Labour accuses ministers of allowing warlords, like Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin, to silence British journalists

During justice department questions today, Labour spokesperson Steve Reed asked the secretary of state Alex Chalk about the room warlords have to use legal loopholes to silence journalists in the British courts.

Mr Reed said: “When he was chancellor, the current prime minister let the murderous boss of Russia’s mercenary Wagner group Yevgeny Prigozhin bypass sanctions so he could abuse our courts to silence a British journalist who was exposing his crimes”.

Mr Chalk responded: “No, no, no. That is to completely misrepresent the situation”.