Conservatives benefit most from donations provided either before or after peers secured their seats

• Cash before honours: the Tory donors made peers who barely speak in Lords

Peers who sat in the House of Lords during the last parliament have given a combined £109m in political donations, almost £50m of which was contributed before they secured their seats.

A group of 20 super-donors – all male – have given more than £1m each.

Nearly £48m came from donors before they joined the Lords, with 91% of that sum going to the Conservatives.

Donations after joining the Lords were split more evenly, with 42% given to the Conservatives, 33% to Labour and 25% to the Lib Dems.

The top three donors were David Sainsbury, with £25m to Labour and the Lib Dems, and the Conservative supporters Anthony Bamford with £10m and Michael Farmer with £9m.

Nursing home resident and pensioners among thousands of victims of massive fraud network operating from Georgia

• Revealed: the scammers who conned savers out of $35m
• What is investment fraud and what help is there?

Ben Fogle was not a happy man.

“Not sure I need to highlight this,” the broadcaster posted on Instagram during the spring of 2024, “but the deepfake of me from [ITV’s] This Morning … circulating on Facebook [and] advertising crypto is a scam.”

Georgia-based group used deepfake videos and false news featuring Martin Lewis, Zoe Ball and Ben Fogle to promote fraudulent crypto schemes

• How call centre scammers duped 6,000 people
• What is investment fraud and what help is there?

An organised network operating from the former Soviet state of Georgia has scammed thousands of savers from the UK, Europe and Canada out of $35m (£27m) after they fell for fake celebrity adverts on Facebook and Google that the government promised to outlaw three years ago.

Deepfake videos and fictional news reports featuring the money expert Martin Lewis, the radio DJ Zoe Ball and the adventurer Ben Fogle were used to promote fraudulent cryptocurrency and other investment schemes. The scammers are understood to have still been contacting victims in recent weeks.