Lord Rennard, a LibDem peer, has posted a reply to Andrew Neil which reads as follows (
Twitter):
Some of the shadiest characters in British politics have over the last 20 years come out from the shadows to act in very public ways. Two of these came out of the libertarian wing of the LibDems:
Paul Marshall, now part-owner of GB News, and
Mark Littlewood, IEA director, now hawker of PopCons. The fact that, in Marshall's case, it appears to be losing him a lot of money is some consolation. My point is that it seems likely that these characters offer just a little glimpse behind the curtain.
British politics is in a bad place, where private individuals are able to exert too much influence. Sunak's doubling of the spending limit for general elections heightens these risks. We need Ofcom to act robustly against propaganda channels, and we need to get the money out of politics.