Markus Andrews

Boris Johnson will stage a no-confidence in his own government – in a “bizarre” twist to the row over Labour being denied Commons time for the showdown.The prime minister was accused of an “abuse of power” after breaking with parliamentary convention by refusing the vote earmarked for Wednesday – accusing Labour of “playing politics”.Now the vote will take place on Monday, but only giving MPs the opportunity to express confidence in the government, not in Mr Johnson himself, a move a Labour source branded “bizarre”.A government spokesperson accused Keir Starmer of breaking with convention by making the prime minister the target of the vote – a claim dismissed by experts.“To remedy this we are tabling a motion which gives the House the opportunity to decide if it has confidence in the government.” a statement said.RecommendedLabour accused the government of “running scared” when its vote on confidence in Mr Johnson was denied on Tuesday, saying: “This is totally unprecedented.”Erskine May, the parliamentary bible. States that “by established convention” the government “always accedes to the demand from the Leader of the Opposition”.It was highly unlikely that enough Tory rebels would be found for the vote to be won – but it would have embarrassed Conservative MPs who voted to keep Mr Johnson in post for now.The government argued that the vote was a waste of parliamentary time because the prime minister “has already resigned”, even though he remains in No 10.Sir Keir’s spokesman said it would be “brazen hypocrisy” for Tory MPs who have called for Mr Johnson to go immediately to back the government next week – in a debate Mr Johnson will lead.The row blew up as Mr Johnson sparked speculation that he will skip next week’s prime minister’s questions – which would make today’s confrontation his last.The funeral of the assassinated former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe is expected in the middle of next week. Mr Johnson’s political spokeswoman said he had “no plans” to attend.“As it stands, the prime minister will be doing prime minister’s questions next week,” the spokeswoman said.Downing Street also revealed that Mr Johnson will leave No 10 on 6 September, one day after his successor is announced following a ballot of Tory members.His political spokeswoman also denied the widespread belief that he is working behind the scenes to try to prevent the former chancellor Rishi Sunak seizing the crown.RecommendedEyebrows were raised when Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg appeared outside the No 10 door to endorse Liz Truss – a leading ‘Stop Sunak’ candidate.“We are not getting into leadership conversations. We are remaining neutral in this process,” the spokeswoman said. More

Two Scottish MPs have been thrown out of the Commons chamber after they attempted to protest about independence before Prime Minister’s Questions. Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle acted after repeatedly warning the MPs to sit down and telling them to “shut up a minute”. Alba Party MPs Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey were ordered to leave the chamber amid furious scenes at the start of the session.Mr MacAskill could be heard trying to raise a point of order and appeared to say “we need a referendum in the Prime Minister” before he was drowned out by other MPs.Mr MacAskill refused to sit down and continued to speak, prompting Sir Lindsay to act.RecommendedMr Hanvey then rose to his feet, before he was subsequently told to leave the chamber.Both men are former SNP MPs. But they both joined the Alba Party when it was created by former SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond. Mr MacAskill is a former senior minister in the Scottish government.The two men were protesting about the UK Government’s refusal to transfer the powers necessary to hold a second Scottish independence vote to the Scottish government. Ministers have said now is not the time for another vote on the issue, after 55 per cent of Scots backed remaining in the UK in 2014. During PMQs Boris Johnson told MPs that when it came to independence for Scotland: “We are much much better together”. He said that the “last thing” Scots needed with the current economic situation was more constitutional wrangling. In a letter to the Prime Minister the two Alba MPs write: “The decision taken by you, in the dying days of your Premiership, to reject out of hand the request for a Section 30 Order which would allow a consented and legal Independence Referendum to take place is an egregious afront to Scottish Democracy and to the people of Scotland. “A majority of Scots voted in the 2021 Scottish Parliament Election, on the Regional List, for  the Scottish National Party, the Scottish Green Party and the ALBA Party – all of whom stood on a platform of ensuring an Independence Referendum would take place within the current parliamentary term.”They add: “As the self-styled “Minister for the Union” you must recognise that this Union is a voluntary one, and was meant to be a union of  equals, as such it can only be maintained by consent  of the people of Scotland.  You should be in no doubt that holding Scotland’s democracy hostage is something which the people of Scotland will not put up with.”The two MPs were later formally suspended from the Commons. Recommended More

