Markus Andrews

Boris Johnson this morning attempted to put a positive gloss on the exodus of senior officials from 10 Downing Street, quoting The Lion King as he told remaining staff: “Change is good.”In an address to his No 10 team in the cabinet room – watched by some on video link – the prime minister acknowledged that the government was going through “challenging times” and misjudgments had been made.But he told them: “As Rafiki in the Lion King says, change is good, and change is necessary even though it’s tough. We’ve got to get on with our job of serving the people of this country.”The PM’s official spokesperson denied that senior officials Martin Reynolds, Dan Rosenfield and Jack Doyle were effectively sacked as Johnson conducts a shake-up of Downing Street in a bid to shore up his position in the wake of the Partygate scandal.The spokesperson said the departures were “mutually agreed”, though he confirmed that the resignations of policy chief Munira Mirza on Thursday and policy unit member Elena Narozanski were not planned.Mr Johnson was applauded by staff after telling them that, at the half-way point in a five-year term in office, it was time to “eat their half-time oranges, spit out the peel and get stuck back in”.No appointments are expected imminently for the departed staff, with principal private secretary Reynolds, chief of staff Rosenfield and director of communications Doyle remaining in post as the recruitment process for their replacements gets under way. He said all three announcements had been planned before the shock resignation of policy chief Ms Mirza, who inflicted a devastating blow on her long-time boss by walking out over his refusal to apologise for a “scurrilous” smear falsely linking Keir Starmer with the disgraced paedophile Jimmy Savile.The chief of staff and comms roles are political appointments, but Mr Reynolds’ post will be filled through the standard civil service procedures, as will the choice of a permanent secretary to head the new Office of the Prime Minister.Mr Johnson’s spokesperson said that no further departures from No 10 were currently anticipated. And he insisted that the PM’s relations with Rishi Sunak were “good”, after the chancellor yesterday admitted the government had lost public trust and distanced himself from Johnson’s Savile slur.Health secretary Sajid Javid today became the second cabinet minister to distance himself from Johnson’s discredited claim that, in his previous role as director of public prosecutions, Sir Keir had failed to prosecute the celebrity abuser.Mr Javid told reporters: “Keir Starmer, when he was running the DPP, did a good job and he should be respected for it, it is a tough job and he deserved absolute respect for that.“But the Prime Minister has also come out and clarified those remarks, and that is important.”Asked if the Prime Minister still had his support, Mr Javid said: “Of course he does. Absolutely.”Mr Johnson’s reference to The Lion King is the latest in a string of popular culture icons he has shoehorned into his comments recently, after he asked the CBI if they liked Peppa Pig and compared Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner to cartoon duo Dastardly and Muttley.In the 1994 animated movie, lion prince Simba tells mandrill shaman Rafiki “Looks like the winds are changing”. Rafiki replies “Change is good”, prompting the response from Simba: “Yeah, but it’s not easy”.Confirming the PM’s use of the line, Mr Johnson’s spokesperson told reporters: “He reflected on the privilege of working in No 10 in order to deliver for the British people and reiterated his and No 10’s commitment to serving the public by keeping people safe, improving lives and spreading opportunity.“As he reiterated to the team today, there is an important job to do, the public expects us to be focused on it, whether it is the situation in Ukraine, recovering from the pandemic or, as the Chancellor was setting out yesterday, on issues such as cost of living.” More

Boris Johnson ‘toxic’ even to his allies, says Malcom RifkindBoris Johnson this morning attempted to put a positive gloss on the exodus of senior officials from 10 Downing Street by quoting The Lion King.“Change is good,” he told those remaining after a fifth aide walked out of No 10 within 24 hours.According to Conservative Home, Elena Narozanski, a former adviser to the cabinet minister Michael Gove and Theresa May during her tenure as home secretary, quit her role in the Downing Street policy unit.Her exit follows the departures of Jack Doyle, communications director, Martin Reynolds, principle private secretary, Dan Rosenfield, chief of staff, and Munira Mirza, head of policy.Greg Hands, the energy minister, said today: “The prime minister was absolutely clear on Monday that there would be changes at the top of No 10 and that is what he has delivered.”Reports say that Ms Mirza’s shock resignation sparked a clear-out of No 10 as the PM tried to take back control of events.Show latest update

