Boris Johnson says all major fiscal decisions will be left to his replacement
Last night Braverman said she would stand in the Tory leadership contest when Boris Johnson goes.
When it was put to her that she did not have enough experience, Braverman did not accept that. She said she had run a government department, the attorney general’s department.
Continue reading...Analysis: Suella Braverman is lone frontbencher to voice leadership plan as Rishi Sunak, Sajid Javid and others hang back
Even before Boris Johnson delivered his ill-tempered exit speech, Conservative MPs’ focus had already switched to who might succeed him – and unlike in 2019, when he had been the prince across the water for months, this time there is no obvious successor.
Rishi Sunak, who walked out of the Treasury on Tuesday within minutes of Sajid Javid quitting, had been widely seen as the frontrunner until a series of missteps, including the botched spring statement.
Continue reading...Outgoing PM confirms no big changes of direction, including about taxation, during race to succeed him
Boris Johnson’s government will not try to implement new policies while the Conservatives choose a new leader, the prime minister has told his cabinet, deepening concerns over paralysis in the aftermath of his resignation announcement.
The prime minister, who has pledged to step aside, said he will not introduce “major changes of direction” including tax decisions over the coming weeks as Tory MPs and party members run an election for his replacement.
Continue reading...Kremlin gloats as oligarch Oleg Deripaska welcomes end of ‘stupid clown’ but Zelenskiy pays tribute to ‘true friend’
Boris Johnson’s downfall has been met with delight and ridicule in Moscow, while in Kyiv Volodymyr Zelenskiy expressed sadness at the resignation of his key ally.
Johnson, who championed weapons transfers to Ukraine in the early stages of the war and was the first leader of a G7 country to visit Kyiv in April, has emerged as a much-loved figure in Ukraine. “We all heard this news [of Johnson’s resignation] with sadness,” Zelenskiy said in a statement after the two leaders spoke by phone. “Not only me, but also the entire Ukrainian society, which is very sympathetic to you.
Continue reading...Yvette Cooper requests more details about Boris Johnson’s meeting with Alexander Lebedev in Italy in 2018
Yvette Cooper has used an urgent question in the Commons to ask if Alexander Lebedev sought to arrange a private phone call between Boris Johnson and the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, during a weekend party in April 2018.
A day after Johnson admitted for the first time that when foreign secretary he had met former KGB agent Lebedev without officials present, the shadow home secretary told the Commons there were further questions raised by the trip to the party at an Italian palazzo owned by Lebedev’s son.
Continue reading...Word from No 10 bunker goes out to the Tory trenches but even the diehards know that the party’s one-time hero has to go
A blood-curdling vow to fight to the death, despair among Tory grandees at the impending loss of their champion, and incredulity that Boris Johnson is still hanging on – it is all part of the mix as the UK newspapers feast on another day of high drama at Westminster.
In what it calls an “exclusive” on “Defiant Boris’s message to Tory rebels”, the Sun splashes with the headline “You’ll have to dip your hands in blood to get rid of me”. A “key ally” of the prime minister repeats the No 10 briefing line that the rebels will have to overturn the “will of the people” if they want to oust Johnson.
Continue reading...A defiant prime minister may try to hold a general election to buy himself more time
Boris Johnson already knew more of his cabinet ministers wanted him gone before he went to face his MPs at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday. Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, and Simon Hart, the Welsh secretary, had told him to quit.
But the prime minister was immovable. He pressed on with the day, determined to answer questions three hours later from select committee chairs on the price of grain in the Bosphorus and the merits of road pricing at the liaison committee.
Continue reading...Thursday: Covid-19 led Australia to record 3,105 more deaths than expected in January and February. Plus: UK prime minister told to step down by his own ministers
Good morning. A fourth Covid vaccine is to be made available to more Australians as it was revealed hospital admissions have reached their highest levels since early February. In the UK, Boris Johnson has been told by his own ministers to quit. And Nick Kyrgios is through to the semi-finals of Wimbledon.
Johnson’s woes have continued amid a string of resignations from his collapsing government and a series of senior Conservatives called for him to step down. But the PM is refusing to budge, even after a delegation of cabinet ministers met him at Downing Street to demand his resignation on a day of rapidly unfolding political drama. Follow all the latest developments as they happen here.
Continue reading...Levelling up secretary fired several hours after urging Boris Johnson to vacate No 10
Michael Gove was sacked by Boris Johnson on Wednesday evening after telling the prime minister to quit earlier in the day.
Allies confirmed the levelling up secretary had been dismissed after a delegation of cabinet ministers told Johnson he should resign.
Continue reading...A number of senior Tory MPs are preparing leadership bids as Johnson’s hold on power weakens
Leadership jostling kicked off among leading Conservative MPs as Boris Johnson clung to power, with departing cabinet ministers Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid the favourites, and Eurosceptic Steve Baker publicly saying he would “reflect seriously on whether to run”.
Baker, a former chair of the European Research Group who was one of the “Spartan” holdouts against Theresa May’s Brexit deal, was the second to go on the record with leadership ambitions, saying it was “accurate” that he was thinking about a bid.
Continue reading...Levelling up secretary had told PM to step down in face-to-face meeting as Simon Hart says it is too late to ‘turn the ship around’
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Hamish Mackay.
Tory MPs critical of Boris Johnson claim that a majority of their colleagues are now in favour of replacing him.
