Markus Andrews

Boris Johnson regretted backing Brexit before the EU membership referendum, his new spin doctor Guto Harri told a senior journalist after the historic vote.The new director of communications told the New European’s editor-in-chief Matt Kelly in 2018 that Mr Johnson knew he had “f***** up” by coming out in favour of the UK’s exit, according to the newspaper.Mr Johnson submitted a column to the Daily Telegraph backing Brexit on the eve of the referedum. But he later admitted he had also written an anti-Brexit column saying Britain should “stay in” the EU.Mr Harri is said to have told Mr Kelly at the GQ Men of the Year Awards in 2018 that Mr Johnson wishes he “sent the other letter”.The PR man, who formerly worked for Mr Johnson during his time as London mayor, is said to have added: “He knows he’s f***** up massively. Now he’s working out how to get himself out of the mess.”Mr Johnson’s official spokesperson did not deny on Tuesday the details of the conversation reported by The New European.But he added: “The prime minister himself has set out his views on Brexit, not least in a document setting out its benefits to the British people.”It comes as leaked documents suggest that the new director of communications lobbied a former No 10 chief of staff not to ban Chinese technology giant Huawei in the UK.The communications chief was said to have been representing lobbying firm Hawthorn Advisors during the 25-minute video call including Huawei executives on 2 June 2020.Mr Harri asked Sir Eddie Lister which ministers could receive a “nudge” for his client, The Sun reported. Minutes suggested Sir Eddie said Mr Johnson did not want to ban the firm, but was “caught” between two places.Asked if there were “any ministers we should talk to? Perhaps give a nudge in DCMS (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) or Treasury?”, the minutes suggested.The following month, telecoms firms were ordered to strip Huawei equipment from the 5G networks by 2027 over security fears.The PM’s spokesman defended Mr Harri’s appointment on Monday, saying: “He provided advice to the clients of a private company. That’s entirely legitimate, it’s in the public domain.”Comments made by Mr Harri criticising Mr Johnson have also surfaced since the announcement of his new role was made on Saturday evening.The new No 10 spin doctor said back in 2018 that he would be a “hugely divisive figure” if he became Tory leader and also referred to him being “sexually incontinent”.The new communications chief also told the BBC’s Newscast podcast in recent weeks that the PM had “weaknesses” to cover and had “always underestimated how critical it is to have a fantastic team around him”.On Monday he gave an interview saying Mr Johnson was “not all that clownish,” and sang Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive during a meeting with his new comms chief.Mr Harri has told officials that he had “learnt his lesson” from the interview and would not be doing more, The Independent understands. More

Boris Johnson will today conduct a mini-reshuffle of ministers as part of his shake-up of No 10 following the Partygate scandal.Downing Street confirmed that there would be a “small” redistribution of ministerial roles, but declined to say who was pencilled in for promotion or demotion.Chief whip Mark Spencer is widely tipped for a move, after the disastrous attempt to save former MP Owen Paterson from punishment for paid lobbying. His role could go to Johnson loyalist Chrisopher Pincher, who has led an alternative whipping operation to shore up the PM’s position following Partygate.Mr Spencer could take the leader of the Commons role currently occupied by Jacob Rees-Mogg, though it is thought the North East Somerset is likely to retain his cabinet membership, possibly as a minister without portfolio.The PM’s official spokesperson indicated that the reshuffle – expected to be completed this afternoon – was a consequence of the decision to make Stephen Barclay No 10 chief of staff on top of his job as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, requiring some of his responsibilities to be shared out to other ministers. More

Anti-vaxxers have said they will continue targeting politicians after Keir Starmer was mobbed by a group of protesters.Activists could be heard branding the Labour leader a “traitor”, referring to Jimmy Savile and calling him a “paedo protector” and shouting that Covid vaccines “are killing people”, during the incident on Monday.Sir Keir was bundled into a police car to get away from the mob near parliament, sparking renewed pressure for Boris Johnson to withdraw claims that the former director of public prosecutions was responsible for failing to prosecute Savile.The Labour leader, alongside shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, appear to have accidentally walked into a “freedom convoy” protest organised by prominent conspiracy theorists including Piers Corbyn.One anti-vaxx activists attending filmed the aftermath and said Sir Keir had “got a message”.“He looked so scared, he looked petrified,” she said in a video posted to almost 12,000 followers on the Telegram messaging app. “All they were doing was shouting, the guy was protected by security, telling a few home truths.”The woman said protesters had asked the politician if he was working for the “New World Order” and was a “traitor of the people”.“This is being called ‘harassment’ and we expect more arrests in line with the alleged ‘harassment and common assault’ of Chris Whitty,” she wrote.“A message to all politicians, if you cannot stand the heat, get out of the kitchen; for one day, you will all be held to account.”Footage of the confrontation was shared on Mr Corbyn’s channel, where a post said the Labour leader had been “told by the people what they think of him”.In a separate video Mr Corbyn, the brother of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, said he would return to another “freedom convoy” demonstration the following day.He hailed Monday’s protest as a “brilliant day”, adding: “Well done to everybody involved.”The footage was widely shared and discussed in Telegram groups used by anti-vaxxers and anti-lockdown activists on Monday night.“They [politicians] are all SCUM,” one channel member wrote. “Going to need more than a few goons as personal protection if things get any worse. Not a threat. A prediction.”Others suggested the incident was a “set up”, involving “agents provacateur” to discredit the anti-lockdown movement. More

