Markus Andrews

Ministers would no longer be able to keep secret the full details of free holidays and free tickets to major events, under a crackdown demanded by MPs.Concern has been growing after Boris Johnson was able to dodge fully declaring his stay at a luxury villa owned by Zac Goldsmith, while Priti Patel was late revealing her trip to a James Bond premiere.Now the Commons standards committee wants “the ministerial exemption” – which allows hospitality to be declared separately from that enjoyed by other MPs – to be scrapped from the autumn.However, the government is expected to resist the overhaul, having rejected the call last year when it argued it was “appropriate that there are different rules”.The recommendation is among a package of measures to crack down on “sleaze” sparked in part by last year’s scandals that engulfed the Tory MPs Owen Paterson and Geoffrey Cox.There should be ban on MPs acting as consultants, providing “paid parliamentary advice or strategy services” – as around 35, mainly Conservative MPs, have done – the Commons standards committee report says.That is supported by the government, which also floated a ceiling on hours worked or earnings made before rejecting that as unworkable, a view shared by the committee.Other recommendations, intended to be voted on in the Commons by July, include:Ban MPs from talking with ministers, or in debates, in a way that would benefit someone who has paid them – on top of the existing rule that they should not “initiate” approaches or debates.Require MPs to have a written contract for any outside work, making explicit the ban on lobbying ministers or public officials, or providing advice on influencing parliament.Make the Register of Members’ Interests more “transparent and searchable” – possibly updating it more frequently than every two weeks, as it is currently.Toughen the Seven Principles of Public Life to state that MPs should “exemplify anti-discriminatory attitudes in their own behaviour”.The committee hopes the crackdown will cut the number of “freebies” accepted by ministers (once full declaration is required) and MPs (facing tougher restrictions on speaking in debates).Last October, Mr Johnson stayed at the Spanish villa of Lord Goldsmith – his environment minister – but the stay was not declared on the Commons register within 28 days, as normally required.Instead, the prime minister exploited the rule that allows hospitality “received in a member’s capacity as a minister” to be released by that minister’s department, without revealing the value of it.The home secretary provoked ridicule when she claimed she attended the No Time To Die premiere last September because her job requires knowing about spies – declaring it only five months later.There was also controversy when some of the approximately 20 MPs who accepted £900 hospitality at last year’s Brit Awards failed to register it, because they are ministers.Chris Bryant, the committee’s chair, urged Mr Johnson not to reject any of the recommendations, warning “the public cares passionately about standards in parliament.“Every generation of MPs holds membership of the house in trust for the next generation. It can either burnish the house’s reputation or tarnish it,” he said. More

No 10 is poised to unveil measures aimed at easing the cost of living crisis in order to offset public anger over the Sue Gray Partygate report.The communications grid — the planning document used by government spin doctors — includes an extension to the warm homes discount. An announcement on the measure, which could come later this week, is expected to be worth hundreds of pounds to some households.Ministers believe that publication soon after the release of the Partygate report could help cast a more positive light on the government’s activities.It was held back in order to give the prime minister a “soft landing”, a Downing Street insider told The Independent.The intervention is set to come after Jonathan Brearley, chief executive of energy regulator Ofgem, told MPs the price cap would rise from £1,971 to £2,800 a year in October.The drive to try and reboot Mr Johnson’s premiership comes after the government spending watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) revealed that unemployment benefits are set to fall by £12bn this year after accounting for inflation.The warm home discount is a one-off payment, aimed at low-income households or pensioners. It is normally delivered as a discount on an energy bill.The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “This has been a long-standing challenge both in the UK and globally, so I would refute any suggestion that timings would be used in that way. I’m unable to give you a steer on the possible timeframe, not least because nothing has been decided.”It was not necessarily the case that the cabinet would have to meet to approve details of any package before it was announced, the spokesperson said, though they noted that ministers did not discuss specific plans at Tuesday’s meeting.