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Charlotte Edwardes alleges the then Spectator editor touched her leg ‘high up’ at 1999 lunch
Boris Johnson’s first day at Conservative party conference as prime minister was overshadowed by allegations of sexual misbehaviour, as Downing Street was forced to deny allegations that he had groped a female journalist.
After days of revelations about his relationship with American tech entrepreneur Jennifer Arcuri, whose company received a public grant, Johnson was accused of grabbing the thighs of two women at a lunch while he was editor of the Spectator magazine.
I tell you what I really think is going on. I really think that people can feel this country is approaching an important moment of choice, and we have to get on and we have to deliver Brexit, and I think that there is a large constituency, in parliament and elsewhere, who do want to frustrate that objective. And, rightly or wrongly, they see me as the person most likely to deliver that objective. And I’m going to get on and do it.
I think you’ve got to be realistic if you’re in my position. You’ve got to expect a lot of shot and shell.
Here is a summary of what Boris Johnson said about his use of language in the interview.
The sort of language I’m afraid we’ve seen more and more of coming out from Number 10 does incite violence ... The casual approach to safety of MPs and their staff is immoral.
I think you will find that the speeches of most politicians for centuries have been studded with the use of military metaphor.
Former staff waiting for pay plan to take protests to Tory conference, and Greek hoteliers face a €500m hit
Staff from Thomas Cook are to hold protests at this week’s Tory party conference in Manchester and later at Downing Street over the government’s decision not to step in and save the company from liquidation.
Staff were due to get their monthly salaries on 30 September but are instead among Thomas Cook’s creditors, and it is now unclear when they will be paid. Some 150,000 UK holidaymakers are being repatriated at taxpayers’ expense following the demise of the world’s oldest tour operator. On 28 September, a further 16,700 customers were set to be flown home.
Boris Johnson’s aggressive Brexit rhetoric could incite violence against opponents, the former minister Amber Rudd has warned.
Rudd, who quit the government and resigned the Conservative whip earlier this month in protest at the prime minister’s policies, also told the Evening Standard that she might stand in London as an “independent Conservative” at the next general election.
Boris Johnson has refused to apologise in the face of criticism that he is inciting hatred against MPs, as he briefed his cabinet on preparations for a populist election campaign that will accuse his opponents of “surrender” to the EU.
In the face of widespread condemnation for his inflammatory rhetoric, the prime minister vowed to carry on referring to the Benn law against no-deal Brexit as the “surrender bill”.
Here is more from what Boris Johnson told Conservative backbenchers at his private meeting with the 1922 Committee.
From my colleague Rowena Mason
Boris Johnson told MPs at 1922 that he would carry on using the phrase surrender bill but did say MPs must all be careful about using language of violence
Boris Johnson left the 1922 to shouts of “Will you apologise?” from journalists - he scuttled off with no comment
In 1922 meeting there was a sombre moment when @PennyMordaunt told MPs she was with @BorisJohnson in 2016 when news came through that Jo Cox had died. She said 'Boris's reaction was so human'. "It was a moving moment in there," one Tory MP says.
Striking how few Tory MPs leaving 22 Committee with Boris after around 30 mins stopped to chat to reporters compared with the dying days of Theresa May’s premiership. Not many smiling faces either tbh.
Boris Johnson was described as ‘ebullient’ and ‘full of bonhomie’ by two walking out, others looked pretty sullen.
Jeremy Corbyn is speaking on this topic for Labour.
He says it is “extremely disappointing” that Boris Johnson is not here himself to answer the UQ.
Sir Alastair Graham, former standards watchdog chief, says there is prima facie case of PM having broken code of conduct
Boris Johnson is under growing pressure to explain why he allegedly failed to declare an interest in the allocation of public money to a close friend while he was mayor of London.
The Sunday Times reported that a company run by Jennifer Arcuri, an American technology entrepreneur and friend of Johnson, was given tens of thousands of pounds in public funds and access to overseas trade missions led by Johnson during the prime minister’s time as mayor.
