Boris Johnson gave a speech at a leaving event revealed by Sue Gray to have been held in Downing Street just over a week into the third national lockdown, according to a new report.
In her damning update into the Partygate scandal, the top civil servant said that the gathering at No 10 on 14 January last year was among a dozen events now being investigated by the Metropolitan Police. Both The Telegraph and The Guardian reported on Tuesday night that the prime minister was in attendance.
The former also claimed that Mr Johnson was witnessed heading up to his Downing Street flat on the night of 13 November, when a gathering also under police investigation allegedly took place following the exit of his former chief aide-turned-nemesis Dominic Cummings.
As he faced a battering – including from his own benches – in the Commons on Monday, Mr Johnson said he would not say whether he had been in attendance at his flat that night as a result of the ongoing police investigation, a line repeated by Downing Street when asked about the fresh claims on Tuesday evening.
It came after a tenth Tory MP publicly called on the PM to resign, and Downing Street backed down after coming under pressure over plans to keep secret any fine imposed on Johnson as a result of the parties row, after opposition parties warned of a potential “cover up”.
Labour calls on Sunak to halt bankers’ tax cut to pay for cost-of-living help
Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has this exclusive report:
Labour is challenging chancellor Rishi Sunak to cancel a planned £1bn-a-year tax cuts for banks and use the cash to ease the blow of the cost-of-living crisis on working people.
An amendment to the Finance Bill being debated in the House of Commons on Wednesday would halt a planned cut from 8 to 3 per cent in the surcharge levied on banking profits over £25m from next year.
Instead, Labour says the estimated £1bn annual cost of the reduction could be used to fund home improvements for hundreds of thousands of families to soften the blow of energy bill rises expected to average around £700 from April.
You can read more details here:
Boris Johnson’s false Jimmy Savile claims ‘shared widely by far-right Telegram groups’
Boris Johnson’s false claim that Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile when he was head of the Crown Prosecution Service is being shared widely in far-right Telegram groups, according to VICE World News.
The news website says that many of the Telegram groups it has seen have tens of thousands of followers.
Former justice secretary questions government asylum plans
Away from the Partygate saga for a moment, Tory former justice secretary Ken Clarke has challenged government plans to jail migrants entering the country illegally “in Victorian slums of overcrowded prisons”.
Arguing the incarceration rate was already “ludicrously high”, the Conservative grandee questioned whether the move would lead to “desirable” outcomes.
Breaking: Fresh Partygate claims emerge against Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson gave a speech at a colleague’s leaving party held in Downing Street during the post-Christmas lockdown last year, according to a report.
After Sue Gray’s report yesterday revealed the existence of a gathering in No 10 on 14 January 2021 “on the departure of two No 10 private secretaries”, The Telegraph and The Guardian now report that Boris Johnson was in attendance, with the latter reporting that he gave a speech and stayed for around five minutes.
And shortly after Dominic Cummings wrote on his blog this evening that people had told him they had photographs of an alleged party – now being investigated by the Metropolitan Police – in Mr Johnson’s flat on the night of his own exit from Downing Street on 13 November last year, which Mr Johnson has repeatedly refused to say whether he attended, The Telegraph reported a claim the prime minister was witnessed heading up to the flat that night.
When approached about the allegations by The Independent, a No 10 spokesperson said they could not comment on either claim due to the ongoing police investigation.
Our policy correspondent Jon Stone has more details on Mr Cummings’ claims here:
Footage resurfaces of Johnson’s past comment on investigating historic child abuse
This video has been doing the rounds on social media once again today, after Boris Johnson falsely accused Sir Keir Starmer of being behind a failure to prosecute Jimmy Savile.
In March 2019, Mr Johnson suggested money spent investigating historic child sexual abuse had been “spaffed up the wall”.
“Every minute” that Boris Johnson remains in power, he “damages our politics”, the Liberal Democrats leader has claimed.
PM returning from Ukraine tonight
Boris Johnson has reportedly boarded his flight back from Ukraine and is scheduled to land in the UK in the early hours of Wednesday.
White House press secretary quizzed on Boris Johnson’s domestic troubles
Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, has insisted that Joe Biden remains confident in the UK’s role in seeking to assuage the Russia-Ukraine crisis – “despite cakes in anyone’s faces”.
Quizzed by a reporter about troubles “on the other side of the Pond”, Ms Psaki was asked whether Mr Biden had ever been “ambushed by cake”, as it was claimed Boris Johnson had been on his birthday during lockdown at a gathering now being investigated by the Metropolitan Police.
“Not that I’m aware of,” she said with a laugh, adding that the US president “is confident in the important partnership we have with the UK, the role they play in making clear to Russia the unacceptable nature of the build-up of troops and their bellicose rhetoric as it relates to Ukraine.
“And that certainly has not changed despite cakes in anyone’s faces”.
Ms Psaki said she has not discussed Mr Johnson’s domestic troubles with the president. Andrew Feinberg has the details here:
Jimmy Savile victims ‘appalled’ by Boris Johnson’s Jimmy Savile jibe
Richard Scorer, whose law firm represented many of Jimmy Savile’s victims, has said his clients are “universally appalled” by Boris Johnson’s comments in the Commons yesterday.
“I think what angers them more than anything else is the idea of Johnson trying to use and weaponise their suffering in order to try and get out of a political hole,” he told ITV News.
Government breaks promise to release private documents on Owen Paterson’s lobbying
The government has broken its promise to publish internal documents that could shine a light on whether Tory MPs helped private healthcare companies land lucrative emergency Covid contracts, our policy correspondent Jon Stone reports.
On 17 November last year MPs voted to force ministers to release minutes of meetings between Owen Paterson, health minister Lord Bethel and private healthcare company Randox.
The government was also ordered to release all correspondence relating to two contracts with the company – which Mr Paterson lobbied on behalf of, in breach of Commons rules.
The department of health and social care committed to releasing the documents by the end of January, but has still not done so – causing anger among opposition MPs.
