'It was solely a security company. I couldn’t be surer'

Dear Millers — today’s been unlike any day since we started The Mill. Since we published Joshi’s editor’s note this morning, we’ve had an avalanche of emails and messages about the Sacha Lord story, far more than we’ve been able to read so far.

It’s been a truly extraordinary response to our call for a “community fact-check” to dig deeper into how Lord’s company Primary Events managed to secure more than £400,000 of taxpayers’ money during the pandemic. Huge thanks to everyone who has been in touch so far with tips, ideas, screenshots and documents — it’s inspiring to see how a community of readers can come together in a moment like this.

The editor’s note has now been read more than 50,000 times. 101 new paying members have joined since 7am and 279 new Millers have joined the free list too. In total, we’ve received more than 120 messages as part of the fact-check, which are now being fed into a big spreadsheet for checking and confirmation. Tomorrow we have three staff writers and two student reporters all working on this story in the office, so please keep sending things in.

There’s more on this in our Big Story below — including new quotes from people who worked at Primary Events and confirmation that Andy Burnham is “aware” of the allegations against his most high-profile advisor. Plus, we hear from the Arts Council.

We’ve had lots of fantastic tweets and comments today, including from the writer Jon Alexander (“I am loving this call to collaborate from — reporting an important story WITH readers, not just FOR them”), from longtime Miller Michael Di Paola (“Get subscribing and don’t let the rich and powerful bully journalists”) and from the journalist Isobel Cockerell (“@ManchesterMill is a one-of-a-kind outlet in the UK. Doing proper investigative reporting at local level. It's a public institution we all need and deserve.”). The story has also been shared by the former editor of the FT and lots of other journalists.

If you’re not yet a Mill member, please do join now. We need all the money we can get in our legal coffers. We passed 3,000 paying members today — a huge milestone that we would normally celebrate but that has been overshadowed by everything else. If you want outlets who do this kind of reporting, there is no other way they can be funded than via lots of reader subscriptions.

🌦️This week’s weather

Tuesday 🌦️ A mixed start with showery rain, then mostly cloudy with isolated showers during the afternoon. 18°C. 

Wednesday 🌧️ Muggy with outbreaks of rain. Risk of thundery downpours in the afternoon. 18°C.

Thursday 🌧️ Cool and breezy with spells of heavy rain. 14°C. 

Friday 🌦️ Predominantly cloudy with a few showers. Feeling warmer. 17°C. 

Weekend 🌦️ Warmer at the weekend with the best weather on Saturday and sunshine and showers on Sunday.

You can find the latest forecast at Manchester Weather on Facebook — daily forecasts are published at 6.15am.

The big story: The email signatures that cast further doubt on Sacha Lord’s story

Top line: The Mill has seen evidence that Sacha Lord’s company Primary Events was describing itself as a security company long after its funding application to the Arts Council in January 2021. Former staff members have shared emails from the time that include a corporate email signature in which the company description doesn’t mention any other services.

The latest: This morning, in an editor’s note to our 45,000 readers, we promised to take down our story from last week and apologise publicly if Lord could send over information that disproved our investigation, which alleged that Primary Events had grossly misled the Arts Council in its funding application. At the time of writing, Lord’s lawyers have not contacted us with any such information (they haven’t been in touch at all, to be clear).

The deadline: When threatening us with a lawsuit on Friday afternoon, Lord’s London-based law firm set a deadline: if we didn’t take down our original story by 4pm tomorrow, they would issue proceedings against The Mill. So far, we’ve seen no reason to comply with this request, and today we have received a torrent of new tips and evidence from Millers as part of our community fact-check.

The email signature: The company changed its name from Primary Security to Primary Events in October 2020, around six months into the pandemic. But emails shared with us today show that more than a year later, corporate email signatures on at least two staff members’ emails still referred to the company as providing security and not the wide range of creative and events services claimed in the January 2021 funding application. The emails from October and November 2021 feature the same signature, with this description of the company’s mission:

Just before sending this edition, we spoke to one of the former staff members whose emails we had been sent and whose email signature featured the description above. He confirmed that this was his email signature and told us: “It was solely a security company. I couldn’t be surer”. Asked what his response was to our article last week, the former staff member said: “All the details I've read in the article were completely true.”

Another former staff member, who again did not want to be named, remembers when the company changed from Primary Security to Primary Events. “They said that they are concentrating more on event security rather than nightclubs and doors,” the person said. This former staff member hasn’t spoken to Mark Turnbull, the company’s former director and the original source for our reporting, since he left the firm, and says the two men didn’t see eye-to-eye. But he told The Mill:

Political pressure: We understand that the GMCA has received emails from both Conservative and Lib Dem councillors on the combined authority’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The letter from Conservative councillors demands an internal investigation and for Lord to be suspended as nighttime economy advisor while the allegations are being investigated.

In response to the Lib Dem letter, a GMCA Statutory Scrutiny Officer barely deviated from the combined authority’s statement to us last week but did confirm Burnham knew about the claims against Lord. They wrote: “The CA has been asked a number of questions by the Mill and my understanding is that the Mayor is aware of the allegation.”

