Markus Andrews

The government’s most senior law officer has called on Boris Johnson to resign after the prime minister suffered a third cabinet resignation due to his refusal to leave office.Suella Braverman, the attorney general, said Mr Johnson had handled matters “appalingly” in recent days and “the balance has tipped now in favour of saying that the prime minister – it pains me to say it – but it’s time to go.” Ms Braverman, previously a loyalist, said she would stand in a contest to replace Mr Johnson as Tory leader.Meanwhile, Simon Hart became the latest minister to resign from Mr Johnson’s cabinet, leaving his role as Welsh secretary after the prime minster insisted on remaining in his role against the advice of colleagues.The Welsh secretary was followed swiftly out of government by Ed Argar, a health minister – bringing the number of MPs who had resigned since Tuesday to 44.Mr Hart wrote in his resignation letter he was reluctant to take the measure but felt it necessary due to the prime minister obstinance in the face of rapidly dwindling support in the Tory party.The Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire MP wrote: “I have never been a massive fan of Ministerial resignations being the best means of forcing change.“Colleagues have done their upmost in private and public to help you turn the ship around, but it is with sadness that I feel we have passed the point where this is possible”. More

It was always going to be an intense day in Westminster, with Boris Johnson’s leadership hanging by a thread. But the extraordinary sight of a prime minister brushing aside a grilling in a Commons’ committee room as his own cabinet waited nearby to urge him to resign led observers to call it his “day of delusion”. The summer morning started muggy and grey at Downing Street. By 8.30am, staffers arriving by bike and foot tried hard not to creep into the shot of the waiting cameras.Once again, the PM’s political survival was hanging in the balance. Asked to say if the government would survive the week, one serving cabinet minister gave a short one-word reply on Tuesday night: “shaky”. Asked again on Wednesday morning and “shakier” was the response.Still, throughout the day Mr Johnson seemed determined – and grimly so – that all was well. “He is in complete denial,” one No 10 insider said. “He’s bullish one minute and then every so often petulant if you have to give him bad news, and there’s been a lot of bad news.”A second source said if they heard “get on with the job” from the PM one more time, they’d “get a new wine fridge” within Downing Street.That fragility became clear, and quickly. Newly minted chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, had to struggle through interviews routinely interrupted by the resignation of government ministers.Will Quince MP, one such minister who had been dispatched to defend the prime minister with a line that was found to be “inaccurate”, was among those who quit first thing, saying he had been left with “no choice”.As the second day of crisis unfolded, news channels had been planning their coverage through the night and journalists and producers were being sent off to sleep for a few hours at a time. Among the pack outside one of the most famous doors in the world there was a clear consensus: the day would be long. They were right.If Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak’s double resignation opened a wound in Mr Johnson’s premiership, others ensured it would not be cauterised with a reshuffle. From ministers to parliamentary private secretaries (PPS) – aides to ministers – blood kept flowing throughout the day. The schedule was a rough one for any prime minister, even at the height of their powers, with Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) followed by an interrogation from MPs on the liaison committee.As open letters of no confidence started to confetti their way through social media amid the resignations, the atmosphere before the prime minister arrived at the dispatch box in the Commons was grim.With a rejigged frontbench behind him, Mr Johnson insisted the “job” of a prime minister with a large Commons majority “is to keep going and that is what I am going to do”.Even some of the remaining cabinet big hitters weren’t sitting behind the prime minister and the Tories, not shy of a shout, wave or heckle, were largely moribund. Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer landed a verbal blow calling the reshuffled frontbench “the charge of the lightweight brigade”. Even senior Tories had to stifle a chuckle.But nothing stings quite so much as friendly fire. A damning resignation speech from Mr Javid came hard on the heels of PMQs and he did not go gently: “This week again, we have reason to question the truth and integrity of what we’ve all been told.” The line came after a litany of scandals that have dogged Mr Johnson’s premiership in recent months.And, bit by bit, accounts of Michael Gove, a central figure in so many Tory leadership fights, telling the PM it was time to quit started to trickle out. At 3pm an exasperated senior Downing Street source said: “Dear God, let it end.” As the day wore on, onlookers, journalists, police and protesters started to crowd outside the famous street.It was almost a month to the day that Mr Johnson had survived, not entirely unscathed, a vote of no confidence from his parliamentary party triggered by letters submitted to the powerful backbench 1922 Committee. But this time, a plot among cabinet ministers to tell Mr Johnson to go became increasingly public. One cabinet minister texted The Independent to say they would be joining a clutch of figures including transport secretary Grant Shapps and Wales secretary Simon Hart to call for the PM to stand aside.Tears started to flow among some Downing Street staffers as cabinet members arrived.Meanwhile, an apparently oblivious Mr Johnson told MPs at the liaison committee hearing: “I think the country’s going through tough times.”“I cannot for the life of me see how it is responsible to walk away from that.”Insisting he was having a “terrific” week, he refused to be drawn on reports of a delegation awaiting his return at No 10 to encourage him to resign. One option to unseat him, the 1922 Committee, held off on a rule change to allow a fresh no-confidence vote. They hoped the cabinet would finish off Mr Johnson’s premiership. At 7pm, the black door was still shut. There was no lectern ready to receive a resignation speech and the fray inside Downing Street carried on. Even home secretary Priti Patel’s warning that his “time was up” went unheeded as Mr Johnson continued to emphasise the importance of the huge mandate he had won at the last general election in his talks with cabinet ministers, one said. Little more than an hour later, he had made it abundantly clear that he had no intention to go, and certainly not without a fight. More

