Shapps refuses to deny Johnson suggested Sue Gray abandon publication of her report – UK politics live

Latest updates: Grant Shapps, transport secretary, does not deny Times report as row grows over further Partygate photos

At cabinet this morning Boris Johnson praised Thérèse Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, for helping people get back into work. Johnson believes work is the best route out of poverty and, with unemployment at its lowest level for almost 50 years, he is using this as part of his attempt to show there is a Tory response to the cost of living crisis.

According to PA Media, Johnson opened cabinet by saying:

I want to give a special shout out to Thérèse Coffey, the secretary of state for DWP, because under her plans, the Way To Work scheme, since we launched it this year it has got 380,000 people off welfare and into work. That’s the way forward.

I want to see people not on benefits, I want to see them in work - that’s the Conservative answer and that is the answer we are offering to the people of this country.

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More than a fifth of Britons struggling as grocery price inflation hits 13-year high

Nine in 10 people say they are worried about the rising price of their shop, Kantar survey finds

More than a fifth of households in Great Britain say they are struggling to make ends meet as the price of the weekly grocery shop rises 7%, the highest level of inflation in 13 years.

Nine in 10 people say they are worried about the rising price of groceries, according to the market research group Kantar, putting the issue in second place behind concerns about energy bills as the cost of living crisis hits families hard.

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Eden Project creators tee up to open ‘edible’ and green golf course

Team admit Gillyflower is not the first but hope it encourages a more sustainable approach to golfing

The views are spectacular, taking in a lovely Cornish river, a ruined castle and the rooftops of an ancient town while the golf is pleasantly challenging, with tight fairways and undulating greens.

But what makes Gillyflower golf course in Lostwithiel different is that every square metre of non-playing surface will be used to grow fruit and vegetables or encourage flora and fauna.

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Rishi Sunak reportedly considering windfall tax on electricity generators

Levy could be extended beyond oil and gas producers to help households in cost of living crisis

Rishi Sunak is reportedly considering imposing a wider windfall tax on electricity generators, as well as on oil and gas producers, that could bring in billions of pounds to help households struggling with soaring food and energy costs.

The chancellor has instructed Treasury officials to work on plans for a potential tax on more than £10bn of excess profits made by electricity generators, including windfarm operators, according to sources cited by the Financial Times.

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Amazon bags £425m in work from UK government as it is criticised over tax

Report claims public money from countries around the world is funding growth of tech company

Amazon has reaped a total of £425m in UK government contracts in the past two years, it has emerged in a report, prompting fresh criticism that the tech giant is failing to pay a fair share of tax in the country.

The report, by the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (CICTAR) with assistance from investigative thinktank Taxwatch, finds Amazon’s highly profitable cloud computing business is increasingly being indirectly supported by taxpayers through hundreds of billions of dollars in government contracts around the world.

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Partygate: Boris Johnson under pressure to explain meeting with Sue Gray

Prime minister met Gray in run-up to long-awaited report into lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street

Boris Johnson is under increasing pressure to explain a meeting with Sue Gray before her report into lockdown breaches in Downing Street, after a cabinet minister declined to deny he had queried whether it should be published.

The report, which is expected to be handed to No 10 on Wednesday, is said by sources to be deeply critical of the prime minister and senior civil service leadership over the culture that developed in No 10 and eventually led the Metropolitan police to issue 126 fines.

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Top official at Foreign Office called upon to resign over Kabul withdrawal

Sir Philip Barton castigated along with Dominic Raab in damning report by MPs into UK’s chaotic exit

The senior civil servant in charge of the Foreign Office should consider his position after presiding over a disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan that betrayed UK allies, put lives in danger, showed a total absence of planning and was chaotically managed, MPs have concluded in a damning report.

The report from the foreign affairs select committee said the absence of leadership – both ministerial and official, including the permanent secretary, Sir Philip Barton – when Kabul fell was inexcusable and a grave indictment on those supposedly in charge. It added that Barton failed to give candid evidence to the committee, and says as a result it had lost confidence in him. The committee also accused him of covering up political interference in the fast-tracking of some individuals out of Afghanistan.

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Imran Ahmad Khan sentenced to 18 months over sexual assault of boy, 15

Former MP was expelled from Tory party after being convicted of groping teenager at a party in 2008

The former Conservative MP Imran Ahmad Khan has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy after plying him with gin at a party in 2008.

The 48-year-old was expelled from the Conservative party and later resigned from the Commons, triggering a byelection in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, after he was convicted last month following a trial at Southwark crown court.

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Thousands of NHS workers may quit for better-paid jobs, ministers warned

Exclusive: health leaders call for uplift for lowest-paid staff, to prevent ‘mass exodus’ to pubs and supermarkets

The NHS faces a “mass exodus” of thousands of staff to better-paid jobs in pubs, shops and supermarkets as a result of the cost of living crisis, ministers have been warned.

Health leaders fear significant numbers of lower-paid workers will leave for higher wages in the private sector amid rising food and heating bills and soaring inflation. The NHS already has 110,000 vacancies, and there are fears that a further deepening of the workforce crisis will “jeopardise” the ability of hospitals to tackle record-high waiting lists.

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No 10 admits PM meeting with Sue Gray was instigated by Downing Street – UK politics live

Latest updates: PM’s spokesperson clears up that No 10 requested meeting after Simon Clarke suggests it was the other way round

The Downing Street lobby briefing has just finished, and the PM’s spokesperson told journalists that Boris Johnson has still not received the Sue Gray report into Partygate. The spokesperson did not say when it would be arriving, but it is not expected to be published today.

