Starmer criticises Johnson’s ‘lack of influence’ over Nato
Boris Johnson showed “bad judgement” in appointing Chris Pincher to the whips’ office despite knowing of sexual misconduct allegations against him, Sir Keir Starmer said.
Downing Street today admitted the prime minister was aware of claims against the now-suspended MP when he made him deputy chief whip in February.
Asked about Mr Johnson’s position, Sir Keir told Sky News: “I have got no sympathy with a prime minister who repeatedly makes bad judgment calls.
“We have been living with a version of this story for month after month after month. Bad judgment by a man who puts himself above everything. I don’t have any sympathy for him.”
Mr Pincher, who was hit with a string of other misconduct claims over the weekend, previously resigned from the whips’ office in 2017 amid claims he made an appropriate pass at a Conservative Party candidate.
The scandal has once again brought Mr Johnson’s leadership into question, with senior Tory MP Sir Roger Gale warning his party “cannot go on like this”.
That will be all for The Independent’s live coverage of politics for this evening. Make sure to check back tomorrow for updates.
Boris Johnson claims Scottish independence could be ‘utterly tragic for the whole world’
Boris Johnson has claimed Scottish independence would be “utterly tragic for the whole world” if it caused the UK’s armed forces to be divided.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Conservative MP Brendan Clarke-Smith claimed Scottish nationalists would cut defence spending and “unilaterally disarm” if they achieved independence.
Mr Johnson replied: “The Scottish contribution to our armed services is immense, everybody knows it, it’s a fantastic thing, it helps to make the UK what it is.
“It would be utterly tragic for the whole world if the UK armed services were to face a division of that kind or a loss of that kind.”
Defence is an issue that Scots have said is a key benefit of being part of the UK.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has outlined plans to hold a second vote on Scottish independence on 19 October next year. Mr Johnson said a referendum was not a priority for the government.
Porn Tory says wife ‘chases him with scissors’
The former Tory MP who resigned for watching porn in the House of Commons said his wife chases him around the kitchen with scissors aiming for “part of my anatomy” (Matt Mathers writes).
Neil Parish was forced to quit in May after it emerged that he twice watched adult content in parliament in view of female colleagues.
Speaking to ITV’s Lorraine today, he revealed his wife’s reaction to the incident: “She knows I’m no angel,” he said. “In fact she chases me around the kitchen with the scissors going, ‘snipper-snap’ knowing full well which part of my anatomy she’s after.”
A shocked looking Ms Kelly replied by saying, “OK,” before Mr Parish added: “She knows what I’m like.”
Ms Kelly then suggested that he must have had some “very awkward conversations” with his wife after the reports first came to light.
“You’ve said she knows what you’re like, she accepts that I guess, but that conversation must have been very difficult,” she said.
Mr Parish said that his wife has supported him throughout his career in Westminster and “she’s done so much with me.”
Jacob Rees-Mogg defends Boris Johnson for promoting grope claim MP
Jacob Rees-Mogg has defended Boris Johnson’s decision to appoint Chris Pincher to the whips’ office in knowledge of sexual misconduct claims against him.
The Brexit opportunities minister told LBC’s Tonight With Andrew Marr: “There were rumours. I think prime ministers have to be just, they can’t just say, ‘I’ve heard a bit of gossip and I think you’ve done something that I wouldn’t approve of’.
“You can’t judge people on rumours, that’s fundamentally unjust. There are rumours about all sorts of people that turn out never to come to anything.”
Before the latest round of allegations against him, Mr Pincher had resigned in 2017 over claims he groped a Tory activist in 2001. He denied the allegations and a party investigation ruled in his favour.
Give MPs vote on assisted dying, says Matt Hancock
MPs should have the opportunity to debate assisted dying in the House of Commons, Matt Hancock said in a Westminster Hall debate on the healthcare question.
The Conservative former health secretary said it had been seven years since the last Commons vote on assisted dying.
He went on: “I can speak as a former health secretary to say that the medical movement as a whole is changing its view and I think it is appropriate that we raise this question in a voteable manner on the floor of the House of Commons once again.
“I can’t see how the minister can argue other than that we need an informed, compassionate debate on the floor of the House of Commons. For 50 years we have had a legal choice over who to love, for a decade we have had a legal choice over who we can marry.
“So let’s have an informed debate over when the end is inevitable and when the pain is insufferable, how we die.”
