Category Archives: House of Commons

New Commons partygate inquiry poised to derail Tory conference

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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.

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Boris Johnson changes ministerial code to avoid need to resign over breaches

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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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Partygate live: Boris Johnson says no plan to resign over Sue Gray report despite Tory MP calling for him to step down

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Prime minister feels it is his ‘job to get on with my job’ despite report detailing major leadership failures at No 10

This is from Nikki da Costa, a former director of legislative affairs at No 10, speaking up on civil servants whose reputations, she fears, will be tainted by the Sue Gray report.

Tom Harwood from GB News is now also saying the report has arrived in Downing Street. It is 37 pages long, he says.

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Tory MPs’ staff tell Boris Johnson abuse is treated as ‘mere gossip’ in parliament

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Exclusive: Letter urges PM and party to do more to tackle sexual abuse, harassment and bullying

Serious sexual abuse, harassment and bullying accusations made against MPs are treated as “mere gossip”, dozens of Conservative staffers have said, as they urged Boris Johnson and party HQ to do more to tackle the problem.

The group of staff working for Tory MPs said “behaviour committed by a few individuals but tolerated by others has stained the reputation” of parliament.

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No 10 admits PM meeting with Sue Gray was instigated by Downing Street – UK politics live

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Latest updates: PM’s spokesperson clears up that No 10 requested meeting after Simon Clarke suggests it was the other way round

The Downing Street lobby briefing has just finished, and the PM’s spokesperson told journalists that Boris Johnson has still not received the Sue Gray report into Partygate. The spokesperson did not say when it would be arriving, but it is not expected to be published today.

Boris Johnson has recorded a clip for broadcasters during a visit to a school in south-east London. PA Media has written up the key lines.

I’m not attracted, intrinsically, to new taxes. But as I have said throughout, we have got to do what we can - and we will - to look after people through the aftershocks of Covid, through the current pressures on energy prices that we are seeing post-Covid and with what’s going on in Russia and we are going to put our arms round people, just as we did during the pandemic.

Of course, but on the process you are just going to have to hold your horses a little bit longer. I don’t believe it will be too much longer and then I will be able to say a bit more.

It’s basically very rare disease, and so far the consequences don’t seem to be very serious but it’s important that we keep an eye on it and that’s exactly what the the new UK Health Security Agency is doing.

As things stand the judgment is that it’s rare. I think we’re looking very carefully at the circumstances of transmission.

It hasn’t yet proved, fatal in any case that we know of, certainly not in this country.

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Boris Johnson ‘choosing to let people struggle’ with cost of living says Keir Starmer – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can find our latest cost of living stories below:

Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the international trade secretary, has warned that inflation will experience a further “bump” before prices are likely to stabilise.

In a Q&A after delivering a speech on green trade at Bloomberg’s HQ in London, she said countries around the world were facing a “a global battle against inflation”. She went on:

This is something we have to tackle across the board.

And the worry we always have is that inflation tends to have two bumps to it.

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Boris Johnson refuses to rule out U-turn to impose windfall tax on energy firms – UK politics live

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Latest updates: sources suggest idea of windfall tax on energy firms ‘back on the table’ as cost of living crisis continues to bite

Ministers do not expect to reach an agreement with the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol, Sky’s Beth Rigby reports. She is quoting “senior government figures” close to the talks between Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, and Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission vice-president in charge of Brexit. Truss and Šefčovič have been talking this morning.

Victoria Atkins, the prisons minister, was the government’s representative on the airwaves this morning. She told Sky News that she thought her Tory MP colleague Lee Anderson was wrong when he told the Commons yesterday that there was no great need for food banks in Britain and that the real problem was people not being able to cook properly. She said:

This is not the view of me or anyone else in government. We want to give not just immediate help but longer-term support as well.

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Disgraced Tory MP Neil Parish ‘broke law’ by watching porn in Commons

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Parish resigns over ‘moment of madness’, and claims ‘it was tractors I was looking at on the internet’

Disgraced Tory MP Neil Parish, who resigned his seat on Saturday after admitting he had twice watched pornography in the House of Commons chamber, appeared to have committed a criminal offence which carried a maximum two-year prison sentence, Labour said.

Parish, who had represented the safe west country seat of Tiverton and Honiton since 2010, said that on the first occasion he watched porn on his mobile phone next to other MPs, including women, he had done so by accident.

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Speaker calls for overhaul of UK parliament after series of scandals

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Sir Lindsay Hoyle says MPs should no longer employ staff directly, following revelations involving bullying and harassment

A radical overhaul of the working practices in Westminster is being demanded by the House of Commons Speaker, in the wake of a series of scandals over sexual harassment and bullying that have rocked parliament.

After a week in which MPs and staff have spoken out over their treatment in the Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle said that a review of how parliament functions was now “urgently needed” following the damaging revelations.

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Tory Neil Parish to resign as MP after porn ‘moment of madness’

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Parish says an initial incident was accidental while looking at tractors, but a second time was deliberate

The Conservative politician accused of watching porn on his phone in the House of Commons has announced he will step down as an MP after facing calls to resign.

Neil Parish, the MP for Tiverton and Honiton in Devon, had already had the Tory whip removed and suggested he had opened the porn “in error”. He previously said he would only resign if found guilty by an inquiry into his actions.

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Neil Parish says watching porn in Commons was ‘moment of madness’ as he resigns as MP – as it happened

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The MP for Tiverton and Honiton says he initially found the pornographic website while looking at tractors

The shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has said ministers should not micromanage the books pupils read in classrooms.

Speaking to the NAHT school leaders’ annual conference in Telford, she said there was an “irony” that the government is seeking to take politics out of the classroom but simultaneously telling teachers what books to teach.

