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...‘We’re standing up for UK institutions,’ says shadow minister, pointing to booing of Boris Johnson
Labour has staked a bold claim to be the true party of patriotism and the best of British values, as four days of nationwide celebrations to mark the Queen’s platinum jubilee draw to a close on Sunday.
Senior Labour party figures said Boris Johnson – who was booed outside St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday – was no longer seen by the public as a leader who upholds the British standards of integrity, decency and honesty that the country has long been admired for across the world.
Continue reading...Alan Wilson calls PM’s self-defence ‘nonsense’ and says country needs leader it can trust
The bishop of Buckingham has joined the growing calls for Boris Johnson to resign and believes that he “obviously” lied over lockdown parties in Downing Street.
The Right Rev Dr Alan Wilson described the prime minister’s defence that he did not realise what was going on as “nonsense”, adding that the country needed a leader it could trust.
Johnson has faced public calls from Conservative MPs to stand down following the final report by Sue Gray into breaches of Covid regulations and the alcohol culture in Downing Street and Whitehall.
Under party rules, he will face a confidence vote if 54 Tory MPs, 15% of the party, submit a letter to the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady calling for one.
Continue reading...Prime minister greeted with whistles and jeers by crowd waiting at cathedral for Queen’s thanksgiving service
Boris Johnson was greeted by a chorus of boos as he arrived at the Queen’s platinum jubilee thanksgiving service on Friday morning.
Stepping out of his car when it pulled up at St Paul’s Cathedral in London with his wife, Carrie, the prime minister was met with boos and whistles by frustrated spectators.
Continue reading...Latest updates: Labour’s deputy leader says her party would clean up politics and restore standards in public life
Prendergast also encouraged travellers to only take hand luggage on their holidays to beat long queues at the airport.
The national secretary of the GMB union told The Daily Telegraph: “If individuals can check in online and don’t take luggage, that limits the disruption. It’s not a magic bullet however it does scale back the prospect of there being issues.”
This unfortunately was a foreseeable problem, it was one we warned about at the point at which the mass redundancies were made.
We asked the government to look at the aviation industry as a special case and they refused. And now, quite frankly, for Grant Shapps to come out as he has in the last 24 hours is a little bit disingenuous considering these problems have been on the radar for a long time.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson allies seize on Tobias Ellwood’s comments to say Brexit would not be safe with rebel Tories
A Tory MP and arch critic of Boris Johnson has sparked a backlash from Brexiters after suggesting Britain rejoin the EU’s single market to help ease the cost of living crisis.
Tobias Ellwood’s comments were seized upon by allies of the prime minister as evidence that deposing Johnson would threaten the country’s more distant relationship with Brussels.
Continue reading...Jonathan Evans rows in behind Lord Geidt with critical statement on Boris Johnson’s changes to code
A powerful standards watchdog has accused Boris Johnson of failing to allay fears that he and his ministers consider themselves above the rules, as his support continued to ebb away in the wake of the Partygate scandal.
Jonathan Evans, the chair of the committee on standards in public life, criticised a planned overhaul to the way the ministerial code is policed, saying they undermined the role of Boris Johnson’s ethics adviser, Christopher Geidt.
Continue reading...PM writes to Lord Geidt after adviser says it is ‘legitimate question’ whether Partygate fixed-penalty notice constitutes breach
Boris Johnson has written to his own ethics chief, clearing himself of breaching the ministerial code over Partygate, after the adviser said there was a “legitimate question” about whether he had done so.
No 10 published a letter from the prime minister to Christopher Geidt, his independent adviser on ministers’ interests, in which Johnson said that “taking account of all the circumstances, I did not breach the code”.
Continue reading...Former business secretary does not call on PM to resign but says MPs must ‘decide on right course of action’
The former cabinet minister Andrea Leadsom has criticised Boris Johnson’s “failure of leadership” – the latest in a string of senior Tory figures to express doubts about the prime minister’s future.
The former business secretary, who has twice run for the party leadership, stopped short of calling for Johnson to resign but said individual MPs would decide on how best to restore confidence.
Continue reading...EDF Energy tells staff reactors will be shut down in summer despite concerns of blackouts later this year
The owner of one of the UK’s six nuclear power plants has said it will not extend its life beyond a planned shutdown in summer, despite officials raising concerns over the danger of blackouts in the months that follow.
The French-owned EDF Energy sent a memo to staff on Monday in which it said it would not postpone the closure of the two reactors at Hinkley Point B in Somerset, which are scheduled to be shut down on 8 July and 1 August.
Continue reading...Several Tory MPs believe the 54-letter threshold has been reached and that a challenge to PM could be mounted as soon as next week
Boris Johnson’s lurch to the right after Partygate is fuelling even more anger among rebel Tory MPs, with momentum now building for a leadership challenge next week.
Conservative whips spent the first day of recess anxiously phoning round the parliamentary party to shore up support for the prime minister, as three more MPs called on him to resign, including Jeremy Wright, the former attorney general.
