Boris Johnson ‘carefully considering’ whether to appoint new ethics adviser after Lord Geidt’s resignation
Ellis has finished. He has not told us anything new about why Geidt resigned.
Ellis says the powers of the independent adviser on ministers’ interests have changed.
Continue reading...Unions accuse transport secretary of threats and intimidation of workers, and government of trying to make political capital out of the strike
The transport secretary has told rail staff not to “risk striking yourself out of a job”, before industrial action that will close much of the railway next week.
In a speech in which Grant Shapps said he was “appealing directly to workers” instead of unions, he claimed the strikes were “a bid to derail reforms that are critical to the network’s future, and designed to inflict damage at the worst possible time”.
Continue reading...Feared backlash fails to emerge despite leading Conservative warning of international law breach
Ministers believe they have largely muted Conservative opposition to the Northern Ireland protocol bill, even though one leading Conservative critic has said no MP should be voting for a breach of international law.
Leading opponents of Boris Johnson held off from publicly rejecting the legislation after it was published, despite the government’s fears beforehand that it would provoke a backlash.
Continue reading...Court of appeal judges have rejected a last-ditch legal bid to block a flight due to relocate asylum seekers to Rwanda on Tuesday
Q: Your Northern Ireland protocol plan is holed below the water line because it has so much opposition in your party, isn’t it?
Johnson says the government needs to resolve the problems with the protocol.
Continue reading...Labour ahead of Tories by two points, but Labour’s leader failing to make a personal breakthrough
Boris Johnson makes a better prime minister than Keir Starmer would despite Partygate, the cost of living crisis and the confidence vote in Johnson held by his MPs, according to the latest Observer poll.
The Opinium figures, which will raise further concerns within Labour over the party leader’s performance, shows that the prime minister has a two-point lead over his opponent. It also reveals that Starmer’s party holds a narrow two-point lead, compared with a three-point lead in the last poll a fortnight ago. Labour are on 36% of the vote, with the Tories up one point on 34%. The Lib Dems are on 13% with the Greens on 6%.
Continue reading...Anger grows before West Country byelection as farmers say they will be left poorer and unable to compete with foreign producers
Boris Johnson’s hopes of surviving as prime minister have been dealt a serious blow after farmers and environmentalists condemned his government’s post-Brexit food strategy as a disaster for people in the countryside – with less than two weeks to go before a key rural byelection.
In an interview with the Observer, the president of the National Farmers Union, Minette Batters, said ambitious proposals to help farmers increase food production, first put forward last year by the government’s food tsar, Henry Dimbleby, had been “stripped to the bone” in a new policy document, and meant farmers would not be able to produce affordable food.
Continue reading...PM could join lecture circuit and rejoin paper where he complained of ‘chicken feed’ £250,000 salary
Boris Johnson could make more than £5m a year after he leaves Downing Street, experts have estimated.
The figure will be welcome news to a prime minister who is said to regularly complain to friends that he is hard up, citing his second divorce, several children and his reduced income since entering No 10.
Continue reading...Heather Wheeler, a minister in the Cabinet Office, made comments at technology event in London
A UK government minister has apologised after calling England’s second city and one of the country’s best-known seaside resorts as “godawful”.
Heather Wheeler referred to Birmingham and Blackpool during a launch of the government’s new digital strategy on Thursday. According to Chris Middleton, a technology journalist who was at the launch, the junior minister in the Cabinet Office said: “I was just at a conference in Blackpool or Birmingham or somewhere godawful.”
Continue reading...Draft legislation to be issued Monday, as Keir Starmer promises a Labour government would repeal law if it passes
Legislation to disapply parts of the Northern Ireland protocol will be published next week, but senior government sources acknowledge it is going to be a “difficult” process to get it through parliament.
The new laws are aimed at unilaterally changing parts of the protocol to make trade easier between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, but critics say overriding the post-Brexit treaty could contravene international law.
Continue reading...This live blog has now closed, you can read more on Boris Johnson’s comments about a potential ‘wage-price spiral’ here
The Queen has received a present from the cabinet to mark her Platinum Jubilee, No 10 says. It is a specially-commissioned musical box, with pictures of all the 14 prime ministers who have served here around the side. When it opens it plays Handel’s Hallelujah.
In every office there is always someone who organises the presents and this picture, on the No 10 Flickr account, suggests that in cabinet that job falls to Michael Ellis, the paymaster general.
Continue reading...High-profile MPs back demand from Adam Smith Institute to reduce tax burden and ease cost of living crisis
Senior Conservatives from across the party have renewed calls for Boris Johnson to implement urgent tax cuts as Downing Street played down the prospects of a shift in policy.
A string of high-profile MPs, from Steve Baker on the party’s right wing to Damian Green on its left, have backed a fresh demand from the Adam Smith Institute for the government to reduce the tax burden.
