Man accused of plot to share Shapps details says he wanted to ‘expose' Russian spies
Howard Phillips, 65, was charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service after passing a USB stick containing details relating to Shapps including his home address and the location of his private plane to undercover officers, who prosecutors say he believed to be Russian spies. He previously pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Opening his defence at Winchester crown court, Phillips said he was not acting against the UK when he allegedly leaked Shapps's details but carrying out a secret plot to 'trap' Russian spies.
Phillips, a retired insolvency worker from Harlow, Essex, told the court he was Jewish and hoped to pass information about the Russian spies to Israel, as he believed this would 'benefit' the state.
He also told jurors that he first met Shapps, then his local MP in the constituency of Welwyn Hatfield, at a synagogue.
Jeremy Dein, representing Phillips, asked whether he had any 'feelings about Russia' before he made contact with whom he presumed was the Russian intelligence service. In response, he said he did hold opinions – and they were 'very negative'.
When asked about his view of the UK, he said: 'I love the UK … I would never do anything deliberate which would have the potential to harm this country – not ever.'
Phillips told jurors he first made contact with the agents by sending a letter to the Russian embassy in March 2024. 'I simply wrote a letter portraying that I had information and that if they are interested, they should be in contact with me,' he said.
Phillips said he did not have any information to share, and when asked why he made contact, he said: 'Because of events that were happening in the world, I was intending to track and expose the Russian agents.'
When asked why he wanted to do this, Phillips said: 'Because they are the enemy and also, there was another side to it that was, at the time, the media portrayal of Israel was very negative.
'I was thinking to myself, if I could expose an agent, I could take that to the Israelis and facilitate benefit to the Israelis by the [UK] media having to portray that Israel had helped the UK – which goes on behind the scenes anyway.'
The court heard that Phillips had met Shapps on four occasions in the past, after they met at Potters Bar synagogue in Hertfordshire. He said he had 'socialised' with Shapps in the then MP's house after an 'invitation to dinner and also to a meeting'.
When asked if he was 'friends' with the politician, he said: 'I would say more acquaintances than friends.'
Phillips said that in early 2024 he was living off his 'dilapidating capital', adding: 'I was pretty low about everything.'
He told jurors he had also sent letters to the Iranian and Chinese embassies in March 2024. When asked why, he said: 'The same criteria. To expose and trap a foreign agent who I perceived were the enemies.'
The court heard he had sent several letters in the past to various political figures, celebrities and businessmen, among others. In November 2022 he sent a letter to the actor Jennifer Aniston and the agent of Tom Cruise.
Phillips also sent letters to Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Suella Braverman and Steve Barclay, among others. The trial continues.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
11 minutes ago
- The Independent
There's a royal reason Trump won't escape Jeffrey Epstein fallout on trip to his Scotland golf courses — Prince Andrew
The Republican-led House of Representatives shut down early for its summer break to avoid Jeffrey Epstein motions. The Senate GOP has been in see-no-evil mode the past week over the controversy swirling around the seemingly vanished 'client list' of the high-flying financier and convicted pedophile who once palled around with Donald Trump and Bill Clinton among many other power players. So it makes perfect sense that President Trump is hoping for five days away from the Epstein fallout firestorm that has landed him in hot water not just with Democrats but his own MAGA base over the Justice Department's stonewalling on the release of all the Epstein files, as Trump and AG Pam Bondi had promised. Well, Scotland may not be far enough for that. Sure, Trump will meet with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer early next week, but the vast majority of his known itinerary consists of visits to his Scottish golf resorts. One, Trump Turnberry and the other Trump International in Aberdeen, where he is set to open a brand new course that will be named for his late mother, Mary Anne McLeod Trump, who was born in Scotland. And that's the problem for Trump, thanks to a particular member of the Royal family who happens to be a golf-loving frequenter of his courses, is Scotland's Earl of Inverness — and who also happens to be tainted by his past close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein... Prince Andrew. Trump Turnberry, in fact, still boasts of its visits from Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, who was forced to stand down from royal duties in 2020 over his links to Epstein. The former Royal Navy officer — currently eighth in line to the British throne — had a long and controversial relationship with with the late sex offender that predated Epstein's 2008 conviction for soliciting a teenage prostitute but also which continued long after the financier became a pariah in most respectable circles. Andrew's habit of staying at Epstein's residences during travel to the U.S. became fodder for controversy even as the royal claimed there was nothing untoward about the relationship and has vehemently denied any wrongdoing. But the whispers and rumors took on a more urgent character after Andrew became the defendant in a civil lawsuit brought by the late Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, who alleged that the Duke once had sexual relations with her after she was trafficked to him as a minor by Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Although Buckingham Palace asserted in a 2015 statement that Giuffre's allegations — which included claims that she'd had sexual relations with the Duke on three separate occasions — were 'categorically untrue,' the Duke and Giuffre ended up settling the lawsuit, with no admission of liability, in February 2022, one month after Andrew's royal patronages and honorary military titles were revoked by his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II. Prince Andrew has always strongly denied the allegations leveled against him by Giuffre. Giuffre, perhaps the most outspoken survivor of Epstein's sexual abuse, died by suicide at the age of 41 in April. 