UK Politics

Boris Johnson has again refused to say whether he attended a party alleged to have taken place in his Downing Street residence during Covid restrictions.It comes after Whitehall mandarin Sue Gray’s “update” on rule-busting events in government buildings revealed earlier this week “a gathering in the No 10 Downing Street flat” was being examined as part of a wider Metropolitan Police investigation.Pressed on the event and his whereabouts on 13 November, 2020, the prime minister swerved the question, saying to MPs on Wednesday: “Here we go again”.Reports have suggested the prime minister was see heading up to the flat on the night in question, with the Mail On Sunday stating that Abba songs, including The Winner Takes It All, were heard coming from the residence.Dominic Cummings, who first made the allegation of the flat party, yesterday claimed there were photographs of parties held at the prime minister’s official residence above No 10.He said he had spoken with people who heard music coming from the Johnsons’ accommodation on 13 November, 2020 — the same night he exited Downing Street after a bitter power struggle.In a question-and-answer sessions on his blog last night, Mr Cummings said there were photographs of the prime minister “at parties under investigation”.“I’ve talked to people who were in no 10 on 13/11 who cd hear the party in no 10 after I’d left – the press office is below the flat,” he told subscribers.“If cops talk to people there that night, there’ll be witnesses who say ‘we could all hear a party with Abba playing’.”Raising further reports on Tuesday evening suggesting Mr Johnson had attended the gathering, the SNP’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, asked: “Can the prime minister update the House on his whereabouts on the evening of 13 November? Surely, he doesn’t need to wait for an investigation to tell us exactly where he was.”But Mr Johnson dodged the question at prime minister’s questions, telling MPs: “Here we go again — he asked exactly the same questions as I recall in the chamber a few days ago.“I can tell him what has been going on in Downing Street in November and throughout, we have been delivering the fastest vaccine and booster rollout anywhere in Europe and we have been getting people back into work, and we have been helping to bring the West together to defy what I think is completely unacceptable threats of intimidation from the Putin regime against Ukraine. And that’s what we have been doing.” More

Boris Johnson has been accused of repeatedly lying to parliament – both over Downing Street parties, and over claims where he tried to link opposition leader Keir Starmer to notorious sex offender Jimmy Savile.Despite rules in the ministerial code saying that members of the government should resign if they mislead parliament, in practice Johnson is likely safe from an investigation.This is because under the UK government’s weak oversight rules, only the prime minister has the power order investigations under the ministerial code. This includes when the investigation is into himself.The ministerial code says that ministers must “correct any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity”. But if members of the government are found to have lied to parliament deliberately they can face a formal inquiry under the code.However, this power is reserved to the prime minister, who oversees the ministerial code. “The problem with this is that only the prime minister can decide to open an inquiry into whether a minister has breached the Ministerial Code,” says Dr Alice Lilly, a senior researcher at the Institute for Government.”And it is also up to the prime minister to decide on the sanctions that any minister who has breached the Code may face.”In the past Mr Johnson has been reticent to recommend serious sanctions against other ministers who broke the code. In 2020 the prime minister’s senior ethics advisor Alex Allan, found that Home Secretary Priti Patel had broken the ministerial code by bullying staff.But Mr Johnson said that he did not believe Ms Patel was a bully and had “full confidence” in her. The ethics advisor subsequently resigned from the role.But is there another way in which the prime minister could be held to account?Dr Lilley notes that “ministers are also bound by the Nolan Principles of Public Life, which state that ‘holders of public office should be truthful'”.”But these are principles, not rules,” she says, noting that the remit of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards who might apply the code also “does not extend to remarks made in the Commons”.MPs could also table a substantive motion to censure the prime minister, she says. This happened in 1963 during the Profumo affair, where the then war secretary was judged by MPs to have treated parliament with “grave contempt” for making a statement in the Commons “containing words which he later admitted not to be true”.”But ultimately, the outcome of any vote on whether a minister has committed a contempt by making a false statement is likely to depend on the size of the government’s majority. So that is also a limited mechanism,” she adds.Ultimately, there is unlikely to be a workable legal shortcut to ousting the prime minister for lying if he decides not to investigate himself.Political pressure for the PM to resign would be the final safeguard. This would have to wait for a general election, unless the Conservative party internally decides that Mr Johnson is too much of a political liability. This process is playing out in Westminster currently, and it remains to be seen when or whether the Conservatives might oust him.The Council of Europe’s equalities watchdog has previously raised concerns about the UK’s weak oversight systems. In its latest report in 2021 the council’s corruption monitoring arm GRECO said just five out of 12 recommendations previously handed to the UK government in 2018 had been “dealt satisfactorily with”.It warned in particular about the lack of independence of the UK government’s standards watchdogs covering government ministers. More