Penny Mordaunt has claimed she is the Tory leadership candidate that Labour “fears the most” and the party’s “best shot” at winning the next general election in her pitch to activists.Launching her campaign, the minister also warned the Conservative Party has “lost its sense of self” in the last few years, as she set out her pitch for low taxation and a reduction in the size of the state.“We need to get back to that,” she said. “We’ve got to stave off recession. We’ve got to catch up after Covid and we have a war. We have a manifesto that we have to deliver and standards and trust to restore”.Pressed on where she stood on gender issues, she added: “I think it was Margaret Thatcher who said ‘Every prime minister needs a Willie‘. A woman like me doesn’t have one.”Ms Mordaunt’s remarks come less than 24 hours after she progressed through to the next stage of voting among MPs in the Tory leadership contest, gaining over 20 MPs’ nominations to make the ballot.Along with seven other candidates she will now face the tough battle of winning enough of her colleagues’ support as the party’s 1922 committee whittles down the contenders to just two to face a membership vote.RecommendedSpeaking at her launch event in central London, Ms Mordaunt brushed off claims that she was less well-known than other candidates in the race to succeed Boris Johnson in No 10, saying: “I am the candidate that Labour fear the most — and they’re right to”.“If we do not win the next general election all those opportunities and the vision the British people had from us leaving the EU will not be realised. We must win that election. I am your best shot at winning that election,” she added.After Ms Mordaunt’s campaign launch, a Labour spokesperson, however, told The Independent: “Whoever succeeds this lying, damaging, discredited prime minister, will inherit a damaging, discredited government, a record of 12 years of failure, a stagnant economy as a result of their choices, and a general public who know they deserve better. We don’t fear any of them.” More

Conservative Party lawmakers in Britain are casting ballots Wednesday in the first round of an election to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson.The internal party contest will replace the flamboyant, scandal-ridden Johnson — a figure famous in Britain and around the world — with a new and much lesser-known prime minister.Eight candidates have secured the required backing of 20 of their colleagues to make the first ballot. The 358 Tory legislators will vote Wednesday afternoon, with the last-placed candidate and any others who fail to get 30 votes dropping off the list. Further rounds of voting will take place Thursday and, if needed, next week.The final two contenders will face a runoff vote by about 180,000 Conservative Party members across the country. The winner is scheduled to be announced Sept. 5 and will automatically become prime minister, without the need for a national election.Few of the contenders have a high public profile. Former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak is the bookies’ favorite and has the largest number of declared supporters, followed by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt. RecommendedTreasury chief Nadhim Zahawi, backbench lawmaker Tom Tugendhat, ex-Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch, former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Attorney General Suella Braverman are also on the ballot.The candidates are jostling to replace Johnson, who quit as Conservative leader last week amid a party revolt triggered by months of ethics scandals. He will remain in office as a caretaker prime minister until his replacement as party chief is chosen.Mordaunt, at her official campaign launch on Wednesday, said the party had “standards and trust to restore” after the scandal-tarnished Johnson years.She said voters “are fed up with us not delivering, they are fed up with unfulfilled promises and they are fed up with divisive politics.”The slate of candidates is strikingly diverse, with four contenders from ethnic minorities and four women. But all are offering similar tax-slashing pledges, with only Sunak offering a note of caution. He has cast himself as the candidate of fiscal probity, saying said the country needs “honesty and responsibility, not fairytales” to get through economic shockwaves from the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine.___Follow all of AP’s coverage of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and British politics at https://apnews.com/hub/boris-johnson More

