UK Politics

Boris Johnson has been warned by senior Conservatives that a no-confidence vote is now inevitable over the Partygate scandal, with one warning that the mood had “turned against him”.Senior Tory MP Tobias Ellwood said a ballot on the prime minister’s future was a matter of “when, not if”, as he urged fellow backbenchers to stop “drinking the Kool-Aid” and force a change of leadership.Tory peer Lord Hayward, the party’s influential polling expert, predicted a no-confidence vote within months following a “dramatic” shift in support since the PM was fined over his law-breaking birthday bash.“The mood has turned against the prime minister,” Lord Hayward told the BBC after speaking to Tory colleagues at Westminster. “Support for the prime minister has fallen quite markedly … I expect there to be a challenge to his leadership.”Sir John Curtice told The Independent that Partygate is set to be a major problem for the Tories at the May local elections – saying that the party’s polling had got worse since the PM was fined by the Metropolitan Police.“The story is not going to go away, the story has now got legs again,” the polling guru said. “The opposition is just going to keep on talking about it. All of this plays to Keir Starmer’s advantage.”Professor Curtice said Labour had stretched its lead over the Tories by three points since Mr Johnson was handed a fixed penalty notice – leading to an average Labour poll lead of eight points.It comes as the leader of the Tories in Sunderland said Mr Johnson had become an “embarrassment” to the party. Dr Antony Mullen said a new leader was “inevitable”, adding: “You can’t have a prime minister who breaks the law.”There were reports on Friday evening that Met has issued new fines over the party held in the No 10 garden on 20 May 2020, an event attended by Mr Johnson. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said Mr Johnson “must immediately declare if he has been given another fine”.Downing Street has not yet commented on the reports, but has previously said it would reveal if Mr Johnson received more fines after Scotland Yard said it would not be issuing any more public updates before the 5 May elections.Some 54 letters of no-confidence have to be sent to the chair of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers to trigger a vote. A majority of the party’s MPs – around 180 – must vote against Mr Johnson to remove him from office.Former Tory chief whip Mark Harper – who has called for Mr Johnson to step down – has predicted a no-confidence will be triggered before parliament’s summer recess in July.Mr Ellwood also suggested on Friday that the threshold would be reached in the coming months. “We’re going to see a steady trickle of letters, resignations,” he told Sky News. “More and more MPs are privately believing that it’s the time that the leadership baton is actually passed on.”Lord Hayward said Tory MPs, peers and local associations fear “death by a thousand cuts”, since the Partygate saga looks set to dog the PM through more police fines, the release of the full Sue Gray report and the privileges committee probe.“They are moving to a position of saying, ‘This cannot go on’,” the peer told BBC’s World at One. He said many in the party now want the question of the PM’s leadership “resolved” in the next few months.Lord Barwell, former chief of staff to Theresa May, said Brexiteer MP Steve Baker’s call for Mr Johnson to go this week was significant. “If I was still working in No 10, I would be pretty worried about that intervention.”However, loyal allies of Mr Johnson lashed out at Tory MPs calling for his removal. Northern Ireland minister Conor Burns said there is “no question” of the PM stepping down and said backbench critics had “never really supported” him.The loyal ally told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If the prime minister stepped off Westminster Bridge and walked on top of the water they would say he couldn’t swim – that is a fact.”Sharing Mr Johnson’s “frustration” with the new Commons inquiry, Mr Burns complained: “This is going to be the most looked at event, possibly, since the Second World War.”Mr Johnson said on Friday that the public cared more about getting a free trade deal with India than Partygate. Asked in New Delhi if he will still be PM by Diwali in October, he replied: “Yes.”Defence minister Leo Docherty even claimed on Friday that Partygate was “done and dusted”, claiming that the British public was now “sick of it”.Speaking at the Invictus Games in The Hague, the minister said: “It’s pretty much done and dusted in the sense that the prime minister’s apologised for the fixed penalty notice he received. In my opinion I regard that as matter closed.”Prof Curtice said public anger about Partygate was now “baked in” to opinion polling, and the widespread perception that Mr Johnson had lied about the issue would be very difficult to shift.He said: “I think we’ve reached a point where the opposition probably thinks that Boris Johnson staying on is to their advantage. The Labour message is the ‘Tories want to hang onto a lawbreaker’. And they will keep on repeating it.” More