While the focus of the international community has been on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is China that poses the most dangerous long-term threat to the security of the West, MI5 and FBI leaders have warned.They have accused Beijing of conducting a vast, secret economic and political offensive that is looting billions of pounds’ worth of advanced technology, trying to influence elections, and infiltrating academia.Ken McCallum, director-general of MI5, said that while the US and UK “strain every sinew to support Ukraine in resisting appalling aggression” another great threat is looming.“The most game-changing challenge we face comes from an increasingly authoritarian Chinese Communist party. It’s covertly applying pressure across the globe… We need to talk about it. We need to act,” he declared.Mr McCallum revealed that his service has had to double operations investigating China’s illicit activities while being stretched by threats from the Kremlin, and both Islamist and far-right terrorism.“Today we are running seven times as many investigations as we were in 2018. We plan to grow as much again,” he said.Speaking alongside FBI director Christopher Wray, Mr McCallum also disclosed that 50 Chinese students linked to the country’s Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA) have been forced to leave Britain in the last three years after being suspected of exploiting “research” to gain “cutting edge national security advantage”.He continued: “The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) doesn’t just use intelligence officers posing as diplomats. Privileged information is gathered on multiple channels, in what is sometimes referred to as the ‘thousand grains of sand’ strategy.”He referred to an ‘Interference Alert’ earlier this year warning that an alleged Chinese agent had infiltrated parliament to interfere in the political system. The service said Christine Ching Kui Lee, who ran a legal firm, had “established links” for the CCP with current and aspiring MPs.Mr McCallum said the United Front Work Department (UFWD) – part of the CCP and once described by Mao Zedong as a “magic weapon” – ran “patient, well-funded, deceptive campaigns to buy and exert influence… aiming to amplify pro-CCP voices and silence those that question the CCP’s legitimacy or authority.”Giving an example of individuals being targeted, Mr McCallum spoke of a British aviation expert who had been approached online and offered an attractive job opportunity. The man travelled to China twice to be ‘wined and dined’ before being asked for technical information on military aircraft by a company that was actually a front for Chinese intelligence officers. “That’s where we stepped in,” said Mr McCallum.Mr Wray said China “has for far too long counted on being everybody’s second-highest priority,” adding: “They are not flying under the radar anymore.”He described the challenge from Beijing as “immense” and “breathtaking”.China’s military threat, he said, could lead to global commercial meltdown. “There’s been a lot of discussion about the potential that China may try to forcibly take over Taiwan,” he said. “Were that to happen, it would represent one of the most horrific business disruptions the world has ever seen.”Beijing is drawing “all sorts of lessons” from Russia’s war in Ukraine, he said, including attempting to insulate itself from the impact of any future sanctions. If China did invade Taiwan, Western investments in China would be seized and supply chains disrupted.“I don’t have any reason to think their interest in Taiwan has abated in any fashion,” Mr Wray stressed.There is also massive covert aggression, Mr Wray said, from China’s “lavishly-backed hacking programme that’s bigger than that of every major country combined,” adding: “The Chinese government sees cyber as the pathway to cheat and steal on a massive scale.”While Russia was accused of interfering in the US election to secure victory for Donald Trump, US intelligence agencies have also stated that China has also been actively involved in political interference.Mr Wray described how Beijing had directly interfered in a Congressional election in New York this spring because they did not want a former protester at Tiananmen Square to be elected. The regime hired a private investigator to dig up derogatory information about the candidate and, unable to find anything, there were efforts to manufacture a controversy using a sex worker and even suggestions of a physical attack by staging a car accident. More

