Category Archives: Politics

Four Johnson aides quit in fallout from Downing Street parties

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Policy chief Munira Mirza was first to go, followed shortly by Jack Doyle, Dan Rosenfield and Martin Reynolds

Four of Boris Johnson’s key staff have quit as the fallout from the Downing Street party scandal continued to shake his hold on government.

Johnson’s longstanding policy chief Munira Mirza was the first to go, using a stinging resignation letter to accuse the prime minister of “scurrilous” behaviour when he falsely linked Keir Starmer to the failure to bring paedophile Jimmy Savile to justice.

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It’s not me, it’s you: the political advisers who left Boris Johnson

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The prime minister has parted ways with key aides seven times since September 2020

All prime ministers lose advisers at various points, but those working for Boris Johnson seem to jump ship or otherwise exit at a faster rate than most. Here is a list of significant people who have left his No 10.

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Northern Ireland first minister resigns over Brexit checks on goods

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Paul Givan’s move triggers parallel departure of deputy first minister and could bring forward elections

The first minister of Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionist party’s Paul Givan, has resigned, plunging the devolved government at Stormont into turmoil two years after power-sharing with Sinn Féin was restored.

His resignation, over Brexit checks in the Irish Sea, will also bring the parallel departure of the Sinn Féin deputy first minister, Michelle O’Neill, under the power-sharing arrangements.

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Levelling up? It’s a lot of talk, say sceptical Wolverhampton public

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Of those who have heard of it, many doubt the policy will do much to improve their quality of life

It may have been dominating conversation in Westminster on Wednesday, but questions about levelling up were met with blank stares among shoppers on Wednesfield high street in Wolverhampton.

Most had never heard of the concept, while of those who had, many doubted it would do much to improve their quality of life.

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Priti Patel says Macron ‘absolutely wrong’ over Channel crossings

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Home secretary rebuffs French claim UK immigration policy encourages people to risk dangerous journey

Priti Patel, the home secretary, has said Emmanuel Macron is wrong to say the UK’s immigration policy is encouraging people to risk their lives crossing the Channel from France.

In a further escalation of the row between the two countries, Patel has dismissed claims by the French president that Britain’s immigration system favours clandestine migration and does not allow for asylum seekers to seek legal ways into the country.

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Keir Starmer accuses Boris Johnson of ‘parroting conspiracy theories’

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Labour leader says ‘it’s time to restore dignity’ as PM refuses to apologise for Jimmy Savile remarks

Keir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson of “parroting the conspiracy theories of violent fascists” for political gain after the prime minister doubled down on false claims about the Labour leader’s blame for the failure to prosecute Jimmy Savile.

Johnson has been condemned by victims of the disgraced broadcaster, as well by as some MPs and the Commons Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, for making the claim in parliament on Monday.

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Boris Johnson attended leaving do during strict January lockdown

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Exclusive: sources say PM dropped in at prosecco-fuelled farewell in 2021 now being investigated by police

Boris Johnson attended a prosecco-fuelled leaving do for a No 10 aide during the strict post-Christmas lockdown, which is now under police investigation, the Guardian has learned.

Sue Gray’s investigation into lockdown parties this week revealed several events that had not previously been publicised, including a gathering on 14 January 2021 “on the departure of two No 10 private secretaries”. But the redacted report revealed no further details.

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Russian invasion of Ukraine would be a disaster, says Boris Johnson in Kyiv

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PM joins Volodymyr Zelenskiy to spell out consequences of Russian aggression and declare UK will be judged by the level of its support

A Russian invasion of Ukraine would end in a humanitarian, political and military disaster for Russia and the world, Boris Johnson has warned as he stood alongside the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in Kyiv, saying the UK would be judged by the level of help it gave to Ukraine.

On a flying visit to the Ukrainian capital, he denied the US and the UK were exaggerating the scale of the Russian threat, saying they were not trying to “big up” the intelligence. “The grim reality” was that Russian troops were “massing on Ukraine’s border. This is a clear and present danger,” he said, addingthat the troop concentration was “perhaps the biggest demonstration of hostility to Ukraine in our lifetimes”, saying it dwarfed the Russian forces mounted before the invasion in 2014.

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‘People want answers’: Boris Johnson’s apology lands flat with Bolton’s swing voters

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Questions of fairness and trust linger for constituents in Tonge Fold, in the most marginal of Tory-won red wall seats

When Boris Johnson addressed MPs an hour after the release of Sue Gray’s redacted report, he will have hoped his apology would travel far beyond the Commons chamber and reached places like Tonge Fold, on the outskirts of Bolton.

But the immediate reaction suggests the prime minister might be in trouble. “It’s just extremely disappointing and very frustrating. There’s no other words for it,” said Adele Warren, a Conservative councillor, after watching Johnson’s Commons statement with some of her party colleagues.

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Gray finds ‘failure of leadership’ at No 10 as police investigate 300 photos

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Angry Tories confront Boris Johnson as report finds many of 16 lockdown events ‘difficult to justify’

Boris Johnson has been left desperately trying to shore up his premiership after the Sue Gray report as detectives were revealed to be investigating 300 photos and 12 events in Downing Street, including a party in the prime minister’s private flat.

Johnson faced a wall of anger from Conservative MPs in the House of Commons after Gray’s investigation concluded that many of the 16 parties were “difficult to justify” and condemned “failures of leadership and judgment” in No 10 and the Cabinet Office.

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Sue Gray report into Downing Street parties finds ‘serious failure to observe high standards’ at No 10 – live

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Latest updates: report into parties in Downing Street is published after being sent to No 10 earlier on Monday

In his pooled interview in Essex, Boris Johnson brushed aside suggestions that the version of the Sue Gray report being published this week, with the most incriminating material removed at the request of the Met police (who believe its publication would compromise their own investigation), would be a “whitewash”. When this was put to him, he replied:

You are going to have to wait and see both what Sue says and of course what the Met says.

