UK politics: Rayner warns Labour out of power for ‘long time’ if rows continue as Tories extend lead

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s rolling UK politics coverage. We’ll be bringing you live updates from Westminster and beyond as the day progresses.

David Cameron was shown no mercy yesterday as he appeared before MPs in two virtual parliamentary committees, in what he admitted was a “painful day”.

For those of you who missed it, here are some of the main takeaways from what was a gruelling afternoon for the former prime minister, who was told his “reputation is in tatters”.

Brexit tensions and Northern Ireland’s troubles past and present are set to dominate discussions between Boris Johnson and Taoiseach Micheal Martin on Friday.

Our policy correspondent Jon Stone reports:

A senior Unite official has been suspended by Labour after tweeting that Priti Patel was “disgusting” and should be deported in response to the immigration stand-off in Glasgow.

Howard Beckett, the assistant general secretary who is standing for leadership of the union, posted the message after Border Force officials detained two men.

My colleague Alastair Jamieson reports:

Boris Johnson’s new independent ethics adviser has said he is ready to follow his predecessor in taking the “nuclear option” of resigning if the prime minister ignores his recommendations.

Our politics editor Andrew Woodcock reports:

Angela Rayner has said “magnolia politics” is putting voters off the Labour Party.

The party’s deputy leader told Politico’s Westminster Insider podcast people want “authenticity” in their politicians.

“For a long time, people have felt that politicians are just saying what they think they want to hear. Or they try to ‘triangulate,’ is the word that they use. I call it ‘magnolia politics’,” she said.

“Let’s not offend anyone, and have no opinion on anything … I think all parties were a bit (guilty) of that. And Boris just sort of cut through that.”

David Cameron was “open and transparent” while answering questions from MPs yesterday about his conduct while lobbying for Greensill Capital, a minister has claimed.

Facing questions in parliamentary committees, Mr Cameron refused to reveal his salary while at the firm and would not be drawn on how much he stood to gain in share value had the business proved successful.

He insisted his lobbying was done in the spirit of public service, and denied knowing about Greensill’s perilous financial position before asking ministers and officials to grant it government loans.

Mr Cameron also said he only attended board meetings at the company to discuss “geopolitical matters and such like”.

Speaking to Sky News this morning, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said it was a “difficult time” for Mr Cameron.

“I think David Cameron did the right thing to come before two select committees yesterday and to be open and transparent about his dealings with government, with ministers,” he said.

Asked if the former Conservative leader’s reputation has been damaged by the controversy, Mr Zahawi said: “Clearly this was a painful period for him and, as he said yesterday, it cannot be easy for a prime minister to go through this.

“It’s a difficult time for him and I think we should respect that a little bit as well.”

A Labour MP has been roasted more than any curry ever could, by showing he has a pretty bizarre understanding of economics.

Posting on Twitter, Jon Trickett, the Corbyn ally who represents the Yorkshire constituency of Hemsworth, claimed that because the price of a takeaway is more than the hourly minimum wage, it meant that we live in a society in which “curry is worth more than a human”.

My colleague Kate Plummer has more details below:

Labour’s former foreign secretary and one-time leadership contender, David Miliband, has warned the party “the writing is on the wall” in terms of its future.

Mr Miliband, who left politics after he was defeated by his brother Ed in Labour’s 2010 leadership contest, said the party is in a “hole” and that it has “no divine right to exist”.

Speaking to Times Radio, Mr Miliband said the only positive thing to come from Labour disastrous performance in last week’s local elections is that “people now see the writing on the wall, and have a real debate about what that means.”

Wales has held back relaxing restrictions on allowing small events and meeting people due to concerns about the Indian variant of coronavirus, Mark Drakeford has said.

The first minister said there were 17 cases of the variant in Wales as of Thursday, with a concentration in northwest England causing concern due to its proximity and link with the Welsh northeast.

Wales will move to alert level two on Monday with the reopening of indoor hospitality and entertainment venues, but Mr Drakeford said his government would pause further easements if “the risks in doing so would be too great”.

On Friday, Mr Drakeford told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We were considering a small number of further easements from Monday but have decided to hold back on those until we get the advice from Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) who met yesterday, our own scientific advice which we’ll receive imminently, just to make sure that we are continuing to take a precautionary approach in case the Indian variant is on the march, and therefore Wales would be vulnerable to it as well.”

Meanwhile, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said “we will take nothing off the table” when asked if local lockdowns are being considered by officials in areas with a surge of the variant first identified in India.

He told BBC Breakfast: “Over a year of dealing with this pandemic suggests that the most effective way of dealing with this, because we have had such a successful vaccination programme, is the surge testing by postcode, the genome sequencing and isolation, so that is our focus, that is our priority.

“But we will take nothing off the table, whether it is regional or national further measures that we would need to take, we will deal with this.”