1643985865Boris Johnson labelled ‘moral vacuum’ over Savile comments by former Tory chairmanA former Conservative Party chairman has labelled Boris Johnson a “moral vacuum” for his failure to apologise for the false claim that Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile.In a stinging attack on the prime minister, Lord Chris Patten also suggested the party had undergone “fundamental change” with some sections having “turned into an English nationalist, populist, Johnsonian cult”.Our politics correspondent Ashley Cowburn has more here:Matt Mathers4 February 2022 14:441643984218PM told me there was only a 30% of new Brexit deal for NI, DUP leader saysBoris Johnson told DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson there was only a “30 per cent chance” of a new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland, he has said.“I met with the prime minister last week, I asked the prime minister two straight questions,” Mr Donaldson told BBC Radio Ulster.”I asked him what he thought were the prospects of agreement being reached with the EU on the protocol within the next few weeks.“His answer was ‘20 to 30 per cent chance of agreement”.Ashley Cowburn, our politics correspondent, has more on this story and a judge’s decision to block an order to suspend protocol checks, below: Matt Mathers4 February 2022 14:161643983502PM will find it ‘almost impossible’ to effectively rebuild teamBoris Johnson will find it “almost impossible” to rebuild his senior team from scratch, the leader of the union representing senior civil servants has said.FDA general secretary Dave Penman said the loss of four senior figures at the same time will have a huge impact on the way the Government works.”To lose so many critical posts at once really is undermining the effective working of No 10,” he told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One.”You have now got to replace with them people of experience, with people who understand how the Prime Minister works, with people who have got policy experience in the areas that they are going to be dealing with, and that is going to be very difficult.”I don’t think there will be necessarily a shortage of who people want the job. The question is whether you are going to get the right people for the job, particularly when you are looking to build such a core team almost from scratch.”It would be a challenge to fill each of these jobs individually, to do four of them at the one time is almost impossible.”Matt Mathers4 February 2022 14:051643982557Javid ‘frustrated’ at having to answer questions on partygateThe health secretary has admitted it is frustrating to have to answer questions around partygate and Downing Street resignations while making major policy announcements.Sajid Javid faced a series of questions from reporters after a speech setting out his ambitions to improve cancer prevention and diagnosis.He said: “I think first of all the prime minister has responded to the situation – obviously there are still investigations going on and, as he has rightly said, to have a full response we need to wait for the outcome of those further investigations. More

Rishi Sunak has been criticised for a “mind-blowing” announcement he wants to encourage more investment in new fossil fuel drilling, with environmental groups saying this was a step in the wrong direction. Campaigners accused the chancellor of “siding” with the oil and gas industry and hypocrisy given current climate goals.Scientists previously said there was no room for new fossil fuels if the world wants to reach net zero emissions by 2050 – with the UK having set this target for itself. But Mr Sunak said on Thursday he wanted to encourage investment in the North Sea given the resources there.“We’re going to need natural gas as part of our transition to getting to net zero,” he said. “And in the process of getting from here to there, if we can get investment in the North Sea that supports British jobs, that’s a good thing.”But his comments have been slammed by environmental campaigners and climate policy experts. “For Rishi Sunak to encourage new investment in drilling for fossil fuels in the North Sea is utterly mind-blowing,”  Giles Bristow from climate crisis charity Ashden told The Independent.“Climate change is here – now. The business community accepts the science that unequivocally tells us we have to move on from old, dirty fossil fuels and deliver a rapid but managed transition to a clean net zero economy.”According to the International Energy Agency, natural gas is the “cleanest burning” fossil fuel – but this still emits greenhouse gases. Gas prices has also been held responsible for the ongoing energy crisis, which has resulted in rising household bills in the UK. A further energy price cap increase was confirmed on Thursday, paving the way for bills to increase yet again in spring. Tessa Khan from campaign group Uplift told The Independent: “The chancellor has chosen to side with the oil and gas industry.“Yesterday, he dumped all the costs of soaring gas prices on UK households rather than claw back some of the obscene profits these companies are making.”Meanwhile Jamie Peters from Friends of the Earth said: “The chancellor acknowledges that the energy crisis is a result of our dependency on gas, but then declares his ambition to unlock £11bn of investment in the North Sea. He added: “This is blatant hypocrisy after months of government posturing in the run up to the UN climate talks.”The Treasury has been approached for comment. More

