LONDON (AP) — Britain’s governing Conservative Party said Thursday it has suspended a lawmaker who is alleged to have used campaign funds for personal medical expenses and to pay off someone who was threatening him.
The Times of London reported Mark Menzies took thousands of pounds (dollars) given to the party by donors for medical costs and other personal expenses.
It said that in December he called a 78-year-old aide at 3 a.m. asking for help because he had been locked in an apartment by “bad people” who were demanding money for his release. A sum of 6,500 pounds ($8,100) was paid personally by Menzies’ office manager, who was reimbursed from donors’ cash, the newspaper said.
Menzies, who has represented the seat of Fylde in northwest England since 2010, told the Times: “I strongly dispute the allegations put to me. I have fully complied with all the rules for declarations. As there is an investigation ongoing I will not be commenting further.”
He did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
The Conservative whips' office said Menzies had agreed to be suspended from the Conservative caucus in Parliament, "pending the outcome of an investigation.” The suspension means he will remain in Parliament as an independent lawmaker.
He was also suspended from an unpaid role as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s trade envoy to Colombia, Peru, Chile and Argentina.
Menzies has faced misconduct claims before. In 2014 he quit as a ministerial aide after allegations about his behavior made by a Brazilian male escort. Three years later, the Times said, he was “interviewed by police over bizarre accusations that he had deliberately got an acquaintance’s dog drunk.” It said Menzies strongly denied giving alcohol to a dog.
The case is the latest allegation of sleaze to hit the Conservatives, who have lost several lawmakers to ethics scandals in the past two years – including former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
They include a lawmaker caught looking at porn in the House of Commons, another who reportedly offered to lobby on behalf of gambling firms and a legislator alleged to have drunkenly groped strangers at a London private members’ club.
Last week Conservative lawmaker William Wragg suspended himself from the party's parliamentary caucus after acknowledging he’d been the victim of a sexting scam that led to him passing colleagues’ contact details to an unknown individual who held “compromising” material on him.
The Conservatives have been in power since 2010, but opinion polls put them well behind the opposition Labour Party, with an election due later this year.
The report is the latest sign of the muckraking and personal mudslinging expected in the election. Conservatives accuse Labour Deputy Leader Angela Rayner of dodging tax on a house sale years ago by falsely claiming that it was her primary residence. Police say they are investigating. Rayner denies wrongdoing and has not been suspended by her party.
FILE - The Union flag flaps in the wind outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. Britain’s governing Conservative Party said Thursday, April 18, 2024, it has suspended a lawmaker who is alleged to have used campaign funds for personal medical expenses and to pay off someone who was threatening him. The case is the latest allegation of sleaze to hit the Conservatives, who have lost several lawmakers to ethics scandals in the past two years – including former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, file)
Undated handout photo issued by UK Parliament of Conservative MP Mark Menzies. Britain’s governing Conservative Party said Thursday, April 18, 2024, it has suspended a lawmaker who is alleged to have used campaign funds for personal medical expenses and to pay off someone who was threatening him. The Times of London reported Mark Menzies took thousands of pounds (dollars) given to the party by donors for medical costs and other personal expenses. (Chris McAndrew/UK Parliament via AP)
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli leaders on Wednesday in his push for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, saying “the time is now” for an agreement that would free hostages and bring a pause in the nearly seven months of war in Gaza.
He said Hamas would bear the blame for any failure to get a deal off the ground.
Blinken is on his seventh visit to the region since the war erupted in October in his bid to secure what’s been an elusive deal between Israel and Hamas that could avert an Israeli incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering.
The current round of talks appears to be serious, but the sides remain far apart on one key issue — whether the war should end as part of an emerging deal.
“We are determined to get a cease-fire that brings the hostages home and to get it now, and the only reason that that wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas,” Blinken told Israel’s ceremonial President Isaac Herzog at a meeting in Tel Aviv.
“There is a proposal on the table, and as we’ve said, no delays, no excuses. The time is now,” he said.
Blinken said the deal would also allow much needed food, medicine and water to get into Gaza, where the war has sparked a humanitarian crisis and displaced much of the territory's population.
Blinken also met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, though no details about the meeting were immediately available.
