Prime minister promises to listen to voters and says he will take responsibility for results
Boris Johnson has promised to keep going in the face of pressure over his leadership following a double byelection defeat and the resignation of a cabinet minister.
The prime minister said on Friday that losing the former Tory stronghold of Tiverton and Honiton to the Liberal Democrats as well as surrendering Wakefield to Labour was tough, but insisted he would listen to voters.
Continue reading...Labour takes Wakefield and Lib Dems snatch Tiverton and Honiton, piling pressure on Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson has faced a double hammer blow to his authority after the Conservatives lost the Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton byelections on the same night, prompting the party co-chair Oliver Dowden to resign.
Labour took Wakefield, while the Liberal Democrats overturned a 24,000-plus majority to snatch Tiverton and Honiton.
Continue reading...Sonar and radio comms maker expected to be sold to Cobham, owned by private equity firm Advent, in £2.6bn deal
The UK government is set to wave through a £2.6bn takeover of a British defence manufacturer in a deal that will move a US private equity investor a step closer to controlling a significant supplier of nuclear submarine equipment.
Cobham has received the green light to take over Ultra Electronics, a FTSE 250 maker of systems such as sonar and radio communications used by navies and air forces, as well as civilian aircraft. Cobham was itself controversially taken over and broken up by US private equity investor Advent over the course of 2019 and 2020.
Continue reading...PM had previously said deportations were ‘simply not going to happen’ but now admits in theory they could
Ukrainian refugees face being sent to Rwanda if they travel to the UK without authorisation, Boris Johnson has said in an escalation of government plans to deport those who travel across the Channel seeking sanctuary.
During a visit to the Rwandan capital, Kigali, the prime minister also urged Nato and G7 countries not to settle for a “bad peace” in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, saying it would lead to escalation by Vladimir Putin’s war machine.
Politicians from 11 European countries condemned the Rwanda-UK scheme. But it emerged that Johnson did not raise human rights abuses when he met the country’s president, Paul Kagame, on Thursday, despite previous indications that he would.
Ahead of a meeting with Prince Charles on Friday, Johnson was bullish in saying he would defend the policy after the heir to the throne reportedly called it “appalling” – but Downing Street and Clarence House sources suggested the subject would not be raised.
The Rwandan government confirmed it has already received £120m from the UK government to house asylum seekers who have yet to arrive, and has spent a proportion of the money.
The prime minister pledged £372m in aid to provide help for countries grappling with soaring food prices.
Continue reading...Ex-adviser to Boris Johnson holds forth about his hero Otto von Bismarck at Orwell Festival of Political Writing
More than a year since walking out of Downing Street clutching his possessions in a cardboard box, Dominic Cummings has emerged in public again, recasting himself as a political speaker,
From No 10 to a lecture hall in the Darwin Building at University College London, the man who was once Boris Johnson’s senior adviser and de facto chief of staff, appeared on Thursday night in a panel discussion at the Orwell festival of political writing.
Continue reading...Cabinet secretary says he had ‘informal’ conversations with the Earthshot prize about available roles for the PM’s wife
Cabinet secretary Simon Case has admitted discussing “opportunities” for the prime minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s Earthshot prize, but denied recommending her for any paid role.
Case’s account followed reports that he had sought to secure a job for Carrie Johnson at their charity, the Royal Foundation, which offers the prize for environmental innovation.
Continue reading...Loss of Wakefield, and Tiverton and Honiton could push backbench Tories towards restarting efforts to oust PM
Voting has closed for two crucial byelections, in Wakefield and in Tiverton and Honiton, the results of which could play a pivotal role in Boris Johnson’s political future.
Defeat in both of what were previously Tory-held seats could reignite a challenge to the prime minister from disgruntled Conservative MPs, particularly if the Liberal Democrats overturn a 24,000-plus majority in Tiverton and Honiton.
Continue reading...David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, confirms party won’t seek to rejoin single market or EU bloc
Labour has broken its long silence on Brexit, laying out detailed plans to improve, not scrap, the deal Boris Johnson struck with the EU, in a move it concedes will enrage remain supporters.
On the sixth anniversary of the Brexit referendum, the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, confirmed the party would seek only limited changes and would not seek to rejoin the single market which would bring the return of free trade and free movement of people.
Continue reading...Sunak’s attempt to make a distinction between increases in pensions and wages fuels a sense of political favouritism
The government has got itself into a fine muddle on the triple lock pension guarantee, David Cameron’s gift-cum-bribe to older voters in 2010 that has ricocheted down the years. On the one hand, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak argue that awarding inflation-matching pay rises to public sector workers would risk an “inflationary spiral” and so should be avoided. On the other, the chancellor maintains that lifting the state pension by 10% – the figure likely to be produced by the triple lock formula – wouldn’t create inflationary pressures.
The position makes no sense. Income increases, whether delivered via pension payments or pay packets, all contribute to aggregate demand and spending capacity. Sunak’s attempt to make a distinction – “pensions are not an input cost into the cost of producing goods and services we all consume so they don’t add to inflation in the same way,” he said – only fuelled the sense of naked political favouritism. Teachers, to alight on the next bargaining battleground, aren’t manufacturing soap suds either.
Continue reading...Latest updates: PM in Kigali amid heavy criticism of deportation policy to east African country; ballots open in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton
Boris Johnson visited the Rwandan president this morning while voting got under way in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton where the Conservatives face two vital byelections.
The prime minister is in Kigali where he visited Paul Kagame at his office following heavy criticism about his deportation policy to the east African country.