The Arts Council position: Just prior to sending this newsletter, we received a lengthy response from the Arts Council about how it dealt with applications to the Culture Recovery Fund. We will have to digest it and ask a few follow-up questions tomorrow, but the statement doesn’t admit any failings in the way Arts Council England considered the application from Primary Events.

• It points out that supply chain organisations “were eligible within the criteria of the fund”, and were “asked to consider how their organisation enabled and supported the production of culturally significant work”.

• This does not seem to deal with the main problem in the Primary Events application — which made direct claims about providing a wide range of services (“We provide event coordinators, managers, production managers, assistants, technicians, sound engineers, lighting engineers, AV, bar staff, security staff merchandise, cleaners and more for a huge number of the most respected and loved cultural events in the UK.”).

A spokesperson says Arts Council England reviewed how the money was spent in late 2022 and gave the company a clean bill of health. They told us:

Bottom line: How to reconcile the evidence sent by former staff members at Primary Events, who say it was a security company and the application, therefore, contained numerous fabrications, and the stance of the Arts Council, which says it didn’t find any issues? We’ve asked the Arts Council why they are still not addressing the main issue in our reporting — that the application was itself deeply misleading. More on that in Wednesday’s edition.

Your Mill briefing

🏠 The latest government figures show that 9,170 children are living in temporary accommodation in the north west, with more than 6,000 of these children living in temporary accommodation in Greater Manchester. It’s a rise of 22% from last year. Sylvi Vaisanen, a mother of six living in temporary accommodation in Oldham, told BBC News she had been told that she could be stuck in her house for 10 years.

🛍️ Jalal Kamani, founder of the Manchester-based online fast fashion retailer Boohoo, is accused of controlling behaviour by his ex-business partner Leanne Holmes. Holmes, who was part of building Kamani’s side hustle I Saw It First, is suing Kamani for £20 million on the basis that she was promised a 10% shareholding in the business, but dismissed in 2021. A trial is expected to take place in Manchester next year.

🥼 Researchers recently managed to preserve breast tissue in gel for a week, which they say is a huge breakthrough in the development of new drugs to treat and prevent breast cancer, eliminating the need to test on animals. Dr Hannah Harrison, a research fellow at the University of Manchester, said: “This is a real gamechanger for breast cancer research in many ways.”

Home of the week

This period cottage in a walled garden in Ramsbottom was built by wealthy philanthropists in the mid-nineteenth century. It has a wraparound balcony and five bedrooms. £850,000.

Our favourite reads

Inside Britain’s Chinese student boom — The Financial Times

The FT’s Georgina Quach spends time embedding with Manchester’s Chinese students, who make up the largest cohort of international students in the UK but “seem to reside on the sidelines of university life”. “When I first arrived I couldn’t socialise with English students because I was afraid they would judge me for my accent, or my incorrect grammar,” says Zhen Jen, a former international student who now helps business graduates enter the workforce. “The feeling of losing face is scary.”

'Hero' plumber's firm faked stories of kindness — BBC News

James Anderson was a plumber who posted hundreds of stories of acts of kindness during lockdown, saying he helped people pay for their electricity and gas bills and even saved an elderly woman from suicide. He received £2 million in donations and received the Pride of Manchester award for his work. A new investigation reveals he spent the company’s cash on a house and a car, and the elderly woman he says he saved from suicide actually died years earlier. “I know I’ve done it wrong,” Anderson said. “I apologise. But what can I do? I haven’t got a magic stick. I’m not Harry Potter.”

As a teenager, John was jailed for assaulting someone and stealing their bike. That was 17 years ago – will he ever be released? — The Guardian

Our culture editor Sophie Atkinson writes about the tragic case of John Wright, a man who has spent most of his life serving an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence, which can leave prisoners in jail for years without a clear date set for release. In 2018, John was diagnosed with schizophrenia; “a doctor at the hospital told John’s mum in confidence that he believed the IPP sentence had done this to him.”

Our to do list

Tuesday

☕ Ducie St Warehouse is hosting the Coffee and Poems Club, a writers’ workshop with plenty of caffeine to help you get creative. Book a place here.

🎞️ Also at Ducie St, there’s a cinema screening of the crime thriller Victoria, which was shot in a single long take in the Kreuzberg and Mitte neighbourhoods of Berlin and scored by ambient artist Nils Frahm. Tickets here.

Wednesday

🎸 There’s a benefit concert for Gaza at Band on the Wall which will donate all funds towards NGOs supporting the people of Palestine. It features critically acclaimed Palestinian oud player Reem Anbara alongside Irish and Mancunian artists Rioghnach Connolly and Séamus Óg. Tickets here.

🎭 Aviva Studios presents Robin Redbreast, starring Maxine Peake as the paranoid outsider in an ancient village haunted by the occult. Tickets here.

Thursday 

🎷 There’s a free gig at Matt & Phred’s as part of Manchester Jazz Festival, which features the jazz quartet The Gelatos, who sing intimate, romantic songs from the ‘40s and ‘50s with an Italian twist. Find out more here and take a look at the full programme here.

📚 Author Brian Groom will be at Waterstones on Deansgate discussing his new book Made in Manchester: a People's History of the City That Shaped the Modern World, which asks whether Mancunians have a defining identity. £5.