It is now “inevitable” that Conservative MPs will remove Boris Johnson from No 10 over the Partygate scandal, former 1922 Committee vice-chair Sir Charles Walker has said – as a Tory peer warned there was “not a chance in hell” the PM would resign of his own accord.
As one MP urged his colleagues to “get on with it”, some Tory rebels expressed fears that a no confidence vote triggered “accidentally” too soon could see the prime minister remain in office for at least another 12 months.
The warnings came as Mr Johnson announced two new appointments to Downing Street in an attempt to fill the void that had been left by five resignations in the space of 24 hours, with Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Steve Barclay becoming the PM’s chief of staff and former BBC journalist Guto Harri take the role of director of communications.
Meanwhile, No 10 insiders warned that the increasingly isolated PM was becoming “unpredictable and erratic”, as his Cabinet appeared to fall into squabbles with reports that multiple ministers had accused Rishi Sunak of being “on manoeuvres” for the leadership – and called on Mr Johnson to sack his chancellor.
UK needs to shift to renewables to protect from energy crises, MPs and experts say
As the country faces a huge rise in energy prices when Ofgem’s cap is increased at the start of April, MPs and experts have told The Independent that the UK must shift to renewables to protect itself against future energy crises – and that the current turmoil should hasten – not delay – the march to net zero.
Among them is shadow climate change secretary Ed Miliband, who said that a “failure to transition to zero carbon” has made the UK “more vulnerable as a country”.
My colleague Zoe Tidman has the full story here:
Who is Boris Johnson’s new spin doctor?
Much of the focus on Boris Johnson’s new Downing Street appointees rests today on Steve Barclay – and how he will manage to juggle his new role as Mr Johnson’s chief of staff with his existing responsibilities.
But his appointment of Guto Harri as No 10 director of communications also may have raised a few eyebrows, given the former journalist’s past remarks about Mr Johnson.
Mr Harri – a former chief political correspondent at the BBC, who recently made headlines with an acrimonious split from the fledgling GB News channel after taking the knee live on-air – served as a key aide to Mr Johnson while he was mayor of London.
But speaking to BBC Radio 4 in 2018, Mr Harri said that while Mr Johnson had been “a huge unifying figure” in his time as mayor of London, he had since “gone the other way” and had “become more tribal, and tribal within the tribe, so that he would now be – if he were to become leader – a hugely divisive figure”.
As Mr Johnson’s new spin doctor at a time of fears that public trust in the government has been harmed by the Partygate scandal, Mr Harri will be part of a No 10 operation seeking to restore any lost faith in Downing Street.
Labour calls on Tories to give back £5m in Russian donations
The Conservative Party should hand back £5 million in Russia-linked donations it has received over the last decade, Labour said today.
Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves also called on the government to crackdown on money being laundered through the City of London.
The Conservative government has warned President Vladimir Putin that ministers will target large Russian firms and Kremlin-linked oligarchs with sanctions if he invades Ukraine – a move that could cut off billions of pounds from the City.
Mr Lammy went on Sky News and BBC to urge the Tories to lead by example by paying back the donations.
Mr Lammy told Sky News: “Many of those individuals made money under Putin’s regime and if you go back to the break-up of the Soviet Union, taking over what were previously national industries,” he said.
“The Times today is reporting the sons and daughters of people linked to Putin buying property here in London.
“It’s against that backdrop that it’s wrong to change our election law to say that you can have limitless donations.
“Of course it’s important that we are completely above board and any money associated with Vladimir Putin and his regime should be given back.”
‘PM did not include fraud’ in his crime claims – Kwarteng suggests
Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has suggested that PM Boris Johnson did not include rates of fraud when he falsely claimed in the Commons that crime had fallen under his leadership.
He said the prime minister was referring to “personal injury and crime in relation to individuals” when he told MPs “we have been cutting crime by 14 per cent”.
On the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme, Mr Kwarteng said he did not know “what the evidence is” for the PM’s claim not being true.
He said: “I think fraud is really, really important, but people are talking particularly about burglaries, about personal injury, about physical crimes, and I think in that context we’re seeing lower crimes, I think the Prime Minister was right.”
Following the interview, Labour MP and chairman of the Commons Committee on Standards Chris Bryant tweeted: “I can understand why Tories don’t want people to think fraud counts as crime.”