British leader Boris Johnson was refusing Tuesday to retract his false claim that a political opponent helped a sex abuser evade justice, as the opposition accused the prime minister of deploying dangerous Trump-style politics.Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition Labour Party was harassed outside Parliament on Monday by protesters against coronavirus restrictions, who could be heard yelling accusations of “protecting pedophiles” — echoing a slur made by Johnson last week.Johnson accused Starmer in the House of Commons of failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile for sexual abuse when Starmer was the U.K.’s director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013. Savile was a long-time presenter of youth television shows who was exposed after his death in 2011 as a sexual predator who had abused hundreds of children. A 2013 report found that Starmer hadn’t been involved in decisions about whether Savile should be prosecuted.Labour lawmaker Rosena Allin-Khan said Johnson was prepared to “smear any person or group who stands in his way and benefit only himself.” “This is straight out of the Trumpian playbook,” she said.Johnson called the harassment of Starmer “absolutely disgraceful,” but didn’t accept any responsibility.Technology Minister Chris Philp argued that Johnson wasn’t responsible for the behavior of the protesters, who, he said, “did mention Jimmy Savile. They also mentioned Julian Assange repeatedly, they mentioned COVID, they also mentioned the opposition more generally.”“I don’t think you can point to what the prime minister said as the cause of that,” Philp said.Monday’s incident, which saw Starmer driven away in a police car and two arrests, heightened concerns that the atmosphere of British politics has become more toxic.Two members of Parliament have been killed in recent years. Conservative lawmaker David Amess was stabbed to death as he met with constituents in October, in what police have called an act of terrorism. In 2016, Labour legislator Jo Cox was shot and stabbed by a man with far-right views.Cox’s sister Kim Leadbeater — now a Labour lawmaker herself — said that while the protesters were responsible for their actions, “we also have to be clear that things don’t happen in a vacuum.”“And while ever we have a culture of toxicity and aggression and lies in politics, we have to think about the consequences of that,” she told the BBC.The Starmer altercation added to discontent among Conservatives with Johnson, whose grip on power has been shaken by public anger over revelations that his staff held office parties in 2020 and 2021 while millions in Britain were barred from meeting with friends and family because of his government’s COVID-19 restrictions.Conservative lawmakers are mulling whether to seek a no-confidence vote in the leader who won them a big parliamentary majority just over two years ago. Under party rules, a no-confidence vote is triggered if 15% of party lawmakers — currently 54 people — write letters calling for one. If Johnson lost such a vote, he would be replaced as party leader and prime minister. More

Portugal’s incoming Socialist government is freezing out a right-wing populist party that surprisingly placed third in a recent general election.Portugal witnessed a surge in support for populists in the Jan. 30 election of a new parliament, more than a decade after a similar development in other European Union countries.The office of incoming prime minister António Costa said that before taking office later this month he would meet with all other political parties, as well as trade unions, employers, national charities and others, to discuss future policies.But the statement late Monday made no mention of meeting with representatives of Chega (Enough), which snared 12 seats in the 230-seat parliament. That was up from just one seat in the previous election, in 2019.The center-left Socialist party won in a landslide, collecting a majority of 117 seats, ahead of the center-right Social Democrats with 71.Chega, which describes itself as nationalist and conservative, was founded just three years ago. It says the U.N.-sponsored Global Compact for Migration is “suicidal” and claims that some retired police officers receive pensions of just 290 euros ($330) while some people earning a poverty allowance of a couple of hundred euros (dollars) a month own a Mercedes car.The statement from the prime minister’s office gave no reason for excluding Chega. But the party was the target of fierce Socialist attacks during the election campaign.Portugal adopted a fully democratic system of government only after a 1974 army coup toppled a right-wing dictatorship. More

