Boris Johnson news – live: Cummings exit plunged into confusion, as aide he frogmarched out of No 10 wins payout

The Foreign Office has summoned the Chinese ambassador to raise concerns about the country’s actions in Hong Kong in recent weeks.

A statement from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “The Permanent Under-Secretary set out that China’s imposition of new rules to disqualify elected legislators in Hong Kong was a breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration. He called on China to uphold its international obligations.

“Beijing’s latest actions are an assault on Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and rights and freedoms guaranteed under the Joint Declaration.”

London mayor Sadiq Khan was asked earlier today if he believed the Metropolitan Police was still “institutionally racist” – more than 20 years after the Macpherson Report came to that conclusion.

Mr Khan responded by saying he “did not have confidence in the police” as a young man but insisted the force today was “light-years away” from those times and had made “huge progress”.

You can find his full comments below:

Our reporter, Joe Middleton, has more details below on the government’s much-ridiculed careers quiz which cost taxpayers almost £1.7m:

The UK government is facing criticism today for appointing a defender of the “hostile environment” immigration policy as a commissioner of its equalities watchdog.

David Goodhart, a journalist and author who currently heads the immigration and integration unit at the right-wing Policy Exchange think tank, was appointed to the board of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on Thursday.

Our social affairs correspondent, May Bulman, has the full story below:

Labour has suspended a group of members from one of its constituency parties after it passed a motion criticising the suspension of former leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Members in Bristol West Labour are facing disciplinary action after they branded Mr Corbyn’s suspension “a politically motivated attack against the left of the Labour Party by the leadership”.

David Evans, the party’s new general secretary, had written to local parties last week warning them not to “have discussions about, or pass motions in relation to any aspect of individual disciplinary cases”.

Our policy correspondent, Jon Stone, has the full story below:

Senior Tory MP Theresa Villiers has said Dominic Cummings’ departure from No 10 will be “a good opportunity for a fresh start”.

“Clearly there are concerns about the dismissive attitude sometimes shown by Lee Cain and Dominic Cummings towards people in government and MPs on the backbenches,” Ms Villiers, a former environment secretary, told the PA news agency.

“And this is an opportunity to move on from that and to have a more collaborative approach.”

The departure of Dominic Cummings from Downing Street will be an opportunity for Boris Johnson to reinvent himself, according to our chief political commentator John Rentoul.

John writes:

“The vaccine breakthrough offers the hope of finally – eight months after he first promised it – sending the virus packing. The departure of Dominic Cummings means he can sue for peace in the wars against journalists, civil servants, Conservative MPs, Remainers and “the establishment” that his brilliant adviser waged.”

You can find his full piece below:

Downing Street has vehemently denied that Dominic Cummings’ exit from the government will soften the UK’s negotiating stance in post-Brexit trade negotiations with Brussels.

“Absolutely not. That is simply false,” Boris Johnson’s spokesperson said.

“The government’s position in relation to the future trade agreement negotiations is unchanged.”

There is “no doubt” the transition period will end this year regardless of whether there is a trade deal, Downing Street has said.

“Time is in very short supply,” the prime minister’s official spokesman said. “The transition period will end on 31 December, there is no doubt about that whatsoever.

“We would like to get a deal but it has to be one which respects the sovereignty of the United Kingdom. If we’re not able to reach a free trade agreement, then we will leave on Australian-style terms.”

Downing Street has said post-Brexit trade negotiations with the EU will “pause” over the weekend before resuming in Brussels on Monday.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “The talks are continuing in London today. There will be a pause over the weekend and then we are expecting the talks to resume in Brussels on Monday.

“In terms of where we are, as I’ve said consistently this week, the negotiating teams are working very hard to try to bridge the significant gaps between us.

“For our part we continue to seek solutions that fully respect UK sovereignty but the familiar difficult issues remain including on the so-called level playing field and fisheries.”