Continue reading...Latest updates: Boris Johnson says ministers should focus on ‘cutting costs of government’ after William Hague says his position is ‘untenable’
In a speech to the Royal College of Nursing annual congress in Glasgow, Gordon Brown, the former Labour prime minister, said it was “almost unbelievable” that nurses were having to use food banks. They deserved better pay, he said.
Two years ago the NHS was deservedly awarded the George Cross for its work during the pandemic, but the reward for individual nurses has been pay settlements well below inflation, leaving nurses much worse off.
Now, as part of the Platinum Jubilee, members of the armed forces and emergency services are rightly receiving Jubilee medals.
Douglas has been consistent in terms of the principle – he made it clear from the outset that he had huge doubts about the conduct of the prime minister ...
It was only when circumstances changed with the Russian invasion of Ukraine that he said there are some things right now we need to set aside.
Continue reading...Analysis: 211-148 suggests about two-thirds of backbenchers are against him, and even his fanbase may be crumbling
For Boris Johnson, Monday evening’s win was “decisive”, and his allies were out immediately, briefing that it would “draw a line” under the chaos of the past few months. But faced with the raw numbers – 211 votes to 148 – even his former employer the Daily Telegraph called it a “hollow victory”.
It was less convincing than the 63% to 37% victory of Theresa May over her detractors in 2018 – though that was hardly seen as a resounding win at the time.
Continue reading...President says result is ‘great news’, while adviser says ‘the world needs such leaders’
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has declared himself “very happy” at Boris Johnson’s confidence vote win, hours after one of his senior advisers tweeted a picture of the two men and thanked the UK prime minister for helping to protect “the free world from barbaric invasion”.
Zelenskiy described Johnson’s narrow victory on Monday evening as “great news”, in remarks via video link to an event hosted by the Financial Times on Tuesday. “I’m glad we haven’t lost a very important ally. This is great news,” he said.
Continue reading...Total donated to parties by financial firms and individuals tied to the sector over two years, report says
Concerns have been raised over the City’s influence on Westminster, after a report found financial firms and individuals tied to the sector donated £15m to political parties and gave £2m to MPs during the pandemic.
The campaign group Positive Money tallied the gifts, expenses and donations handed to MPs, peers and their parties, as well as the value of income from politicians’ second jobs, saying it contributed to finance’s “oversized influence” on policymaking.
Continue reading...Even the PM’s allies concede it’s ‘the beginning of the end’ after 40% of MPs decline to support leader
Tory rebels have vowed to keep trying to force Boris Johnson from office, as the prime minister’s allies admitted he was reaching “the beginning of the end” after a devastating result in Monday night’s confidence vote.
Johnson’s struggle to hold his divided party together will become more intense, with some of the 148 MPs, or 40%, who voted against him said to be “implacably opposed” to his premiership.
Continue reading...Analysis: With 148 votes against him, the task of governing is likely to become more, not less difficult in the months ahead
Boris Johnson’s allies had always said about the vote of no confidence that victory by just one vote was still a win, and he would remain in Downing Street and get on with delivering “the people’s priorities”.
They will no doubt be cracking opening the bubbly on Monday evening. But the truth is that with 148 votes against him, the task of governing is likely to become more, not less difficult in the weeks and months ahead.
Continue reading...PM retains support of most colleagues but badly weakened after result in which 148 MPs voted against him
Boris Johnson was clinging to his premiership on Monday night after 148 of his MPs voted to oust him from Downing Street in a ballot that exposed potentially fatal rifts within his party.
The prime minister won the support of 211 MPs but 41% of his party voted to get rid of him, with many citing his lack of repentance over the Partygate scandal and the public’s loss of trust in his leadership. It was the worst verdict on a sitting prime minister by their own party in recent times.
Continue reading...Vote means he will remain as Conservative leader and PM
This is from my colleague Aubrey Allegretti explaining how the no-confidence vote in Boris Johnson will be carried out.
Boris Johnson welcomes the chance to make his case to MPs, Downing Street claims. In a statement a No 10 spokesperson said:
Tonight is a chance to end months of speculation and allow the government to draw a line and move on, delivering on the people’s priorities. The PM welcomes the opportunity to make his case to MPs and will remind them that when they’re united and focused on the issues that matter to voters there is no more formidable political force.
Continue reading...Survey puts Labour 20 points ahead in the constituency amid reports Boris Johnson could face no confidence vote
The Conservatives are heading for a potentially catastrophic defeat in the Wakefield byelection amid reports Boris Johnson could face a vote on his future next week, according to a new poll.
A survey by JL Partners and reported in the Sunday Times gives Labour a 20-point lead over the Tories in the Yorkshire constituency.
Continue reading...