UK Politics

Partygate: Johnson faces no further action as police investigation concludesBoris Johnson has insisted that Downing Street will not seek to block any names from appearing in Sue Gray’s long-awaited report on the partygate scandal.Ms Gray reportedly wishes to name civil servants accused of Covid law-breaking in her report that is expected to be published in full next week.As complaints emerged that the public remained “in the dark” about who was actually involved in the No 10 parties after the Metropolitan Police concluded its investigation yesterday, the BBC reported that Ms Gray’s desire to name individuals could delay her own report.The prime minister, speaking publicly for the first time since the investigation ended, said it “will be entirely up to Sue Gray” whether she names the accused. He also said he was “looking forward” to the report.Downing Street officials who received fines for attending the same lockdown parties as Mr Johnson reacted with fury after the prime minister escaped further sanctions despite enouraging staff to “let their hair down”.Show latest update

1653057909Ukraine gifts Boris Johnson embroidered shirtThe Ukrainian Embassy in London has given Boris Johnson a shirt from a famous Ukrainian designer as thanks for the prime minister’s support during the Russian invasion.The embassy said the gift marked Vyshyvanka Day, a national holiday that celebrates Ukrainian folk traditions.The shirt is known as a vyshyvanka too, the embassy said. A note with the gift said: “It will be a great honour to see you in your new vyshyvanka on this day.”The prime minister tweeted his thanks and said “Slava Ukraini” – which translates as “Glory to Ukraine”.Liam James20 May 2022 15:451653057024Labour ‘a bunch of semi-repentant Corbynista loons’, says PMBoris Johnson said Labour were “a bunch of semi-repentant Corbynista loons” over the party’s track record on Nato membership.Sir Keir Starmer was cautioned by left-wing activists this week for threatening action against Labour MPs who oppose the military alliance. Elsewhere, allies of the Labour leader are reportedly urging him to purge 11 MPs who signed a Stop The War Coalition statement critical of Nato at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.The prime minister, speaking at the Welsh Conservative conference in Newtown, Powys, said Labour’s dispute over defence policy was not confined to the backbenches.Pointing to Labour shadow ministers who oppose Trident, he said: “Do you think at this juncture when Putin is muttering recklessly about using his nuclear arsenal, do we really want our defence policy handed over to a bunch of semi-repentant Corbynista loons, to put it mildly?“Eight of the shadow front bench including the shadow foreign secretary voted to scrap this country’s independent nuclear deterrent.”Liam James20 May 2022 15:301653056724Boris Johnson visits Powys honey factoryThe prime minister has been speaking to the press in the outfit of a factory worker today as he visited Hilltop Honey in Newtown, Powys. More

Private tenants are facing a massive spike in landlords launching “no fault” eviction proceedings, just as the cost of living crisis pushes a growing number of renters into debt.The latest figures show there were just over 3,700 evictions by private landlords in England and Wales between January and March – an increase by over a third (38 per cent) on the previous quarter.Crisis said a rising number of private renters were getting “sucked” into the living cost crisis, as the homelessness charity condemned “government inaction over the spiralling costs of energy, rent and food”.The charity also highlighted that more than 6,000 “no fault” eviction court claims were made by landlords between January and March – a 63 per cent rise on the final months of 2021.Boris Johnson’s government has promised to ban the use of Section 21 no fault evictions, a means by which landlords evict residents without having to give a reason.Minister imposed a temporary ban on evictions during the Covid crisis, but the guidance was lifted in May 2021.There has been a steady rise in court action since then, with no fault eviction proceedings now higher than before the pandemic.Crisis said soaring energy bills and rising food prices in recent months had added to the pressure on private tenants – with many struggling to keep up with rent payments as “budgets are squeezed to breaking point.”The charity urged the government to uprate housing benefit, frozen since last year, as well as introducing legislation to ban no fault evictions as soon as possible.Matt Downie, chief executive of Crisis, said: “More private renters are now facing eviction than before the pandemic. It is simply unacceptable that the UK government is allowing thousands of people to be forced from their homes.”He added: “To prevent unthinkable numbers of people being pushed into homelessness, we urge the government to make good on their pledge to scrap ‘no fault’ Section 21 notices as quickly as possible – as well as unfreezing housing benefit so it covers the true cost of renting.”No fault evictions were nearly a third (32 per cent) higher between January and March than the same quarter in 2019, before the pandemic.Lawyers have warned that the planned ban on no-fault notices could see a further surge in eviction proceedings by private landlords in the months ahead.“There will be many tenants evicted before legislation is passed,” said Michael Stock from law firm OGR Stock Denton. “We will potentially see panic evictions and a surge in private landlords selling their rental properties.”It comes as Mr Johnson promised to support the public through the cost of living crisis in much the same way it did through the coronavirus pandemic.“In the months ahead, we are going to have to do what we did before, we’re going to use our fiscal firepower that we built up to help,” he told the Welsh Conseravtives’ conference on Friday.But cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg again rejected the idea of a windfall tax on oil and gas profits, believed to be under consideration, saying there isn’t a “honeypot” that the government can raid whenever it feels like. More

