The News Agents

Sleaze, campaign funds and a 3am phonecall: Another Westminster scandal

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Episode notes

A 3am call, and a Tory MP talking about a life or death situation in which he was being held captive in a flat.

Amazingly, that wasn't even the weirdest bit. As the day, and the story, unfolded, there were allegations of campaign money donated by Conservative supporters being used to pay for the MP's medical bills and more.

Mark Menzies , Fylde MP, is just - remarkably - the latest in a long line of MPs - both Tory and Labour - who have lost the whip this parliament.

What's going on? Has scandal become easier to detect? Harder to hide? Or is this what the end of every reign starts to feel like?

We talk to the Times journalist who broke the story, Billy Kenber, and to the man whose job at the heart of Downing Street was interfacing between the PM and his MPs' each time scandal broke, Craig Oliver.

Later, whats going on in the West Midlands race? We have exclusive Savanta polling.

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Editor: Tom Hughes

Senior Producer: Gabriel Radus

Producers: Laura FitzPatrick

Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell

Video Production: Rory Symon & Arvind Badewal

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