Boris Johnson ‘grateful to Met’ for Partygate inquiry and says he hopes Sue Gray report will be published soon – UK politics live – The Guardian
Boris Johnson has been speaking for the first time since the Metropolitan police concluded their investigation into Downing Street parties
.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I am very grateful to the Met for their work. I am very grateful for the work they have done. I just think that we need to wait for Sue Gray to report and then … fingers crossed … that will be very soon.
Johnson, speaking on a visit to Powys, Wales, before an address to the Welsh Conservative conference, was asked if Downing Street would block Gray, the senior civil servant compiling a report on Partygate. He said it would be a matter that was entirely up to Gray.
With the Gray report expected next week, the prime minister is among about 30 people to have been given a gist of the criticism about him, with those contacted by the inquiry team given a few days to respond.
Gray is said to be keen to name senior civil servants, but no decisions have been taken on how many and who will be identified, or whether the report will contain any photos.
Ireland’s taoiseach has said it is unacceptable for one party in Northern Ireland to block others from taking power, as he visited Belfast to try to break the deadlock over the Brexit protocol and power-sharing at Stormont.
After meetings with party leaders, Micheál Martin said the Northern Ireland assembly and executive should be formed while negotiations continue between the UK government and the EU over the protocol.
“Our view is there should be parallel discussions,” he said as he urged the DUP to abandon their decision not to return to power-sharing until “decisive action” was taken over reforms to Northern Ireland’s Brexit arrangements.
The Bank of England will intensify its squeeze on the economy over the coming months as it seeks to bring down the highest inflation rate in 40 years, its chief economist has warned.
Noting that Threadneedle Street was facing its toughest challenge since being granted independence in 1997, Huw Pill said “further work needs to be done” to bring the annual inflation rate back to the government’s 2% target.
Inflation soared to 9% in April as the rising cost of gas and electricity pushed household energy bills to record levels and the escalating cost of food and transport also contributed to the surge in the cost of living.
Rishi Sunak has become the first frontline politician to be ranked among the UK’s wealthiest people, only days after the chancellor warned consumers that “the next few months will be tough” as the cost of living squeeze intensifies.
Sunak, a former hedge fund manager, and his Indian heiress wife, Akshata Murty, were named on the Sunday Times rich list as the 222nd wealthiest people in the UK, with a combined £730m fortune.
Becoming the first frontline politician to be named in the annual ranking since its inception in 1989 is likely to increase pressure on Sunak to do more to help households struggling with inflation, which hit 9% in April, its highest level in 40 years, and soaring energy bills.
The UK government’s independent adviser on tackling violence against women and girls has suggested her calls for street harassment to be made a crime are being blocked.
Nimco Ali, a close friend of Boris and Carrie Johnson, told the BBC’s Political Thinking with Nick Robinson that her proposal had experienced “pushback” and hinted the prime minister had not fully supported it.
The Isle of Man’s treasury minister — the Manx equivalent of Rishi Sunak — has resigned in a whistleblowing scandal.
David Ashford quit on Friday in the fall-out of an employment tribunal involving the island’s former chief medical director Dr Rosalind Ranson. The tribunal found she was unfairly dismissed while Ashford was minister for health, after raising concerns about the Isle of Man’s approach to Covid.
Ashford’s evidence to the employment tribunal was found to be “practised and diplomatic seemingly guided by the principle of deniability of anything potentially inconvenient unless/until objective evidence was available to the contrary”.
Alfred Cannan, the island’s chief minister, said he accepted Ashford’s resignation and thanked him for his contribution during the Covid-19 pandemic. The new treasury minister is Dr Alex Allinson, who moves over from the enterprise ministry.
Voters believe Labour would be better at handling the rising cost of living, according to a poll for Mail Online.
Only a quarter (24%) said the Conservatives would be better at handling the issue, compared with 39% who said the Labour party.
The survey by Savanta Comres also found that there is major support for a windfall tax on the profits of big oil and gas firms.
Three in four (75%) back the idea according to the survey, based on online interviews with 2,021 UK adults from 18-19 May.
Earlier today, Jacob Rees-Mogg argued it is wrong to raid the “honey pot of business” to fund measures to ease the cost-of-living crisis by imposing a windfall tax on oil and gas giants.
The Brexit opportunities minister argued that the one-off measure on the companies’ soaring profits potentially to reduce consumer bills would ultimately see the public pay more tax.
Boris Johnson has not ruled out the move, instead urging firms to invest their soaring profits, and Downing Street hinted that a decision would be coming “soon”.
Almost 6,000 landlords in England started court proceedings against tenants in the first three months of 2022 after serving them with a so-called “no-fault” eviction notice, figures show.
Some 5,890 landlords started accelerated procedure claims between January and March after issuing renters with a Section 21 notice, according to figures published by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
This is up 63% on the previous quarter and 41% compared with the same period in 2020, before the coronavirus pandemic.