Boris Johnson’s slurs about Jimmy Savile against Keir Starmer did not “incite” or “provoke” a mob who surrounded and hurled abuse at the Labour leader last night, a government minister has attempted to claim.Despite calls from Tory MPs for the prime minister to apologise over his remarks, minister Chris Philp said he he did not believe the incident at Westminster on Monday evening was a result of the prime minister’s comments.It comes after Sir Keir was bundled into a police car for his own safety after being targeted outside Parliament by angry protestors, heckling “traitor”, “Jimmy Savile” and accusing him of “protecting paedophiles”.David Davis, a former Tory cabinet minister, said Mr Johnson should “shoulder responsibility” and “apologise unreservedly” for falsely accusing the Labour leader of failing to prosecute Savile while working as director of public prosecutions.A second former minister, Julian Smith, said the scenes in Westminster were “appalling” and said it was “really important for democracy” and Sir Keir’s security that the prime minister must withdraw his “false Savile smears”.Speaking on Sky News, Mr Philp argued “all of us across the political spectrum should unreservedly condemn” the action of the protestors who surrounded Sir Keir and the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy.But the minister went on: “They did mention Jimmy Savile, they also mention Julian Assange repeatedly, they mentioned Covid, they mentioned the opposition more generally — so I don’t think you can point to the what the prime minister said as the cause of that.“You certainly can’t blame him for the fact that mob were clearly behaving in a totally unacceptable way”.Mr Philp, who also argued that Mr Johnson had already “clarified” his remarks, went on: “You certainly can say that what he said in any way prompted, provoked, or justified the harassment and intimidation we saw last night.“I don’t think in any way justified, provoked, or incited the terrible and totally unacceptable and harassment and intimidation of the leader the opposition we saw last night.”Pressed further, he added: “I don’t think you can make a link, reasonably, between what the prime minister said and the harassment and intimidation. This group of people were talking about a number of things, as well as Jimmy Savile.”After Monday evening’s incident, the prime minister made no reference to his previous comments in the House of Commons, but said: “The behaviour directed at the leader of the opposition tonight is absolutely disgraceful.“All forms of harassment of our elected representatives are completely unacceptable. I thank the police for responding swiftly.”Brendan Cox, the widower of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox, said the harassment of Sir Keir, however, could have been an “unintended consequence” of the prime minister’s choice to “inject poison into politics“ with his Savile comment.“If it was a one-off, I think we could be more sanguine about it,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “But I think what we’ve seen over the last few years really has been an increase in that level of intimidation online, absolutely, but also face to face.”He added: “I think that it’s very hard to draw a direct link and to say that in some ways, the prime minister is directly responsible for what happened. I think the people that are directly responsible for what happened yesterday were the people that did it.“However, it’s also true that if you inject poison into politics, that has a whole set of unintended consequences that people will react to in different ways and at times that can lead over into intimidation, it can lead over to violence, it can lead over into extremism.” More

Tory MPs have broken ranks and accused the prime minister of deploying “Trumpian” politics for smearing opposition leader Keir Starmer.Government ministers took to the radio on Tuesday morning to defend Boris Johnson, who had made a discredited linking the Labour leader to Jimmy Savile. But disquiet on the Tory backbenches over the episode mounted on Monday night after Sir Keir was accosted by protesters in Westminster shouting about his supposed role in not prosecuting the notorious sex offender – a claim spread by the PM.Tobias Ellwood, chair of parliament’s defence select committee urged Mr Johnson to “apologise please”, adding:”We claim to be the Mother of all parliaments. Let’s stop this drift towards a Trumpian style of politics from becoming the norm. We are better than this.”Another Tory MP, Anthony Manganall, also appeared to compare the prime minister to former US president Donald Trump.”Debate and discourse in this country are essential,” he said, adding: “We are not America.”Mr Manganall, MP for Totness, added: “What happened to Keir Starmer and David Lammy [was] unacceptable. We must do better, which means leading by example in Westminster.”Boris Johnson on Monday night condemned the protesters, who repeated his claims from the House of Commons while surrounding Sir Keir.”The behaviour directed at the Leader of the Opposition tonight is absolutely disgraceful. All forms of harassment of our elected representatives are completely unacceptable,” he said.But representing the government in interviews with broadcasters on Tuesday Tory minister Chris Philp told the BBC: “The first comments in the House on the previous Monday were capable of being misconstrued and that is why it is important and right that a couple of days later that Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, did clarify that he was not suggesting at any time that Keir Starmer had personal responsibility for the case. But he obviously did have responsibility for the conduct of the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service).”I don’t think there is any way you can reasonably suggest that the comments on Keir Starmer’s overall responsibility for the CPS in any way provoked the very unseemly and totally unacceptable harassment we saw last night.”The PM had originally claimed that Sir Keir “spent more time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile, as far as I can make out” while he was director of public prosecutions. More

