Markus Andrews

Britain and the United States have warned Vladimir Putin to “desist and step back” from war in Ukraine or risk being dragged into a prolonged conflict.In a message to the Russian president, foreign secretary Liz Truss says Russia could be dragged into a quagmire similar to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.Her comments came amid a buildup of Russian forces near the border with Ukraine, which prompted President Joe Biden to warn Putin would pay a “dear price” for any invasion. Mr Biden on Thursday said he had been “absolutely clear” with Mr Putin that moving troops across Ukraine’s border would constitute an invasion, while Boris Johnson said that an incursion would “be a disaster for not just for Russia, it would be a disaster for the world”.The prime minister added that “the UK stands squarely behind the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine”.Russia announced on Thursday that 140 of its warships and support vessels, 60 planes, 1,000 units of military hardware and around 10,000 servicemen would take place in a sweeping set of exercises this month.The country’s military moves are being closely scrutinised by the west in light of a troop buildup near Ukraine which has unsettled the Nato allies and sparked fears of a looming war. Mr Putin’s government strongly denies that it has any plans to invade Ukraine.In a speech in Australia on Friday, Ms Truss will say the “Kremlin has not learned the lessons of history” and that an “invasion will only lead to a terrible quagmire and loss of life, as we know from the Soviet-Afghan war and conflict in Chechnya”.She will use the speech, at a think tank in Sydney, to call on countries to side with the west against “global aggressors”, who she said were “emboldened in a way we haven’t seen since the Cold War”.“They seek to export dictatorship as a service around the world,” she is expected to say. “That is why regimes like Belarus, North Korea and Myanmar find their closest allies in Moscow and Beijing.“We need to work with partners like Australia, Israel, India, Japan, Indonesia and more. By building closer ties with our friends and drawing other countries closer to the orbit of free-market democracies, will ultimately make us all safer and freer in the years to come.”But the UK may struggle to convince other countries it has a place at the helm of global leadership, having shredded its foreign policy reputation in many capitals during the course of Brexit talks.Just a day earlier Maros Sefcovic, the vice president of the European Commission had told MEPs in the European Parliament: “The United Kingdom are our neighbours, our allies, and I think all of us in this house would like to see them again as our strategic partners.“For that to happen, we need to rebuild the trust, and trust is built by respecting our agreements – the agreements which were recently signed and ratified – be it on withdrawal, be it on trade and cooperation, or be it the proper implementation of the protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland.”Mr Sefcovic said the EU would show “flexibility”, adding: “But we need a good partner on the other side.”Labour leader Keir Starmer said ahead of Ms Truss’s speech that Russia’s “actions and threats cannot be justified nor tolerated and are driving a dangerous escalation of tension in the region and wider world”.After meeting with the Ukrainian ambassador Vadym Prystaiko Sir Keir said Labour would “continue to press the UK government to step up efforts with European and NATO allies to develop a united approach which uses the full spectrum of our capabilities to deter the Russian government’s ambitions”.“We must show that any attempts to undermine Ukraine’s integrity will be met with a strong, consistent and resolute response.” More

Rebel Tory MPs have spoken of facing intimidation and threats for turning against Boris Johnson, following a bombshell claim that those close to the prime minister have resorted to blackmail to keep him in office.Senior Conservative William Wragg sensationally revealed that he had received reports of Johnson loyalists threatening to place smear stories in the press about Tories considering declarations of no confidence in the prime minister.And he said that MPs had told him of warnings that investment in their constituencies would be at risk if they failed to back Mr Johnson in battle to save his political life.The prime minister insisted he had seen “no evidence” to back the claims, which come amid a vicious Tory civil war over allegations of lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street.But Tory MP Andrew Bridgen told The Independent that he believed a critical story about him which appeared days after he submitted a confidence letter was intended to deter colleagues from following his example.“I was one of the first MPs out of the blocks calling for Boris Johnson to go, and within days there was a smear story out there,” said the North West Leicestershire MP.