Category Archives: Politics

John Major says Boris Johnson broke lockdown laws and is creating mistrust

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Former Tory PM fiercely attacks Johnson and issues barely veiled challenge to MPs to remove him

Boris Johnson broke lockdown laws, appears to believe rules do not apply to him and is creating an atmosphere of mistrust in politics that threatens the long-term democratic future of the UK, Sir John Major has said.

In a fierce and wide-ranging attack, Major said Johnson had regularly sent ministers out to “defend the indefensible”, with the truth seen as “optional”, and was badly tarnishing the UK’s reputation overseas with populist-style “megaphone diplomacy”.

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Liz Truss heads to Moscow with ‘toughest sanctions’ plan delayed

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Foreign secretary told MPs laws would be in place by 10 February but nothing has been put to parliament

The British foreign secretary, Liz Truss, will meet her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on Thursday with her plan to have put the UK’s “toughest sanctions regime against Russia” on the statute book in time for the trip having fallen through.

Truss told MPs the laws would be in place by 10 February, but nothing has been put to parliament, raising suspicions among opposition MPs that government lawyers are struggling to frame the sweeping and unprecedented new laws.

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More than 50 people to face police questions on Downing Street parties

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Those identified as part of Operation Hillman will be sent questionnaire asking for their account of events

More than 50 people must answer police questions about alleged parties in Downing Street and Whitehall that may have breached strict Covid rules, Scotland Yard has said.

In a sign of the scale of the “partygate” criminal inquiry, the Metropolitan police revealed on Wednesday they would this week start contacting more than 50 people as part of “Operation Hillman”, an investigation into events on eight dates between May 2020 to April 2021.

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Covid rules are to be axed in England, but is pandemic’s end really in sight?

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Analysis: Plans to end isolation rules have been gleefully announced, but questions about infection control remain

As the threat of the Omicron wave has receded in England, the government has been quick to move the conversation on to “living with Covid”.

It was inevitable that this would mean the eventual lifting of legal restrictions, including the need to self-isolate. But even given the optimistic tone in recent weeks, Boris Johnson’s announcement on Wednesday came sooner than many expected.

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‘Life was lovely’: Chagossian women head home 50 years after forced exile

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Women on Mauritian-chartered vessel bound for Chagos Islands recall how life there was ‘paradise’

Rosemonde Bertin was only 17 when British officials arrived on Salomon Atoll in 1972. Everyone was ordered to gather at the manager’s office on the coconut plantation. She does not remember any advance warning.

The commissioner of the British Indian Ocean territory (BIOT) told them they had to leave their homes because Americans were coming to the Chagos archipelago to set up a military base.

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Sadiq Khan warns Cressida Dick has days or weeks to act on Met failings

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Mayor of London ‘disgusted’ by recent scandals and suggests he is prepared to try to oust commissioner

The mayor of London has signalled he is prepared to try and oust the Metropolitan police commissioner in days or weeks over a series of scandals.

Sadiq Khan said he was “disgusted and angry” by recent failings and that he thought Cressida Dick lacked a plan to boost confidence in the police force which had been “knocked and shattered”.

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Billionaire Tory donor calls for Boris Johnson to resign

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John Armitage, who has given £3.1m to the Conservatives, says PM has gone ’past the point of no return’

A billionaire donor to the Conservative party has suggested that Boris Johnson should resign, saying that the prime minister was “past the point of no return”.

John Armitage, co-founder of the hedge fund firm Egerton Capital, who has given £3.1m to the Conservatives, including more than £500,000 since Boris Johnson entered No 10, told the BBC he thought leaders should leave if they lose their moral authority.

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Cultivating conspiracy: how Boris Johnson amplified the far right

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Prime minister follows Donald Trump playbook by tacitly endorsing wild conspiracy theory to score points

What started out as a conspiracy meme on the outer reaches of the internet has, with the help of Boris Johnson, swiftly established itself amid the cocktail of ideas and conspiracies that define the new extreme right.

The protesters who surrounded Keir Starmer on Monday night mostly shouted the word “traitor” – once a term of abuse against pro-EU MPs during the Brexit crisis – as well as “paedophile protector”, a reference to false claims about the Labour leader’s links to the Jimmy Savile case.

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Rees-Mogg becomes minister for Brexit opportunities in Boris Johnson reshuffle

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Chris Heaton-Harris takes over as chief whip in shake-up as PM seeks to reassure mutinous Tories

Boris Johnson has made Jacob Rees-Mogg the new minister for “Brexit opportunities” and installed a key loyalist as his chief whip in a reshuffle intended to shore up his position after weeks of terrible headlines.

Rees-Mogg, who was Commons leader, is moved to the Cabinet Office to take on a newly created role as Brexit opportunities minister, a cabinet-level job that also includes “government efficiency”.

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Senior Tory and Labour figures speak out over media focus on Carrie Johnson

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MPs defend PM’s wife after criticism of her in extracts from book by Conservative peer Michael Ashcroft

Senior political figures, from Keir Starmer to Sajid Javid, have criticised negative briefings that suggest Carrie Johnson is partly to blame for the troubles of her husband’s premiership.