Civil servants at the Department for Education (DfE) have been forced to work in canteens and corridors due to a shortage of desks after being ordered back into office.Staff have been left struggling to find space to work after Jacob Rees-Mogg, the cabinet secretary for efficiencies, launched a concerted campaign to end home-working.Whole teams have been turned away from some offices because of overcrowding, according to Schools Week.Figures seen by the outlet showed staff outnumber desks by almost two-to-one across the DfE’s 12 offices.It comes amid an ongoing row between the government and unions about the future of home working, which was brought in during Covid lockdowns.In April Mr Rees-Mogg resorted to leaving notes at the desks of workers who were not in the office, saying: “Sorry you were out when I visited. I look forward to seeing you soon.”The move was condemned by civil service unions, who said it was insulting and undermined civil service leadership.Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, this week accused Mr Rees-Mogg of behaving like an “overgrown prefect”.A DfE source confirmed to The Independent that staff had been struggling to find desks.Schools Week reported that in Leeds there are just 24 desks for 110 staff, while Bristol has 95 desks for 299 staff.But civil service bosses have been asked to get staff into the office for at least 80 per cent of their week.Schools Week said that, before the pandemic, DfE, which has 4,200 desks for some 8,000, had an occupancy rate of 60 to 70 per cent.The occupancy rate is now back to around the same level, ministers said earlier this week.Shadow schools ministers Stephen Morgan said the “bizarre fixation on office attendance is utterly laughable”.A DfE spokesperson said hybrid working was “not new and does not stop offices being used at full capacity”. They added full occupancy “does not mean every civil servant working from their desk”, adding it was “common for organisations in the private and public sector not to have space for all their employees”. More

Boris Johnson has insisted No 10 will not block any names being published in the long-awaited report into the Partygate scandal by Whitehall mandarin Sue Gray.In his first public remarks since the Metropolitan Police closed its investigation on Thursday — issuing a total of 126 fines — the prime minister said the contents were “entirely” down to Ms Gray.Mr Johnson also said he was “grateful” to the force’s investigation after he escaped further sanctions, leaving him with one fixed penalty notice (FPN) for breaches of Covid regulations.Ms Gray, who was tasked with investigating the rule-busting parties in government buildings earlier this year, had delayed the publication of her report until the Met concluded its own work.The senior civil servant is now expected to make her findings public as soon as next week, with individuals whose involvement will be mentioned expected to be contacted over the weekend.Speaking on a visit to Powys, Wales, on Friday, Mr Johnson declined to apologise again for the rule-braking, saying: “I’m very grateful to the Met for their work, I’m thankful for everything they’ve done.“We just need to wait for Sue Gray to report, fingers’ crossed that will be very soon, and I’ll be saying some more next week.”Pressed on whether No 10 would be blocking any names from appearing in the report, he replied: “That will be entirely up to Sue Gray and I’ll be looking forward very much to seeing what she has to say, and fingers’ crossed that will be pretty soon next week.”His comments also came amid claims in The Times that Scotland Yard is declining to give Ms Gray details about individuals who have been issued with a FPN.Earlier, however, No 10 said it was not aware of any communication between the prime minister and Ms Gray since the police investigation into lockdown gatherings was wrapped up on Thursday.Asked whether Mr Johnson had spoken to or had written communication with the senior official since, a spokesman for the prime minister said: “Not that I’m aware of.”The Downing Street spokesman said he would “not get into specifics” when put to him that Ms Gray‘s team had been in contact with the Prime Minister about the forthcoming report.He said Mr Johnson was committed to publishing the report in the format it is submitted “as soon as possible”, with Ms Gray to determine when it is finalised. More

Channel 4 is calling on Nadine Dorries to provide evidence to back up her claim that the TV company faked a reality show which she starred in.The Culture Secretary – who has unveiled controversial plans to privatise Channel 4 – told a parliamentary committee that she had discovered that actors were hired to play poverty-stricken people on a housing estate.But Channel 4 today said that it had received no previous allegations relating to the contributors to the show, Tower Block of Commons, which was produced by Love Productions and broadcast in 2010 .The documentary show featured four MPs, including Ms Dorries, spending time living on deprived housing estates around Britain.Recalling the residents she met on an estate in London’s Acton neighbourhood during filming, the cabinet minister told the Commons Culture Committee on Thursday: “I discovered later, they were actually actors.“The parents of the boys in that programme actually came here to have lunch with me, and contacted me to tell me, actually, they were in acting school, and that they weren’t really living in a flat, and they weren’t real.“There’s a pharmacist or somebody that I went to see who prepared food – she was also a paid actress as well.”Channel 4 said that it was the first time it had been suggested that the people taking part in the programme were anything other than what they were described as being. They said they were ready to investigate any evidence which Ms Dorries was able to provide.A spokesperson for the channel said: “This is the first suggestion we have heard that viewers were misled about contributors on Tower Block of Commons.“We will be contacting the secretary of state to seek further details so that we can investigate it thoroughly.” More