Matt Downie, chief executive of Crisis, said it was “unacceptable” that the government is allowing more people to be forced from their homes.
He said: “While families across the country battle to keep roofs over their heads, government inaction over the spiralling costs of energy, rent and food is causing more and more people to be sucked into this crisis.
Ireland’s taoiseach, Micheál Martin, said that the Northern Ireland assembly and executive should be formed while negotiations continued between the UK government and the EU over the protocol.
He said:
.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}All parties said to us that they are willing to abide by the [assembly election] result.
The Democratic Unionist party were clear that they have no difficulty in taking up the deputy first minister position but they have issues with the protocol. Our view is there should be parallel discussions.
The assembly and the executive should operate parallel with the UK government and the European Union engaging in substantive negotiations to resolve issues which have arisen in respect of the operation of the protocol.
The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, said if the prime minister would not resign over the Partygate scandal, Conservative MPs should “grow a backbone and get rid of him”.
Launching his party’s byelection campaign in Tiverton and Honiton, he told the PA news agency:
.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Boris Johnson should resign because he broke the law and he lied to parliament, not on one occasion, but on many occasions. He’s not a decent prime minister for our great country and if he won’t go of his own accord, Conservative MPs need to grow a backbone and get rid of him.
If they don’t, frankly, I hope the voters punish the Conservative party for treating the voters like fools.
Some Tory stalwarts may be angry but the state of the economy could be what brings the prime minister down, writes the Guardian’s political editor, Heather Stewart.
One Boris-sceptic backbencher suggested that while Gray’s report might solidify things in a few MPs’ minds, by setting out in black and white the unedifying details of the parties, it was unlikely to hit home with Johnson or his team.
The MP said:
.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I don’t know what Sue Gray’s report is going to say next week. It won’t be pretty reading, and in any normal world I’m sure it will be devastating, but they’ll no doubt crack on regardless.
Some senior Tories regard the privileges committee investigation as the more dangerous of the two.
One former cabinet minister said:
.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The privileges committee is the lethal one. The fundamental question is misleading the house, and whether it was deliberate or not.
It seems to me very hard to argue that it wasn’t, because we now know he attended a number of parties. Either he’s very stupid or he’s very dishonest.
We reported earlier that Johnson said he was “grateful” to the Met for their investigation into the Downing Street lockdown gatherings. You can watch a clip from that interview here:
Downing Street’s demand that civil servants get back to the office has backfired for the Department for Education, where desk shortages have resulted in staff being sent home and others forced to work in “chaotic” conditions.
With officials working in cramped corridors or sharing desks, civil service unions have protested to Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary. Zahawi ordered an end to homeworking last month after pressure from the efficiency minister, Jacob Rees-Mogg.
The extent of the chaos was revealed by Schools Week which reported that Susan Acland-Hood, the DfE’s permanent secretary, had ordered staff to spend 80% of their time in the office – despite the department having twice as many staff as desks.
Civil servants said the first week of the new policy was “chaotic”, with staff milling around trying to find space to sit and canteen tables being taken up. One described the DfE’s Great Smith Street office as like “a tube station in rush hour” after the new policy was implemented.
The prime minister’s father, Stanley Johnson, has secured French citizenship, according to reports.
French officials reportedly told the AFP news agency that Johnson, 81, whose mother was French, obtained French nationality on Wednesday.
Johnson, father to Boris, Rachel, Leo, Jo, Julia and Maximilian, campaigned for the UK to remain in the EU in 2016, while his son Boris led the leave movement. However, Johnson Sr has since expressed support for Brexit.
He confirmed he was applying for a French passport on the eve of Britain’s Brexit transition period coming to an end on 31 December 2020.
He joins thousands of Britons who have acquired EU citizenship since the Brexit vote. He previously said:
.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}It’s not a question of becoming French. If I understood correctly, I am French. My mother was born in France, her mother was entirely French, and her grandfather too. So for me it’s a matter of claiming what I already have.
The government has blocked the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, and government ethics chief Darren Tierney from appearing before the public administration and constitutional affairs committee.
The pair were due to give evidence as part of the committee’s inquiry into the propriety of governance in the wake of Greensill.
The hearing was confirmed several weeks ago and it was due to discuss the Downing Street parties, the management of conflicts of interest and unregulated appointments in the civil service, and the proposed cuts to the civil service of 100,000 jobs.
However, the committee were then told that ministerial approval for the pair to appear had been pulled. The hearing has now been rescheduled for 28 June.
The committee’s chair, William Wragg MP, said:
.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The session with the cabinet secretary was an important one considering the number of propriety and ethics issues on the agenda.
We had also hoped to get clarity on the government’s plans for civil service reform, public scrutiny of which was much-needed after they were briefed to the press last weekend.
The intervention to pull the session at such short notice evades timely parliamentary scrutiny of these plans and puts government transparency in a poor light.