Scottish lawyer at prorogation hearing says Johnson government has proved itself unworthy of trust
Boris Johnson’s government is unworthy of trust because it conspired to ensure that “the mother of parliaments” was closed down by “the father of lies”, the supreme court was told in an impassioned speech by a Scottish advocate.
In combative closing comments, Aidan O’Neill QC called on the 11 justices hearing the prorogation case to reject legal arguments advanced by the government that the courts do not have the power to intervene in the decision to prorogue parliament for five weeks.
Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Boris Johnson’s meeting with the European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker
Jean-Claude Juncker, the European commission president, was asked if he was confident of progress as he went in for his lunch with Boris Johnson. According to the Press Association, he replied: “We will see.”
According to the Telegraph’s James Crisp, Juncker also offered to pay for lunch.
Juncker and Johnson are having their powwow in Le Bouquet Garni. 18th C restaurant opposite ducal palace. Boris, who was greeted by a protest said nothing on way in.
In an extract from his memoir, serialised in the Times, former PM makes claim about Boris Johnson’s senior aide
Dominic Cummings has developed a somewhat unsavoury reputation since taking over as Boris Johnson’s senior aide. But his nefarious influence over the machinations of No 10 stretches back much further, David Cameron claims in his forthcoming memoir.
Extracts printed in Saturday’s Times reveal that, in 2013, Cameron suspected a “bilious” Cummings of “dripping his poison” into the ear of Michael Gove, even though he was no longer serving as a special adviser to the then education secretary.
Leaked resolution says it will use veto against any Brexit deal without an insurance policy
The European parliament is to criticise the British government’s treatment of EU citizens living in the UK and insist it will refuse to ratify a deal that fails to include an Irish backstop or provisions that tie the UK into EU standards after Brexit.
A leaked copy of a resolution of the parliament due to be voted on next week lays out a series of concerns about the conduct of Boris Johnson’s government. The parliament has a veto on any deal agreed.
Privacy campaigners question urgency of move and motives of PM and Dominic Cummings
Data privacy campaign groups and Labour have expressed alarm after it emerged Downing Street has ordered departments to centralise the collection and analysis of user information from the government’s main public information website ahead of Brexit.
While officials insist the move to share user data from the Gov.uk website is simply intended to improve the service and that no personal details are collected, campaigners raised concern about the urgency of the task, and the personal involvement of Boris Johnson and his chief adviser, Dominic Cummings.
Decision to give CBEs to her two controversial former advisers and party donors is condemned
Theresa May has been accused of “rotten” cronyism after handing out peerages, knighthoods and other honours to her closest aides, including her controversial former advisers Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, who left office amid accusations of bullying behaviour.
May’s resignation honours list heaps rewards on those who worked in Downing Street during her three-year tenure, despite her having previously poured scorn on cronyism under David Cameron.
The Speaker has enraged former Conservative colleagues by drifting to the left during his political career
With his announcement that he will stand down as Speaker by 31 October, John Bercow is ending a House of Commons career that has seen him move from the right of the Conservative party to become a darling of Labour MPs.
Standing at 170cm (5ft 6in), Bercow has become a favourite of satirists, developing a cult following abroad for his thunderous voice and the theatrical way he shouts “order”. He has variously been described as a “stupid, sanctimonious dwarf” (Conservative MP Simon Burns) to “one of the great Speakers” (Tom Watson, deputy leader of the Labour party).
PM battles to keep Brexit plan on track after Amber Rudd quit the government on Saturday
Boris Johnson will fly to Dublin to meet the Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, on Monday, as he battles to show his Brexit plan remains on track after Amber Rudd dramatically quit the cabinet.
Against a backdrop of mounting disquiet inside government at Johnson’s gung-ho approach and the combative style of his chief strategist Dominic Cummings, the British prime minister hopes to demonstrate that he is serious about negotiating a fresh Brexit deal.