Boris Johnson has become an “embarrassment” to the Conservative party, the leader of the Tories in Sunderland has said as he campaigns to make historic gains on the northeast city’s local council.Internal polling is said to suggest the blues could win enough seats at May’s local elections to deny Labour a majority on the authority for the first time since it was formed in 1974.Such a loss of a flagship council would be seen as a massive blow to both the Labour Party’s prestige and to Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership.But Dr Antony Mullen – who has led the Conservatives in the city since 2020 – said convincing residents to give him their vote had been made harder by having a prime minister now known to have broken coronavirus lockdown laws. Dr Mullen is an academic by profession who’s also up for re-election this time round in his Barnes ward, where he lives.“It’s not coming up on the doorstep as much as you might think,” he said. “I think it’s one of those things where if you didn’t like him [Mr Johnson] before, then this is something else to utilise against him, and if you did like him before, it was kind of assumed this is the person he is – an unorthodox politician. “But that’s not to downplay the anger some people are feeling. It’s there. And I agree with it. And it will, inevitably, lose some votes.”It comes after the 30-year-old called on the PM to resign in January as the ongoing partygate revelations snowballed.He said he stood by that demand. “I think it’s inevitable,” he said. “Probably after the Ukraine crisis or at the latest by Christmas. You can’t have a prime minister who breaks the law.”Asked if he was embarrassed by the PM’s actions, he said: “I’m not personally because I’ve made it clear what my views are: I’m not a fan of him. I didn’t vote for him in the leadership contest. I voted for Jeremy Hunt as an Anti-Boris vote. But is it embarrassing for the party? Yes, I can’t see how it couldn’t be.”Sunderland Council itself is currently led by Labour’s Graeme Miller who has a six-seat majority – and says he is not worried about losing it.But if it is lost on 5 May when some 25 positions are up for grabs, it would open up the possibility of a Tory and Lib Dem coalition taking control of the authority in what is perhaps the reddest part of the old Red Wall.“People will vote on local issues rather than on Partygate,” said Dr Mullen. “And we feel that’s where we’re making traction.” More

Priti Patel’s deal to send asylum seekers who arrive in the UK illegally to Rwanda, 4,000 miles away in east Africa, has been met with criticism since it was announced last week. But we want to know what readers of The Independent think of the controversial plans.Scroll down to enter our reader poll and let us know your thoughts in the commentsThe agreement between the UK and Rwanda has been described as “profoundly inadequate and mean-spirited” by Labour, has been rejected by Theresa May, with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby raising “serious ethical questions” about the policy during his Easter Sunday address, saying it cannot “stand the judgment of God”.Criticism for the plan has even been flagged by Home Office staff on an internal online noticeboard where employees expressed “deep shame” at the deal.Ms Patel challenged those against her plan to send migrants to Rwanda to come up with a better idea to tackle small boat crossings in the Channel.What do you think of the idea, proclaimed as “bold and innovative” by the home secretary? Cast your vote in our poll and let us know what you think in the comments. Check back next week to see the results of the reader poll. More

The European Union is nearing agreement on a set of new rules aimed at protecting internet users by forcing big tech companies like Google and Facebook to step up their efforts to curb the spread of illegal content, hate speech and disinformation. EU officials were negotiating Friday over the final details of the legislation, dubbed the Digital Services Act. It’s part of a sweeping overhaul of the 27-nation bloc’s digital rulebook, highlighting the EU’s position at the forefront of the global movement to rein in the power of online platforms and social media companies.While the rules still need to be approved by the European Parliament and European Council that represents the 27 member countries, the bloc is far ahead of the United States and other countries in drawing up regulations for tech giants to force them to protect people from harmful content that proliferates online.Negotiators from the EU’s executive Commission, member countries and France, which holds the rotating EU presidency, were working to hammer out a deal before the end of Friday, ahead of French elections Sunday. The new rules, which are designed to protect internet users and their “fundamental rights online,” would make tech companies more accountable for content on their platforms. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter would have to beef up mechanisms to flag and remove illegal content like hate speech, while online marketplaces like Amazon would have to do the same for dodgy products like counterfeit sneakers or unsafe toys.These systems will be standardized so that they will work the same way on any online platform. That means “any national authority will be able to request that illegal content is removed, regardless of where the platform is established in Europe,” the EU’s single market commissioner, Thierry Breton, said on Twitter. Companies that breach the rules face fines amounting to as much as 6% of their annual global revenue, which for tech giants would mean billions of dollars. Repeat offenders could be banned from the EU market. Google and Twitter declined to comment. Amazon and Facebook didn’t respond to requests for comment. The Digital Services Act also includes measures to better protect children by banning advertising targeted at minors. Online ads targeted to users based on their gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation would be prohibited. There also would be a ban on so-called dark patterns — deceptive techniques to nudge users into doing things they didn’t intend to. Tech companies would have to carry out regular risk assessments on illegal content, disinformation and other harmful information and then report back on whether they’re doing enough to tackle the problem.They will have to be more transparent and provide information to regulators and independent researchers on content moderation efforts. This could mean, for example, making YouTube turn over data on whether its recommendation algorithm has been directing users to more Russian propaganda than normal.To enforce the new rules, the European Commission is expected to hire more than 200 new staffers. To pay for it, tech companies will be charged a “supervisory fee,” which could be up to 0.1% of their annual global net income, depending on the negotiations. The EU reached a similar political agreement last month on its Digital Markets Act, a separate piece of legislation aimed at reining in the power of tech giants and making them treat smaller rivals fairly. Meanwhile, Britain has drafted its own online safety legislation that includes prison sentences for senior executives at tech companies who fail to comply. More

Boris Johnson claims people are more interested in India trade deal than Partygate“Time is running out” for Boris Johnson, his Scottish counterpart has warned, calling the referral of the PM to the Privileges Committee “quite a significant turning point”.First minister Nicola Sturgeon said that while Mr Johnson may “try to cling on” to power at Downing Street, the forthcoming investigation could be a pivotal moment.She said: “I think the Tories in Westminster have got a big question to ask themselves because every day they allow Boris Johnson to remain in office right now they become complicit in all of the wrongdoing that he stands accused of.“Yesterday felt to me like quite a significant turning point. He will try to cling on, there is no doubt about it.“He will try to wriggle off the multiple hooks that I think he is on. He clearly has no shame. He clearly has no respect for parliament, for democracy, for the institutions that our democracy depends on.”Show latest update

1650638212Partygate saga ‘done and dusted’, says Tory ministerThe saga over the numerous lockdown-busting parties held in No 10 is “done and dusted”, defence minister Leo Docherty this afternoon declared.It comes as a number of senior Conservative MPs have called for Boris Johnson to resign for failing to obey his own Covid rules.Speaking to the PA news agency at the Invictus Games in The Hague, Mr Docherty said: “It’s pretty much done and dusted in the sense that the prime minister’s apologised for the fixed-penalty notice he received.“In my opinion I regard that as matter closed. I really want to see him being able to get on with the job.”He said the “vast majority” of Brits wants to see Boris Johnson get on with representing the UK.“People I think are sick of it and want us to move on,” he said.Mr Docherty has previously faced calls of his own to resign. In September 2019, his brother Paddy Docherty wrote an open letter to the Guardian urging the Tory MP to step down in the wake of Mr Johnson’s proroguing of Parliament.He wrote: “I used to joke that your degree in Swahili and Hindi made you “perfectly qualified to be an army officer – in the 1840s”. As you now serve in a government with alarmingly backward intentions, that no longer seems quite so funny.“I must therefore beg you, as your brother, to resign your post in the whips’ office and speak out in defence of democracy.”Emily Atkinson22 April 2022 15:361650637563Tory MPs warn ‘illegal migrant’ ads attacking Labour politicians will stoke hatredConservative MPs have condemned their own party’s new online adverts attacking Labour MPs over immigration, warning they will stoke hatred and put all politicians at greater risk, writes Adam Forrest.Tory backbenchers have raised fears about personalised ads targetting Yvette Cooper and other frontbench Labour politicians – telling the public they voted “to keep illegal migrants in Britain”.Some Tories criticised the potentially inflammatory ads in a private WhatsApp group where MPs share graphics on social media, according to Bloomberg.