Continue reading...Brandon Lewis ‘absolutely confident’ investigation was independent and she was not lobbied to alter details
A senior minister has disputed claims Sue Gray was pressured to water down her report into law-breaking parties across Westminster, saying he is “absolutely confident” the investigation had been entirely independent.
Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, dismissed suggestions that senior figures in Downing Street pushed for detail about the so-called “Abba party” in Boris Johnson’s flat during lockdown and staff members’ names to be stripped out.
Continue reading...Privileges committee looks set to report in October, when Boris Johnson will be aiming to win back members’ trust
A House of Commons inquiry over whether Boris Johnson misled MPs over Partygate is on course to coincide with a Tory party conference already seen as crucial in resetting his leadership.
The prime minister appeared to have survived any immediate threat to his leadership in the wake of last week’s Sue Gray report on Downing Street parties, which revealed damning details of rule-breaking, drunkenness and abuse of No 10 staff during Covid lockdowns.
Continue reading...Senior figure warns that man mentioned 24 times in Sue Gray report would be ‘representing the Queen’ as ambassador to Saudi Arabia
Senior Tories are warning Boris Johnson against appointing an official at the heart of the Partygate scandal to a top diplomatic job after it emerged that the man was being lined up to be Britain’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Martin Reynolds quit as Johnson’s principal private secretary in February following outrage about Partygate. He left after an email emerged in which he had invited hundreds of Whitehall staff to a “bring your own booze” party in the Downing Street garden in May 2020.
Continue reading...Partygate and U-turns on tax are ‘undermining message’, say Conservative MPs as more call for him to quit
Boris Johnson has plunged the Conservative party into an acute identity crisis as a result of Partygate and U-turns over tax policy, senior Tories warned last night, as more MPs called for him to resign as prime minister.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan-Smith told the Observer his party had been left with an “enormous identity problem” because it had raised taxes instead of cutting them under Johnson and the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, undermining a core Tory message that had helped win it successive general elections.
Continue reading...Move is an apparent attempt to win support from Brexit voters in seats Tories fear losing
Boris Johnson will reportedly announce the return of imperial measurements to mark the Queen’s platinum jubilee, in an apparent attempt to garner support among Brexiter voters in battleground seats that the Conservatives are in danger of losing.
Britain currently uses a mix of imperial and metric measurements, with speed limits in miles per hour and milk and beer bought in pints.
Continue reading...Vincente Gomes is a cousin and former colleague of Emanuel Gomes, who died after going into work with a fever
A government cleaner has described how he and his colleagues feel powerless to refuse difficult situations such as clearing up after parties, amid alleged maltreatment and low pay.
Sue Gray’s report on the Partygate scandal disclosed that government cleaners and security guards were subjected to a “lack of respect and poor treatment” while officials drank excessively, spilled wine on the walls and partied into the small hours.
Continue reading...Senior Conservatives fear that, whether the PM stays or goes, the opinion poll deficit is not now recoverable
It’s supposed to be make-up-your-mind time for Conservative MPs. But having waited six months for Sue Gray’s report into law-breaking parties across Westminster, many are still grappling with whether to clear Boris Johnson’s path to the next general election – or oust the man who won them an 80-seat majority.
What is already clear is that boastful proclamations from Johnson’s supporters this week claiming the prime minister’s position was safe have proved premature.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed. Boris Johnson changes ministerial code to axe need to resign for rule breaches
The Conservative MP Paul Holmes, who represents Eastleigh, has announced that he is resigning as a parliamentary private secretary in response to the revelations in the Sue Gray report.
Holmes, who was elected in 2019, was PPS to Priti Patel, the home secretary. A PPS – an unpaid ministerial “bag carrier” – is not a member of the government, but is considered part of the “payroll vote” and obliged to support the government in all divisions. Being a PPS is normally a stepping stone towards becoming a minister.
Revelations from the Sue Gray report that staff and cleaners were not treated properly is both disappointing and unacceptable. It is right that the prime minister apologised to staff. It clearly showed a culture in No 10 that was distasteful, and I am glad that there have been several reforms that Sue Gray has welcomed.
It is clear to me that a deep mistrust in both the government and the Conservative party has been created by these events, something that pains me personally as someone who always tries to represent Eastleigh and its people with integrity. Whether that is taking up your issues in parliament or helping people with their problems closer to home, since 2019 we have completed over 12,000 pieces of constituency casework. It is distressing to me that this work on your behalf has been tarnished by the toxic culture that seemed to have permeated No 10.
I’m not going to pretend that this is going to fix everything for everybody immediately. There are still going to be pressures. But it’s a very, very substantial commitment by the government to getting us through what will be, I’m afraid, still a bumpy time with the increase in energy prices around the world.
Continue reading...New rules say ministers can apologise or temporarily lose pay for breaking code, which PM is accused of doing
Boris Johnson is changing the rules to let ministers avoid resigning if they break the ministerial code, allowing them to apologise or temporarily lose their pay instead.
The prime minister, who is facing claims of breaching the code, published a policy statement on Friday saying it is “disproportionate to expect that any breach, however minor, should lead automatically to resignation or dismissal”.
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