Following his showdown with Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs, Boris Johnson is now facing a further grilling from senior MPs on the Commons liaison committee.
Earlier, SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford accused the Tories of “partying through the cost of living emergency” by attending a “champagne bash” on Tuesday night, days before an energy price hike hits millions of families.
The bereaved families of Covid victims chanted “shame on you” as Conservative MPs entered the dinner party at the Park Plaza hotel, which came as the Metropolitan Police confirmed an initial 20 Partygate fines, prompting renewed calls for Boris Johnson to resign.
Dominic Raab insisted on Wednesday morning that Mr Johnson acted in “good faith” and did not intentionally mislead parliament when he told MPs no rules had been broken, but suggested he may have said things that “turned out not to be true”.
The PM has not yet been informed whether he will receive a fine, his official spokesperson said, but added that they are “committed” to ensuring the public is informed if he does.
Boris Johnson says he hopes Nato support can make Ukraine ‘indigestible’ to Putin
Boris Johnson has said he believes that we are evolving towards “a new way of looking at Ukraine” and other former Soviet countries.
“Because of the sheer quantity of Nato-compatible materiel and the weapons we’re now supplying, we’re changing the dynamic, and we’re changing the security architecture of the situation bit by bit,” he told MPs on the Commons liaison committee.
The prime minister said that he hopes Nato will be able to offer, not an Article 5-style protection to Ukraine, but “a different kind of commitment based on the idea of deterrence by denial so that Ukraine is so fortified, so protected with weaponry – the quills of the porcupine have become so stiffened – so that it is ever-after indigestible to Putin. And that is the path that we are now on.”
Britain looking at ‘going up a gear’ in military assistance to Ukraine, Boris Johnson says
Britain is looking at “going up a gear” in its military assistance to Ukraine, Boris Johnson has told MPs.
“We’re certainly looking at going up a gear now in our support for the Ukrainians as they defend themselves,” the prime minister said.
“In Mariupol, the issue is that Ukrainian defenders are now pretty much encircled and there’s a humanitarian catastrophe. The question is – can we help the Ukrainians relieve Mariupol, if that were possible.”
Asked by Tom Tugendhat about the “civilian assistance” the UK could provide, such as armoured ambulances to help in areas around Kyiv, Mr Johnson said: “It’s a very interesting suggestion. It’s not something that Volodymyr Zelensky has requested so far from me personally, but that doesn’t mean that the Ukrainians haven’t reached out and asked for it through other channels.”
Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has more on this breaking story:
Boris Johnson says he ‘understands’ Biden’s comments about Putin
Asked whether he agrees with comments by Joe Biden suggesting that “the end state should be not only Russians out of Ukraine, but Putin gone from the Kremlin”, Boris Johnson said: “Look, I understand why Joe Biden said that.
“And I understand the frustrations that people feel about Putin, and to desire a change of government in itself is not an ignoble thing. I think there are probably plenty of people around this horseshoe who perhaps would like a change in this government and that’s the objective of a lot of democratic politics.
“But let’s be absolutely clear – it is not the objective of the UK government.”
Putin is ‘plainly not to be trusted’, Boris Johnson says
Moving on to Ukraine now, Tory MP Tom Tugendhat has asked Boris Johnson whether France’s Emmanuel Macron “has been speaking to Putin for too long?”
The prime minister said “I think it’s very important that the unity of the west and the unity of Nato should be prioritised, and that’s what we’re doing. I think the question of negotiation with Vladimir Putin, of the value of those negotiations, is an open one.
“My own view is that Putin is plainly not to be trusted.”
Boris Johnson pressed on ‘dreadful optics’ of Tory dinner party
Pete Wishart asked Boris Johnson, in light of reports that he had quoted Gloria Gaynor in saying “I will survive” in response to the Partygate scandal, whether he still believed this was the case, adding: “We can always have a duet after this.”
The prime minister said he was “always only too happy to have a drink with my friends from the SNP”.
Pressed on whether he thought he had “got away with it”, and on the “dreadful optics” of “parading your MPs in front of the Covid bereaved to go and party the day that you received fixed penalty notices”, the PM said: “You are entitled to your characterisation of events. I have no wish to engage with you in dispute about how you choose to see things. That’s not the way I see things.”
Confronted with a list of his own previous and altering positions on the Partygate scandal, Boris Johnson said: “There will come a point when I will be able to talk about the investigation and the conclusions of the investigation, and that is when the investigation has concluded.”
Asked if he will resign if he has broken the ministerial code, he says: “With great respect, Pete, I think you’re going to have to hold your horses and wait until the conclusion of the investigation.”
Boris Johnson told he is ‘pretty much toast’ if handed Partygate fine
The liaison committee has started its questioning of Boris Johnson by focusing on the Partygate scandal.
Asked by SNP MP Pete Wishart whether he had received one of the 20 fixed penalty notices the Met Police announced last night would be handed out, the PM said: “I’m sure you’d know if I were.”
He added that he would not “give a running commentary on an investigation that is underway”.
Mr Wishart responded: “Absolutely, prime minister, we’re not expecting you to give a running commentary, quite obviously. But if you are served with one of them, you’re pretty much toast, aren’t you?
“No prime minister could possibly survive being found of criminality for the very rules that that prime minister set. You’d be finished if you got one.”
Mr Johnson replied: “With deepest respect to you, Pete, I don’t wish to minimise the importance of the issue and your point, but … that would come under the category of running commentary, in my view.”
Grant Shapps tells regulator to disqualify ‘unfit to lead’ P&O Ferries boss
Grant Shapps has told MPs that he has urged a government regulator to disqualify P&O Ferries chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite on the basis he is “unfit to lead a British company”, Adam Forrest reports.
The transport secretary said he had written to the Insolvency Service “conveying my firm belief” that Mr Hebblethwaite should longer be in charge of the under-fire ferry operator.
“I have asked them to consider his disqualification,” said Mr Shapps told the Commons as he set out his nine-point plan to crack down on “sharp” practices after P&O sacked 800 workers without warning.
Mr Shapps said he asked British ports to immediately refuse access to ferry services paying below the existing minimum wage – saying the government would legislate soon to protect them in doing so.
The Commons liaison committee is due to start grilling Boris Johnson in just a few moments.
The first half of the three-hour session is billed to focus on Ukraine, while the second will see the PM asked about the cost of living crisis.
We will make points to China over Hong Kong, says PM
The government will continue to make its points to China, the Prime Minister says, following the withdrawal of British judges from Hong Kong’s courts system.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Conservative former justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland said: “Today’s announcement by our serving United Kingdom judges of their withdrawal from the Hong Kong court of final appeal is now the right decision and I support it, as does my right honourable friend.
“Does he agree with me that on this sad day for the people of Hong Kong and at a time when the international rule of law is under unprecedented challenge, it is for us here in Britain to stand up for what is right, to be resolute in the face of tyranny and to make sure that the international rules-based order is defended at every opportunity?”
Boris Johnson replied: “I want to thank the judges in Hong Kong’s court for everything that they have been doing but I think that they have evidently concluded that the constraints of the national security law make it impossible for them to continue to serve in the way that they would want.
“I appreciate and I understand their decision.
“It is vital that we all continue to make our points to the Chinese as I did in my conversation with President Xi (Jinping) the other day about freedom in Hong Kong and about the treatment of the Uighurs, and we will continue to do that.”