The government has since been placed under investigation by the UK Statistics Authority after receiving complaints about its claims on cutting crime.
Despite a fall in most crimes during coronavirus lockdowns, some are now reaching or exceeding pre-pandemic levels – with rises in some offences like fraud offsetting reductions seen elsewhere, the Office for National Statistics said last week.
Figures also show police recorded the highest number of rapes and sexual offences in a 12-month period, while the proportion of suspects being taken to court has fallen to a new record low and remains the lowest for rape cases.
Ex-MEP who claims minister was Islamophobic says he will name individuals if Tories launch probe
A former senior Tory MEP claims he overheard a serving minister plotting to use his Muslim faith against him politically – and today calls for the Conservatives to mount an investigation, pledging to name names.
Sajjad Karim first raised an Islamophobia allegation more than two years ago but has now publicly shared with The Independent his most detailed account after accusing a party inquiry of excluding him.
He claims that despite being told by Tory HQ that he would be contacted by the inquiry into discrimination within Conservative party ranks, its findings – which rejected allegations of institutional Islamophobia – were published last year without his evidence.
You can read the full article from our chief reporter Simon Murphy here:
Critical claims about Carrie Johnson ‘interesting’ but ‘not sexist’, minister suggests
A Cabinet minister has denied that Carrie Johnson has “undue influence – as claimed in Tory peer Lord Ashcroft’s new biography, which has been serialised in the Mail on Sunday this weekend.
“The reportage that somehow she’s got undue influence, I don’t think that’s true, the prime minister has been in politics for 25 years and has a pretty strong set of ideas,” Kwasi Kwarteng said.
But while the PM is reported to believe the claims are misogynistic, Mr Kwarteng said he did not believe the treatment of Ms Johnson was sexist, saying: “I wouldn’t say that but I do think it’s interesting when the spouse is someone in their 30s and has got open positions that are well known, people feel free to criticise – I think that’s interesting.”
Pressed on what he meant by “interesting”, the minister replied: “I don’t think it’s sexist, I’m not going to go down the route of saying it’s sexist but I’m saying her views are under scrutiny in a way that perhaps other prime ministers’ spouses weren’t.”
My colleague Adam Forrest has more details on Gavin Barwell’s comments this morning.
Theresa May’s former chief of staff suggested there is “not a chance in hell” that Boris Johnson will step down of his own accord, as he argued there was a “strong case for change” at the top of government.
Boris Johnson’s changes at No 10 ‘must be an absolute nightmare’, former civil servant says
Jill Rutter, a senior research fellow at the UK in a Changing Europe think-tank, has suggested that Boris Johnson’s modifications to his No 10 operation “must be an absolute nightmare for people who have to make the new moves work inside government”.
“Sue Gray told [Mr Johnson] that confused accountabilities was the big problem in No.10 – hard to see how these moves make them clearer and a big risk they make them much, much worse,” the former civil servant said.
Laying out a number of complexities arising from the appointment of Steve Barclay as his new chief of staff, Ms Rutter said: “We have to assume PM had though through all these questions before he decided that this was the structure he wanted.”
Tory Party must give Boris Johnson ‘time and space to lead’, minister says
Highlighting the majority secured by Boris Johnson at the 2019 election, the business secretary has told Times Radio: “It’s the job of Cabinet ministers and the parliamentary party to give him time and space to lead.”
Asked if he would offer support to a colleague who was on leadership manoeuvres, Kwasi Kwarteng said: “I’d say we should be backing the prime minister to deliver on our manifesto, which we were all elected on.”
Mr Kwarteng said nobody knows how many letters of no confidence have been submitted, adding: “My own view is that we’re probably not that near the letters [threshold] but I don’t know – until we reach that point I think it’s idle speculation.”
Members of the PM’s shadow whipping operation believe that at least 35 letters have already been submitted to the 1922 Committee chair Sir Graham Brady, according to the Sunday Times – as the PM enters the “danger zone” close to the 54 letters required to trigger a vote.
But the PM’s allies are said to suspect the number is likely closer to 45, while some MPs reportedly believe the figure could already be more than 50.
Here was the moment business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng sought to defend Boris Johnson’s Jimmy Savile jibe against Sir Keir Starmer as “perfectly reasonable”.