This was the week British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hoped to get a grip on his government after weeks of scandal. By Friday, he was struggling to hang on after a scathing report on lockdown-breaching parties and the departure of several top aides.Johnson was rocked Thursday by the resignation of his policy chief, Munira Mirza a trusted adviser who worked with him for more than a decade. Mirza stood by the prime minister amid “partygate” revelations that Johnson and his staff broke the rules they had imposed on the country. But she said Johnson’s “scurrilous accusation” this week that an opposition leader had failed to stop a notorious pedophile was the final straw.“This was not the normal cut-and-thrust of politics; it was an inappropriate and partisan reference to a horrendous case of child sex abuse,” Mirza wrote in a resignation letter, which was published by The Spectator magazine.After Mirza quit, Johnson’s office announced the departure of three more top staffers: chief of staff Dan Rosenfield, communications director Jack Doyle and principal private secretary Martin Reynolds. Elena Narozanski, who worked in Murza’s policy unit, resigned Friday.Conservative lawmakers loyal to Johnson depicted the departures as part of a planned overhaul to restore order to his 10 Downing Street office.“The prime minister was absolutely clear on Monday that there would be changes at the top of No. 10 and that is what he has delivered,” Energy Minister Greg Hands said. “This is the prime minister taking charge.”Others weren’t so sure. The prime minister’s grip on power has been shaken by public anger at revelations that his staff held “bring your own booze” office parties, birthday celebrations and “wine time Fridays” at times in 2020 and 2021 while millions in Britain were barred from meeting with friends and family because of COVID-19 restrictions.A total of 16 parties have been investigated by a senior civil servant, Sue Gray with a dozen of them also under investigation by the Metropolitan Police.On Monday, Gray released an interim report looking at the four parties police are not probing. She found that “failures of leadership and judgment” allowed events to occur that “should not have been allowed to take place” and described a Downing Street operation marked by excessive drinking and dysfunctional dynamics.Johnson apologized and pledged to fix the problems in his office, though he didn’t admit personal wrongdoing.Rosenfield, Doyle and especially Reynolds — who sent 100 government staff an invitation to a BYOB garden party in May 2020 — were always likely to be ousted as part of Johnson’s post-“partygate” shakeup. But Mirza’s departure was a major blow. In her resignation letter, she said Johnson had not heeded her advice to apologize for accusing Labour Party leader Keir Starmer in the House of Commons on Monday of “failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile” when Starmer was the U.K.’s director of public prosecutions. 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.Starmer said the accusation was “a ridiculous slur peddled by right-wing trolls.” A 2013 report found that Starmer hadn’t been involved in decisions about whether Savile should be prosecuted.Some Conservatives also recoiled at the use of Savile in a political attack. In her resignation letter, Mirza said Johnson had let himself down “by making a scurrilous accusation against the leader of the opposition.”The Downing Street exodus is sending further shockwaves through Conservative lawmakers as they mull 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, such a 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.Only about a dozen Conservative legislators have publicly called for Johnson to quit, though the number who have written letters may be higher. Many others are biding their time, waiting to see whether police censure the prime minister and what Gray will say in her final report, due once the criminal investigation is over.Huw Merriman a moderate Conservative lawmaker, said the prime minister had to shape up or ship out.“My constituents are upset,” he told the BBC. “I feel like we’ve lost face and public trust with them. We’ve got to gain that back.” More

Conservative MPs have been mocked for tweeting bizarre identikit messages in support of Boris Johnson – apparently under orders from their party.The almost identical posts were all sent just before 8.30pm on Thursday night as the prime minister faced an avalanche of resignations from Downing Street.The messages all claimed that the resignations were good news for the PM because he had promised to overhaul his No 10 operation and replace staff.One such message was posted by Joy Morrissey, Tory MP for Beaconsfield, who said: “The PM promised changes to the No10 operation earlier this week, glad to see him delivering tonight.”But she was swiftly followed three minutes later by Lichfield MP, Michael Fabricant, who posted: “The PM promised changes to the No10 operation at the 1922 [committee] on Monday, and it’s good to see action is now swiftly being taken.”Stuart Anderson, a Wolverhampton Tory had posted just minutes before: “On Monday Boris Johnson promised MPs change. Tonight we see that change starting to happen and I welcome this quick action by the prime minister.”And Darlington MP Peter Gibson said: “Great to see the change that Boris Johnson promised in Downing Street being delivered.”The thoughts were also echoed in strikingly similar terms at the same time by Chris Clarkson, MP for Heywood and Middleton, who said: “Earlier this week the PM promised the parliamentary party swift and decisive change at No.10 to get us back on course and focused on people’s priorities – pleased to see true to his word he’s delivering.” Other Tory MPs also joined in posting very similar messages.Responding to the posts, Louise Haigh, a Labour MP tweeted sardonically: “This is extremely convincing.”Despite the Tory MPs’ claims otherwise, the most explosive departure from No 10 on Thursday did not appear to be on the orders of Mr Johnson. Policy chief Munira Mirza, who has worked with the prime minister since he was Mayor of London, quit dramatically on Thursday afternoon, citing the PM’s discredited attempt to try and link Keir Starmer to notorious sex offender Jimmy Savile.Other departures includes Jack Doyle, the PM’s director of communications, Martin Reynolds, his principal private secretary, and the prime minister’s chief of staff, Dan Rosenfield. The latter three departures were reportedly part of a clearout of senior Downing Street staff designed to help Johnson avoid personal blame for the string of 12 allegedly lockdown-breaching social events currently being investigated by the Metropolitan Police. Many Tory MPs have made a shake-up of senior personnel at No 10 a key demand if they are to hold back from ousting Mr Johnson in a vote of no confidence. In his partygate apology earlier this week, he promised to reshape the operation as an Office of the Prime Minister under a civil service permanent secretary. More