“The information that’s been set out today – albeit indicative – is an important factor in deciding what challenges the public are going to face in October when this rise is due to come in, and therefore helps with planning,” he added.The combination of fresh analysis from the OBR and the news of the likely sharp increase in energy bills this autumn by Ofgem paint a grim picture for the remainder of the year, according to Trades Union Congress.General secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Millions of families are already at breaking point. But now they face even more bill hikes, while ministers do nothing to make sure wages and universal credit keep pace.“The chancellor must provide more help to families now. We need an emergency budget – it’s time to get on with it.” More

Fresh claims of chaotic lockdown parties and all-night drinking at No 10 have emerged as Boris Johnson braces himself for the publication of the potentially explosive Sue Gray report.Former staffers described “wine-time Fridays” where bins would overflow with empty bottles, adding to the pressure on the prime minister as the report is expected to be published as early as Wednesday.And an exclusive Savanta poll for The Independent found that two-thirds (66 per cent) of voters believe Mr Johnson should resign if he is heavily criticised. In findings that will trouble anxious Conservative MPs, more than a quarter (26 per cent) of those who backed the Tories in 2019 said they were less likely to do so again if Mr Johnson remains leader.The figures were scarcely reduced from the height of the Partygate furore in January, and suggested that Mr Johnson has earned little credit from voters for escaping with only one £50 fine from the Metropolitan Police inquiry.One Tory critic of the PM said it was “urgent” that MPs submit letters of no confidence, while another said it was clear the prime minister was now an “electoral liability”.A series of No 10 insiders told BBC’s Panorama that they felt the gatherings were condoned by the prime minister, as he was “grabbing a glass for himself”.They said Downing Street would be left a “mess” after the events, with some revellers staying overnight.They said the culture was set by Mr Johnson himself, claiming he “wanted to be liked” and for staff to be able to “let their hair down”.It came after a leaked photograph showed Mr Johnson raising a glass at a leaving do for former spin doctor Lee Cain eight days after the implementation of England’s second lockdown.Amid growing backbench concern about the impact of Partygate, one senior MP told The Independent: “The whole thing is rotten. He’s got to go.”Meanwhile, another veteran backbencher, Sir Roger Gale, said: “I think we are discovering that from being an electoral asset, he is becoming an electoral liability – something my colleagues may want to take on board. We can’t go on lurching from crisis to crisis.”The Savanta poll found that 46 per cent of voters believe Johnson should have resigned after receiving a police fine for breaking Covid laws, with a further 20 per cent saying he should do so only if heavily criticised in the Gray report. Some 47 per cent of those who voted Tory in 2019 said he should go if condemned by Gray, against 46 per cent who want him to stay.Fewer than one voter in five (19 per cent) believes Mr Johnson has told the truth about parties at No 10, compared to an overwhelming 67 per cent who think he lied. And 37 per cent said it would make them less likely to back the Tories if he remains leader.One MP who has submitted a letter of no confidence in the PM told The Independent: “This poll tallies with what I am hearing on the doorstep. My colleagues urgently need to consider not just the moral implications of Partygate but the electoral implications as well.”The Gray report will detail 16 events held in No 10 and Whitehall in 2020 and 2021, at a time when Britons had been told to stay at home and avoid social contact except for essential work reasons.In an interim report in January, the senior civil servant blasted “failures of leadership” at No 10 and said some of the behaviour described was “difficult to justify” at a time when the public were under such tight restrictions.Around 30 senior individuals have been warned they will be named for possible criticism in the full report, which was delayed for four months while police conducted their own investigation.Downing Street was forced to deny reports that Mr Johnson had suggested at a meeting earlier this month that Ms Gray could ditch the full report, allegedly asking her: “Is there much point in doing it now that it’s all out there?”The PM’s official spokesperson told reporters he “did not recognise” the account, adding: “The prime minister did not ask her to drop the report or not