Boris Johnson has insisted that Britain will “not flinch” and will continue to offer “unconditional and immovable” support to Nato, amid continued fears that Russia could be preparing to invade Ukraine.Moscow continues to add military might to its army amassed near the Ukrainian border, following a series of demands to Nato – which were formally rejected last month – including that Ukraine will not be allowed to join the western military alliance.Echoing comments by defence secretary Ben Wallace on Monday, as he dispatched a further 350 British troops to Poland, the prime minister warned Vladimir Putin that invading Ukraine would backfire and only serve to strengthen Nato.There could not “be a more compelling argument for the necessity of Nato than the sight of Russian tanks invading a European country once again”, Mr Johnson wrote in The Times, warning the Kremlin “its objectives would not be served by inflicting still greater destruction and bloodshed on Ukraine”.But following a five-hour dinner meeting in Moscow with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, the Russian president warned that, if Ukraine joins Nato and seeks to retake Crimea – which Russia annexed in 2014 – then European nations “will automatically be drawn into military conflict” with Russia “beyond [their] will”, adding: “There will be no winners.”As the first western leader hosted in Moscow since tensions intensified late last year, Mr Macron is due to speak to the Russian leader again after a trip to Ukraine tomorrow. “The next few days will be decisive and will require intensive discussions which we will pursue together,” the French president told reporters after his meal with Mr Putin.Mr Putin also appeared tentatively positive about the meeting, saying: “A number of his ideas, proposals, which are probably still too early to talk about, I think it is quite possible to make the basis of our further joint steps.”French media reported that, prior to the meeting, Mr Macron suggested that a “Finlandisation” of Ukraine was “one of the models on the table” – a reference to how Finland maintained its independence from the Soviet Union during the Cold War on the condition that it remained strictly neutral.Mr Putin also urged Ukraine to comply with the Minsk agreements – brokered by France and Germany in 2015 – which include an aim to end the separatist war by Russian-speakers in the Donbas region, but also contain aspects some experts believe are incompatible with Ukraine’s existence as a sovereign country.But Mr Macron said the independence of Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus – where Russia is conducting military exercises – must be preserved, saying: “Together … I’m sure we will get a result, even if it’s not easy.”Meanwhile, Mr Putin accused the US and Nato of “bypassing” its demands last month, but said: “I do not think that this is where our dialogue ends. Now we will formulate an answer, our vision, and send it to Washington and Brussels.”Their comments came shortly after a press conference held in the White House by Joe Biden and Olaf Scholz, the new German chancellor, who appeared to strengthen Berlin’s commitment to derailing the multibillion-pound Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany in the event that Russia invades Ukraine.The US president told reporters that if Russian troops cross Ukraine’s border, “then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2”, saying: “We will bring it to an end.”While Mr Scholz did not use the pipeline’s name, he stressed that US and Germany would “act together jointly” to impose severe sanctions in the event of an invasion, saying: “There won’t be any measures in which we have a different approach.”Switching to English for emphasis, he added that the US and Germany “will be united”.But questions were raised over Mr Scholz’s commitment to the Baltic Sea pipeline threat, after he once again failed to explicitly name Nord Stream 2 as among the economic deterrents on the table in a later interview with CNN, merely repeating his vow to remain aligned with the US.Mr Scholz told the broadcaster he did not know whether Ukraine’s president Volodymr Zelensky had cancelled a planned meeting on Monday with foreign minister Annalena Baerbock as a result of Germany’s stance on the pipeline, as suggested to CNN by one Kiev source – as opposed to the scheduling error blamed officially.It came after a batch of the 3,000 American forces pledged by Washington to bolster Nato’s eastern flank arrived in Poland on Sunday.At a press conference with his Polish counterpart, Mariusz Błaszczak, the UK defence secretary Ben Wallace said the 350 troops also pledged by the UK were being dispatched in the “spirit of solidarity”. Poland is also facing a crisis on its own border with Belarus, whose leader Alexander Lukashenko is an ally of Mr Putin.Writing in The Times on Monday night, Mr Johnson said Britain was also considering deploying royal air force Typhoon fighters and royal navy warships to protect southeastern Europe.“British sanctions and other measures will be ready for any renewed Russian attack,” the prime minister said.Highlighting the confusion over Mr Scholz’s pipeline stance, Mr Johnson also welcomed “Germany’s statement that Nord Stream 2 would be reconsidered in the event of an incursion”, and said his government would ask MPs for new powers to widen potential sanctions on firms linked to the Kremlin.On Sunday, Labour shadow ministers Rachel Reeves and David Lammy wrote to their opposite numbers in government, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, urging the Tories to return money from donors with links to Russia, alleged to amount to £1.93m since Mr Johnson assumed power in 2019.Additional reporting by agencies More