The prime minister takes his game of Brexit bluff to Dublin tomorrow, seemingly unconcerned that his mendacity is now visible to all
The self-image of the public-school ethos from which Boris Johnson springs is best expressed in Thomas Hughes’s high-Victorian novel, Tom Brown’s School Days. But Johnson’s own model is surely not the honourable Tom but the contemptible cad Harry Flashman, as he is so hilariously reimagined in George MacDonald Fraser’s The Flashman Papers. The arch-bounder was sometimes suggested as an avatar for David Cameron but he is surely a better match for Johnson. He rises inexorably to become Sir Harry Flashman VC and brazenly informs us that “all my fame and glory has been earned by accident, false pretence, cowardice, doing the dirty, and blind luck”. Flashman makes his career in the military and explains: “Some human faults are military virtues, like stupidity, and arrogance, and narrow-mindedness.”
We may take assurance from the very fact that Johnson is prime minister that the same goes for politics. Some human faults – mendacity, cynicism, opportunism, bluster, recklessness – are political virtues. But only up to a point. Those qualities have taken Johnson to the pinnacle of power. Shamelessness is practically a requirement for high office. But as we have seen in a dramatic week, the vices that allow you to take power are not much use when you have to wield it – at least not yet and not in a country whose battered democracy retains some life.
Work and pensions secretary also leaves parliamentary Conservative party and sends excoriating letter to No 10
Boris Johnson’s government was in danger of imploding last night as the work and pensions secretary, Amber Rudd, dramatically quit the cabinet and resigned the Conservative whip, saying should could not “stand by” while “loyal moderate MPs” were purged from the party.
In a devastating resignation letter, she accused the prime minister of “an assault on decency and democracy” and “an act of political vandalism” for sacking 21 of her Tory colleagues for backing a parliamentary bill to stop a no-deal Brexit.
The leader of the house was long considered a Commons curiosity but his charm finally wore off this week
In a week filled with memorable political images – Boris Johnson’s sideways glance at a fainting police officer, Sir Nicholas Soames blinking back tears after he was expelled from the Conservative party, or former minister Dr Phillip Lee unexpectedly crossing the floor of the House of Commons to join the Lib Dems – it was the image of a near-horizontal Jacob Rees-Mogg lounging across the front bench that lit up the internet.
As a tense emergency debate which would affect the livelihoods of millions of people continued around him, the newly appointed leader of the house leaned back and stretched his legs across several seats, his left hand lolled across a besuited midriff. With MPs agonising over the gravity of the current political crisis, the member for Somerset North East nonchalantly closed his eyes and rested.
The Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, has warned that there is “no such thing as a clean break” – Brexit deal or no Brexit deal – with difficult and complex negotiations on the future relationship with the EU whatever the outcome of talks. In a speech in Dublin to the British and Irish Chambers of Commerce, he has said:
If there is no deal – and I believe we may have to live with no deal for a period – then, at a certain point, we will have to begin negotiations again. The first and only items on the agenda ... will be citizens’ rights, the financial settlement with the EU and a solution to the Irish border.
Whatever happens, Ireland will not be dragged out of the single European market.
Recently, Prime Minister Johnson and I spoke by phone. We spoke of our shared desire to see the Northern Ireland political institutions reinstated. We shared our perspectives on the withdrawal agreement and agreed that our teams would establish one-to-one contact.
We will meet again in Dublin on Monday. Unfortunately, given political developments in the UK, there is a significant and growing risk of no-deal.
Here’s some more detail on the criticism of Johnson from the West Yorkshire police and crime commissioner, Labour’s Mark Burns-Williamson:
To use police officers as the backdrop to what became a political speech was inappropriate and they shouldn’t have been put in that position.
It clearly turned into a rant about Brexit, the opposition and a potential general election. There’s no way that police officers should’ve formed the backdrop to a speech of that nature.
Yes, because he’s used the pretence of an announcement around police recruitment for mainly a political speech.