The British government set out plans Wednesday for a huge shift in power and wealth to left-behind regions of the country, a long-standing promise to the voters who helped put Prime Minister Boris Johnson in office.Johnson’s Conservative government was elected in 2019 on a pledge to “level up” one of Europe’s most regionally unequal countries by improving transport links, infrastructure and economic opportunities in swaths of the country hit by shuttered industries and public funding cuts.The government fleshed out that promise Wednesday with details of plans to invest in public transport, education, digital connectivity and R&D in poorer regions, mostly in central and northern England by 2030. It also said more regions will get elected mayors with substantial powers, and derelict industrial sites will be targeted for major regeneration projects. As yet, though, there are few details of how the ambitious plans will be funded.Britain has long had deep regional divides, with money and wealth concentrated in London and the south of England, while heavy industry dominated the north. The closure of mines and factories as the U.K. moved from industrial powerhouse to service-based economy in recent decades hit those areas hard. The divide grew wider when Conservative-led governments slashed public spending to curb a ballooning deficit after the 2008 global financial crisis. Poorer areas that were most dependent on state funds suffered the biggest hit.Former industrial cities in England such as Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds, along with Glasgow, Scotland, have done much to reinvent themselves as economic, cultural and creative hotbeds, but smaller towns and cities are still scarred by poverty, poor education and high unemployment.Michael Gove the minister in charge of the leveling up plan, said Britain’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union had been “a wake-up call” by voters in neglected areas.“As well as a clear commandment to leave the European Union it was also a way of saying to people in (Parliament’s postcode) SW1, people like me, ‘look, it’s vital that you change the economic model of this country,’” he said.Tracy Brabin, mayor of the West Yorkshire region of northern England, welcomed the government’s plans but said “the devil is going to be in the detail.”“Lots of ambition, lots of hope, but unless you actually have the money and the resources, you are going to be struggling,” she told the BBC.Johnson hopes announcing the long-awaited plans will provide some respite from scandal over lockdown-breaching parties held in his office during the pandemic. Police are investigating a dozen gatherings that may have breached coronavirus restrictions, and a senior civil servant’s report this week slammed “failures of leadership and judgment” in the prime minister’s office.Johnson has apologized and promised to overhaul his office and regain public trust. But his opponents — including some in his own Conservative Party — are calling for him to resign for allowing staff to party while millions endured isolation to help curb the spread of COVID-19.The party has a history of ousting leaders once they become liabilities, and Johnson could yet face a no-confidence vote from his own side. Under party rules, such a vote is triggered if 15% of party lawmakers — currently 54 people — write letters calling for one.About a dozen Tory lawmakers have called publicly for Johnson to go, though more have likely submitted letters. Tobias Ellwood, a high-profile Conservative legislator, said Wednesday he would be sending a no-confidence letter to the party committee in charge of leadership challenges.“This is just horrible for all MPs to continuously have to defend this to the British public,” he told Sky News.“It’s time to resolve this completely so the party can get back to governing. … I will be submitting my letter today to the 1922 Committee.” More