'It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia,' Giuffre's family said in a statement to The Independent after she died. 'She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.' Since then, Andrew has largely remained out of the spotlight with his reputation tarred by his association with the late sex offender. But that disgrace doesn't appear to bother Trump or his eponymous real estate and resort company, which as of this week still lists Andrew as one of the 'famous visitors' who have enjoyed the 'refined hospitality' at Trump Turnberry. His Aberdeenshire golf resort has even deeper connections to the prince, who played a major role in convincing Trump to build it in 2006, less than a decade before his entry onto the American political scene. According to Agence France-Presse, Andrew met with Trump at the his eponymous New York skyscraper in September of that year to cajole the developer into moving forward with the Aberdeen golf project. He later said the Prince was a 'great guy' who'd made a 'terrific impression' on him. 'He gave a presentation here to make sure I spend one billion pounds in your country, and that's what I'm going to be doing,' Trump added, according to the report. The relationship between the prince and the future president continued for the intervening decade, and when Trump visited Scotland during his second year in the White House, Andrew joined him for a round of golf at Turnberry — a round Trump later claimed to have won. The pair remained cordial enough that when President Trump visited the U.K. for a state visit in his first term in 2019, Andrew was his designated royal escort. The president's escape to his ancestral homeland comes as there continues to be bipartisan furor around Department of Justice records about Epstein, a one-time power-player financier and convicted pedophile who was arrested for alleged sex trafficking by federal authorities in 2019 and was found to have died by suicide in his jail cell while awaiting trial. The years-old prosecution has been a longtime fixation for many of Trump's MAGA supporters who believe they contain damaging information on prominent Democrats and other liberal celebrities. For years, the president's supporters have pushed for release of what they believe was a list of powerful people to whom Epstein is alleged to have trafficked young girls, as well as other information they believe would reflect negatively on members of the Democratic Party, various Hollywood celebrities, and other purported elites who they believe to be part of a sinister cabal controlling world events. Trump has winked and nodded at such beliefs and had indicated during his 2024 campaign that his administration would release the documents in question if he were victorious in last year's presidential election. But many of his most prominent supporters have been crying foul in recent weeks after the Department of Justice announced it would not be releasing the so-called Epstein Files. And Democrats are now joining the chorus of calls for transparency, citing Trump's likely presence in the documents on account of his long-term friendship with Epstein. Trump socialized with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s, but reportedly cut ties before Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18. While Trump has not been accused of any formal wrongdoing or charged with any crime, his proximity to Epstein, someone he once called a friend, has heightened conspiracy theories that the government is withholding documents that could reveal embarrassing information about high-profile individuals. Still, being named in the so-called Epstein list of contacts or case files is not an indication of any wrongdoing and Trump has denied having any knowledge of Epstein's crimes before he ended their friendship as has Bill Clinton. Trump has also sued the Wall Street Journal for defamation over its reporting that he sent a bawdy 50th birthday message to Epstein. Clinton, likewise, was reportedly one of many who sent messages to the financier on that occasion. On Thursday, Trump made yet another effort to dissuade his base from caring about the Epstein matter by lashing out on Truth Social, calling the entire affair a 'scam' and a 'hoax' and stating that he hopes the release of grand jury testimony about the late sex offender will quell the entire thing. But if the president is hoping to gain some distance from the scandal with some time on the links, he's gone to the wrong golf courses.
The Independent
11 minutes ago
- The Independent
US President Donald Trump arrives in Scotland
US President Donald Trump has landed in Scotland ahead of a four-day visit. Air Force One – the presidential plane – touched down at Prestwick Airport in Ayrshire on Friday just before 8.30pm. The president was met by Scottish Secretary Ian Murray as he disembarked, before heading to the waiting presidential helicopter Marine One, bound for his nearby Turnberry golf course. During his time in the country, the president will meet Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Scottish First Minister John Swinney, as well as European Commission president Ursula von der Trump and Sir Keir are expected to discuss potential changes to the UK-US trade deal which came into force last month. Mr Swinney has pledged to 'essentially speak out for Scotland'. Speaking as he boarded Air Force One, the president said he would be having dinner with the Prime Minister at Turnberry, before 'going to go to the oil capital of Europe, which is Aberdeen'. He said: 'We're going to have a good time. I think the Prime Minister and I get along very well.' He added: 'We're going to be talking about the trade deal that we made and maybe even approve it.' He also told journalists he was 'looking forward' to meeting with the 'Scottish leader' Mr Swinney, describing him as a 'good man'. During his time in Scotland, the president is also likely to spark a number of protests, with concerns being raised about how such demonstrations are policed. Police Scotland has called in support from other forces in the UK to help bolster officer numbers, though senior officers and the organisation which represents the rank-and-file, have accepted Mr Trump's visit will have an impact.