Boris Johnson has recorded a clip for broadcasters during a visit to a school in south-east London. PA Media has written up the key lines.

I’m not attracted, intrinsically, to new taxes. But as I have said throughout, we have got to do what we can - and we will - to look after people through the aftershocks of Covid, through the current pressures on energy prices that we are seeing post-Covid and with what’s going on in Russia and we are going to put our arms round people, just as we did during the pandemic.

Of course, but on the process you are just going to have to hold your horses a little bit longer. I don’t believe it will be too much longer and then I will be able to say a bit more.

It’s basically very rare disease, and so far the consequences don’t seem to be very serious but it’s important that we keep an eye on it and that’s exactly what the the new UK Health Security Agency is doing.

As things stand the judgment is that it’s rare. I think we’re looking very carefully at the circumstances of transmission.

It hasn’t yet proved, fatal in any case that we know of, certainly not in this country.

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When is the Sue Gray report due and what could it mean for Boris Johnson?

Analysis: Key questions answered about report into Downing Street lockdown breach claims

The full Sue Gray report into lockdown-breaching gatherings in and around Downing Street could be published as early as Tuesday. Here is what we know about its likely contents – and their impact.

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London Underground station staff to stage 24-hour strike on 6 June

RMT calls out 4,000 members in protest at TfL plans to cut 600 posts to reduce costs

London Underground station staff will stage a 24-hour strike on Monday 6 June, the day after the platinum jubilee holiday weekend, in a dispute over job cuts.

The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) has called 4,000 members out on strike in protest at Transport for London’s plans to cut 600 posts to reduce costs.

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Shell consultant quits, accusing firm of ‘extreme harms’ to environment

Caroline Dennett tells staff in video she made decision because of ‘double-talk on climate’

A senior safety consultant has quit working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil fuel producer in a bombshell public video of causing “extreme harms” to the environment.

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for climate change risks” and urged others in the oil and gas industry to “walk away while there’s still time”.

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Lithuania wants naval coalition to lift Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s grain

Countries affected by loss of crop from Ukraine could help escort ships, says Gabrielius Landsbergis

Lithuania has called for a naval coalition “of the willing” to lift the Russian Black Sea blockade on Ukrainian grain exports.

The Lithuanian foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, proposed the plan during talks with the UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, on Monday in London.

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Zelenskiy urges ‘maximum sanctions’ against Russia in Davos speech

Ukrainian president tells business leaders they need to decide whether ‘brute force’ should rule the world

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has urged the west to intensify its economic sanctions against Russia as he said business leaders in Davos needed to decide whether “brute force” should rule the world.

In a keynote video address to the World Economic Forum (WEF), Zelenskiy called for a full oil embargo, the severing of Russian banks from the global financial system, the complete isolation of the Russian IT sector and a ban on trade with Russia.

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Racism in UK maternity care risks safety of Black, Asian and mixed ethnicity women – study

Participants in charity’s year-long inquiry describe being ignored and feeling patronised and dehumanised

Systemic racism within UK maternity care is risking the safety of people from Black, Asian and mixed ethnicity backgrounds, often with devastating consequences, according to a report by the childbirth charity Birthrights.

More than 300 people with lived and professional experience of racial injustice in a maternity setting gave evidence to an expert panel chaired by Shaheen Rahman QC, a barrister who specialises in clinical negligence, as part of the charity’s year-long inquiry into the issue.

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Pay gap in UK between bosses and workers likely to widen in 2022

After narrowing during pandemic, analysis suggests FTSE 350 CEOs will collect 63 times average median pay at their companies

The gap between the pay of bosses and employees will widen again this year after narrowing during the pandemic, research suggests.

FTSE 350 chief executives are expected to collect 63 times the average median pay of workers at their companies , according to the High Pay Centre thinktank, which campaigns for fairer pay structures.

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Sport stars support Welsh boy, 11, who lost finger escaping from bullies

Boxer Anthony Joshua among those to contact Raheem Bailey, who suffered racial and physical abuse from fellow pupils

Sport stars including boxer Anthony Joshua have sent messages of support to an 11-year-old boy who lost a finger while trying to escape from school bullies.

Raheem Bailey, from Abertillery in south Wales, was attacked by a group of children on Tuesday, according to his mother, Shantal.

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Police warn against vigilante action against duckling hit-and-run driver

Driver’s details shared on social media after allegedly running over ducklings near Stoke-on-Trent as other drivers waited for them to cross

Police have urged the public against any vigilante actions after the registration of a driver who allegedly ran over a brood of ducklings was published online.

Staffordshire police confirmed it is investigating a Facebook post which claimed that at least three ducklings were killed on Friday at a roundabout in Trentham near Stoke-on-Trent. The post claimed they were killed by the driver of a white transit van who allegedly ignored other drivers who were waiting for the ducks to cross the road.

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UK to announce more monkeypox cases as efforts ramp up to contain outbreak

Close contacts of those infected with rare disease offered vaccines and told to isolate for up to 21 days

Public health officials are to announce more UK monkeypox cases on Monday, as efforts ramp up to contain the first multinational outbreak of the virus that has led to cases in at least 14 countries.

The unusual outbreak of the rare disease has sparked a wave of contact tracing and testing, with the closest contacts of confirmed cases – such as partners and people in the same household – offered a vaccine and told to isolate at home for up to 21 days.

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