They then went next door to the president’s meeting room where they sat in white armchairs in front of a Union flag and a Rwandan flag.
Mr Johnson said: “How are you? Very good to see you. What an exciting time to be here in Rwanda. Congratulations on taking over as chair of office. This will be absolutely superb.”
The byelections were called after the respective MPs resigned in disgrace. Imran Ahmad Khan stepped down in Wakefield having been convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage boy, while Neil Parish quit in Tiverton and Honiton after watching pornography in the Commons.
The West Yorkshire seat had been safely Labour before Khan took it for the Conservatives in 2019, and Labour is the clear favourite to win on Thursday. The Devon constituency, in contrast, is seen as neck-and-neck between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, despite the seat in its various forms having been strongly Tory for more than a century.
Continue reading...Interest on debt payment leaps 70% on a year ago to £7.6bn, a monthly record
Government borrowing was higher than expected in May at £14bn as soaring inflation sent interest payments on the UK’s debt to a monthly record.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said debt interest payments leapt 70% on a year ago to £7.6bn, the third highest debt interest payment made by central government in any single month and the highest payment in May on record.
Continue reading...Survey of EU nationals shows ‘profound and lasting’ impact of Brexit on sense of identity
A study of EU citizens living in the UK has revealed the “open wound” left by Brexit, with respondents saying the decision to leave the bloc had left them feeling betrayed, insecure and distrustful towards the country that most nonetheless still call home.
The survey of EU nationals from 22 countries, who had mostly been in Britain for more than five years and stayed since Brexit, showed “a profound and lasting impact on the lives and sense of identity and belonging of EU citizens in the UK”, the authors said.
Continue reading...Pair are visiting for Commonwealth meeting, after Charles criticised government’s asylum policy
Boris Johnson will have a potentially awkward meeting with the Prince of Wales in Rwanda after the heir to the throne criticised the government’s policy of sending asylum seekers to the east African state.
The talks will take place at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in Kigali this week. Prince Charles reportedly described the government’s plan to fly people 4,000 miles on a one-way ticket as “appalling”.
Continue reading...PM’s spokesperson says workers should not be ‘chasing inflation with wages’ as that would increase inflation
Moderna has announced that it will open a vaccine research and manufacturing centre in the UK. In a visit to mark the announcement, Sajid Javid, the health secretary, said:
We all saw during the pandemic the differences that cutting edge vaccines and treatments can make and we all particularly saw that the mRNA technology has been very transformational. It has literally saved millions of lives over the last couple of years.
And that’s why I’m thrilled to announce this new partnership between the UK government and Moderna, where Moderna will established here in the UK, a global R&D facility with over £1bn for investment in this cutting edge technology, and also a huge manufacturing centre, their largest outside of the US, and so this is a great investment in the UK, and gives huge confidence to our life sciences sector already leading in Europe.
Continue reading...RMT accuses government of ‘wrecking negotiations’ as operators and passengers prepare to face further disruption on Thursday
Train operators and passengers face more disruption on Thursday after talks between rail industry bosses and the RMT union failed to head off a second national 24-hour strike.
The RMT said talks had broken down on Wednesday without a settlement, and hit out at the government for “wrecking negotiations” in the dispute over pay, working conditions and proposed “modernisation” plans to cut costs after the pandemic.
Continue reading...Exclusive: officials’ comments put paid to idea displeasure with UK is limited to Irish caucus on Capitol Hill
The US government has warned that Boris Johnson’s move to unilaterally axe some of the Northern Ireland Brexit arrangements protocol was a matter of continuing concern and “not conducive” to a trade deal.
Senior officials have hit back at suggestions that the lack of public commentary by the Biden administration meant it was not troubled by the move to bring in new laws to ditch part of the Brexit deal signed in 2020.
Continue reading...EU withdrawal fuelling higher import costs and costing British workers nearly £500 a year, says Resolution Foundation
Britain’s cost of living crisis is being made worse by Brexit dragging down the country’s growth potential and costing workers hundreds of pounds a year in lost pay, new research claims.
The Resolution Foundation thinktank and academics from the London School of Economics said the average worker in Britain was now on course to suffer more than £470 in lost pay each year by 2030 after rising living costs are taken into account, compared with a remain vote in 2016.
Continue reading...Proposal to replace Human Rights Act with bill of rights is effort to make government ‘untouchable’, say critics
Downing Street will tomorrow set out sweeping plans to override the power of Europe’s human rights court just days after a judge in Strasbourg blocked the deportation of asylum seekers from Britain to Rwanda.
The abolition of the Human Rights Act (HRA), including reducing the influence of the European court of human rights (ECHR), will be introduced before parliament in what the government described as a restatement of Britain’s sovereignty.
Continue reading...Party’s Westminster leader faced calls to resign after leak of comments supporting suspended former chief whip Patrick Grady
The SNP has launched an external review into the support available to staff after an MP accused her party of “clearly falling short” of supporting sexual harassment complainants.
It follows the party’s former Westminster chief whip Patrick Grady being suspended from the SNP’s Westminster group for a week, as well as being suspended from parliament for two days, over a sexual advance towards a teenage staff member in 2016.
Continue reading...Growing call for inquiry over claims that Boris Johnson tried to secure Foreign Office role for then girlfriend
Correspondence exists confirming that Boris Johnson attempted in 2019 to secure a senior role for his then girlfriend, Carrie Johnson, at the Foreign Office, a source has said, amid growing calls for an inquiry.
The source, who worked with Johnson at the time, said Carrie Johnson – now the prime minister’s wife – had never progressed as far as formally applying for the role.
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