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...Political parties cannot be trusted to deal with misbehaviour by their own MPs, claim general secretaries
Parliament must act to stop the “seemingly endless” allegations of sexual misconduct by MPs as political parties cannot be trusted to make it a safe place to work, two leading unions have warned.
As No 10 admitted Boris Johnson had known about allegations against Chris Pincher before making him deputy chief whip, the FDA and Prospect said politicians were time and again failing to “deal properly with sexual misconduct by one of their own”.
Continue reading...Parliamentary staffers and Tory MPs say allegations of sexual misconduct were not acted on by whips
Boris Johnson is facing a backlash over the promotion of his ally Chris Pincher, as a group of Conservative parliamentary staffers accused the prime minister of a “failure to act on warnings” of sexual misconduct by his MPs.
As new claims emerged about Pincher, who resigned as deputy chief whip over allegations that he groped two men in a London club, No 10 continued to insist that Johnson was unaware of any “specific” warnings until last week.
Continue reading...Labour MP wants inquiries into potential sexual misconduct to be possible before a specific victim comes forward
Sexual misconduct allegations about MPs should be investigated without always needing a victim to formally come forward, Jess Phillips, the Labour MP and victims advocate, has said.
Phillips, a shadow Home Office minister, said it was not right that Boris Johnson used the lack of a formal complaint against Chris Pincher as an “excuse” for the Conservative party not to have looked into widespread rumours about his conduct.
Continue reading...‘Disastrous’ attempt to intervene over Pincher may intensify backbench calls for prime minister to go
The former Tory whip who has been suspended as an MP for allegedly groping two male colleagues said on Saturday he was seeking “professional medical support” for his problems as the latest Tory sex scandal spelt yet more trouble for Boris Johnson.
Chris Pincher, who has been referred to the independent complaints and grievance scheme in relation to incidents at the Carlton Club in central London on Wednesday evening, said he was “truly sorry” and that he hoped be back serving his constituents again “as soon as possible.”
Continue reading...Trusts reveal only five wholly new hospitals planned, as Labour says the scheme ‘exists only in PM’s imagination’
The government’s official spending watchdog is to launch an inquiry into Boris Johnson’s claim that 40 new hospitals will be built by 2030, as concerns grow in Whitehall that the pledge is unaffordable and has been greatly oversold to the public.
In a move that could prove hugely embarrassing for the prime minister, the independent National Audit Office (NAO) has decided to conduct a “value for money review” into the entire scheme, which was a cornerstone of the Conservative party’s 2019 general election manifesto.
Continue reading...Tory party and PM face mounting pressure over scandal as former deputy chief whip says he respects decision to suspend him
Chris Pincher has said he is seeking professional help following claims that he drunkenly groped two men.
The former deputy chief whip, who resigned following the allegations, said he respected the prime minister’s decision to suspend the whip and would “cooperate fully” with an inquiry into his behaviour.
Continue reading...Insiders boggle at ‘tone deaf’ response from PM and his team over Chris Pincher’s position as scandals keep coming
Boris Johnson has spent much of his nearly three-year premiership determined not to bow to political pressure.
Despite being a former journalist who knows the damage that days of bad headlines can do – particularly from normally friendly newspapers – the prime minister has repeatedly dug in and refused to fire colleagues.
Continue reading...Latest updates: former deputy chief whip suspended from party. This live blog is closed.
This is an interesting thread from Keiran Pedley, pollster for Ipsos UK, on the Conservatives’ and Labour’s party image:
This from Insider’s Cat Neilan on one Tory MP’s hot take on the Pincher story:
Pincher resigned as deputy chief whip after reports he drunkenly groped two men at a private club
Pressure is mounting on the Conservative party to withdraw the whip from Chris Pincher after allegations he groped two men on a drunken night out.
Labour’s Yvette Cooper said that removing the whip from the former Conservative deputy whip needed to be the “first step that takes place” but did not call for him to resign as an MP.
Continue reading...PM says mark will be reached by end of decade as UK needs to adapt to more dangerous world
Boris Johnson has said the UK will spend 2.5% of GDP on defence by the end of this decade, after a cabinet row over defence spending and claims the government would ditch a key manifesto commitment on the issue.
Speaking at the end of the Nato conference in Madrid, the prime minister said: “We need to invest for the long term in vital capabilities like future combat air, while simultaneously adapting to a more dangerous and more competitive world.
Continue reading...Elections seen by many as proxy ballot on whether prime minister should face second no-confidence vote
One of the most important but understated elections in Westminster will take place within weeks, with the date still shrouded in secrecy but candidates already plotting their campaigns.