Boris Johnson’s government has created an “atmosphere of hostility for LGBT+ people”, a Tory minister has said as he quit the government in protest. Mike Freer resigned from his joint role as trade and equalities minister on Wednesday and said he was no longer able to defend government policy on LGBT+ rights.He was followed by Peter Gibson, another Conservative MP who has served as a parliamentary private secretary at the department for international trade. Mr Gibson also cited the government’s record on LGBT+ rights as the reason for his departure.Mr Freer said in his letter: “I feel that we are moving away from the One Nation Conservative party I joined, not least in creating an atmosphere of hostility for LGBT+ people and I regret I can no longer defend policies I fundamentally disagree with,” he said.Mr Gibson spoke of his recent experience marching at Pride, which he said had been “humiliating”.“On Saturday last week I marched with LGBT+ Conservatives at London Pride. As a gay MP that should have been a liberating, enjoyable experience,” he said.“Instead, due to the damage our party has inflicted on itself over the failure to include trans people in the ban on conversation therapy, it was a humiliating experience. “It signalled to me the immense damage that has been so needlessly inflicted after years of hard work by many to rebuild the damage of Section 28.”Mr Freer and Mr Gibson are two of more than 30 Tory MPs to leave government jobs in the last 24 hours as the prime minister’s top team goes into meltdown. The pair’s criticism of government policy comes after the ministers launched a series of culture war policies targeting the LGBT+ community, particularly trans people.On Monday equalities minister Kemi Badenoch announced that public buildings would from now on have to have gender-segregated toilets – a policy that was interpreted as a shot across the bow on trans rights.Ms Badenoch was least year criticised for calling trans women “men” in a leaked recording from 2018.In recent months the government has also ditched plans to reform gender identity laws proposed under Theresa May. And ministers have scrapped plans to ban conversion therapy for trans people, causing an outcry. Ministers have also been criticised for giving little attention to trans healthcare needs.Britain this year fell from 10th to 14th in the “Rainbow Europe” index ranking countries by how LGBT+ friendly their policies are. More

New chancellor Nadhim Zahawi’s finances were secretly investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA), The Independent can disclose.A senior serving Whitehall figure has revealed that a number of individuals were formally approached by officials from the NCA about the matter in 2020.The NCA said they were seeking information about multimillionaire Mr Zahawi’s finances, stated the source. The inquiry was codenamed “Operation Catalufa” and is understood to have involved the agency’s International Corruption Unit.Catalufa, known as “Popeye Catalufa”, is a species of ray finned fish, orange in colour, found in deep waters in the Pacific.Whitehall officials were told the inquiry was top secret and that Mr Zahawi had not been informed about it. The NCA inquiry did not lead to any action against Mr Zahawi. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by him.The first Mr Zahawi knew about the matter was when he was informed by The Independent on Wednesday.His initial reaction was: “There was no such investigation by [the] NCA. I would know. Right?”When told that The Independent had established that the NCA had looked into his business affairs, he replied: “The NCA never approached me or told me anything ever in my career.”He added: “I have paid all due taxes and obeyed all financial laws and regulations.”Asked if Mr Johnson was aware of the NCA investigation when he appointed Mr Zahawi chancellor, a No 10 spokesperson said: “All checks were made.”Pressed to say if Mr Johnson had been told about the investigation into Mr Zahawi, the spokesman added: “The usual pre-appointment declarations were made by the minister and any necessary checks completed.”The Zahawi/NCA riddle started several days ago when Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s former senior No 10 aide, posted a sarcastic tweet about former Cabinet reshuffle discussions with Mr Johnson in which he described how ministers’ personal and political shortcomings were aired.Referring to the characterisation of one unnamed cabinet minister, Mr Cummings’ tweet said: “Under investigation by NCA (he doesn’t know).”The identity of Mr Zahawi as the minister referred to by Mr Cummings was disclosed to The Independent by a separate source with detailed knoweldge of the police inquiry. The individual also stated that Mr Zahawi had not known of the NCA inquiry.“They didn’t tell him because they were trawling for information,” said the individual.The controversy comes less than 24 hours after Mr Zahawi replaced Rishi Sunak at the Treasury.If Mr Johnson is brought down as Prime Minister, loyalist Mr Zahawi, a popular figure among Tory MPs, is one of the main contenders to succeed him. More

