Boris Johnson says no-confidence vote win ‘decisive’ despite mass Tory rebellion
Boris Johnson put on a defiant show as he faced MPs in the Commons for the first time since suffering a damaging result in Monday night’s confidence vote on his leadership.
SNP leader Ian Blackford launched a blistering attack on Mr Johnson’s position after the confidence vote, branding him a “lame duck” PM.
Mr Blackford likened the prime minister to Monty Python’s Black Knight, who claimed fatal wounds were just flesh wounds, and told him: “It’s over, it’s done.”
It transpired that 41 per cent of Tory backbenchers agreed with his repeated calls for the prime minister to quit, the SNP MP claimed.
But Mr Johnson dismissed the rebels, saying he had “picked up political opponents all over” because his government had “done some very big and very remarkable things which they didn’t necessarily approve of”.
Promising new measures on home ownership and defending NHS waiting times from attacks by Sir Keir Starmer, the PM insisted he would fight to stay in power, and joked that his political career had “barely begun”.
Boris Johnson will cut taxes at a ‘responsible’ time, No 10 says
The government remains committed to cutting taxes but will only act when it is “responsible” to do so, Boris Johnson’s press secretary has said.
Mr Johnson has faced renewed calls from Tory MPs to bring down the level of taxation following Monday’s wounding confidence vote.
The press secretary said: “We have been clear we want to cut taxes but we are in a very difficult position following the global pandemic so as soon as it is responsible we will set out plans for doing that.”
Labour MPs call for mass protests over cost of living crisis
Labour MP Richard Burgon has called for mass protests and strikes to force Boris Johnson’s government to take stronger action over the cost of living crisis.
Writing in the Morning Star, the former shadow cabinet member said that “over the next year, as the crisis bites even harder, the scale of protest will need to match the scale of crisis”.
Mr Burgon called for the Trades Union Congress protest on 18 June to be “a spark for further actions that make 2022 a year of protest against this Tory government”, adding: “That’s key to defeating the living standards emergency the Tories are choosing to force on our communities.”
His calls were backed by Diane Abbott, who said: “We need mass mobilisation to make the Tories do something about the cost of living crisis.”
Priti Patel has not met me once in 14 months, says ‘frustrated’ borders chief
The government’s borders inspector has expressed his “frustration” at not being able to meet Priti Patel once since his appointment more than a year ago, my colleague Adam Forrest reports.
David Neal – appointed the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration 14 months ago – told MPs he was “disappointed” to have had five or six meetings with the home secretary cancelled.
“I’ve not met the home secretary yet,” he told the home affairs select committee. “I’ve asked to speak to her on a number occasions, and pre-arranged meeting have been cancelled on maybe five or six occasions now.”
Asked if the experience was different from experience with other departments, Mr Neal said: “It is – I’m disappointed I haven’t spoken to the home secretary, and frustrated, because I think I’ve got things to offer from the position I hold.”
Opinion: Captain Boris will go down with his ship of make-believe
The prime minister’s biggest problem is that he is now in so deep in a world of his own, he can’t even see that nobody believes him any more, writes Tom Peck. Mr Johnson will be in denial to his final breath:
YouGov ‘banned’ release of 2017 leader poll that was ‘too good for Labour’
Bosses at pollster YouGov suppressed publication of a survey during the 2017 election campaign because it was “too positive about Labour“, a former manger at the pollster has claimed. Jon Stone reports:
Johnson not suited to being PM, ex-girlfriend says
Boris Johnson is not suited to the top job because he gets bored with things quickly, a former girlfriend says.
Petronella Wyatt said he was in a “mess of his own making” after the rebellion from 41 per cent of his MPs.
“His qualities are very endearing but they’re not necessarily the qualities of a great prime minister,” she said. Thomas Kingsley reports:
Sir Keir has a year to turn things round, warns Mandelson
Labour former spin chief doctor Peter Mandelson has warned that Sir Keir Starmer has “got about a year” to turn things around for the party.
“Between now and the next year… we’ve got to see more powerful brushstrokes, put down on that canvas.” he told Times Radio.
Tony Blair’s former top adviser is set to make a speech in which he will warn the current Labour Party leader he needs to show more “ambition and hard thinking” if we wants to do better than “sneaking over the finishing line”.