“That wasn’t just to intimidate me, it was used to intimidate other people and say to them ‘This is what will happen to you if you sign a letter’.”Another MP said they and others had been “hounded” with negative briefings despite making clear that they would wait for the partygate report by Whitehall mandarin Sue Gray before coming to a judgement – something the PM has appealed for people to do.“There are a number of MPs who have told me there have been questions raised about funding,” said the red wall MP. “The whips appear to be picking on the ones they think are weaker, but it is rebounding on them because people who were previously unsure are now moving towards putting letters in.”Bishop Auckland MP Dehenna Davison said she was the victim of “totally fabricated” briefings accusing her of being a leader of a “pork pie plot” to remove Johnson, or of planning to defect to Labour.“I am incredibly angry about the Downing Street parties and the prime minister’s response,” the 2019 intake MP told the Northern Echo. “But to suggest I’m leading a coup is bonkers.”Mr Bridgen said the level of pressure being put on Tory MPs was “unprecedented in my experience”, adding: “My advice to colleagues who have faced intimidation is that the best solution is to ensure that those making threats are removed from positions of power so they can’t enact them.”Mr Wragg, who chairs the House of Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (Pacac), said MPs had complained of “pressures and intimidation from members of the government because of their declared or assumed desire for a vote of confidence in the party leadership”.He told the committee: “The intimidation of a member of parliament is a serious matter. The reports of which I’m aware would seem to constitute blackmail.”Mr Wragg, who is one of a handful of Tories to have confirmed submitting a confidence letter to 1922 Committee chair Sir Graham Brady, urged any MPs facing intimidation to go the police.Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle later said that it would be “contempt” to use intimidation to obstruct MPs from fulfilling their duties, and warned the Commons that its members are “not above the criminal law”.The Metropolitan Police said they would consider any complaints made to officers.But Mr Johnson, visiting a medical centre in Somerset, insisted: “I’ve seen no evidence, heard no evidence, to support any of those allegations.”And a No 10 spokesperson said: “We are not aware of any evidence to support what are clearly serious allegations. If there is any evidence to support these claims we would look at it very carefully.”Former Tory MP Christian Wakeford, who sensationally defected to Labour on Wednesday after demanding Mr Johnson’s resignation, said that he was warned that funding for a school in his Bury South constituency might be withdrawn if he did not “vote in a particular way”.“This is a town that’s not had a high school for the best part of 10 years and how would you feel holding back the regeneration of the town for a vote?” he said.“It didn’t sit comfortably and that was really my starting to question my place where I was and ultimately where I am now.”Boris Johnson says ‘no evidence’ on ‘blackmail’ allegationsScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the allegations are “serious” and should be “properly investigated”, while first minister Nicola Sturgeon said it would be “corruption” if investment was being held back from the constituencies of Mr Johnson’s critics.But culture secretary Nadine Dorries sought to dismiss the allegations as “attention-seeking behaviour from William Wragg”, a long-standing critic of the PM.Describing his claims as “nonsense”, she told BBC News: “This is not how government works.”And Workington MP Mark Jenkinson, another member of the 2019 group, said that he had been spoken to by whips during earlier rebellions, but insisted: “I can categorically state that none of those conversations have ever involved threats, implicit or explicit.”Tory MP Michael Fabricant, a former whip, described Mr Wragg’s comments as “disgraceful”, and asked: “If [William Wragg] was being ‘blackmailed’ as he claims, what is there about his private life that he doesn’t want made public?”“If I reported every time I had been threatened by a whip or if a whip reported every time I had threatened them, the police wouldn’t have any time to conduct any other police work,” said the Lichfield MP.Veteran Tory MP Sir Roger Gale, who was the first to send a letter to Sir Graham, told The Independent that current whipping behaviour was “like being tickled with a feather” compared to the brutal tactics of earlier generations.But he said that threatening to withdraw constituency investment would “cross a line”.Rebel Tories were today holding fire after a predicted flood of confidence letters failed to materialise on Wednesday, with most expecting that the threshold of 54 needed to trigger a leadership vote will not be reached until Ms Gray’s report is published.But senior backbencher Steve Baker said he believed Mr Johnson had reached “checkmate”.Mr Baker, a ringleader of the plot to unseat Theresa May over her Brexit plans, said he was not involved in organising efforts to remove Johnson.But he told BBC’s Political Thinking podcast: “We didn’t make Boris Johnson for his meticulous grasp of tedious rules, but this is appalling and the public are rightly furious.“At the moment I’m afraid it does look like checkmate. Whether he can save himself we’ll see.” More