Liberal Democrats are today tabling a bill to force Boris Johnson to admit to any fines he receives for lockdown breaches – and they calculate the prime minister could be forced to shell out up to £12,300.In a swift U-turn on Tuesday, Downing Street agreed to inform the media if the PM received a fine as a result of the Metropolitan Police inquiry into 12 social gatherings at No 10. The climbdown came 24 hours after No 10 caved in to pressure over its efforts to keep Sue Gray’s final report into the Partygate affair secret.But it remains unclear whether the size of any fine will be revealed, and Mr Johnson’s official spokesperson said there was no commitment to publicise penalties for any other ministers, officials or members of the PM’s family.Scotland Yard is not planning to reveal details of any fines, as this is not normal practice.Under the Ministerial Disclosure Bill being tabled by Lib Dem home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael and seen by The Independent, any government minister issued with a fixed penalty notice would be required by law to make it public.Because Covid FPNs can be increased for each subsequent office, Mr Carmichael calculates that Mr Johnson could face a total of £12,300 in fines if police penalise him in relation to six events which he is alleged to have attended.These include the “bring your own booze” garden party on 20 May 2020 (£100); the celebration of Mr Johnson’s 56th birthday on 19 June (£200); the leaving do for former communications chief Lee Cain on 13 November (£800) and the alleged party to celebrate Dominic Cummings’ departure in the Johnsons’ flat that evening (£1,600).Later events for which the Lib Dems believe the PM could incur fines are another leaving do on 17 December 2020 (£3,200) and a gathering in Downing Street on the departure of two No 10 private secretaries on 14 January 2021 (£6,400).At present, there is no legal mechanism to force Mr Johnson to reveal fines if he chooses not to do so. His official spokesperson said he would release information voluntarily because of the “significant public interest” in him.Mr Carmichael told The Independent that the repeated flip-flops from No 10 showed that the prime minister “holds the British public with deep disdain and is taking them for fools”.He challenged Tory MPs to back his bill or face accusations that they are assisting Mr Johnson and his ministers in covering up their misdemeanours.“We’ve never needed a legal mechanism to force ministers to reveal if they’d received fixed penalty notices because we’ve never had a leader as shameless as Boris Johnson,” said Mr Carmichael.“He not only flouts the laws he asked us all to follow, but then repeatedly lies about it.“Conservative MPs have no excuse – they know that this man is not fit for public office. They should back my Bill so Boris Johnson is forced to come clean. If Johnson is found to have broken the law and fined by the police, he will surely have no choice but to resign.”Mr Carmichael has also written to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, calling on them to rule out the possibility of the Prime Minister using taxpayer-funded expenses to pay any potential fines which Boris Johnson receives. More

The “12 missions” at the heart of the government’s levelling up strategy have been largely cut-and-pasted from Theresa May’s abandoned plans, it has emerged.No fewer than eight of the 12 targets for reviving poorer areas have been rehashed from a 2017 Industrial Strategy which was shelved by Boris Johnson, a Labour MP is protesting.“This is essentially the recently scrapped Industrial Strategy rebranded as Levelling Up,” said Darren Jones, the chair of the Commons business committee.Branding the situation “ridiculous”, Mr Jones said his analysis suggested the only new targets are for improving school performance, cutting crime and to “restore local pride”.“Government was failing at delivering the Industrial Strategy missions, so how will government now deliver this?” Mr Jones asked on Twitter.The criticism comes after Michael Gove admitted he had lost a cabinet battle with Rishi Sunak for extra cash, which means the flagship strategy will receive no new funding.Instead, it will signal a return to Labour-style target-setting – abolished by David Cameron in 2010 – with a warning it will take the rest of the 2020s to reap success.Every area will be offered a directly-elected mayor, if it wants one – but Mr Gove has admitted it will be only a “starting gun fired on decade-long project to level up Britain”.A damning report by the spending watchdog is warning billions of pounds currently being spent may be wasted because ministers are picking the wrong projects and failing to analyse “what works”.Mr Jones’ analysis reveals that the levelling up plan pledges to:* Boost “pay, employment and productivity” – but the industrial strategy vowed to ensure everyone “increases their earning power and gets access to jobs”.* Increase research and development spending in poorer areas – but the old document did the same.* Improve local public transport connectivity – a repeat of the earlier pledge of “improvements to road and rail”.* Deliver “gigabit-capable broadband and 4G coverage, with 5G coverage for the majority of the population” – an apparent downgrade on the earlier pledge of “full-fibre broadband and 5G connectivity”.Mr Gove has defended the lack of new money, saying: “What we’re doing is we’re taking numbers from a Treasury spreadsheet and transforming it into real change in people’s lives.“The chancellor, in the spending review, outlined significant increases in public spending in a range of areas – in transport, in support for local government, in education, and health and social care.“That was money put in, if you like, in departmental bank accounts – and now we are spending that money and it’s being allocated to the mayors and other local leaders who are best placed to drive change in their own communities.” More