I think there is a majority in the party that wants to see change.
I personally have lost confidence in the prime minister now and I’m very sorry to say that. I think he does need to go.
We are regarded as rebels. We’re not. Well over half the parliamentary party now now want Boris Johnson to leave office. That means we’re the mainstream …
About a month ago we had the no confidence vote. Since then there’s been a lot of buyer’s remorse from those who backed him and it’s only been one-way traffic. I haven’t heard anybody who voted no confidence in the prime minister has changed their mind since then.
Continue reading...Labour leader says Conservative MPs backing Boris Johnson do not have ‘a shred of integrity’
Keir Starmer has accused Conservative MPs and ministers of complicity in propping up a prime minister with a history of indefensible behaviour, as he both condemned and mocked what he called the “dying spectacle” of Boris Johnson’s political career.
Focusing in particular on Johnson’s decision earlier this year to promote Chris Pincher to be deputy chief whip, despite a known history of sexually predatory behaviour, Starmer said any Tory MPs still backing Johnson did not have “a shred of integrity”.
Continue reading...Former health secretary calls on colleagues to consider following his lead after resigning from cabinet
Sajid Javid has called on cabinet ministers to consider resigning from Boris Johnson’s government to help oust him as prime minister, saying he quit as health secretary after deciding “enough is enough” over issues of truth and credibility.
Giving a damning personal statement in the Commons on Wednesday after his resignation on Tuesday evening, Javid made it plain he believed other ministers should follow suit.
Continue reading...Analysis: Rishi Sunak’s successor treading tightrope between spending to keep PM in power and dealing with economic crisis
Should he remain in the job for longer than some political commentators expect, Nadhim Zahawi faces a balancing act as chancellor. He must walk the line between doing what it takes to prevent the political implosion of Boris Johnson’s government, and dealing with the worst succession of economic shocks to hit Britain since at least the 1970s.
As the fourth Conservative chancellor in as many years, parachuted in after Rishi Sunak resigned with a stinging critique of Johnson’s devil-may-care attitude towards tax and spending, Zahawi is expected to face heavy pressure from the prime minister to cut taxes to revive the economy.
Continue reading...Analysis: another confidence vote, a managed exit or a bleed-out – the next steps are hard to call
By any normal metric it is fair to say Boris Johnson is doomed, given the scale of ministerial resignations and the number of backbench MPs publicly withdrawing their support. While Johnson has often defied normal political rules, it does seem a matter of when he is ousted from No 10 rather than if. But how? Here are some scenarios.
Continue reading...Chancellor says government must be run ‘properly, competently and seriously’; health secretary adds ‘I can no longer continue in good conscience’
Nicola Sturgeon asked Boris Johnson to discuss a fresh referendum on independence when the two spoke by phone on Monday evening. According to a Scottish government readout of their conversation, she warned him she would not be deterred if he refused to grant one.
Downing Street has not yet issued a readout of the conversation – lobby reporters should get one at their morning briefing later. We do not know what the prime minister said in reply to Sturgeon’s request for permission to stage a referendum, under a section 30 order granted by the UK government. Johnson has yet to reply in writing to Sturgeon’s demand by letter that Holyrood gets that section 30 order.
The two leaders agreed that a heads of government meeting will take place in the near future to discuss the current cost of living crisis. Both governments will work together to develop proposals ahead of that meeting to help those most in need of support.
In discussing Scotland’s future the first minister again made clear that the Scottish government is ready and willing to negotiate a section 30 order to secure a referendum on independence but reiterated that the absence of a section 30 order will not mean Scotland is refused the democratic right to choose.
Continue reading...Health secretary and chancellor resign in what appears to be coordinated move
Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid have dramatically resigned from the cabinet in what appeared to be a coordinated move, throwing the prime minister’s future in doubt.
Boris Johnson apologised on Tuesday evening, for appointing Chris Pincher as deputy chief whip, despite belatedly admitting having known that Pincher was found to have behaved inappropriately in 2019.
Continue reading...Analysis: PM is stubborn but if Tory MPs believe he is a liability that may prove decisive
With Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid gone from the cabinet, it could all be over for Boris Johnson – although quite how long it will take his enemies to finish him off is not at all clear and his defenestration does not look immediate.
The two byelection defeats almost two weeks ago prompted calls for cabinet ministers to mount a coup against the prime minister, and in the wake of the Chris Pincher scandal it finally seems to be happening.
Continue reading...The children’s commissioner for England urged MPs to take urgent steps to tackle child poverty
The children’s commissioner for England has called on the government to develop urgent plans to tackle child poverty, amid the cost of living crisis that is hitting the most vulnerable in society hardest.
Rachel de Souza said children were increasingly worried about the soaring price of basic essentials and the impact on their lives, telling MPs on the Commons education committee that urgent steps were required to tackle poverty ahead of a difficult autumn for families.
Continue reading...Dorothy Bain QC releases her letter to the UK supreme court seeking its ruling on Nicola Sturgeon’s plans for a second referendum
Scotland’s lord advocate has confirmed she fears Nicola Sturgeon’s plans for a fresh independence referendum may be unlawful.
Dorothy Bain QC has now released the letter she wrote to the UK supreme court last week seeking its ruling on whether Sturgeon has the legal powers to stage a referendum without the UK government’s authority.
Continue reading...