Boris Johnson’s removal from Downing Street would be an opportunity to reconsider Brexit, Conservative grandee Michael Heseltine has said.The prime minister is under growing pressure from Tory backbenchers over the Partygate scandal, with some MPs predicting he will face a leadership contest once the investigation into drinks gatherings is published.Conservative peer Lord Heseltine appeared to suggest that Mr Johnson’s exit as a result of the current public “anger” could lead to a second referendum on Brexit.The senior Tory, who is a leading campaigner for another vote on EU membership, told Times Radio: “The Brexit agenda was a pack of lies … What happens if Boris goes, does Brexit go – throw the whole thing up in the air?”The former deputy PM added: “Will the majority, now, of people who believe Brexit was wrong have another chance to express their view?”Lord Heseltine warned that the public mood was febrile, and called for the Tory leadership question to be “resolved quickly”.He said: “People are extremely angry, and they turn to extremes in those circumstances, we know, with horrific consequences in history. So something has to be resolved quickly.“This is against the background where the government is going to be less popular, for one reason, and that is the falling living standards that are now built into the inflation cycle.”Earlier on Thursday, former Labour prime minister Sir Tony Blair said it would be a mistake to start campaigning for EU membership any time soon.Asked whether he would want Britain to rejoin the bloc in future, Sir Tony said: “It would be a political error to revive the whole argument – you just have to accept that, no matter how passionately opposed to it I was.”He said the focus should be on making the relationship with the EU “work”, adding: “You don’t want a situation where your prime minister is not on good terms with European leaders.”Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said this week that he had ruled out a return to the single market or the customs union. “There’s no case for rejoining, so we have to make it work. We are out and we’re staying out,” he told The Guardian.Meanwhile, senior Tory Brexiteer Steve Baker said on Thursday that it looked like “checkmate” for Mr Johnson, suggesting that his time at No 10 was coming to an end.Fellow Brexiteer MP Andrew Bridgen – one of seven MPs to have publicly declared that they want Mr Johnson to go, and that they have submitted no-confidence letters – has predicted that a vote will take place next week.To trigger a leadership challenge, 54 Conservative MPs must write letters of no confidence to the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee. A simple majority of Tory MPs – around 180 – would then have to vote against Mr Johnson in order to spark a leadership contest for a new prime minister. More

The government spend nearly £1m assessing whether Boris Johnson’s idea of a bridge or tunnel across the Irish Sea was viable, it has emerged.The Department for Transport confirmed on Thursday that the feasibility study for the “fixed link” cost a total of £896,608.67.It also spent a further £1.1m on its concurrent “union connectivity review”, which reported in November.The feasibility study found that the benefits of a bridge between Northern Ireland and Scotland was not worth the £335bn price tax, or £209bn for a tunnel.One extra difficulty with the proposals was the presence of a Second World War munitions dump across the point where the link had been suggested.Peter Hendy, the rail chief tasked with overseeing the study, said on publication that the idea of a fixed link was “an excellent question to ask”.He added: “This is the first comprehensive, conclusive study on the subject since the idea was first mooted over 150 years ago”.Both the bridge and tunnel versions of the project would have been the longest of their kind ever built.Louise Haigh, Labour’s shadow transport secretary, said the prime minister had blown nearly £1m on “an utterly infeasible vanity project”.“This just shows the Tories sheer disrespect for public money,” she said, noting the cash was “enough to fill 18,000 potholes”.The Scottish National Party’s shadow Scotland secretary Mhairi Black said her party “knew from the beginning this wouldn’t happen”.“Now it has been revealed that the UK government wasted close to £1m of taxpayers’ money on a feasibility study on its unworkable, doomed from the get-go idea,” she added.