Labour MP cleared by police over Russian agent slur against short seller
Labour MP Liam Byrne has been cleared by police of alleged “malicious communication” and “harassment” after suggesting a short seller was a Russian agent, City A.M. has learned.
The Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill and former chief secretary to the Treasury sparked a major war of words earlier this year when he claimed investor Fraser Perring was “not an infrequent visitor to Moscow” and said the UK “must ensure that short-selling groups are not another weapon in Putin’s arsenal”.
Byrne called for an investigation into the activities of Perring’s activist investment outfit Viceroy research, which had recently sounded the alarm on suspected financial mismanagement at social housing firm Home REIT.
Perring’s lawyers hit back at the claims stating that he had “never been to Moscow” and the “imputation conveyed by this false statement is highly damaging”, and demanded he retracted his remarks.
While comments made in parliament are protected from defamation claims by parliamentary privilege, Perring later lodged a complaint with police on the grounds of malicious communication and harassment.
However, City PM has learned that the complaint has been dismissed by police.
“I have spoken to a Lawyer a the House of Commons and she has looked [at] the evidence […] presented regarding Liam Byrne’s comments and advises me that these were covered by parliamentary privilege and that no crime of malicious communications or harassment has occurred, therefore I will not be recording a crime in relation to this,” a special branch officer at Linconshire police force wrote in an email seen by City PM
Linconshire police and Byrne were contacted for comment. Perring declined to comment.
Viceroy publishes reports claiming to blow the whistle on alleged fraudulent activity at certain firms. Most notably, it flagged wrongdoing that led to the downfall of the now collapsed Germany payments firm Wirecard.
Viceroy also takes short positions in those companies it reports on and hopes to profit from a fall in its share price.