“These ads lead directly to attacks on MPs and their families and they stoke up hatred of politicians,” Tory MP Miriam Cates wrote – calling the ads “very, very disappointing”.Emily Atkinson22 April 2022 15:261650636903’I genuinely don’t think he attended parties,’ says Tory peerEmily Atkinson22 April 2022 15:151650635948Time is running out for Boris Johnson, says Nicola Sturgeon“Time is running out” for Boris Johnson, his Scottish counterpart has said, calling the referral of the PM to the Privileges Committee “quite a significant turning point”.First minister Nicola Sturgeon said while Mr Johnson may “try to cling on” to power at Downing Street, the forthcoming investigation could be a pivotal moment.She said: “I think time is running out for him. It feels to me that the events of yesterday turned things into a question of when and not if.”“The fact that the Tories had to U-turn at the last minute in terms of their instruction to their own MPs, I think, is very telling and is a sign that support appears at long last – and it’s overdue – to be ebbing away from the Prime Minister within his own ranks.”The SNP leader continued: “I think the Tories in Westminster have got a big question to ask themselves because every day they allow Boris Johnson to remain in office right now they become complicit in all of the wrongdoing that he stands accused of.”She insisted: “Yesterday felt to me like quite a significant turning point. He will try to cling on, there is no doubt about it.“He will try to wriggle off the multiple hooks that I think he is on. He clearly has no shame. He clearly has no respect for parliament, for democracy, for the institutions that our democracy depends on.”Emily Atkinson22 April 2022 14:591650635172Sturgeon defends campaigns for independence alongside local election bidsScotland’s first minister has defended the SNP’s decision to campaign for Scottish independence in tandem with local election campaigning.When asked if it was appropriate for local councillors to campaign for independence during an election where local issues such as cleansing services and schools should be the priority, Nicola Sturgeon said: “The manifesto is very clear that the priority for SNP councillors will be the cost-of-living crisis and local services.“But I don’t think it is going to surprise anybody that SNP councillors will support the Scottish Government’s proposals for a referendum in the first half of this parliament.“And of course, that is a mandate that was won at the election last year and one that therefore democratically I have not just a determination to but arguably a duty to proceed with because that’s what I put to people in the election last year.” More

Britain could send tanks to Poland to allow the eastern European Nato member to supply Ukraine with its own Soviet-era armoured vehicles, Boris Johnson has revealed.The announcement came as the prime minister set out plans for a new long-term “security guarantee” for Ukraine after the end of the current war, which would stop short of Nato membership but be tough enough to deter Moscow from a repeat invasion.The guarantee, coupled with massive provision of protective arms, would offer “deterrence by denial and make sure their territory is so fortified as to be impregnable”, said the PM.But it would not replicate Nato’s Article 5 principle that an attack on one member is an attack on all, depriving Kyiv of the shield of Western military engagement in the event of any future assault.As the focus of the war moves away from Kyiv to the eastern Donbas region, Mr Johnson also said that the UK will next week reopen its embassy in the capital in a gesture of support for the Ukrainian people.But he accepted the gloomy recent assessment of Western defence officials that the war could drag on until the end of 2023 and end with Vladimir Putin able to claim some sort of victory.Sending Challenger 2 tanks to Poland to “backfill” for T72s supplied to the Ukrainians would come close to crossing the line that Mr Johnson has so far carefully observed, of providing only defensive kit in order to avoid being accused of provoking Moscow.No request has yet been received from Warsaw, but it is understood that delivery could be arranged within days if needed.Observers suggested that the bold proposal appeared to be an attempt by the PM to distract attention away from his travails over Downing Street parties, which have overshadowed his two-day trip to India.In talks with prime minister Narendra Modi in Delhi, Mr Johnson made no attempt to persuade the Indian premier to condemn Putin, in what was seen as an effort to avoid jeopardising a planned free trade agreement which he said he wanted “done by Divali” in October.Indian foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said later that Johnson had put “no pressure” on Modi to ditch his neutral stance on the war, which has seen India abstain in key votes censuring Russia at the United Nations.But Mr Johnson told a press conference at the conclusion of the visit that Modi assured him that he had asked Putin several times in private conversations “what on Earth he thinks he’s doing and where he thinks this is going”.Glossing over the deep differences on Ukraine between London and Delhi – which is calling for a ceasefire and diplomatic dialogue – Mr Johnson said: “What the Indians want is peace and they want the Russians out, and I totally agree with that.”Appearing alongside Modi earlier, the PM avoiding ruffling his hosts’ feathers by making no mention of Russia or Ukraine at all in a seven-minute statement, saying only that “autocratic coercion” around the world made it important for democracies to work closely together.He sealed a “new and expanded” Defence