He will also suggest there is a “desperate need” for Sir Keir to ape some of Boris Johnson’s policies on research and innovation.
Mr Blair had urged Sir Keir to do more to “project his personality” in a bid to win round more voters in the next general election, he revealed.
HS2 will help us cut tax, claims Johnson
Boris Johnson has insisted HS2 will put the government in a better position to cut taxes in the future after a Conservative former cabinet minister urged him to scrap the new high-speed rail line.
During Prime Minister’s Questions, Esther McVey, a vocal critic of HS2, said scrapping the project would save “tens of billions of pounds” from a budget that is “spiralling out of control”.
She asked the Prime Minister to scrap the “inflated white elephant”.
However, Mr Johnson passionately defended HS2, arguing it would deliver “long-term growth and prosperity for the whole of the country”.
HS2 minister Andrew Stephenson said the Government would explore alternatives for how HS2 trains would reach Scotland.
PM denies barristers not consulted over legal status of scrapping NI Protocol
Boris Johnson said reports that the first Treasury counsel – specialist barristers – had not been consulted over whether plans to rip up the Northern Ireland Protocol would break international law were not correct.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood asked him in the Commons: “Today, we hear reports that the Prime Minister refused to consult the first Treasury counsel on his plans to rip up the protocol.
“I know this question might be redundant given he might not be around very much longer, but given the Prime Minister’s casual record of casual law-breaking, will he give a commitment to the people of Northern Ireland that he will not be breaking international law any time soon?”
Mr Johnson replied: “I can tell him that the reports that he has seen this morning are not correct.
“And what I can also tell him is that the most important commitment that I think everybody in this House has made is to the balance and symmetry of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement.
“That is our highest legal international priority and that is what we must deliver.” Rob Merrick reports:
24 Hours in A&E is government policy, claims Sir Keir
Sir Keir Starmer accused Mr Johnson of being “utterly unable” to improve the NHS, warning: “24 Hours in A&E used to be a TV programme – now it’s his policy.”
The Labour leader focused his attacks at Prime Minister’s Questions on problems within the health service rather than on Mr Johnson’s leadership woes.
Sir Keir responded to the noises heard as Mr Johnson entered the chamber by saying: “I couldn’t make out whether that introductory noise was cheers or boos. The trouble is I don’t know whether it is directed at me or him.”
He raised concerns over patients being put at risk by a “failure to fix wanting and inadequate” NHS buildings, a line of attack Mr Johnson labelled “satirical” before arguing: “Attacking our hospital building programme, when they were the authors of the PFI scheme that bankrupted so many hospitals.”
Sir Keir said: “Pretending no rules were broken didn’t work, pretending the economy is booming didn’t work, and pretending to build 40 new hospitals won’t work, either…
“On top of that he scraps zero-tolerance of 12-hour waits at A&E – 24 Hours in A&E used to be a TV programme, now it’s his policy.”
Mr Johnson countered: “We’ve not only raised the standard in the NHS, we’re not only reducing waiting times for those who have had to wait the longest, but what we’re doing more fundamentally is what the people of this country can see is simple common-sense and that’s using our economic strength to invest in doctors and nurses, and get people on the ward, giving people their scans, screens and tests in a more timely manner.”
Sir Keir warned “things are getting worse, not better” in the NHS before highlighting two cases of patients who have suffered.
MPs heard the first was a semi-professional footballer who tore his anterior cruciate ligament but had to crowdfund for a private operation due to a two-year wait for surgery.
The second was of a man who called 999 six times after his mother woke up unable to breathe, with Sir Keir explaining: “In his last call he said: ‘I rang an hour ago for an ambulance as she had difficulty breathing, and now she’s dead.”’
Sir Keir pressed Mr Johnson to admit these people “deserve better than a wanting and inadequate Government utterly unable to improve our NHS”.
Mr Johnson said he believed all MPs had sympathy with the cases, adding: “I share their feelings, but when you look at what this Government is doing, we are making colossal investments in our NHS, we’re cutting waiting times, we’re raising standards, we’re paying nurses more, we’re supporting our fantastic NHS, and by the way, (Sir Keir) continually came to the House and said we had the worst Covid record in Europe – turned out to be completely untrue, he still hasn’t retracted it.”