With positions on the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, which sets rules for the parliamentary party, up for grabs, this is how the contest works and how it could influence whether Boris Johnson will face another no-confidence vote.
Continue reading...Some who backed PM only last week now set sights on ‘clean sweep’ of backbench committee that could allow leadership vote
Boris Johnson is facing a fresh threat from Conservative rebels planning a takeover of the powerful backbench committee that could force the prime minister from office.
Opponents of Johnson, including some who were loyal to him as recently as last week, have set their sights on a “clean sweep” of the 1922 Committee amid a hardening of the mood against the prime minister.
Continue reading...Letter from Lord Evans to Angela Rayner says PM must act now to avoid undermining public confidence
The chair of the committee on standards in public life has urged Boris Johnson to appoint a new ethics adviser immediately or risk undermining public confidence in the rules.
Christopher Geidt resigned as the prime minister’s ethics adviser earlier this month, saying he had been put in an “impossible and odious” position by being asked to rubber stamp a plan to maintain steel tariffs.
Continue reading...This live blog has now closed, you can find our latest political coverage here
Boris Johnson restated his commitment to levelling up this morning. (See 12.03pm.) But a new report from the Resolution Foundation underlines quite what a challenge this will be. Using data showing how average incomes at local authority level have changed since 1997, it says inequalities have been persistent and that over the last 25 years overall change has been limited. It says:
We begin by showing that income differences at the local authority level are substantial. In 2019, before housing costs income per person in the richest local authority – Kensington and Chelsea (£52,451) – was 4.5 times that of the poorest – Nottingham (£11,708). These outliers clearly paint an extreme picture, but even when we compare incomes at the 75th and the 25th percentiles the differences remain significant. In 2019, for example, Oxford had an average per person income that was more than 20 per cent higher than Torbay (£18,700, compared with £15,372). More critically, the income gaps between places are enduring: the differences we observe in 1997 explain 80 per cent of the variation in average local authority income per person 22 years on. This means, for example, that the average income per person in Hammersmith and Fulham has stubbornly been two-to-three times higher than in Burnley for more than two decades.
Britain is beset by huge economic gaps between different parts of the country, and has been for many decades. While progress has been made in reducing employment gaps, this been offset by a surge in investment income among better-off families in London and the south-east.
People care about these gaps and want them closed, as does the government via its ‘levelling up’ strategy. The key to closing these gaps is to boost the productivity of our major cities outside London, which will also lead to stronger growth overall.
Driving a massive, massive agenda for change is a huge, huge privilege to do. And nobody abandons a privilege like that.
The mandate that the electorate gave us in 2019, there hasn’t been a mandate like it for the Conservative party for 40 years, it’s a mandate to change the country, to unite and to level up, and that’s what we’re going to do.
I’ve got a new mandate from my party which I’m absolutely delighted with … it’s done.
I think the job of government is to get on with governing, and to resist the blandishments of the media, no matter how brilliant, to talk about politics, to talk about ourselves.
I think most fair minded people, looking at how the UK came through Covid, around the world most people would say, actually fair play to them. They got the first vaccine into people’s arms, and they had the fastest vaccine rollout. Actually, they’ve got pretty low unemployment. They’ve got investment flooding into their country, they have got a lot of things going for them.
Continue reading...Prime minister says he meant he was focused on ‘massive agenda’ after No 10 initially suggested he was joking
Boris Johnson has sought to defuse a row triggered by his declaration that he wanted to remain in office until the 2030s, by saying he meant he was focused on his reform agenda.
Coming after two huge byelection defeats revived talk in the Conservative party of Johnson being forced out of office within weeks or months, the prime minister’s comment about already planning a third term prompted a former cabinet minister to say he was “completely delusional”.
Continue reading...Defeat for the Tories in two key byelections shows that tactical voting could put safe seats in play if replicated at a general election
Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton are at opposite ends of the country geographically, socially and politically. But they have two features in common: both voted Leave heavily in 2016, and both turned against the Conservatives last week. Defeats on the same day in a northern “red wall” seat and a southern rural stronghold suggest that, six years on from the EU referendum, the Conservative majority Boris Johnson stitched together with a promise to “get Brexit done” is beginning to unravel.
For both opposition parties, the byelections have a distinctly 1990s flavour, with the return of a pattern from the Major years that has been largely absent in the past decade of Conservative government – voters in both seats seemed determined to eject Tory incumbents and flocked to the local opposition candidate seen as best placed to do so. Tactical coordination among Labour and Liberal Democrats voters is back, and if replicated at a general election, it could put a lot of seemingly safe Conservative seats in play.
Continue reading...