Cat Neilan

Whitehall Editor of The Observer

[The Observer @ObserverUK]

The Guernsey connection: on the tangled trail of Christopher Harborne’s Channel Island assets

The Reform donor may be based in Thailand but he is linked to four properties and a private jet firm far closer to home

✍️ @CatNeilan and @FredHarter
https://t.co/iBwc7XBBBS

[Patrick Kidd @patrick_kidd]

It is quite clear that the main political parties shouldn’t pander to Farage’s silly game and should not stand in the Clacton by-election, leaving the way clear for @CountBinface to defeat him

[Cat Neilan @CatNeilan]

Exc: First Government department quits X over racism and violence concerns

Richard Hermer sent a directive to staff last week saying the Attorney General's Office would be coming off the platform

https://t.co/jokG0Qav9q

[Poppy Bullard @PoppyBullard]

@CatNeilan and I have been working on this for the past few months.

What started as quite a forward-looking commission turned into the story of the moment as we were making it - so now feels like a perfect time for it to be out there!

[Cormac Kehoe @Coramazov]

Investigation with @TheDetailTV & the Guardian this morn. We reveal how British security services were involved in formulating the Legacy Act, despite the fact the act was supposed to investigate killings carried out by the state https://t.co/fehxxv37Lp & https://t.co/bv7yTlmoZ5

[Cat Neilan @CatNeilan]

Reform's Robert Kenyon said abortion was a "cowardly act of murder" and implied that people falsely claimed to have been raped

“Don’t dole out the ‘what if someone is raped by their brother’ arguement... don’t want babies? Use contreception! [sic]”

https://t.co/upYXljsSUL

[Transparency International UK @TransparencyUK]

🗣️ "The commission has created a giant regulatory black hole that we're now proposing to fill before it does untold damage.”

Steve Goodrich with @catneilan on MPs from @taxinparliament pushing to have donations from before being elected reported.

https://t.co/mJZ1afEykG

[Anna Isaac @Annaisaac]

Without the Guardian, the public, most members of Reform, parliament (and the Daily Telegraph), would still be in the dark about the £5m gift Nigel Farage received.

Now, parliament’s standards watchdog is taking a formal look.

It will be really interesting to see the outcome of this process.

https://t.co/gr87sY9fFQ

[Cat Neilan @CatNeilan]

Understand that she will advocate for orderly transition with new person in place by autumn, and that Andy Burnham should be allowed to compete

[Cat Neilan @CatNeilan]

🚨 Junior minister Miatta Fahnbulleh is resigning this morning I'm told

[Kitty Donaldson @kitty_donaldson]

Graham Brady, longtime holder of the Tory letters, gets in touch, offering to support Catherine West,

"Always available to help out 😂," he says

[The Observer @ObserverUK]

The Observer issue no. 12,231 The man who bought Britain

Christopher Harborne funded the Brexit party, put £5m in the pocket of Nigel Farage and bankrolled Reform to become a national party. He is a crypto billonaire who lives in Thailand

Featuring:
Keir Starmer interviewed by @RSylvester1
@DAaronovitch on the biggest donor in British political history
@CatNeilan on the coming investigation into Nigel Farage

Pick up a copy today, available nationwide. Subscribe to get a copy of The Observer delivered right to your door every week:
https://t.co/L4DVKuP9HC

[The Observer @ObserverUK]

Billionaire benefactor Christopher Harborne now says that, having seen how exposed Farage was, the gift was ‘to support Nigel’s security for life’

The Observer has learned the police judged one crucial incident to be less serious than Farage himself reported, write @CatNeilan and Ceri Thomas
https://t.co/OLFftgQQ9w

[Cat Neilan @CatNeilan]

This week, Nigel Farage said an undeclared £5m donation was essential for security

He cited an "outright arson attempt" on his house.

But @ObserverUK has established that police are investigating the incident as a burglary

[Ceri Thomas @CeriThomas01]

When is a "firebomb" not a firebomb? @CatNeilan and I try to work it out for the @ObserverUK

[The Observer @ObserverUK]

Questions raised about ‘security risk’ to Farage in row over £5m gift from crypto tycoon

@CatNeilan and Ceri Thomas report: The claimed reason for Christopher Harborne’s unprecedented and undeclared donation to the Reform leader is facing scrutiny
https://t.co/XrcE5sxbvi

[The Observer @ObserverUK]

The Observer issue no. 12,228: Bad chat by @paticlarke

How unregulated AI is causing a new mental health crisis

Featuring:
Spring cravings: @NigelSlater and @Tomos_PP recipes in @ObsMagazine
American prayer: Megan Nolan on the Pope v Trump and The US is no longer our friend by Max Hastings
Typhoid Mandy: @CatNeilan on the casualties of the Mandelson appointment and Rachel Sylvester on the civil service turning on Starmer

Plus:
Mind the gap: Arsenal go into City showdown with title hopes on the line
The true confessions of Will Self, as told to Seán O’Hagan in @ObsNewReview
Luella Bartley's art of survival @ObsMagazine

Pick up a copy today, available nationwide. Subscribe to get a copy of The Observer delivered right to your door every week - link in bio.

[Jon Holmes @jonholmes1]

We covered an important (and upsetting) story on the last Radio 4 #TheNakedWeek of the series, all about forced adoption and a drug called DES. You can read about it in @ObserverUK today, written by our very own @CatNeilan

https://t.co/IFswZM9rdh

[Dave Penman @FDAGenSec]

An ideological purge does not make for good government. As I said to @CatNeilan, you would lose experience and institutional memory, but you would also send a message to the rest of the civil service that they are not trusted.
https://t.co/ayUbAeqGAT

[The Observer @ObserverUK]

Are criminals using your number plate? Our Whitehall Editor @catneilan explains the rise of two types of illegal licence plates - “ghost” plates and “cloned” plates.

Our team bought a cloned plate with ease- and found that the UK’s driving and vehicle licensing agency has at best just six people carrying out checks.

Roughly 1 in 15 vehicles are estimated to have ghost plates or cloned plates. Watch the video here to see how this has an unsuspected effect on congestion to criminal activity.

[Kitty Donaldson @kitty_donaldson]

Jonathan Powell, National Security Advisor, said Mandelson's appointment was "weirdly rushed" confirming a scoop from @Richard_AHolmes and me

https://t.co/jrFR9louIu