Boris Johnson has suggested the Metropolitan Police investigation into the Downing Street lockdown party scandal will “help to draw a line under matters”.
The prime minister claimed the new probe would “help to give the public the clarity it needs”. The Cabinet Office investigation being led by Sue Gray will continue to take place, despite suggestions it would be “paused”. However, it may not emerge for several weeks while the police carry out their own inquiries.
On Monday, ITV News reported that up to 30 people attended the gathering in the Cabinet Room in June 2020, where the prime minister’s wife Carrie Johnson presented him with a cake.
No 10 conceded that staff had “gathered briefly in the Cabinet Room after a meeting to wish the prime minister a happy birthday”, with Mr Johnson in attendance “for less than ten minutes”.
The quotes and tweets coming back to haunt Boris Johnson
What makes the latest instalment of the “Partygate” significant is that the prime minister had, on 21 March 2020, tweeted a handwritten letter he had received from a seven-year-old girl named Josephine informing him that she had cancelled her own birthday party in order to support the national effort to keep out Covid-19 and comply with the rules.
Here Joe Sommerlad looks at the quotes and tweets that are coming back to haunt Boris Johnson:
Labour MP compares Putin’s arguments to Hitler’s in call for sanctions
Labour MP Chris Bryant has compared Vladimir Putin’s comments to those used by Adolf Hitler before the Second World War.
Mr Bryant said: “The arguments that President Putin uses about Russian speakers in Ukraine are exactly the same as Adolf Hitler advanced over the Sudetenland Germans in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s.”
He added: “I don’t quite understand why we’ve only sanctioned 25 per cent of the people that the American government have already sanctioned”
He said the House will stand ready if further legislation is needed “to seize Russian assets in the UK and to make sure that the unexplained wealth orders… actually have an effect”.
The PM said: “We are bringing forward, as he knows, a statutory instrument greatly to toughen up the package of our ability to sanction people.”
Boris Johnson leaves cabinet in dark over police party investigation
Boris Johnson did not tell cabinet about the launch of a police probe into allegedly lockdown-breaching parties at No 10, leaving ministers to find out about it on their phones as they left this morning’s meeting.
The prime minister was informed shortly before the weekly meeting that Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick would announce the investigation during her appearance before the London Assembly scheduled for 10am on Tuesday morning.
But Mr Johnson’s official spokesperson told reporters that the PM decided not to tell ministers, because the information was sensitive and it was not known at what point during the meeting Dame Cressida would drop her bombshell.
Here is the story:
Police don’t object to Sue Gray’s report being published – report
The Guardian’s chief political correspondent tweets that the imminent publication of Sue Gray’s report into lockdown parties is not necessarily opposed by the Met Police, who have launched their own probe:
UK troops will be sent to protect eastern Europe if Russia invades Ukraine, PM says
British troops will be sent to help protect countries in eastern Europe if Russia invades Ukraine, Boris Johnson has told MPs.
As the crisis mounts, the prime minister attacked the Kremlin for threatening the use of “brute force to terrify reasonable people into giving way to completely unacceptable demands”.
Here is the latest:
Johnson threatens to ‘toughen national sanctions’ against Russia
Boris Johnson told MPs the UK will not hesitate to “toughen our national sanctions” against Russia in response to “whatever President Putin may do”.
Mr Johnson said: “Last night I held a virtual meeting with President Biden, President Macron, Chancellor Scholz, President Duda, Prime Minister Draghi, General-Secretary Stoltenberg, President Michel and President von der Leyen.
“We agreed that we would respond in unison to any Russian attack on Ukraine, in unison by imposing co-ordinated and severe economic sanctions heavier than anything we have done before against Russia.
“And we agreed on the necessity of finalising these measures as swiftly as possible in order to maximise their deterrent effect.”
He added: “We in the UK, will not hesitate to toughen our national sanctions against Russia in response to whatever President Putin may do, and the House will soon hear more on this from my right honourable friend the foreign secretary.
Russia would create a ‘wasteland’ if it invaded Ukraine, says Johnson
Speaking on the crisis in Ukraine, Boris Johnson has warned that the country is facing “the danger of a renewed invasion” but said the response from Ukrainian soldiers would be “dogged and tenacious”.
“No one would gain from such a catastrophe,” he added, warning that Russia would “create a wasteland” if it chose to start a conflict in the region.
Johnson welcomes decision by Met Police to investigate
Boris Johnson has told MPs he welcomes the decision by the Met Police to investigate his and other government officials conduct over the pandemic.
He said: “A few weeks ago I commissioned an independent inquiry into a series of events in Downing Street, in the Cabinet Office as well as some other Whitehall departments that may have constituted potential breaches of the Covid regulations.
“That process has quite properly involved sharing information continuously with the Metropolitan Police, so I welcome the Met’s decision to conduct its own investigation because I believe this will help to give the public the clarity it needs and help to draw a line under matters.”
Watch PM’s Ukraine statement live
Boris Johnson is now addressing the Commons on the situation in the Ukraine.
He started by mentioning the Met Police’s partygate investigation, but reassured the public that his government was prioritising issues like the crisis in the Ukraine.
Watch here:
Johnson has ‘degraded’ office and ‘must go’, says Cooper
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has also rebuked Boris Johnson amid a Met Police inquiry into alleged wrongdoing in Downing Street.
“I think there is a morals question as well as a criminal question for the prime minister,” she said.
Ms Cooper added: “Boris Johnson has now degraded the office of prime minister, it’s distracting everybody from the serious cost of living and other issues the country faces, and disrespected the sacrifices everyone else has made.
“That is why he must go now.”