“This just goes to show the Tories’ warped spending priorities. How many lateral flow tests could this have bought, or nurses salaries paid, or PPE purchased for those on the frontline in this pandemic?“However, as daft as this idea was, it still promised to put £20bn of investment into the Scottish and Northern Irish economies. The prime minister must honour the spending commitments he made and deliver that money to Scotland and Northern Ireland so they can use it for worthwhile infrastructure proposals.“The UK government said it was ‘deadly serious’ about these proposals – it’s time to come good on its words and deliver the investment.”The bridge had been mooted in the 2015 election manifesto of the Democratic Unionist Party and Mr Johnson had described it as “a very interesting idea” before confirming the study.Before he became prime minister Mr Johnson was criticised for overseeing the spending of £43m on a proposed “garden bridge” over the Thames in London, which was also never built. More

A controversial cross-Channel power scheme backed by a major Tory donor who was a Russian oil tycoon has been thrown out by the government.The £1.2bn Aquind scheme for an underwater energy and communications cable also sparked claims by a minister that it would allow France to “turn off the power” in a future post-Brexit battle.Now the business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has announced his decision to “refuse development consent”, a letter on the Planning Inspectorate website revealed.The benefits of the planned link between Portsmouth and Normandy in France were outweighed by “planning harms”, including to an historic fort and to tourism in the area, he said.The decision has been long delayed, amid controversies over the donor – Alexander Temerko – and accusations that the trade secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, failed to disclose lobbying by him.Mr Temerko is a director of Aquind, having donated £730,000 to the Conservative Party and its MPs since 2012, while the company itself has donated a further £500,000 over the same period.His website has included photos of him with Boris Johnson, including one of them embracing at a dinner in tuxedos, it was reported.This week, the trade minister Penny Mordaunt – a Portsmouth MP – warned the project would make Britain more reliant on France, which has threatened to interrupt supplies in disputes over fishing.“The French have already said they will turn off the power. They will use future energy supply as a bargaining chip,” she said.The decision was hailed by Stephen Morgan, Labour MP for Portsmouth South, who said: “This is a victory for the people of Portsmouth over years of uncertainty and Tory cronyism.“I will continue to raise questions about how Conservative ministers came so close to allowing party donors to control a national infrastructure project.”A second donor, Viktor Fedotov, who holds a controlling stake in Aquind, is Russian-born and a former vice-president of the Lukoil energy corporation.The Ukrainian-born Mr Temerko became a Conservative patron after his high-powered career ended with him fleeing to the UK, facing charges over business activities.He was head of the state-owned weapons firm Russkoye Oruzhie – “Russian weapons” – in 1995, before becoming a senior executive of Yukos, the Russian oil and gas company five years later.Ms Trevelyan told the Commons, while serving as energy minister, that she had not been in discussion with the stakeholders of Aquind.But Freedom of Information disclosures then revealed that Mr Temerko had sent her letters in the preceding two months about the interconnector project. More

William Wragg alleges ‘blackmail’ against Tory MPs plotting against Boris JohnsonA senior Conservative MP has accused ministers of breaching the ministerial code by making threats to rebel colleagues who are considering trying to topple Boris Johnson.William Wragg urged the MPs to go the police, saying: “The reports of which I’m aware would seem to constitute blackmail.”The sensational accusation comes as an inquiry into parties held at No 10 during lockdown is said to have found an email central to establishing if the PM “lied to parliament” over his knowledge of one specific event – held on 20 May 2020, in the Downing Street garden – after his former adviser Dominic Cummings claimed Mr Johnson knew “full well” it was a social event. Sue Gray, who is conducting the investigation, is poised to quiz the senior official who sent the email – warning the PM’s aide Martin Reynolds to scrap the “bring your own booze” event – according to a report by ITV News.Show latest update