proceed with the report. It was the prime minister who commissioned the report and he wants the report to be published.”It is expected that the report will be published within hours of being handed over to Mr Johnson, who will then make a statement to MPs before facing Conservative backbenchers in a meeting of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories which could be crucial to deciding his fate.Committee chair Sir Graham Brady must call a vote on the leadership if he receives 54 no-confidence letters from MPs, with Mr Johnson then needing a majority of MPs’ votes to survive.Some 13 MPs have publicly declared they have submitted letters, though some may have withdrawn them, while others could have done so privately, Rumours circulating in Westminster on Tuesday suggested that Sir Graham may have amassed as many as 40 letters, though he never confirms the figure until the threshold is passed.Tuesday’s Savanta poll found continued dissatisfaction with Mr Johnson’s performance as prime minister, though his overall rating of -26 (34 per cent thinking he was doing well and 60 per cent badly) was slightly improved on the -28 score he recorded in April.But there was no clear frontrunner to succeed him, with voters choosing Mr Johnson as the best available Tory leader on 22 per cent, ahead of Rishi Sunak or Jeremy Hunt on 8 and Liz Truss or Sajid Javid on 6. Some 44 per cent of those who voted Conservative in 2019 said Mr Johnson was their favoured leader.And Labour’s lead over the Tories remained at six points, with Keir Starmer’s party on 40 per cent (unchanged since a similar poll in April), Conservatives on 34 (unchanged) and Liberal Democrats 10 (down one).Sir Keir Starmer’s satisfaction rating of -3 was better than that of any government minister polled.But almost half of those questioned (48 per cent) agreed that Starmer should quit as Labour leader – as he has promised to do – if he is fined by Durham Police for sharing beers and curry with staff under Covid restrictions.Voters overwhelmingly – 59 per cent to 17 per cent – said that the so-called “Beergate” incident involving the Labour leader was less serious than the Partygate events at No 10.Savanta questioned 2,244 British adults on 21-22 May More

Two-thirds (66 per cent) of voters believe Boris Johnson should resign if he is heavily criticised in Sue Gray’s report on the Partygate scandal, which could be released as early as Wednesday.And in findings which will trouble Conservative MPs anxious about holding on to their seats in the next general election, more than a quarter (26 per cent) of those who backed the Tories in 2019 said they were less likely to do so again if Mr Johnson stays on as leader.The figures were scarcely reduced from the height of the Partygate furore in January, and suggested that Mr Johnson has earned little credit from voters for escaping with only one £50 fine from the Metropolitan Police inquiry.One Tory critic of the PM told The Independent it was “urgent” that MPs move against him by submitting letters of no confidence in his leadership, while another said it was clear Mr Johnson was now an “electoral liability” who would drag the party down in future ballots.The findings, in an exclusive Savanta poll for The Independent, came as fresh details emerged of parties at 10 Downing Street during the Covid lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.Insiders described chaotic mid-lockdown parties dubbed “Wine-Time Fridays” where bins would overflow with empty bottles of alcohol and No10 would be left a “mess” with some revellers staying overnight.Speaking to BBC Panorama, three individuals described gatherings they felt were condoned by the prime minister as he was “grabbing a glass for himself”.The current and former staffers said the culture was set by Mr Johnson himself, claiming he “wanted to be liked” and for staff to be able to “let their hair down”.The details followed the publication of a leaked photograph showing Mr Johnson raising a glass at a leaving drinks event for his former spin doctor Lee Cain eight days after the implementation of England’s second lockdown.Amid growing backbench concern about the impact of the Partygate revelations on the PM’s standing among voters, one senior MP told The Independent: “We can’t go on lurching from crisis to crisis like this.”Responding to the poll findings, Sir Roger Gale said: “I think we are discovering that from being an electoral asset, he is becoming an electoral liability – something my colleagues may want to take on board.”The Savanta poll found that 46 per cent of voters believe Johnson should have resigned after receiving a police fine for breaking Covid laws, with a further 20 per cent saying he should do so only if heavily criticised in the Gray report. Some 47 of those who voted Tory in 2019 said he should go if condemned by Gray, against 46 per cent who want him to stay.Fewer