What I will say to the president, as I’ve said before, is that I think we really all need to step back from the brink and I think Russia needs to step back from the brink.

I think that an invasion of Ukraine, any incursion into Ukraine beyond the territory that Russia has already taken in 2014 would be an absolute disaster for the world, but above all it would be a disaster for Russia.

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Read Sue Gray’s report into Downing Street parties

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Below is the report into parties and ‘work events’ at Downing Street which are alleged to have broken the UK’s lockdown rules. It was compiled by senior civil servant Sue Gray and published after the Met police asked for it to make ‘minimal reference’ to matters it is investigating

• Sue Gray report into Downing Street parties is published – follow live

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No 10 set for U-turn over mandatory Covid jabs for NHS staff in England

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Minister says lower severity of Omicron variant ‘opens the window for us to look at it’

Downing Street appears likely to drop its policy of dismissing frontline NHS and care staff in England who refuse Covid vaccinations, a minister has strongly indicated, after nursing and care organisations called for this to happen.

A decision would be made “in the course of the next few days”, according to Simon Clarke, the chief secretary to the Treasury. He said the lower severity of the Omicron variant of Covid did “open a space” for the policy to be reversed.

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Young people who lost jobs in pandemic in UK ‘returning to insecure work’

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Resolution Foundation thinktank report says third of ‘returners’ on temporary or zero-hours contracts

Young people who lost their jobs during the pandemic in the UK have returned to less secure work, often in gig economy roles, according to research from a leading thinktank, which also found almost 50,000 more men under the age of 24 are now economically inactive.

A report by the Resolution Foundation published on Monday found young people had returned to work rapidly in late 2021, with unemployment now slightly lower than pre-pandemic levels, but a third of the 18- to 34-year-olds back in the workplace were now in atypical, insecure work.

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Boris Johnson to try to regain control with Brexit bill and policy blitz

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PM hopes to move on from parties scandal with plans to make it easier to scrap EU laws and tackle cost of living crisis

Boris Johnson will attempt to seize back control of the government agenda this week with a policy blitz, a Brexit bill and flying visit to Ukraine, as Westminster remains in the grip of paralysis over the Sue Gray and police inquiries into No 10 parties.

Amid frustration in No 10 at the uncertainty surrounding the report on rule-breaking parties in Downing Street, sources said Johnson was determined to deflect public outrage with a schedule of high-profile announcements and photo opportunities that he also hopes will show MPs he remains focused.

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Covid live news: Russia reports record 121,228 new cases; UK to start vaccinating vulnerable children

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Russia confirms a record 121,228 new daily cases of the virus; NHS will offer vaccinations to vulnerable children between five and 11

Polling has begun in Portugal in a parliamentary election marred by fears of a low turnout due to record coronavirus infections, Reuters reports.

At the University of Lisbon, staff outnumbered mostly elderly voters, with signs on the walls asking people to wear a mask, observe social distancing and to use their own pen.

I have huge respect for rank-and-file police officers who put their lives on the line to keep us safe.

For them to do their job, the public have to have trust and confidence in them. But the way the Met has handled this, I think, is undermining that.

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Liz Truss says UK will introduce tougher sanctions on Russia this week

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Foreign secretary announces legislation in bid to dissuade Putin from launching Ukraine invasion

Legislation to allow Britain to hit banks, energy companies and “oligarchs close to the Kremlin” with economic sanctions will be introduced by the government this week, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has said.

The scheme is the latest attempt by the UK to dissuade the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, from launching an invasion of Ukraine, and was announced hours after Britain said it was willing to deploy more forces to Estonia and other Nato allies in eastern Europe.

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Conservatives accused of ‘levelling up’ stunt to save Boris Johnson’s job

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Lisa Nandy slams claim of boost for 20 towns, saying ‘new’ fund for poorer areas is recycled pledge

The government has been accused of trying to manipulate announcements on extra funding for poorer parts of the UK in a desperate attempt to save Boris Johnson’s premiership.

An extraordinary row blew up after Michael Gove’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities released a press statement – before publication of a levelling up white paper this week – saying 20 towns and cities would benefit from a “new £1.5bn brownfield fund”. The release, which named only Sheffield and Wolverhampton as recipients, said the 20 areas “will benefit from developments combining housing, leisure and business in sustainable, walkable beautiful new neighbourhoods”.

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Splits in left are set to boost far-right TV pundit in Portugal’s snap election

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As support grows for André Ventura, Socialist party has lost ground to centre-right PSD after row over budget with its allies

Between greeting regulars at the busy Lisbon bakery where she has worked for two decades – and reaching instinctively for their orders as soon as they cross the threshold – Susana Santos offers her thoughts on an imminent, and altogether less welcome, encounter.

Like many of her compatriots, she does not relish the idea of Sunday’s snap general election, which arrives amid a stubbornly lingering pandemic and during a time of economic upheaval and political uncertainty.

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‘The day I left was the saddest of my life’: EU nationals on the pain of leaving UK

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They miss the trees, the curry, the friends … but most of all, they miss feeling the UK was somewhere they could call home

Everyone misses something. For some, it’s quite specific: PG Tips, Branston pickle, proper curry. For many, it’s more intangible: the atmosphere of an English pub; that greenness, everywhere; tolerance; and British openness.

Then they pause. Actually, many formerly British-resident EU nationals say, what they miss is an idea. Or, to be precise, the idea of Britain they had before 24 June 2016: all of them remember, in painful, pin-sharp detail, how they felt, and what they did, the morning after.

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