Senior people in Boris Johnson’s government are blocking a street harassment law aimed at giving women and girls more protection, a top adviser has suggested.Nimco Ali – a close friend of Mr Johnson and his wife Carrie – said her plan to create a new harassment offence had been subject to “pushback” despite support from home secretary Priti Patel.Ms Ali, appointed an independent advisor to Ms Patel in 2020, appeared to suggest that the prime minister was personally opposed to the plan when she appeared on BBC’s Political Thinking podcast.Asked if the resistance had come from the PM’s advisers, she said the source of the pushback had been “a lot closer than that”, adding that people could interpret “my silence”.However, Ms Ali later tweeted BBC host Nick Robinson to say: “I corrected you on the podcast and I did not blame [Mr Johnson] for this.”Downing Street denied any rift between the PM and Ms Ali over the plan to address harassment.“I would point to a tweet from Nimco this morning, where she addresses that and says, ‘I did not blame him’, referring to the prime minister,” said a No 10 spokesperson.Asked whether a law on street harassment was under consideration, Mr Johnson’s spokesperson said: “We will continue to look at where there may be gaps and how specific offences could address those … this remains a top priority for this government.”Ms Ali has been pushing for street harassment, such as sexualised comments, wolf-whistling and persistent staring, to be made a crime.Ms Patel was “very much behind” her campaign, Ms Ali said, before adding: “Then you meet other people saying no … It’s been frustrating and it’s been disappointing.”The murder of Sarah Everard, abducted and raped while walking home in Clapham, south London, sparked demands for more to be done to protect women’s safety.Asked whether some of the “energy” had gone out of the campaign to better protect women and girls, the Home Office adviser replied: “No, it hasn’t gone.“Just because it’s not in the mainstream media at the moment, it doesn’t mean that the home secretary and also the minister for women’s safety Rachel Maclean, are not committed to this.”Ms Ali also spoke about her friend Carrie Johnson, describing the abuse she had suffered had been “horrific”.Asked about Ms Johnson’s campaigning work, she said: “This is a person that is actually renowned and able to do things in her own right. I think it’s actually quite sexist to reduce her to the wife of the prime minister.” More

Boris Johnson’s father, Stanley, has said he is “absolutely delighted” his application to become a French citizen has been approved after submitting his documents last year.The 81-year-old former member of the European Parliament, who has family ties to the country, told The Independent it was “very nice gesture” from the authorities in France.On Friday, a justice ministry source in Paris confirmed that the application of the prime minister’s father “was successful”, and that he would be invited to an official ceremony.This would see him welcomed as a bone fide French citizen underneath the Tricolour, with La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, playing.Another source told AFP: “Based on the facts in his application, and without a refusal by the justice minister, Mr Stanley Johnson acquired French nationality on 18 May, 2022”.They added: “The decision concerns only Mr Stanley Johnson and does not extend to his descendants”.The development also means that Mr Johnson, who campaigned to Remain in 2016 before suggesting Brexit was “probably a good idea” last month, retains all the rights of EU citizenship that British subjects lost after the end of the transition period.Speaking to The Independent, Mr Johnson Snr said he was still waiting to hear from authorities in France, but added: “I’m absolutely delighted to hear this.“If it’s true, I’m absolutely delighted we seem to have made some progress on that I shall very much look forward to visiting the French consulate in London”.He went on: “It means a lot — of course it doesn’t mean I’m renouncing my British citizenship.“It’s a very nice gesture. From my point of view I think it’s tremendously important to build these bridges — whether I’m a bridge is another matter — with the EU and of course France”.A grinning Mr Johnson Snr also spoke fluently in the language of Molière when he appeared on BFM – the country’s largest TV news outlet – on Friday morning.“I’m very happy,” he said. “It means a lot. My mother was born in Paris. For me it’s something very precious, it’s a part of my identity.’As presenter Bruce Toussaint congratulated him, Mr Johnson read the statement provided to AFP news agency, saying he had “acquired French nationality on 18 May, 2022”.Mr Johnson said he had technically “always been French” through his mother, Irene Williams, despite being born in Penzance, Cornwell. “My mother was born in France, her mother was completely French as was her grandmother,” he said.“Europe is more than the single market, it’s more than the European Union. I am European in that sense.”Mr Johnson, a former member of the European Parliament, confirmed that he filled out his application at the French consulate in London last November.As well as being a former MEP, he is also an ex-employee of the European Commission, and lived with his family living in Brussels in the 1970s.He supported Remain prior to the 2016 EU referendum – putting him at odds with his son Boris Johnson’s position as the figurehead for the Vote Leave campaign.However, weeks into Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, the former MEP wrote in The Daily Telegraph in April: “I write this as a once impassioned Remainer, but I have to admit that my faith in the ‘European project has been shaken.“I said as much in a recent radio interview, which caused quite a stir, but I stand by my view that Ukraine has shown that Brexit was probably a good idea.”French law normally prevents children of its citizens from claiming nationality if their family has been abroad for more than 50 years without making use of their rights.But their applications can still be considered if they can prove “concrete ties of a cultural, professional, economic or family nature” with France – a clause Mr Johnson invoked in his application.Around 3,100 British people acquired French nationality in 2020, according to the latest figures available from EU statistics agency Eurostat, making France the second most popular choice for acquiring European citizenship, after Germany. More