The Tories have vowed to abolish the BBC licence fee by 2027 if they are still in power, as culture secretary Nadine Dorries unveiled a £2bn funding freeze for the broadcaster.
It comes amid a reported plot, dubbed Operation Red Meat, to stop Boris Johnson’s premiership being engulfed by the No 10 parties scandal, by announcing a raft of policies to assuage voters and Tory MPs, including a “booze ban” in No 10 – and a freeze on the BBC licence fee.
Also echoing a report in The Independent suggesting Mr Johnson is planning to oust members of his inner circle in a plan named Operation Save Big Dog, Tory Party co-chair Oliver Dowden insisted a “contrite” Mr Johnson will seek to “address the underlying culture in Downing Street”.
But Tim Loughton, the latest of six Tory MPs to publicly call for his resignation, warned a change of officials would not reverse the already “terminal damage”, while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer claimed the PM had not only “lost all authority”, but “broke the law” and then “lied about what had happened”.
Here was the moment when an emotional Trevor Phillips, of Sky News, discussed the death of his daughter, who had “stuck to the spirit and letter of the rules” – while No 10 had apparently been throwing parties.
“There will be thousands of people who have that story in their background, and if I may say so, you are in here telling me about a civil servant’s inquiry – that will not answer that anger. Does the prime minister really understand why people are angry?” Mr Phillips asked Oliver Dowden.
Starmer defends picture showing him drinking bottle of beer
Sir Keir Starmer has defended a picture published on the front page of the Daily Mail this weekend showing him drinking a bottle of beer while with colleagues last year.
Speaking of the picture which first emerged last year, the Labour leader told the BBC: “I was in a constituency office just days before the election. We were very busy. We were working in the office.
“We stopped for something to eat and then we carried on working. No party, no breach of the rules and absolutely no comparison with the prime minister.”
He added: “It was perfectly lawful to meet for work, which is what we were doing. The party that was put to the prime minister on Wednesday happened because an invitation was sent to 100 people saying ‘let’s have some socially distant drinks in the garden and bring your own booze’. There is simply no comparison.”
‘No doubt’ No 10 team are working there ‘in the national interest’, Tory MP says
The team in Downing Street are some of the “most dedicated and professional civil servants that you will find”, Treasury chief secretary Simon Clarke has said.
The Tory MP told LBC: “There is no question in my mind that the team in Downing Street, who are obviously not just senior politicians but also some of the most dedicated and professional civil servants that you will find, are working there in the national interest.
“There is no question that mistakes have been made and that is deeply regrettable, and obviously we are all, as I say, both frustrated and upset by what has happened.
“But, look, it should not be allowed to morph into a situation where we tarnish people who are doing their very best in incredibly difficult circumstances to deliver for this country.”
Our policy correspondent Jon Stone has more details on Nadine Dorries’s £2bn assault on the BBC and pledge to scrap the BBC licence fee at the next opportunity – if the Conservatives are still in power.
Exclusive: Home Office threatened to deport asylum seekers for crimes they did not commit
Away from the Partygate scandal for a moment, to this exclusive report from The Independent’s home affairs correspondent Lizzie Dearden, revealing that the Home Office has been threatening asylum seekers with deportation for alleged crimes they did not commit.
A Court of Appeal judgment has revealed the existence of “notices of liability to detention”, which were handed to migrants crossing the English Channel on small boats and which claimed they were “illegal entrants” potentially “liable to removal or deportation” from the UK.
But judges said the Home Office had misinterpreted the law and that crossing the Channel by dinghy to seek asylum did not amount to illegal entry – a mistake passed on to prosecutors, defence lawyers and the courts, sparking several unlawful prosecutions.
Bella Sankey, the director of Detention Action, accused the government of misleading the public with a “campaign of misinformation” suggesting that all Channel crossings are illegal.
You can read more details here:
Nadine Dorries reportedly inspired name of plan to save PM
Here’s more detail on the supposed origins of Boris Johnson’s Operation Red Meat plan aimed at enticing disillusioned Tory MPs and voters back on-side with a raft of popular policies.
According to The Sunday Times, the name for the plan emerged after culture secretary Nadine Dorries had urged: “Stop talking about dead cats and start throwing some red meat on the green benches.”
This morning, Ms Dorries has lent heavily into her ongoing war on the BBC licence fee, sharing a report in the Mail suggesting she intends to freeze the payment at £159 for the next two years – echoing one plank of the supposed Operation to save the PM.
Conservative Party ‘definitely suffering’, former deputy PM says
David Lidington, who served as deputy PM to Boris Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May, has warned the Conservative Party is “definitely suffering” as a result of the Partygate allegations.
“I will concede that he’s proved himself in the past a formidable campaigner, there’s things he’s doing on levelling up [and] on decarbonising the economy that I strongly support,” the former Tory MP told LBC.
“But you need a prime minister who’s got public confidence and trust, and I think it’s those things that have really been badly damaged.”
Liam Fox defends Boris Johnson’s position as PM
A former Cabinet minister who was sacked by Boris Johnson has said it is the “wrong time” for the Conservative Party to be considering changing its leadership.
Writing in the Mail On Sunday, former trade secretary Liam Fox said: “I did not vote for Boris Johnson in the last Conservative leadership election. He subsequently sacked me from the Cabinet, as he was perfectly entitled to do.
“So, I cannot be accused of being a sycophant in writing that this is absolutely the wrong time for the Conservative Party to think about a change of leader.”
The North Somerset MP said he was not suggesting “all is well in the Johnson premiership” and warned that the Sue Gray inquiry into whether Covid rules were broken has “opened a ‘one rule for one and another rule for others’ narrative that is difficult to dispel”.
But he added: “We should defer judgment … It is not a time for a leadership challenge.”
Tony Blair on Partygate: ‘You can explain it, but not really excuse it’
Sir Tony Blair has said he could “understand how these things happen” when asked about the Partygate allegations.
The former Labour prime minister, asked on Times Radio whether Boris Johnson should step down, said: “I don’t get into questions of resignation or not. I’ll leave that to the people in the front line of politics today.”
He added: “I understand people feeling enraged and very angry about it. I can also, from the perspective of Downing Street, understand how these things happen. You can explain it but not really excuse it.”
Sir Tony said he did not recall holding drinking parties during his 10 years in Downing Street, adding: “When you are there, it’s such a pressured environment and you’re usually working flat-out, so most people at the end of the busy day just want to go home.”
Some Labour staff with experience of No 10 are said to be bewildered by the party stories, according to The Sunday Times, which quoted one as saying: “The only thing that was thrown in Gordon [Brown]’s No 10 were mobile phones.”
‘A threat to the health of the nation’: Lib Dems push motion of no confidence in PM
The Liberal Democrats are calling for Conservative MPs to back a motion of no confidence in Boris Johnson, signed by politicians from four parties.
The motion states that Parliament has no confidence in the prime minister as he has “broken the Covid lockdown laws his government introduced, misled both Parliament and the public about it, and disastrously undermined public confidence in the midst of a pandemic”.
It has been signed by 18 MPs from four parties, including all 13 Lib Dems, two Labour MPs – Paula Barker and Mick Whitley – two from Plaid Cymru, and Stephen Garry from the Alliance Party.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said: “By remaining in Number 10, Boris Johnson is a threat to the health of the nation – no-one will take anything he says seriously and that is simply unacceptable during a pandemic.
“Conservative MPs should not only support our motion of no confidence but they should pressure Jacob Rees-Mogg to give the motion time for a vote and soon. The country deserves a chance to move on from this deceitful prime minister.”
