Boris Johnson this morning attempted to put a positive gloss on the exodus of senior officials from 10 Downing Street by quoting The Lion King.
“Change is good,” he told those remaining after a fifth aide walked out of No 10 within 24 hours.
According to Conservative Home, Elena Narozanski, a former adviser to the cabinet minister Michael Gove and Theresa May during her tenure as home secretary, quit her role in the Downing Street policy unit.
Her exit follows the departures of Jack Doyle, communications director, Martin Reynolds, principle private secretary, Dan Rosenfield, chief of staff, and Munira Mirza, head of policy.
Greg Hands, the energy minister, said today: “The prime minister was absolutely clear on Monday that there would be changes at the top of No 10 and that is what he has delivered.”
Reports say that Ms Mirza’s shock resignation sparked a clear-out of No 10 as the PM tried to take back control of events.
Boris Johnson labelled ‘moral vacuum’ over Savile comments by former Tory chairman
A former Conservative Party chairman has labelled Boris Johnson a “moral vacuum” for his failure to apologise for the false claim that Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile.
In a stinging attack on the prime minister, Lord Chris Patten also suggested the party had undergone “fundamental change” with some sections having “turned into an English nationalist, populist, Johnsonian cult”.
Our politics correspondent Ashley Cowburn has more here:
PM told me there was only a 30% of new Brexit deal for NI, DUP leader says
Boris Johnson told DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson there was only a “30 per cent chance” of a new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland, he has said.
“I met with the prime minister last week, I asked the prime minister two straight questions,” Mr Donaldson told BBC Radio Ulster.
“I asked him what he thought were the prospects of agreement being reached with the EU on the protocol within the next few weeks.
“His answer was ‘20 to 30 per cent chance of agreement”.
Ashley Cowburn, our politics correspondent, has more on this story and a judge’s decision to block an order to suspend protocol checks, below:
PM will find it ‘almost impossible’ to effectively rebuild team
Boris Johnson will find it “almost impossible” to rebuild his senior team from scratch, the leader of the union representing senior civil servants has said.
FDA general secretary Dave Penman said the loss of four senior figures at the same time will have a huge impact on the way the Government works.
“To lose so many critical posts at once really is undermining the effective working of No 10,” he told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One.
“You have now got to replace with them people of experience, with people who understand how the Prime Minister works, with people who have got policy experience in the areas that they are going to be dealing with, and that is going to be very difficult.
“I don’t think there will be necessarily a shortage of who people want the job. The question is whether you are going to get the right people for the job, particularly when you are looking to build such a core team almost from scratch.
“It would be a challenge to fill each of these jobs individually, to do four of them at the one time is almost impossible.”
Javid ‘frustrated’ at having to answer questions on partygate
The health secretary has admitted it is frustrating to have to answer questions around partygate and Downing Street resignations while making major policy announcements.
Sajid Javid faced a series of questions from reporters after a speech setting out his ambitions to improve cancer prevention and diagnosis.
He said: “I think first of all the prime minister has responded to the situation – obviously there are still investigations going on and, as he has rightly said, to have a full response we need to wait for the outcome of those further investigations.
“But, of course, understandably it is a big topic in the news and probably will remain for a while.
“If you’re asking me can it be a bit frustrating that when I want to talk about cancer and someone questioning me wants to talk about something completely different, yes – but that’s life, and that’s politics, and I get it.
“Journalists like yourself and others should be able to ask me any question you want, whenever you want and you should be guided by what your listeners, readers, viewers want, and that’s perfectly fine.”
Down Syndrome Bill had ‘great intentions’
The Down Syndrome Bill began with “great intentions” but now ends as a “landmark” Bill, Conservative former cabinet minister Dr Liam Fox has said.
During the third reading debate in the Commons, Dr Fox said: “This is a Bill that I think began with great intentions, but I think which ends now as a landmark bill.
“It actually recognises that in the provision of services, whether they be in health or education, or in long-term care in this country, Parliament is not only going to give rights, it’s going to give applicability and enforceability of those rights in the systems that we have.
“I think that is a change in the whole way that we think about these kinds of pieces of legislation in this House.”
The MP for North Somerset added: “I hope it will make speedy progress through the Other Place and, hopefully, can get to Royal Assent before International Down Syndrome Day on March 21, at which point we would be the only country in the world to have legislated for something which I think is really important for our concept of Global Britain, which cannot just be about trade or defence or economies, it has to also be about values, the values we have as a country.”
PM quotes Lion King ‘change is good’ to put positive spin on staff exodus
In a pep talk designed to stop more staff leaving, he said: “Change is necessary even though it’s tough” – said by Rafiki in the film.
Our politics editor Andrew Woodcock reports:
Cost-of-living squeeze to last for two years, warns Bank of England governor
The cost-of-living squeeze affecting UK households will continue for two years , the governor of the Bank of England has warned.
Andrew Bailey said inflation was not expected to return to normal levels until early 2024, with pay rise struggling to keep up.
Mr Bailey, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It is going to be a difficult period ahead, I readily admit, because we all get we are already seeing and we’re going to see a reduction in real income.
“Based on what we see today, I would expect that, so we’re going to start coming out of it in 2023, and two years from now we expect we’ll be back on to a more stable – certainly inflation – back to a more stable position.”
Munira Mirza: Who is Boris Johnson’s policy chief and why did she quit?
Boris Johnson has suffered a major blow as his policy chief and long-standing adviser, Munira Mirza, quit No 10 in protest at the prime minister’s “scurrilous” Jimmy Savile smear against Sir Keir Starmer.
The backroom operator and key member of Mr Johnson’s inner circle first joined No 10 in July 2019 and was pictured among staff who flanked the prime minister as he gave his first speech to the nation from Downing Street.
What else do we know about Ms Mirza? Our politics correspondent Ashley Cowburn reports:
High court judge blocks DUP move to stop Brexit checks
A high court judge has blocked a move by the DUP to suspend Brexit checks in Northern Ireland.
Mr Justice Colton has issued an interim order suspending a decision by agriculture minister Edwin Poots to order a stop to agri-food checks at Northern Ireland ports until a judicial review against the DUP minister’s decision can be heard in full.
Sajid Javid distances himself from PM Savile remarks as he praises Starmer
Health secretary Sajid Javid has said Sir Keir Starmer deserved “absolute respect” for the job he did as director of public prosecutions.#
Mr Javid said that it was important that Boris Johnson has “clarified” his earlier accusation that Sir Keir had failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile.
“Keir Starmer, when he was running the DPP, did a good job and he should be respected for it, It is a tough job and he deserved absolute respect for that,” he told Sky News.
“But the Prime Minister has also come out and clarified those remarks, and that is important.”