1642690299Three to seven no confidence letters ‘withdrawn’Between three and seven letters of no confidence in Boris Johnson were withdrawn yesterday, the Daily Telegraph reports.Senior sources in the government whip’s office told the publication that they know of at least three cases where MPs had changed their minds yesterday after a raucous PMQs session.One Tory MP said: “Wakeford has saved Boris.”Matt Mathers20 January 2022 14:511642690224Douglas Ross: Wragg claims are serious and must be investigatedDouglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader who is among those to demand Johnson’s resignation, said Wragg’s allegations are “serious” and should be investigated. He told ITV Border he has not personally been told of any intimidation, but added: “I think anyone in the Conservative Party will be disappointed to hear these allegations and I hope that they’re properly investigated.”Matt Mathers20 January 2022 14:501642689542Reports saying rebels withdrew no confidence letters ‘pure invention from No 10’Reports that rebel MPs withdrew letters calling for a no confidence vote in the PM yesterday are “pure invention from No 10,” a source has told The Guardian.“These briefings of withdrawals are pure invention from No 10,” one Johnson critic told the publication.“Wakeford may have stayed some people’s hands yesterday but this isn’t going into reverse.”Matt Mathers20 January 2022 14:391642688424Full report: Tory whips threatened to cancel new school if I rebelled, says defector MPOur policy correspondent, Jon Stone, has more below on claims by Wakeford that he was threatened by whips: Matt Mathers20 January 2022 14:201642687524Cummings: Email proves No 10 lying over garden partyAn email reportedly found by Sue Gray in which an aide warns against the now infamous Downing Street garden party proves No 10 is lying over the affair, Dominic Cummings has claimed.“Episode 197 of no10 saying ‘cummings lying’ then evidence shows no10 is lying…,” the PM’s former chief aide wrote on Twitter.“NB Broadcasters shd now assume no10 is lying unless strong reason to think contrary, given lying is default mode as regime implodes,” he added.Earlier this week Cummings said that email evidence would emerge showing that the PM was warned about the event.Matt Mathers20 January 2022 14:051642686624Tory MP: Whips threatened to axe school funding if i didn’t vote in a certain wayA Tory MP has said government whips threatened to axe funding for a school in his constituency if he didn’t vote a certain way.Christian Wakeford, the MP for Bury South who defected to Labour yesterday, told the BBC the threat made him “question” his position in the Conservative Party.More comments from Wakeford here: Matt Mathers20 January 2022 13:501642685855‘Looks like checkmate’ for Boris Johnson, says senior Tory MPSenior Conservative MP Steve Baker has said it looked like “checkmate” for Boris Johnson, suggesting that the prime minister’s time at No 10 was coming to an end over the partygate scandal.Our politics reporter Adam Forrest has more below:Matt Mathers20 January 2022 13:371642684806Johnson: No evidence of blackmail by Tory whipsBoris Johnson has said there is “no evidence” of government whips blackmailing rebel MPs plotting to trigger a no confidence vote in his leadership.”I have seen no evidence, heard no evidence to support any of those allegations,” he told Sky News.”What I’m focused on is what we’re doing to deal with the number one priority of the British people which is coming through Covid.”Matt Mathers20 January 2022 13:201642684537Whips’ tactics ‘not new’ but Wragg ‘shone a light on them’LBC politics correspondent Ben Kentish suggests whips’ strongarm tactics are nothing new but Wragg has shone a light on them.“I was told by Tory MPs, at the height of the Rashford row, that members of the govt were threatening to withhold money from schools in their (deprived) constituencies if they voted to extend free school meals,” he wrote on Twitter.“These practices aren’t new but Will Wragg has shone a light on them.”Matt Mathers20 January 2022 13:151642683479Tory MPs appear to have differing accounts of ‘blackmail’ claimsAs sources told ITV News’ Anushka Asthana:Sam Hancock20 January 2022 12:57 More

An MP who defected from the Conservative party has said Tory whips threatened to scrap a new school in his constituency if he did not vote the right way in parliament. Christian Wakeford’s claim came after another Tory MP spoke out about about alleged “blackmail” of his colleagues by Downing Street and said the police could be called. “I was threatened that I would not get the school for Radcliffe if I did not vote in one particular way,” Mr Wakeford, who crossed the floor to join Labour on Wednesday. said.“This is a town that’s not had a high school for the best part of ten years and how would you feel holding back the regeneration of the town vote for a vote?