Conservative party leadership frontrunner Rishi Sunak has boosted his chances by winning the backing of loyal Boris Johnson lieutenant Steve Barclay.Mr Barclay – the former No 10 chief of staff made health secretary during last week’s cabinet revolt against the prime minister – announced his support for Mr Sunak on Twitter.“I worked closely with him when I was chief secretary to the Treasury and I am convinced that he has all the right attributes to take our country forward,” he said of the former chancellor.Mr Sunak has been subjected to bitter attacks from Johnson loyalists, with Jacob Rees-Mogg accusing him of being a “socialist” chancellor and Nadine Dorries claimed he has waged “dirty tricks” to ensure he wins.Mr Barclay’s endorsement may go some way to sooth some of the uneasiness towards Mr Sunak felt by junior ministers who stayed in government or accepted roles last week amid the turmoil of the rebellion.Tory MPs will have the chance to vote for the eight contenders vying to replace Boris Johnson, as balloting begins to find his successor.RecommendedMr Sunak, Liz Truss, Penny Mordaunt, Tom Tugendhat, Kemi Badenoch, Jeremy Hunt, Nadhim Zahawi and Suella Braverman will all be on the ballot as voting opens at 1.30pm on Wednesday, after all secured the 20 nominations.Tuesday saw some high-profile causalities as the race intensifies. Former health secretary Sajid Javid pulled out, home secretary Priti Patel decided against a late bid, and transport secretary Grant Shapps switched support to Mr Sunak.Meanwhile Ms Truss, gained the endorsement of prominent Johnson loyalists Jacob Rees-Mogg, Nadine Dorries and James Cleverly, in what was seen as a concerted move to prevent Mr Sunak entering No 10.Ms Dorries accused Mr Sunak’s team of “dirty tricks” after claims that one of his supporters – ex-chief whip Gavin Williamson – had been trying to “syphon off” votes for Mr Hunt so he would make it to the final run-off and give Mr Sunak an easy opponent.The claim was denied by Mr Hunt, who told LBC radio it was a “very dangerous game to play”. He also blamed the former chancellor for putting Britain on course for a recession.Backers of Mr Hunt believe that he will be able to amass the required minimum of 30 votes in the first ballot later on Wednesday, but publicly-declared nominations suggest he, Ms Bdenoch, Ms Braverman and Mr Zahawi may now struggle to make to the final two.Johnson loyalist and Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg launched a broadside against Mr Sunak’s economic policy in an article in the Daily Mail, accusing him of raising tax to “socialist” levels.Mr Sunak, in the interview, told The Telegraph: “We will cut taxes and we will do it responsibly. That’s my economic approach. I would describe it as common sense Thatcherism. I believe that’s what she would have done.”Mr Shapps denied Mr Sunak’s campaign has engaged in “dirty tricks”, and dismissed Mr Rees-Mogg’s claim that he had been “socialist chancellor” as “not true”.It comes after a Opinium poll for Channel 4 News revealed that Mr Sunak is the preferred candidate to take over the Tory Party among Conservative members, with 28 per cent wanting him on the final ballot.RecommendedAway from the Tory leadership race, the government has also provoked a row with Labour after the opposition party accused Mr Johnson’s team of “running scared” after it refused to allow parliamentary time for a Commons vote of no confidence.Labour had called it “unprecedented” for ministers not to allow parliamentary time for a vote of confidence. But a government spokesman hit back, accusing Labour of “playing politics”. More