Government minister Greg Hands has attempted to claim the resignations of key advisers in Boris Johnson’s inner circle demonstrates the prime minister is “taking charge”.The remarks — echoed by some Tory MPs loyal to the prime minister on social media — follow an evening of turmoil at the top of government, with the departure of No 10’s director and of communications, and head of policy.The first and perhaps most damaging resignation came from Mr Johnson’s longstanding ally of 14 years, Munira Mirza, who quit in protest at his “scurrilous” smear linking Sir Keir Starmer with the paedophile Jimmy Saville.Her departure was later followed by the resignations of Jack Doyle, the No 10 spin doctor, Martin Reynolds, the prime minister’s principal private secretary, and Dan Rosenfiled, chief-of-staff, amid the fallout of allegations of parties in government buildings during strict Covid restrictions.But speaking to Sky News, the energy minister Mr Hands insisted the prime minister made clear on Monday — following the publication of Whitehall mandarin Sue Gray’s “update” into rule-busting event in No 10 — that “there would be changes at the top” of the Downing Street operation.“Resignations have been made, resignations have been accepted,” he said. “These are all people who have done fantastic service to the country throughout the pandemic in almost all of those cases and we should be thankful to them for their service.“But the prime minister was absolutely clear on Monday that there would be changes at the top in No 10 and that is what he’s delivered.”“This is about the prime minister saying the Sue Gray report update said that their were failings at the top of the operation. This is the prime minister taking charge.”However, on Ms Mirza’s resignation, he admitted the move was “a little bit different”, saying: “She made clear her reasons for her resignation. The prime minister equally clear that he disagreed with her. The prime minister was also clear on Wednesday that he was referring back to the public apology made by Sir Keir Starmer in 2013.“These are all events that happened many, many years ago. The time is now to move on.”His comments came after a series of Tory backbenchers — loyal to Mr Johnson — defended the prime minister after an evening of chaos, applauding him for “taking swift action” and “decisive change” at the top of No 10.Their enthusiasm was not shared by the Conservative grandee and former foreign secretary, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who told BBC Newsnight that the decision of Ms Mirza to quit — in protest at his Jimmy Savile comments — showed the prime minister had become “toxic”.“With the best will in the world, one has to say this is not so much the end of the beginning but it is the beginning of the end,” he said.The Tory MP Huw Merriam also said he was “deeply troubled” by recent events, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We all know that if the prime minister doesn’t ship up, then they have to shape out [sic], and that’s exactly what happened when this prime minister took over.“We know how it works. I’m sure the prime minister will be focused now on getting on with the job in hand, focusing on policy and regaining the public’s trust.” More

Boris Johnson has reportedly suffered the resignation of a fifth aide from his No 10 operation following an evening of turmoil at the top of government.According to Conservative Home, Elena Narozanski, a former adviser to the cabinet minister Michael Gove and Theresa May during her tenure as home secretary, quit her role in the Downing Street policy unit.It comes after Mr Johnson was dealt a severe blow on Thursday, with his longstanding ally and head of policy, Munira Mirza, handing in her resignation in protest at his “scurrilous” smear against Sir Keir Starmer.In her stinging letter to the prime minister, she said there was “no fair or reasonable basis” for his attack on the Labour leader, after he attempted to link Sir Keir to the failure to prosecute the paedophile Jimmy Savile.The chancellor, Rishi Sunak – tipped as Mr Johnson’s most likely successor if he is forced from office – distanced himself from the PM, telling reporters: “Being honest, I wouldn’t have said it.”Ms Mirza’s departure was followed by the resignations of the No 10 director of communications, the prime minister’s chief-of-staff, and his principal private secretary amid the fallout from parties held during Covid restrictions.Reports of Ms Narozanski’s resignation came just moments after a government minister attempted to claim the exodus of key advisers demonstrated Mr Johnson was “taking charge” of his faltering Downing Street operation.Downplaying the resignations, Greg Hands, the energy ministers, said the prime minister had promised MPs “there would be changes” at the top of government during a Commons statement on Monday.“Resignations have been made, resignations have been accepted,” he said. “This is about the prime minister saying the Sue Gray report update said their were failings at the top of the operation. This is the prime minister taking charge”.However, Nikki da Costa, who previously worked in Mr Johnson’s administration as director of legislative affairs, posted on social media: “It has been said that the 4 departures from Number 10 is ‘taking charge’.“First, the clear signs are that this has not happened in a controlled fashion, and was brought forward by Munira’s principled resignation”. More