“It didn’t sit comfortably and that was really my starting to question my place where I was and ultimately where I am now.”Earlier on Thursday William Wragg, the Tory chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, said said No 10 staff, special advisers and government ministers had said they would release embarrassing stories about him and pull funding from constituencies if they continued to criticise the prime minister.At the start of a meeting of his committee, Mr Wragg said that “the intimidation of a member of parliament is a serious matter”, adding: “The reports of which I’m aware would seem to constitute blackmail.””As such it would be my general advice to colleagues to report these matters to the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Commissioner of Metropolitan Police.”Responding to the allegations on Thursday Boris Johnson told broadcasters he had “seen no evidence, heard no evidence to support any of those allegations” and then changed the subject to Covid vaccination.Pressed and asked whether he would look at evidence provided by MPs, he replied: “Of course, but what we’re focused on is what we can do to clear the Covid backlogs”.A No 10 spokesperson said: “We are not aware of any evidence to support what are clearly serious allegations. If there is any evidence to support these claims we would look at it very carefully.”Addressing the issue, Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, said allegations about potentially criminal offences would be a matter for the police rather than parliamentary authorities. “While the whipping system is long established, it is of course a contempt to obstruct members in the discharge of their duty or to attempt to intimidate a member in their parliamentary conduct by threats,” he said. More

Senior Conservative MP Steve Baker has said it looked like “checkmate” for Boris Johnson, suggesting that the prime minister’s time at No 10 was coming to an end over the partygate scandal.The influential Brexiteer, a leading figure in the Covid Research Group of Tory lockdown-sceptics, said the public were “furious” over the drinks party held at Downing Street at during lockdown.“It’s a sorry situation that we’re in, I’m appalled that we’ve reached this position,” Mr Baker told Nick Robinson on the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast.“We didn’t make Boris Johnson for his meticulous grasp of tedious rules, but this is appalling and the public are rightly furious,” said the backbencher.Mr Baker added: “At the moment I’m afraid it does look like checkmate. Whether he can save himself we’ll see.”The Brexit-backing MP – a key figure in moves to oust former PM Theresa May – said he would not be “organising” against Mr Johnson because his “heart wouldn’t be in it”.It comes fellow MP William Wragg has claimed Tory backbenchers have reported “intimidation” and “blackmail” over their support for a no-confidence motion in Mr Johnson – urging colleagues to report it to the police.Mr Wragg, chair Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, said on Thursday that he has received reports of conduct amounting to “blackmail”.He said they include members of No 10 staff, special advisers and others “encouraging the publication of stories in the press seeking to embarrass those they who suspect of lacking confidence in the prime minister”.Responding, Mr Johnson insisted he had not seen any evidence to support Mr Wragg’s claims of intimidatory tactics against his critics. “I’ve seen no evidence to support any of those allegations,” he told reporters on a visit to Taunton.Christian Wakeford – the MP for Bury South who defected from the Tories to Labour on Wednesday – backed up Mr Wragg’s claims, saying he had been “threatened” with the loss of funding for a school in his constituency.Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner added: “These are grave and shocking accusations of bullying, blackmail, and misuse of public money and must be investigated thoroughly.”Camilla Cavendish, head of policy for David Cameron, called the allegations “unprecedented” – saying the Tory whips had moved into “mafia territory” if they proved to be true.And Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle warned whips that it would be a “contempt” to obstruct MPs in doing their duties by trying to “intimidate” them.In remarkable scenes in the Commons on Wednesday, leading Brexiteer David David stunned MPs with a call to the prime minister to “in the name of God, go”.While up to 20 discontented Tories were understood to have submitted letters to the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, none broke cover to declare their positions publicly.Senior Tories told The Independent that the developments may have helped shore up Mr Johnson’s position at least until the publication of Whitehall mandarin Sue Gray’s report into “partygate” – now expected next week.One member of the group of MPs who arrived in parliament in 2019 urged colleagues not to wait to submit their letters.“You have to make a change as soon as you can,” the Tory MP told The Independent. “I don’t think colleagues should think of the Sue Gray report should be the answer, the silver bullet. You don’t need Sue Gray to tell you what a party is.” More