Liz Truss told Conservatives MPs she was “prepared” to pull the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights if reforms aimed at reducing the influence of judges in Strasbourg are not successful.The foreign secretary and leadership hopeful told a hustings event organised by Tory right-wingers that if became necessary to withdraw, “I would be prepared to do that”.However, Ms Truss’s team have insisted that such a move would be a last resort.The top contender’s preferred way of reducing the influence of Strasbourg’s European Court of Human Rights – which oversees the convention – would be through the government’s proposed “bill of rights”.Ms Truss’s allies have contrasted the position with the more hard-line stance taken by rival Suella Braverman – who claimed the European Court of Human Rights was “thwarting our democracy” and the UK must remove itself from its jurisdiction.It follows Tory outrage over the first planned Rwanda deportation flight being halted after last-minute rulings from the European Court of Human Rights and the UK’s appeal court.RecommendedFurther attempts to send asylum seekers on one-way flights to Rwanda for “offshore processing”, a bid to reduce small boat crossings in the English Channel, are not likely to be made until after a judicial review begins later this week.Kemi Badenoch and Nadhim Zahawi were said to be “open to withdrawal” from the European convention at last night’s hustings by the Common Sense Group of MPs, while Rishi Sunak did not rule out the possibility, according to Politico.In the wake of last month’s failed first attempt to send migrants to Rwanda, asked if the UK could end its relationship with the Strasbourg court, Mr Sunak said: “All options are on the table”.The bill of rights put forward by justice minister Dominic Raab is partly aimed at giving British courts greater powers to ignore rulings by the European court, currently the ultimate arbiter of the human rights convention for dozens of countries.However, withdrawing as a signatory to the European Convention of Human Rights would be a radical step.It would put the next prime minister in the same company as Vladimir Putin’s regime after Russia announced in March it would cease to be party to the convention and was ending jurisdiction of the European court.The row comes as Conservative leadership contender Jeremy Hunt said he would back an expansion of the government’s policy of sending asylum seekers on one-way flights to Rwanda.Viewed as a Tory moderate, Mr Hunt is keen to build support from people in the right of the party keen to see further crackdowns on small boat crossing in the English Channel.“I hope we could find some other countries as well as Rwanda,” Mr Hunt told the Sunday Telegraph. “I think we have to stop the small boats. I support the current policy.”RecommendedMr Tugendhat – hoping to win the support of the One Nation wing of Tory moderates – also said he would keep the “Rwanda solution” policy put forward by Boris Johnson’s government.“The Rwanda solution is not one anyone would have initially chosen, but the reality is you cannot have rewards for criminality and illegal action,” he told the Sunday Times. More

Priti Patel has refused to attend a planned session giving evidence to parliament’s Home Affairs Committee, and will not answer questions until after the Conservative leadership election – if she is still in post.The home secretary was due to be questioned on issues including the Rwanda migrant deal, violence against women and girls, policing and passport delays on Wednesday morning.Minutes before the session was due to start, the Home Affairs Committee tweeted: “This morning at 10.00am we were due to be questioning the home secretary, Priti Patel. She has declined to attend our session.”Stuart McDonald, a Scottish National Party MP who sits on the committee, said the home secretary emailed the committee shortly before 5pm on Tuesday to cancel her appearance.The reason given was “recent changes in government”, including to her ministerial team, following a wave of resignations that ousted Boris Johnson.RecommendedMs Patel remained in her post and pitched to influential MPs to run in the Conservative leadership race, but ruled herself out on Tuesday after failing to receive sufficient support.She is expected to continue as home secretary until at least September, when the winning candidate will become prime minister and reshuffle the cabinet.Ms Patel’s situation is uncertain, amid concern among Conservative MPs over her failure to reduce Channel migrant crossings and doubts over the effectiveness and costs of the Rwanda deal.The chair of the Home Affairs Committee, Diana Johnson, called the refusal to attend Wednesday’s evidence session “wholly unacceptable”.“This date was agreed months in advance and the reason given for why the home secretary cannot attend this morning – due to changes in the Home Office ministerial team – does not make sense as it was the home secretary giving evidence and not a junior minister,” she said.Ms Patel had been due to appear before the committee alongside the Home Office’s two most senior civil servants, permanent secretary Matthew Rycroft and second permanent secretary Tricia Hayes.In her email to the committee, Ms Patel said its scrutiny was “always a priority for the department and me”. More