now Gove and Davison intervening again re locally requested STDC / TVCA audit

Are local people being told that no matter the outcome in terms of sale of public assets, impact, and disbursement of monies, there is no means to get clarity?

On Gove and the Middlesbrough Development Corporation

Something @JenWilliams_FT also covered at the time it happened

Might I suggest this whole saga is not doing much for public trust in both the government and the prospect of other such freeports and investment zones

Quite a lot does remain unclear

As others have pointed out, Ben Houchen is free to sue Private Eye, Yorkshire Post and the FT for defamation should he wish to

Express article shared by Houchen

The other local MP enters the fray about the #NewsNight report

MP for Redcar and Cleveland

With enthusiastic backing

To Houchen's point about Andy Burnham. I have always been an equal opportunity supporter of robust transparency for the actions of devolved local government

The portion of the thread about the Redcar and Cleveland elections

Checking in on Simon Clarke MP

Again perhaps worth reiterating that calls from Andy McDonald were to investigate the evidence in Private Eye and Financial Times reports. Clarke is also free to sue either