Boris Johnson and Priti Patel have been criticised by the statistics watchdog for “misleading” claims that crime has fallen under their leadership.The Liberal Democrats urged the prime minister to return to the House of Commons “to apologise for his latest lie and set the record straight”, following the “damning verdict” from the UK Statistics Authority, which had been investigating the claims.While addressing Sue Gray’s report into No 10 parties in a bruising Commons session earlier this week, the prime minister claimed the government had “been cutting crime by 14 per cent”.And in a press release last week, the Home Office claimed that new Office for National Statistics (ONS) data showed “crime continues to fall under this government”, and quoted Ms Patel as saying this demonstrated the government’s approach “is working”.But in fact, the ONS found that overall crime levels had actually increased by 14 per cent. The decrease by the same amount touted by Mr Johnson was only true when excluding fraud and computer misuse, said the watchdog’s chair, Sir David Norgrove.In a letter on Thursday to Alistair Carmichael – the Lib Dem home affairs spokesman who raised the issue – Sir David said he agreed that ONS crime data “must be used accurately, and not misrepresented”.“In this case, the Home Office news release presented the latest figures in a misleading way,” Sir David wrote.“Likewise, the prime minister referred to a 14 per cent reduction in crime, which is the change between the year ending September 2019 and the year ending September 2021. This figure also excludes fraud and computer misuse, though the prime minister did not make that clear.”The UK Statistics Authority has written to the Home Office and to the offices of Mr Johnson and Ms Patel “to draw their attention to this exchange”, Sir David said.Mr Carmichael called the watchdog’s verdict “damning”, saying: “Yet more distortions from Boris Johnson and his Cabinet to play down the extent of crime.“When the government’s record on crime is so bad that both the prime minister and home secretary feel the need to fiddle the figures, it is clear we need a new approach. The prime minister must come before parliament to apologise for his latest lie and set the record straight.”Reacting to the PM’s comments in parliament on Monday, Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “To say things that are contradicted by the facts in the middle of a statement that is all about the lack of integrity and honesty in Number 10 is truly shameful. “It shows, yet again, that no one can trust anything that Boris Johnson says.”In the same Commons session, SNP leader Ian Blackford was ejected from the House after refusing to withdraw his allegation that Mr Johnson had “wilfully, wilfully misled parliament” during the Partygate saga.The following day, Speaker Lindsay Hoyle rebuked the prime minister over his discredited claim that Sir Keir Starmer had failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile, saying he was “far from satisfied the comments in question were appropriate”. Mr Johnson’s policy chief – and ally of 14 years – Munira Mirza criticised the PM’s “scurrilous” jibe as she resigned in protest on Friday, shortly after the prime minister retracted his remarks. He has so far failed to apologise.The Cabinet Office’s ministerial code of conduct states that it is of “paramount importance that ministers give accurate and truthful information to parliament, correcting any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity. Ministers who knowingly mislead parliament will be expected to offer their resignation to the prime minister”.It adds: “Ministers need to be mindful of the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice which defines good practice in relation to official statistics, observance of which is a statutory requirement on all organisations that produce National Statistics in accordance with the provisions of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.”The watchdog works to “promote and safeguard official statistics to serve the public good”, including “regulating the quality and publicly challenging the misuse of statistics”. It can intervene if it considers a politician or government department has misused or misrepresented figures.While there was a fall in most crimes during coronavirus lockdowns, some are now reaching or exceeding pre-pandemic levels – with rises in some offences like fraud offsetting reductions seen elsewhere, the ONS said last week.The figures also showed police recorded the highest number of rapes and sexual offences in a 12-month period, while separate Home Office data detailed how the proportion of suspects being taken to court has fallen to a new record low and remains the lowest for rape cases.Additional reporting by PA More