In Westminster Hall this evening MPs are debating a petition, which has received more than 155,000 signatures, calling for assisted dying to be legalised for “terminally ill, mentally competent adults”.
Labour peer reveals nightmare 999 call as wife lay dying in his arms
A leading scientist has revealed how he faced a “litany of questions” after calling for an ambulance as his wife lay dying in his arms.
The renowned broadcaster and fertility expert Robert Winston said such a “waste of time” was critical when seconds count in dealing with a cardiac arrest.
The Labour peer spoke of the deeply traumatic experience as the House of Lords heard that “thousands” of people were dying because of delays to the arrival of paramedics.
This has been blamed on hold-ups in being able to hand patients over and getting ambulances back on the road to answer new calls – meaning people calling 999 wait longer than they should.
Speaking in the chamber, Lord Winston said: “Some months ago, as my wife lay dying in my arms, I phoned the 999 service. The man answering the call asked me a litany of questions and asked me to count her number of heartbeats per minute.
That waste of time is critical. With a cardiac arrest you have only a few seconds … When eventually the man backed down, it was obvious that he had not been trained to ask the right questions.”
He added: “Can the minister assure the House that there is proper training for people who answer these calls at these critical times, when they are dealing with someone who may recognise that their close relative is dying, and that the latter can hear what they are saying on the telephone?
Thanking the peer for sharing his “very personal story”, health minister Lord Kamall said “clearly, there are too many incidents of this kind,” and promised to take the question to his department.
Jacob Rees-Mogg says Starmer has copied Tories on Brexit
Jacob Rees-Mogg accused Sir Keir Starmer of pitching a “half-cock” copy of the Conservatives’ post-Brexit plans for Britain.
Speaking ahead of the Labour leader’s speech in which he laid-out the plans for dealing with the EU in future, the Brexit opportunities minister told LBC’s Tonight With Andrew Marr: “I’m fascinated by what he’s got to say, or reports of it … and what he wants to do, by and large, is things either that the Conservatives are doing [because] they want to change the Northern Ireland Protocol, so I hope he’ll support us on our bill.
“And he wants recognition of qualifications, which we’ve already legislated for. So you do wonder if he was half asleep last year.
“I think all that Sir Keir is going to be saying later on today is that he wants to do what the Conservatives are doing but half-cock, so it’s not much of an announcement by him today.”
Starmer pitches five-point plan to ‘make Brexit work’
Sir Keir Starmer has laid out a five-point plan to “make Brexit work” in a speech to the Centre for European Reform on how a Labour government would chart Britain’s future course in the world.
The Labour leader said his party was “claiming the centre ground of British politics once again”, not from a “mushy place of compromise”, but driven by “purpose” and “optimism”.
He said he would say more about how it intends to get the country’s economy growing again “in the weeks and months to come”, but the first step is to make a success of leaving the EU.
Speaking at the Irish Embassy in London, he said: “There are some who say, ‘We don’t need to make Brexit work – we need to reverse it’. I couldn’t disagree more.
“Because you cannot move forward or grow the country or deliver change or win back the trust of those who have lost faith in politics if you’re constantly focused on the arguments of the past.
“We cannot afford to look back over our shoulder because all the time we are doing that we are missing what is ahead of us.
“So let me be very clear. Under Labour, Britain will not go back into the EU. We will not be joining the single market. We will not be joining a customs union.”
Sir Keir by his London home earlier
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Starmer rules out rejoining EU under Labour government
Sir Keir Starmer said he would not take Britain back into the EU if Labour were in government.
The opposition leader, who is setting out his approach to the UK-EU relationship in a keynote speech this evening, said he did not want to reopen old arguments.
He told Sky News: “We’re not going back. We’re not going back into the EU, not going back into the single market, the customs union or freedom of movement.”
EU far-right tries to postpone debate on UK Brexit lawbreaking
The European Parliament’s far-right group has tried to stop MEPs from discussing the British government’s breaches of international law on Wednesday (Jon Stone writes).
MEPs are due to discuss Boris Johnson’s overriding of the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol later in the week – with the prime minister expected to be blasted from across the EU political spectrum.
But the ID group, which represents parties like French National Rally, Italy’s Lega, and the German AfD appears to have come to the UK’s aid and tried to get the debate postponed.
In a request submitted this week the MEPs said the debate, which is planned to take centre stage in the parliament on Wednesday, should be postponed and relegated to an unspecified “later part session”.
They want the discussion replaced with a debate about the bloc’s aviation industry.