Earlier, after meeting with Herzog and also with families of Americans held by Hamas at his hotel, Blinken briefly greeted several dozen demonstrators calling for an immediate hostage release deal on the sidewalk outside.
Chanting “SOS, USA, only you can save the day" and “In Blinken we trust, bring them home to us,” the protesters urged him to make their case to Netanyahu.
Blinken told the families that there was a very strong proposal on the table and that Hamas needs to say yes to it. “That is our determination, and we will not rest, we will not stop until you’re reunited with your loved ones,” he said.
His comments came on the last leg of his regional visit, with previous stops in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, where he urged Hamas to accept the latest proposal, calling it “extraordinarily generous” on Israel’s part.
According to the State Department, he will also visit an Israeli port where aid for Gaza is entering.
The United States has staunchly supported Israel's war since Hamas' unprecedented attack on Oct. 7 into southern Israel. But it has grown increasingly critical of the staggering toll borne by Palestinian civilians in Gaza and has been especially outspoken against Israel's plan to invade Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city where some 1.5 million Palestinians have fled from fighting elsewhere in the territory.
Washington has warned Israel against any offensive that puts civilians at risk.
Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to invade Rafah, which he says is Hamas’ last stronghold in the coastal strip, and on Tuesday he pledged to do so “with or without” a cease-fire deal.
The current deal that is being discussed — brokered by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar — would see the release of dozens of hostages in exchange for a six-week halt in fighting as part of an initial phase, according to an Egyptian official and Israeli media. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel would also be released, including some serving long sentences.
But a sticking point remains over what happens next. Hamas has demanded assurances that an eventual release of all hostages will bring a complete end to Israel’s nearly seven-month assault in Gaza and a withdrawal of its troops from the devastated territory.
Israel has offered only an extended pause, vowing to resume its offensive once the first phase of the deal is over. The issue has repeatedly obstructed efforts by the mediators during months of talks.
While the talks appeared to be gaining steam, on Wednesday, an Egyptian official said that Hamas had asked Egyptian and Qatari mediators to provide clarity on the terms of the latest cease-fire proposal being discussed, a demand that could delay progress.
The official, who has close ties to the talks and who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to freely discuss the deal, said Hamas wants clear terms for the unconditional return of displaced people to the north of Gaza and to ensure that the second stage of the deal will include discussing the gradual and complete withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the entire Gaza Strip.
The official said the current outline didn’t fully explain who would be allowed to return north and how it would be decided.
While talks are ongoing, the fighting in Gaza continues. Late Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike hit a house in central Rafah — a city Israel has struck repeatedly despite the masses that have taken refuge there — killing at least two children, according to hospital authorities. The bodies of the dead children were taken to the Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital. An Associated Press journalist saw the bodies at the hospital morgue as their relatives mourned the deaths.
On Wednesday, Israel’s military said it was operating in central Gaza, where it said jets struck militants, including one said to be setting up explosives.
The Israel-Hamas war was sparked by the unprecedented Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. Israel says the militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials. The war has driven around 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes, caused vast destruction in several towns and cities and pushed northern Gaza to the brink of famine.
Associated Press writer Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Families and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza hold banners and shut slogans during a protest calling for their return, outside a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and families of hostages in Tel Aviv, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv, Israel Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP)
Families and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza hold banners and flags during a protest calling for their return, outside a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and families of hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A woman holds a banner with families and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza during a protest calling for their return, outside a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and families of hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Families and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza hold banners and flags during a protest calling for their return, outside a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and families of hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Families and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza hold banners and flags during a protest calling for their return, outside a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and families of hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, and Israeli President Isaac Herzog shake hands during their meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP)
Mourners carry the bodies of members of the Abu Taha family who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, during their funeral at Al-Salam cemetery, east of Rafah, Gaza Strip. Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Jahjouh)
FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a press conference in the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel on Oct. 28, 2023. Netanyahu pledged Tuesday, April 30 to launch an incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering from the almost 7-month-long war, just as cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas appear to be gaining steam. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza Strip. Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Jahjouh)
A woman holds a banner and shouts slogans with families and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza during a protest calling for their return, outside a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and families of hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, and Israeli President Isaac Herzog talk during their meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP)
