Conservative MPs backing Boris Johnson after he was fined by police for breaching Covid laws are endorsing dishonesty and lawbreaking, Ed Davey has suggested.
The Liberal Democrat leader said the prime minister should resign as a “matter of principle”, after he and Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, were handed fixed penalty notices for attending a birthday gathering for Mr Johnson in the cabinet room in June 2020.
“Conservatve MPs who are coming out on programmes like this and backing the prime minister are basically associating the whole party with this law breaking, this dishonesty,” Mr Davey told Sky News.
“They’re all now guilty,” he added. Both the prime minister and chancellor are refusing to quit over the Partygate scandal.
Earlier, backbencher Nigel Mills became the first Tory MP to call for Mr Johnson to resign.
“I don’t think the PM can survive or should survive breaking the rules he put in place … He’s been fined, I don’t think his position is tenable.”
Voter registration applications jump ahead of local elections
Applications to vote in elections taking place across the UK next month have jumped ahead of Thursday’s deadline.
Local elections are taking place in all four nations of the UK on 5 May
A total of 28,273 applications were made on Tuesday, government figures show.
This is double the daily average for the year so far and the highest for a single day since last autumn.
Craig Westwood, director of communications at the Electoral Commission, said: “There is only a matter of hours left to register to vote ahead of the May elections.
“If you want to make sure your voice is heard and you’re not already registered, it’s really important that you go online and register now at gov.uk/registertovote.
“It only takes five minutes – so the next time you are waiting for the kettle to boil you can register to vote. All you need is your name, date of birth and national insurance number.”
Full report:
How leaders in Scotland, Wales and NI are responding to Johnson fine
Welsh Labour first minister Mark Drakeford and Plaid Cymru leader Liz Saville have called on Mr Johnson to go, Adam Forrest reports.
In Northern Ireland, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has declined to join calls for Mr Johnson to resign. “I welcome the fact that the prime minister has apologised.”
Sinn Fein’s Stormont leader Michelle O’Neill declined to be drawn on Mr Johnson’s future. “Boris Johnson’s position is a matter for the Tory Party and for the British public,” she said.
In Scotland, the SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar have both called on the PM to quit.
But Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross has said the prime minister is a truthful man – but said he “has to explain” his previous denials of rule-breaking in the Commons.
Sni Fein: Boris Johnson’s future a matter for Tory Party
Speaking on a visit to a family centre in north Belfast, Ms O’Neill said: “Well Boris Johnson’s position is a matter for the Tory Party and for the British public and I’m sure they’ll make their own judgment on that in the time ahead.”
Sinn Fein’s Stormont leader and former Northern Ireland deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill declined to be drawn when asked about Boris Johnson’s future.
Lord Frost gives ministers only ‘B+’ for delivering Brexit benefits – and insists protocol ‘cannot survive’
Former Brexit minister Lord David Frost has awarded the government only a “B+” in seizing the “benefits” of life outside the EU – saying ministers must now do more to deliver.
The man who negotiated Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, who quit the cabinet in December, marked his own delivery of an agreement as worthy of an “A– ”. But he acknowledged the public wanted to see more “pay off”.
Our politics reporter Adam Forrest has the story:
Breaking: ‘Insufficient evidence’ to prosecute two people suspected of leaking CCTV of Matt Hancock kiss
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has found insufficient evidence to prosecute two people suspected of unlawfully obtaining and disclosing CCTV footage of Matt Hancock kissing his former aide, Gina Coladangelo.
The regulator launched a criminal investigation after it received a report of a personal data breach from DHSC’s CCTV operator, EMCOR Group plc.
My colleaygue Thomas Kingsley has more details:
Chris Mason to replace Laura Kuenssberg as BBC politics editor
Chris Mason has been announced as the new political editor of BBC News
The 41-year-old will take over from Laura Kuenssberg next month after spending more than a decade as political correspondent at the broadcaster.
He said: “What a tremendous privilege to take on what, for me, is the most extraordinary job in British broadcasting and journalism.
“I clamber upon the shoulders of giants like Laura, Nick (Robinson) and Andrew (Marr) with a smattering of trepidation and a shedload of excitement and enthusiasm.
“To lead the best team of journalists in the business on the best news patch of the lot is something I’d never even dared dream of. I can’t wait to get started.”
Douglas Ross: PM is a truthful man
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross has said the prime minister is a truthful man, but stressed he must explain the circumstances around his recent police fine to the House of Commons.
Previously one of the leading voices in the Conservative Party calling for Boris Johnson to quit, Mr Ross now says he should statm claiming the situation in Ukraine required a stable government in the UK.
On BBC Radio Scotland on Wednesday, the Scottish leader was asked if he believed the Prime Minister was a truthful man.
“Yes, and he’s dealing with the situation in Ukraine and he’s dealing with the situation at home here,” Mr Ross said.
Get my father home, Morad Tahbaz’s daughter urges government
The daughter of a British-US national detained by Iran has staged a demonstration outside the Foreign Office urging the UK government to bring her father home.
Wildlife conservationist Morad Tahbaz, 66, was returned to custody after being allowed out on furlough last month, on the day charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and retired civil engineer Anoosheh Ashoori were freed.
His daughter Roxanne said her family was led to believe that he would be included in any deal negotiated at the time, alongside the two dual nationals.
But she said they felt abandoned by the UK Government, with her father now back in prison.
Ms Tahbaz said her mother had also been placed under a travel ban by the Iranian authorities.
Speaking at her protest outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) on Wednesday morning, she told the PA news agency: “We’re here today because it’s been one month since Nazanin and Anoosheh have come home, and my father’s still sitting in prison and my mother’s still on a travel ban.
“So we’re hoping to have the press and the media help us to call on the Government and on the Foreign Secretary (Liz) Truss to keep her promise and bring him home to us, so we can be reunited as a family.”
All the times the UK has changed prime minister during a war
From the 1701 – 1714 war of Spanish succession to the 2001 – 2021 war in Afghanistan, Britain has changed its leader 18 times. Jon Stone looks at how they all happened:
PM ‘not at boozy events’, says Rees-Mogg
Priti Patel’s fellow cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg also defended Mr Johnson, telling TalkRadio it was in the “national interest” for him to remain at No 10 and it would be “bad for the world” for him to quit.
“The idea of constant parties at No 10 is simply false,” said Mr Rees-Mogg. “The prime minister was at a few events which have been highlighted – he was not at boozy events.”
He played down the PM’s breach of rules, describing it as “a mistake”, and denied the Tory leader was a “proven liar and hypocrite”.
He accused TalkRadio host Julia Hartley-Brewer, a lockdown sceptic, of wanting Mr Johnson to be replaced because he “did not follow your policy on Covid”.