I think we need a school curriculum that inspires and supports every young person... I think children should expect to see their lives, their communities, their experiences reflected in that,

I think it is not for secretaries of state to dictate which books should or shouldn’t be taught within a school. I think you all have expertise and professionalism that allows you to deliver that.

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Senior Tories pressure Johnson to act now on MP accused of watching porn

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MPs question why direct action has not been taken, but PM says independent process is needed

Boris Johnson is under increasing pressure to take immediate disciplinary action against the Conservative MP accused of watching pornography in the House of Commons.

The chief whip issued a statement on Wednesday suggesting the matter should be referred to parliament’s Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS), which deals with sexual harassment and other disciplinary matters. But senior Tories questioned why he had not taken action directly against the MP, whose alleged behaviour was witnessed by two female colleagues in recent months.

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Tories should take action now against MP accused of watching pornography in chamber, says Keir Starmer – UK politics live

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Latest updates: Labour leader says Tories ‘know who this is’ and should address it immediately

The Conservative MP Jamie Wallis has been charged with failing to stop after being involved in a car crash last year, PA Media reports. PA says:

Wallis has also been charged with failing to report a road traffic collision, driving without due care and attention and leaving a vehicle in a dangerous position.

The MP for Bridgend and first openly transgender MP was arrested on suspicion of ‘driving whilst unfit’ following the late-night collision when a car hit a lamppost in Llanblethian on 28 November. At the time, Wallis said he was ‘assisting police with their inquiries’.

So I think as a society we’ve got to take this moment to reflect on what are we doing to lower standards of behaviour, whether that’s on the tube, in front of children, in parliament or in public.

The problem doesn’t start in parliament. It actually ends up there, and it starts in wider society, and that’s where we need to start discussing and agreeing some basic moral standards.

I think this is something that does happen in many, if not all workplaces, where a small minority of men – and it is men – who are behaving in an unacceptable way.

I think that’s actually a more worrying symptom of our society and our culture. How have we got to a place in our society where watching pornography on the tube, in public, in front of children, in parliament, in the workplace has become somehow normalised for some people?

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What is role of parliamentary watchdog ICGS set up in response to #MeToo?

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Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme was set up three years ago to process official HR complaints

Before this week, 56 MPs – including two shadow cabinet ministers – had reportedly been referred to the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS), a parliamentary watchdog established more than three years ago.

The profile of the ICGS has been heightened after news that a Conservative MP, who allegedly watched pornography on his phone in the House of Commons, has been reported to it.

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Imran Ahmad Khan completes MP resignation process with full April pay

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Wakefield MP found guilty of sexual assault on 11 April says delay caused by Easter and HR issues

Imran Ahmad Khan has said he has now resigned as Wakefield’s MP and will no longer be a parliamentarian from this Saturday, two and a half weeks after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.

Ahmad Khan told the Guardian he had submitted his resignation on Monday and that it was effective from 30 April. That means he will be paid his salary in full for April.

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Labour MP Liam Byrne to be suspended from Commons for bullying aide

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Independent expert panel has recommended Byrne be suspended from chamber for two days

The Labour MP Liam Byrne will be suspended from the Commons for bullying a staff member, after being accused of ostracising the aide and denying them access to his parliamentary account.

An independent panel recommended Byrne be suspended for two days for a breach of bullying and harassment rules after a complaint from David Barker, a former member of his constituency staff, to the independent grievance scheme.

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Welsh female MP accuses Labour frontbencher of sexist remark

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Member of shadow cabinet allegedly told MP she was successful because men wanted to sleep with her

A female Welsh MP has accused a member of the shadow cabinet of lewd sexism by stating she would be successful because men wanted to sleep with her, as the attorney general accused some male MPs of acting “like animals”.

After the latest allegation of misogyny to hit Westminster, Labour promised to launch an investigation if a complaint was made.

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Boris Johnson ‘uncomfortable’ that Mail on Sunday editor was summoned by Speaker over Rayner article – as it happened

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No 10 says PM feels reporters must be free to report what they are told, after widely-condemned Angela Rayner article.

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In an interview with Sky News this morning Dominic Raab, the justice secretary and deputy PM, claimed that Labour’s proposed windfall tax on energy companies (its key proposal to address the cost of living crisis) would be “disastrous”. He said:

If you look at Labour’s policy, you asked about it - of a windfall tax - that would damage investment in energy supplies we need and hike bills. It’s disastrous. It’s not serious.

What this shows is they’re coming up with frankly ill-thought through policies, but we have got a plan, a concerted plan, and I think that’s what voters want to see.

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Election schedules could favour compromise on government’s most controversial bills

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Lords signalled they are prepared to send bills back to Commons even at 11th hour before local elections

MPs and peers are set for some late nights over the next few days as government and opposition race to complete six bills in time for parliament to be prorogued by the end of this week.

Though the House of Commons leader, Mark Spencer, said business would conclude by Thursday – which would give MPs next week to get some shoe leather on the pavements ahead of the local elections – the Lords may have other ideas.

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Steve Baker says Boris Johnson ‘should be long gone’ as MPs are set to vote for inquiry into claims PM misled parliament – live

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Latest updates: Senior Tory says PM should go after No 10 U-turn means MPs are set to vote for inquiry into the PM

In the Commons Mark Spencer, the leader of the Commons, has just announced that Tory MPs will get a free vote in the debate today.

That means the government may not have enough votes to pass it amendments. It could therefore decide not to press it to a vote.

Can I say to the leader of the house ... I greatly struggled with lockdowns, and the legacy of Covid. It has pumped so much poison into the veins of this country and the veins of this place?

Can we please try and find a way today not to have a fractious debate and a division? I believe genuinely that the prime minister is a good and decent man and he can make the case to the privileges committee directly without having this house to divide and yet more poison be pumped into public life. Please the chief work find a way of making that happen?

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