Boris Johnson is facing a civil service probe into claims his government threatened to strip funds from his MPs’ constituencies if they did not toe the line.
Backbenchers were allegedly told by Conservative whips the people they represented would lose out if they did not back the government. The Liberal Democrats have demanded Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, investigate.
It comes after a difficult week for the PM, who was forced into a screeching U-turn on plans to rip up the Commons standards regime.
His government had whipped MPs to back the scheme and also to put the suspension of Owen Paterson on the back burner, but realised in less than 24 hours it would be unable to force through its plans amid widespread backlash.
Some 100 Tories rebelled on the vote amid what one called “genuine rage” at the treatment of parliament.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, who as leader of the House was the face of the attempted reform, is now facing calls to resign. His position is “untenable”, claimed Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire on Sunday.
EU would suspend Brexit deal if UK suspends NI protocol, says Coveney
Ireland’s foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney has said a UK move to suspend parts of the Northern Ireland protocol could see the EU doing likewise with the Brexit trade deal.
Mr Coveney warned the EU would respond in a “very serious way” if the UK triggers Article 16 of the protocol to suspend Irish Sea trading arrangements.
He insisted the EU was in “solutions mode” and could go a “little further” in terms of trying to streamline checks required on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
However, he warned there was a limit to the EU’s flexibility and criticised the UK government for adopting a tactic of asking for a lot while offering nothing in return.
“I believe that if the British government essentially refuses to implement the protocol, even with the extraordinary flexibilities that are now on offer, and instead looks to set it aside then I think the EU will respond in a very serious way to that,” he told RTE Radio One.
He said that did not mean the introduction of a hard border on the island of Ireland.
The minister added: “It means that the trade and co-operation agreement that was agreed between the British government and the EU was contingent on the implementation of the withdrawal agreement, which includes the protocol.
“One is contingent on the other. So if one is being set aside, there is a danger that the other will also be set aside by the EU.”
Eustice ‘storm in a teacup’ comments unhelpful, says Conservative MP
George Eustice’s decision to dismiss the row over parliamentary standards as a “storm in a teacup” was unhelpful, a Conservative MP has said.
The environment secretary took to the airwaves this morning to try to bat aside criticism of the government. He claimed the widespread anger about how the government tried to put Owen Paterson’s lobbying case on the back burner at the same time as trying to overhaul the standards regime was merely a scuffle inside the Westminster bubble.
However, Robert Largan told Times Radio today “it’s not very helpful” to be as dismissive as that.
He said: “When you get things wrong, you have to acknowledge them. And be honest about it.”
Exclusive: UK’s Brexit losses more than 178 times bigger than trade deal gains
All of Boris Johnson’s new post-Brexit trade deals put together will have an economic benefit of just £3 to £7 per person over the next 15 years, according to the government’s own figures.
The tiny economic boost – amounting to just 0.01 to 0.02 per cent of GDP, and less than 50p per person a year – is dwarfed by the economic hit from leaving the EU, which the government estimates at 4 per cent of GDP over the same period, writes Jon Stone.
Government must locate its ‘moral compass’, says senior Conservative MP
Senior Tory Tobias Ellwood said the government needed to find its “moral compass”.
The Commons defence ommittee chairman told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend that “there is genuine anger amongst the ranks at the moment”.
“We should not deny that this was a dark week for British democracy,” he said.
He warned the latest row followed previous controversies including the prorogation of parliament at the height of the Brexit rows and suggested Boris Johnson needed to think about how he would be remembered.
“There is a pattern of behaviour and we need to recognise that eventually that starts to stick,” Mr Ellwood warned.
“He needs to think about his legacy and what it’s going to be. I think we have lost our way and we need to find our moral compass and get back to what the British people want us to do – good policy, good governance, leadership, statecraft.
“That’s what is needed at the moment rather than manipulating the system for our own survival.”
Starmer responds after Brian Cox explains his move away from Labour
Succession star Brian Cox has explained why he stopped voting for Labour, having voiced their campaign broadcasts until as recently as 2007, saying Scotland “has always been sidelined”.