MPs came to the defence of the prime minister’s wife after the publication of extracts from a new book by the Conservative peer Michael Ashcroft which suggested her “behaviour is preventing [Boris Johnson] from leading Britain as effectively as the voters deserve”.

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Keir Starmer cleared of breaking lockdown rules over office beer

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Durham police confirm they will take no further action against Labour leader over April 2021 incident

Keir Starmer has been cleared of an allegation he broke lockdown rules after he was filmed drinking a beer in an office.

The Labour leader was in the City of Durham MP’s office, working in the run-up to the Hartlepool byelection in April 2021.

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Johnson allies insist ‘grownups’ in charge of new team at No 10

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Prime minister may still face more letters of no confidence and revelations from Dominic Cummings

Allies of Boris Johnson have insisted that “grownups” are now in charge of his operation as he heads into critical week for his beleaguered premiership that could see him face a confidence vote and the threat of further damaging revelations.

Tory MPs said Johnson may have bought some time by bringing a new team into No 10. One major Conservative donor, Alexander Temerko, told the Guardian that the prime minister should now take the opportunity to “purge” the cabinet of disloyal leadership rivals.

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‘Partygate’: Johnson’s removal is now inevitable, warns loyalist

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More MPs set to submit resignation demands as No 10 rejigs team

Boris Johnson’s desperate efforts to save his premiership were undermined on Saturday as one of his most loyal backbench supporters said it was now “inevitable” that Tory MPs would remove him from office over the “partygate” scandal.

In an interview with the Observer, Sir Charles Walker, a former vice-chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs, implored the prime minister to go of his own accord in the national interest, and likened events in the Tory party to a Greek tragedy.

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Far right celebrates after Johnson repeats ‘Savile slur’ in parliament

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The prime minister was widely criticised for repeating the slur that is widespread online – but extremists were delighted

A network of white supremacists, neo-Nazis and antisemites has celebrated Boris Johnson’s false claim that Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile.

Johnson was roundly criticised, including by some Tory MPs, after he made the accusation during an ill-tempered exchange in the Commons last Monday.

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Dorries claims vast majority of Tories behind Johnson

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Culture secretary dismisses resignation calls over ‘partygate’ after another Tory says PM should go

The culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, has rejected calls for Boris Johnson to resign in order to restore trust after the “partygate” scandal, claiming that the “vast majority” of the party were behind the prime minister.

It comes after the former schools minister, Nick Gibb, became the latest Conservative MP to publicly call for Johnson to go, citing constituents “furious about the double standards” and the prime minster’s “inaccurate” statements in the Commons.

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‘Secret sauce of success’: levelling-up report co-author on why UK should be like Renaissance Florence

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Andy Haldane says city’s crucible-like atmosphere created ‘combustion’ for economic prosperity

The government’s new levelling-up strategy should help Britain’s left-behind towns and cities emulate Renaissance Florence in cooking up the “secret sauce” of economic success, according to its co-author Andy Haldane.

The hefty report, published on Wednesday, was mocked by some for its frequent historical references – including to 15th-century Florence under the Medici – but Haldane, a former Bank of England chief economist, is deadly serious.

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Carrie Johnson: puppet master of Downing Street – or easy target?

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Some argue Boris Johnson’s wife is pulling the strings at No 10 but others note that claims contain more than a whiff of sexism

Boris Johnson’s inner circle imploded so spectacularly in recent days that only one close political confidante from the early days of No 10 remains: his wife, Carrie Johnson.

The most powerful prime ministerial spouse in recent memory, the 33-year-old Johnson has a job of her own for a wildlife charity, but multiple sources from Downing Street past and present say her influence on the prime minister’s operation is undeniable.

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Tory MP Aaron Bell goes public on letter of no confidence in Boris Johnson

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More than a dozen MPs have now called openly for prime minister to resign over lockdown parties scandal

Aaron Bell has become the latest Conservative MP to announce publicly that he has submitted a letter of no confidence in Boris Johnson.

More than a dozen MPs have called openly for the prime minister to resign, including the former defence secretary Tobias Ellwood and the backbenchers Peter Aldous and Anthony Mangnall. More are believed to have submitted letters privately.

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Ministers accused of failing to stem flow of Russian ‘dirty money’ into UK

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Anti-corruption activists criticise government inaction in face of years of Kremlin provocation

Britain’s efforts to halt the flow of Russian “dirty money” into the UK have been called into question in the aftermath of a threat by the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, to hit Kremlin-linked oligarchs with economic sanctions if Ukraine is attacked.

Labour and anti-corruption campaigners this week accused the government of failing to curtail Russian wealth and influence in Britain, despite years of provocative actions from the Kremlin.

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‘Meltdown in Downing Street’: papers batter Johnson on three fronts

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Cost of living crisis, departure of top aides and Rishi Sunak’s rebuke dominate the newspapers on another bad day for PM

Three big stories dominate Friday’s front pages – and none of them are good news for Boris Johnson. Editors were spoilt for choice with the “big squeeze” in living standards, the “bloodbath” of departing Downing Street aides and Rishi Sunak’s less-than-total backing for his leader.

Several papers combine the stories in what the Mail calls “Meltdown in Downing Street” above an image of a forlorn-looking prime minister and the subhead, “will the last one to leave please turn out the lights” evoking the Sun’s infamous 1992 election front page.

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