Exclusive Brethren hearing LIVE updates: Bruce Hales singles out Age journalist, admits church leaders have met with Donald Trump as inquiry continues

Chair Jerome Lexale has jumped in to query Gareth Hales’s earlier evidence, in which he claimed he didn’t ask anyone to campaign at the election. But “you just said you did”, Laxale said, when Hales conceded he’d encouraged people to get involved.

Gareth also claims no payments were made from his company Sante Global to far-right figures and others involved in the covert campaigning efforts of Brethren elders.