than one voter in five (19 per cent) believes Mr Johnson has told the truth about parties at 10 Downing Street, compared to an overwhelming 67 per cent who think he lied. And 37 per cent said it would make them less likely to back the Tories if he remains leader.One MP who has submitted a letter of no confidence in the PM told The Independent: “This poll tallies with what I am hearing on the doorstep. My colleagues urgently need to consider not just the moral implications of Partygate but the electoral implications as well.”Downing Street is braced for full details of 16 lockdown-breaching events to be revealed in Ms Gray’s Partygate report, expected to be published within days and possibly as early as Wednesday.In an interim report in January, the senior civil servant blasted “failures of leadership” at No 10 and said some of the behaviour described was “difficult to justify” at a time when the public were being told to stay at home and avoid social contact except for essential work purposes.Around 30 senior individuals have been warned they will be named for possible criticism in the full report, which was delayed for four months while police conducted their own investigation.Downing Street was forced to deny reports that Mr Johnson had suggested at a meeting earlier this month that Ms Gray could ditch the full report, asking her: “Is there much point in doing it now that it’s all out there?”The PM’s official spokesperson told reporters he “did not recognise” the account, adding: “The prime minister did not ask her to drop the report or not proceed with the report. It was the prime minister who commissioned the report and he wants the report to be published.”It is expected that the report will be published within hours of being handed over to Mr Johnson, who will then make a statement to MPs before facing Conservative backbenchers in a meeting of the 1922 Committee which could be crucial to deciding his fate.Committee chair Sir Graham Brady must call a vote on the leadership if he receives 54 no confidence letters from MPs, with Mr Johnson then needing a majority of MPs’ votes to survive.Some 13 MPs have publicly declared they have submitted letters, though some may have withdrawn them, while others could have done so privately, Rumours circulating in Westminster on Tuesday suggested that Sir Graham may have amassed as many as 40 letters, though he never confirms the figure until the threshold is passed.One long-serving Tory who is considering submitting a letter reflected the grim mood among MPs, telling The Independent: “The whole thing is rotten. He’s got to go.”Today’s Savanta poll found continued dissatisfaction with Mr Johnson’s performance as prime minister, though his overall rating of -26 (34 per cent thinking he was doing well and 60 per cent badly) was slightly improved on the -28 score he recorded in April.But there was no clear frontrunner to succeed him, with voters choosing Mr Johnson as the best available Tory leader on 22 per cent, ahead of Rishi Sunak or Jeremy Hunt on 8 and Liz Truss or Sajid Javid on 6. Some 44 per cent of those who voted Conservative in 2019 said Mr Johnson was their favoured leader.And Labour’s lead over the Tories remained at six points, with Keir Starmer’s party on 40 per cent (unchanged since a similar poll in April), Conservatives on 34 (unchanged) and Liberal Democrats 10 (down one).Sir Keir Starmer’s satisfaction rating of -3 was better than that of any government minister polled.But almost half of those questioned (48 per cent) agreed that Starmer should quit as Labour leader – as he has promised to do – if fined by Durham Police for sharing beers and curry with staff under Covid restrictions.Voters overwhelmingly – 59 per cent to 17 per cent – said that the so-called “Beergate” incident involving the Labour leader was less serious than the Partygate events at No 10.- Savanta questioned 2,244 British adults on 21-22 May. More

A former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has urged his own government to “pause” over controversial plans to create an effective amnesty for terrorists. Julian Smith also said he was “deeply uncomfortable” with the idea of voting for the proposed legislation, although he said he acknowledged there was no easy way forward.Ministers believe the plans, first unveiled in the Queen’s Speech earlier this month, will allow them to keep their pledge to protect ex-soldiers from possible prosecutions.There was an outcry when the idea of an amnesty was first floated, after it emerged it would also have to apply to terrorists.In a bid to get around that problem, ministers announced that only those who cooperate with a new South Africa-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission, would receive what will amount to an amnesty. Earlier this week the Independent revealed that Labour planned to oppose the legislation, warning that it failed the