The powerful 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers have pulled back from a threat to change party rules to allow another confidence vote in Boris Johnson.The group decided it would be unfair to ditch the 12-month grace period currently enjoyed by the prime minister before committee elections can take place on Monday.A source on the committee said the group does not expect Mr Johnson to remain in power until Monday, as a group of cabinet ministers headed to No 10 on Wednesday night to tell the PM it is time to go. More

A delegation of cabinet ministers including the newly appointed chancellor Nadhim Zahawi is preparing to tell Boris Johnson to resign from No 10 after mass resignations from the ministerial ranks.The move could represent a fatal blow to Mr Johnson’s embattled premiership with MPs from across all wings of the Conservative party also publicly declaring the prime minister no longer has their confidence.In the wake of the resignations of chancellor Rishi Sunak and the health secretary Sajid Javid, who urged the cabinet to act on Wednesday, the prime minister has haemorrhaged support across the Tory ranks.A government source told The Independent the delegation of ministers includes Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, Chris Heaton Harris, the chief whip, and Mr Zahawi, the new chancellor, and the Welsh secretary Simon Hart.International trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan has also been seen arriving at Downing Street while long-standing cabinet ally Brandon Lewis now believes Mr Johnson’s position is “untenable”.Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, told the prime minister to resign during a private meeting earlier on Wednesday, but has remained in post.Mr Johnson, who was appearing at the Commons Liaison Committee as the news emerged, was told here was a delegation of cabinet ministers waiting for him at No 10 to tell him to quit by the Labour MP Darren Jones.But the prime minister, who has defied calls to resign, repeated the line that he was “not going to get into a running commentary on political events”. More

A Conservative MP has pressed ‘send’ on a letter of no confidence in Boris Johnson while sitting opposite the prime minister at a parliamentary committee.Huw Merriman wrote to Mr Johnson on Wednesday to tell him he believed he had failed “in terms of judgment, competency and integrity” and that he should resign.His letter was posted online at 3.41pm, while Mr Merriman was siting in a meeting of the Liaison Committee opposite Mr Johnson.Tom Peck, the The Independent’s sketchwriter, who attended the committee hearing in person said: “Huw Merriman’s sitting opposite me at the liaison committee. “Pretty sure he actually looked Johnson in the eye when he pressed send on this.”In the letter, the Battle and Bexhill MP said he had always “expressed grave concern about the events and culture at Number 10, which demonstrated that there were serious issues with the judgement, decision-making and accountability” there.Noting that he had wanted to see whether “lessons had been learnt” after the Partygate affair, he added: “Events of the past few days, however, have demonstrated a further failure on the part of the prime minister, in terms of judgement, competency, and integrity. This tells me that lessons have not been learnt.”We cannot continue like this. This current situation is causing inertia in government and if we allow standards expected of those in public service to fall, we will lose the trust of the public and we will never attract high calibre, trustworthy, and hard-working individuals into politics or public service.”Mr Merriman added that he now believed the prime minister’s position was “untenable”.The MP, who chairs the transport committee, used his questions to the prime minister to suggest that “inertia in No 10” was slowing progress on deploying crucial policies like road pricing, which had been “sat on for three months”.Mr Johnson said the claim was “nonsense”. More