The Sun
12 minutes ago
- The Sun
It's easy to sneer at Corbyn after farcical launch of his new party but here's why Starmer should be very, very afraid
IT is easy to sneer at Jeremy Corbyn and his new political party. As Labour leader Corbyn took his former comrades to their biggest defeat since 1935, winning just 203 seats. 2 2 As leader of a fringe party he will have zero chance of becoming Prime Minister. We can all be thankful for that. The launch of the party was itself farcical, with Corbyn already apparently falling out with his co-founder, former Labour MP Zarah Sultana. It appears to be called 'Your Party', and even has a website by that name, yet within hours of the launch Sultana tweeted in protest 'it's not called that!' and insisted that a name will be chosen at the putative party's first conference. When challenged on the row, Corbyn announced that Sultana was 'in Coventry' (where her constituency is), failing to spot the euphemism. All very Corbyn-like. If I were Keir Starmer, however, I would be taking the launch of the new party very seriously indeed. While Your Party, or whatever it is called, has no chance of forming a government, it has every chance of contributing to the downfall of the current one. Just look how Reform UK ate into the Conservative Party vote in last year's General Election, helping reduce it to a rump of just 120 seats. Corbyn has every chance of inflicting as much damage on Labour as Reform UK did on the Tories. Add to Labour's misery Corbyn and Sultana haven't announced much in the way of policy yet — you wouldn't expect them to have done — but their declaration on Thursday included two positions which absolutely hit the right buttons for Labour's increasingly disenchanted band of supporters on the Left. First, they want to end arms sales to Israel, and second, they propose to take all utility companies into public ownership. Inside UK's 1st Reform pub with £2 pints, boozers drinking 'Remainer tears' & even Corbyn's allowed in, on one condition As for the first, just look how Labour suffered at the hands of independent pro-Palestinian candidates in the last election, with Jonathan Ashworth losing his supposedly safe seat in Leicester and Wes Streeting, now Health Secretary, scraping home by just 528 votes in Ilford North. Shabana Mahmood, now Justice Secretary, saw her 28,000 majority shrink to just 3,421 in the face of a challenge from a pro-Palestine candidate — and that was against the backdrop of a national Labour landslide. A nationally organised General Election campaign which focuses on Gaza — even one organised by Corbyn — can surely only add to Labour's misery on this front. Whatever the rest of us might think of Hamas, and worry that a Palestinian state — if created now — would simply become a terrorist state, this is a touchstone issue on the Left and has the potential to cost the party a substantial number of seats. As for nationalising public utilities, that would be hugely popular among voters — and not just Labour ones. According to a recent YouGov poll, the public favours public ownership of energy companies by a margin of 71 per cent to 17 per cent and of water companies by 82 to eight per cent. Where Corbyn would find the money to renationalise utility companies is, of course, another matter, but my guess is that many voters will not be bothered by that little problem. At the next election, Starmer will in one sense be in an even worse position than Rishi Sunak was in last year. Starmer will have two upstart parties chipping away at his vote. While Corbyn's party will be attracting votes on the Left, Reform UK has already started eating into the traditional working class Labour vote as Nigel Farage adopts an agenda that is more economically left-wing. To add to this, Labour holds a very large number of seats on small majorities. It won a landslide only because its unimpressive 34 per cent share of the vote was very efficiently spread. It won't take much for Labour's majority to evaporate. Not for the first time, you have to wonder at Starmer's political naivety in chucking Corbyn out of the Labour Party. It may have seemed a good wheeze at the time, five years ago, to make a statement that Labour really had changed. There was also a good reason for it in Corbyn's claim that accusations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party had been 'massively overstated for political reasons'. But Corbyn had been saying ridiculous things for decades and had never been thrown out by Labour. Vanished without trace Tony Blair correctly worked out that Corbyn had a huge following on the Left and it was best to tolerate his presence. Starmer seems to have a poor political brain by comparison. Mastering a political start-up is notoriously difficult in Britain's first-past-the-post election system. Who now remembers ChangeUK, the anti- Brexit party which was launched with eight MPs who had defected from their parties but which quickly vanished without trace? Even Roy Jenkins and Shirley Williams' SDP only lasted eight years in spite of some impressive early by-election wins. But Starmer should remember how the SDP nevertheless helped keep Labour a long way from power during the 1980s. His fate may just have been sealed.