and Security Partnership which will ease UK arms exports to India and provide UK expertise for the development of Indian-built fighter jets.But he acknowledged concerns raised by defence thinktank Rusi that Western components – including some made in the UK – were being used in Russian weapons after being laundered through countries like India, telling reporters that Britain needs to “take steps to make sure this stuff doesn’t go through other routes to Russia”.Mr Johnson, who has previously insisted that the Russian president “must fail” in his military adventure, agreed that a lengthy war ending with Putin claiming victory at least in the south and east of Ukraine was now a “realistic possibility”.Mr Johnson said: “Putin has a huge army. He has a very difficult political position because he’s made a catastrophic blunder.“The only option he now has, really, is to continue to try to use his appalling, grinding approach driven by artillery, trying to grind the Ukrainians down.“No matter what military superiority Vladimir Putin may be able to bring to bear in the next few months – I agree, it may be a long period – he will not be able to conquer the spirit of the Ukrainian people. That is an observable fact.“On the contrary, what he is doing is reinforcing that will to resist in the people of Ukraine.”Looking ahead to security guarantees to protect Ukraine from a repeat assault, he said: “What the Ukrainians want – and I think are now going to get – is a collection of guarantees from like-minded countries about what we can do to back them up with weaponry, with training and with intelligence-sharing.“It will, I hope, enable the Ukrainians to offer deterrence by denial and make sure their territory is so fortified as to be impregnable to further attack from Russia. That is what we need to do.”It emerged on Thursday that a small number of Ukrainian troops are being trained in Britain for the first time since the start of the Russian invasion.Britain is providing Ukraine with 150 armoured patrol vehicles, including the Mastiff, which can be used as a reconnaissance or patrol vehicle.The prime minister’s spokesman said the UK, in conjunction with its allies, was providing new types of equipment to Ukrainian soldiers that they may not have used before.“It is only sensible that they get requisite training to make best use of it,” the spokesman said. “We are always conscious of anything perceived to be escalatory, but clearly what is escalatory is the actions of Putin’s regime.” More

Conservative MPs have condemned their own party’s new online adverts attacking Labour MPs over immigration, warning they will stoke hatred and put all politicians at greater risk.Tory backbenchers have raised fears about personalised ads targetting Yvette Cooper and other frontbench Labour politicians – telling the public they voted “to keep illegal migrants in Britain”.Some Tories criticised the potentially inflammatory ads in a private WhatsApp group where MPs share graphics on social media, according to Bloomberg.“These ads lead directly to attacks on MPs and their families and they stoke up hatred of politicians,” Tory MP Miriam Cates wrote – calling the ads “very, very disappointing”.Tory colleague Jackie Doyle-Price is also said to have raised concerns, saying the party should “hold ourselves to good standards of behaviour.”However, their backbench colleague Jonathan Gullis reportedly said MPs should let Tory election campaign officials “do what they want to do, in what they believe is the best way to retain our seats”.One of the Tory Facebook ads targeted Labour’s Jenny Chapman in Darlington, and said she had voted against the recent borders bill – but she has not been Darlington MP since 2019.The new online Tory adverts have targeted certain Labour MPs in marginal seats, as well as members of Sir Keir Starmer shadow cabinet – including Lucy Powell and Jonathan Reynolds.“Your MP voted to keep illegal migrants in Britain,” the ad state, along with a black and white image of the Labour MP’s face.It comes as MPs share their growing concerns about the toxic culture in British politics and fears for their security following the murder of Sir David Amess.The new ads highlight Labour’s opposition to the Nationality and Borders Bill, as the Tory party seeks to push its immigration agenda in a bid to move away from Partygate in the run-up to local elections on 5 May.But several senior Tories have spoken out against home secretary Priti Patel’s plans to send asylum seekers who arrive by routes deemed “illegal” to Rwanda.Two former cabinet ministers, David Davis and Andrew Mitchell, have condemned the radical move – with the latter describing it as “immoral” and involving “astronomic” costs. Former PM Theresa May has also been critical, saying the plan was impractical.Meanwhile, Ms Patel has been accused of “hypocrisy” over her department’s plan to place asylum seekers in a Yorkshire village, two years after she claimed they should not be placed in her own constituency because it was not a “major conurbation”.Kevin Hollinrake, the Conservative MP who represents Linton-on-Ouse, wrote to Ms Patel this week pointing out this contradiction.The Independent has contacted Ms Cates, Ms Doyle-Price, Mr Gullis and the Conservative Party for comment on the immigration ads. More