relatives of those murdered by terrorists as well as veterans themselves.In response, government sources accused Labour of “playing politics” with “sensitive and emotive” issues. Just hours later Mr Smith urged his own government to “look again” at part of the proposals, that would prevent inquests and civil actions related to the Troubles.He said: “Today many victims feel that they have been hit by a double whammy with this Bill. Their route to justice cut off, and at the same time their route to the truth restricted.”He went on: “The shutting down of civil cases and of inquests, and the way it is done through this Bill, is also a source of much anger and worry.”Civil actions have provided an effective mechanism for victims to obtain discovery and reparations.”He added: “On investigations and on inquests, I … urge the Government to pause and to listen to the voices of our valued Irish partners in the GFA (Good Friday Agreement), to Northern Ireland parties, and to the victims and survivors. I hope too that the Government will reflect on how it can reframe this Bill in order to gain the trust required to help deliver a resolution.”Mr Smith told MPs he was “deeply uncomfortable by the idea of voting for a Bill that will formalise immunity for those who have committed murder and other crimes, but I do however acknowledge that in the range of policy options that the Government is faced with, none are straightforward.”Other MPs also criticised the plans. East Belfast DUP MP Gavin Robinson said that the proposals drive a “coach and horses through the pursuit of justice’’.The families of Troubles victims also told the prime minister the legislation was “an affront to all modern standards of decency”.The Relatives for Justice group delivered a letter to 10 Downing Street, warning the law would foster “division and hurt” rather than promote “reconciliation or healing”.The government has said that the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill will provide better outcomes for victims, survivors and veterans. More

Members of the PCS public service union have voted to back national strike action over a 2 per cent pay offer at a time when inflation is running at almost five times that rate. With around 200,000 members, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) is the largest civil service union, representing workers in venues like benefit and tax offices.The strike vote came as Boris Johnson signalled that workers across the public sector can expect below-inflation in this summer’s pay round. The prime minister warned at cabinet that allowing wages to keep up with prices, currently rising at 9 per cent annually, would risk an “inflationary spiral” pushing up the cost of mortgages and other essentials.And he made clear that ministers are ready to overrule generous recommendations from pay review bodies for groups like police and teachers in the coming months. Delegates to the PCS conference in Brighton agreed to hold a statutory industrial action ballot over pay and pensions in September.Mark Serwotka, the PCS general secretary, said: “The sheer size of this vote shows the very real anxiety and anger our members feel at the way they have been treated by this government. “To vote for strike action is a massive step, but the actions of the government have left us with no alternative.” Earlier, Mr Serwotka told the conference that public sector workers who kept the country running during the Covid pandemic were now being chided by ministers for working from home and threatened with 90,000 job losses.“Throughout the pandemic our members worked hard providing critical frontline services,” he said. “Despite our hard work, the government attacked us. They came for our integrity, accusing us of being lazy because we worked from home. “Let me tell you: unlike the prime minister, we weren’t being distracted by cheese. We kept the country running, providing universal credit to almost 10 million people, furlough to almost 6 million people, keeping our borders open, keeping the roads safe.“Then government came for our pensions but still we carried on working, doing our bit, making people’s lives easier.“Then the government came for our dignity, Jacob Rees-Mogg sticking Post-it notes on computers, demanding we returned to desks which, subsequently it transpired weren’t there. But still we carried on working, getting on with our jobs.  “But then they came for our jobs. They announced plans to close 42 Department for Work and Pensions [DWP] offices, ten Insolvency Service offices and, just ten days ago, told us one in five civil servant’s jobs would go. “They didn’t listen to us when we carried on working, so maybe now it’s time for us to stop working. It’s time to tell this rotten government: ‘Enough is enough’.” Recommendations on pay rises for groups like police, teachers and NHS workers are expected from independent pay bodies before the summer.But they can be overruled by ministers in relevant departments, who are facing the prospect of hikes of 9 per cent or more if pay is to keep pace with inflation.Addressing the regular weekly meeting of cabinet in 10 Downing Street, Mr Johnson backed a warning from Treasury minister Simon Clarke that awards of this size would risk fuelling inflation further.The PM’s official spokesperson refused to say whether ministers will act to rein in recommended rises which are perceived to be too large.But he said: “The government has already pledged to increase public sector spending and is awaiting decisions by public sector review bodies.“However ministers made clear the risk of triggering higher inflation must be part of considerations when deciding pay awards this year.”The spokesperson did not rule out ministers overriding the decisions of the review bodies.“That wasn’t the suggestion the prime minister said and I don’t want to jump ahead of the independent process,” said the spokesperson. “You’ll know the government has the capability to do that in the purely hypothetical sense.“The point that ministers were emphasising is that a spiralling inflation will do more to damage people’s take-home pay than limited pay restraint.” More

A local councillor in Wales has resigned just weeks into the job because people repeatedly accused him of being the famous street artist Banksy.William Gannon won the race to serve the people of Pembroke Dock in Pembrokeshire, a rural area in southwest Wales, at the local elections earlier this month.Mr Gannon, known as “Bill”, has worked as a community artist for 40 years and used to operate in the same locations and do similar work to Banksy, whose iconic work can be found in several cities across the UK. More

We expect the report from Sue Gray, the senior civil servant, into lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street to be published on Wednesday. The prime minister is expected to adopt a “masochism strategy” of making a statement in the Commons, followed by a news conference and an address to Conservative MPs in a private meeting.The report has assumed an almost mythical status in British politics, especially after its publication was postponed in January, because the police had decided that the allegations were so serious that they warranted a criminal investigation.Now that it is finally going to see the light of day, Independent readers will no doubt have more questions, and I will be here on Thursday lunchtime to try to answer as many as I can.The announcement by the police that they had completed their inquiries raised questions about how they came to their decisions, issuing just one penalty notice to the prime minister for the gathering to celebrate his birthday in between meetings, which had seemed to be one of the less serious allegations.Those questions were intensified by the publication of the photographs showing Boris Johnson raising a toast at what looked very much like a party to mark the departure of Lee Cain, the prime minister’s deputy head of communications, in November 2020. While some of the people attending that gathering were issued with fines by the police, the prime minister himself was not even asked to fill in a police questionnaire about it.Once we have read Gray’s report, and seen more photographs that are expected to be published in it, and once we have heard what the prime minister has to say about it all, it will be time to step back and try to make sense of it all.How on earth did it happen? Why did the prime minister tell parliament that the guidance was always followed when he must have known that this claim was dubious at best? Downing Street staff were reported by BBC Panorama on Tuesday night to have watched their boss in the Commons with disbelief: “We were watching it all live and we just sort of looked at each other in disbelief like – why? Why is he denying this?”And yet Conservative MPs still seem to be reluctant to move against Johnson. Nor is the Sue Gray report the end of the matter. There will now be another investigation by the Commons committee of privileges, to determine whether the prime minister “knowingly misled” parliament by saying when the allegations were first reported that “the rules were followed at all times”.If you have a question about anything to do with what is known as Partygate (despite my attempt to ban journalists from adding “gate” to any controversy), submit it now, or when I join you live at 1pm on Thursday 26 May for the “Ask Me Anything” event.To get involved all you have to do is register to submit your question in the comments below. If you’re not already a member, click “sign up” in the comments box to leave your question. Don’t worry if you can’t see your question – they may be hidden until I join the conversation to answer them. Then join us live on this page at 1pm as I tackle as many questions as I can. More