Asked why his politics has changed, the Dundee-born actor and independence supporter told the BBC’s Andrew Marr: “We really haven’t got enough time, it is a long story, and it comes really down to what I thought was a failure of social democracy. Also the Iraq war, that affected me, Blair’s hubris affected me. And I saw the party going in a certain direction and I was really very concerned.”
Cox insisted he was a “socialist” saying he agreed with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer on “many things”, and said he was “devastated” by Labour’s losses in the north of England in the 2019 general election.
“But I have to put my country first because I looked at what has happened to my country and I am disgusted,” he added. “And the penny only dropped later because I was young, I was ambitious, I wasn’t thinking about politics.”
Appearing on the same programme, Sir Keir Starmer responded: “It is certainly true we have to do a lot of work in Scotland.”
The Labour leader ruled out any deals with the SNP to help win power at Westminster, but added: “The most important thing is actually respect, and listening to Scotland has to be a central part of this.”
Keir Starmer appears to abandon pledge to abolish House of Lords
Keir Starmer has refused to recommit to another one of his 10 leadership election pledges – this time on his vow to abolish the House of Lords.
Asked on Sunday, in light of revelations that Tory donors are habitually being granted peerages, whether he stood by the promise made in 2019 the Labour leader would only say the institution “needs change”.
Our policy correspondent Jon Stone has the details here:
Boris Johnson’s poll rating sinks to record low as nearly half of UK thinks PM is ‘corrupt’
Boris Johnson’s approval ratings have hit a record low of -20 after a four-point slump, according to an Opinium poll which found nearly half of UK voters believe the prime minister and his party to be “corrupt” in the wake of the paid lobbying scandal.
In its first poll conducted after Owen Paterson’s resignation on Thursday, Opinium found the Tories’ lead over Labour had narrowed to just one percentage point, dropping by three points to a rating of 37 per cent.
While Sir Keir Starmer’s approval ratings improved by a mere point, sitting at -9, the pollsters reported finding a “substantial narrowing” in public opinion over the past week on the nation’s preferred choice for who should occupy No 10. You can read the full story here:
Cop26: Boris Johnson urges nations to make ‘bold compromises and ambitious commitments’ in final summit week
Boris Johnson has urged world leaders to make “bold compromises and ambitious commitments” as the Cop26 climate crisis summit enters its final week, writes Jon Stone.
In an intervention marking the half-way point of the meeting, the prime minister warned that his colleagues have “one week left to deliver for the world”.
A week ago around 120 leaders and theirs negotiators, officials and ministers gathered in Glasgow with the stated aim of limiting global warming to 1.5C.
Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald has warned the UK government that suspending parts of the Northern Ireland protocol could endanger the wider Brexit withdrawal agreement with the EU.
Ms McDonald was referencing the potential for the EU to take retaliatory action if the UK follows through with its threat to trigger the suspension mechanism – Article 16 – in the post-Brexit arrangements for Irish Sea trade.
On the prospect of the UK triggering Article 16, Ms McDonald told BBC NI’s Sunday Politics: “It would demonstrate just again colossal bad faith and demonstrate again that Ireland, the north of Ireland in particular, is collateral damage in the Tory Brexit as they play games and play a game of chicken with the European institutions.
“I would also say that if the British government imagine that they hold all of the cards they are wrong and they’re playing a very, very dangerous game, up to and including perhaps jeopardising the entire withdrawal agreement.”
Ms McDonald said the EU proposals for addressing issues with the protocol had gone further than many had anticipated.
“But, you know, everything has its elastic limit,” she added.
“The reality now is the ball is at the foot of Boris Johnson and his Government, and they need to act in good faith and they need to adopt a position that is serious and that has a long term view.
“If they don’t, well, then the consequences, I think, will be very grave indeed.”
Opinion: We need a bold new type of NHS – the National Housing Service
At some point, we are going to have to admit that the British dream has failed, writes Jordan Tyldesley.
If the American dream is about the equality of opportunity based on individual goals, its British equivalent is our addiction to home ownership and the way in which aspiration has become synonymous with bricks-and-mortar.