The Tory rebellion engulfing Boris Johnson’s leadership grew further on Wednesday morning as the chair of the Commons defence committee said the prime minister should face a vote of no confidence.Tobias Ellwood, a senior Conservative MP and former minister, confirmed he had submitted a letter to his party to trigger a vote on the PM’s future.He joins around 10 other Tories who have publicly confirmed they have submitted letters to the party’s 1922 committee to fire the starting gun on a leadership contest.“I don’t think the prime minister realises how worried colleagues are in every corner of the party, backbenchers and ministers alike, that this is all only going one way and will invariably slide towards a very ugly place,” Mr Ellwood told Sky News.“I believe it’s time for the Prime Minister to take a grip of this; he himself should call a vote of confidence rather than waiting for the inevitable 54 letters to be eventually submitted.“It’s time to resolve this completely so the party can get back to governing, and, yes, I know the next question you will ask, I will be submitting my letter today to the 1922 Committee.”The Bournmouth MP said it was “just horrible for all MPs to continuously have to defend this to the British public”, adding: “The Government’s acknowledged the need for fundamental change, culture, make-up, discipline, the tone of Number 10, but the strategy has been one, it seems, of survival, of rushed policy announcements like the Navy taking over the migrant Channel crossings.”And attacking this week Keir Starmer with Jimmy Savile… I mean who advised the Prime Minister to say this? We’re better than this, we must seek to improve our standards and rise above where we are today.”The defence committee chair’s vote of no confidence in the prime minister is especially significant because it comes at a time of heightened tensions with Russia on Ukraine’s eastern border.His intervention comes less than 24 hours after Tory MP Peter Aldous confirmed he had also submitted a letter of no confidence to the 1922 committee.Other Tory MPs to have publicly called on the PM to go include ex Brexit secretary David Davis, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, and veteran Tory Roger Gale.Other MPs may have anonymously submitted letters in order to oust the prime minister under Tory rules.A total of 54 are required to trigger a no-confidence vote in the parliamentary party, and the PM must then lose in order to trigger a leadership contest.Mr Johnson on Monday night tried to rally his parliamentary party at a meeting in Westminster, where he was said to have given a “barnstorming” performance. But his party remains behind in the polls, with Labour opening up a consistent lead of around 10 points because of collapsing Tory support.Despite winning a large Commons majority just two years ago the PM has tanked in the estimation of the public following revelation after revelation about rule breaking in Downing Street. More

Michael Gove has said he has “a deep reservoir of affection” for Dominic Cummings but dismissed the ex-aides criticism of the prime minister.The communities secretary was speaking after Mr Cummings, a former No 10 chief of staff, claimed on Wednesday night that there were photos of Boris Johnson partying during lockdown.Since departing No 10 Mr Cummings, who was a key figure in the Vote Leave Brexit campaign, has waged a guerrilla media war against Mr Johnson’s administration. Mr Gove, also a former campaigner for Vote Leave, was asked during a BBC Radio interview on Wednesday morning whether he and Mr Cummings had been undergoing a “painful divorce”.The cabinet minister replied: “I worked with Dominic at the Department for Education and enjoyed working with him and have a deep reservoir of affection for him. “But I think that the criticisms that he’s been making of the prime minister recently are wrong. “And I think that it’s entirely understandable that those who look at political dramas will want to follow the twists and turns of this. “But I think my job is to concentrate on delivering the detail which we we’ve been discussing in the levelling-up white paper, and that is what I’m focused on.”Speaking during a question-and-answer session on Tuesday evening Mr Cummings had claimed that “there are photos of the PM at parties under investigation”. He added: “I’ve spoken to people who say they’ve seen photos of parties in the flat.”The exiled aide added: “He’ll keep lying. This could blow up terminally for him if [he] lies to the cops but he won’t be able to help himself other than say ‘I don’t remember’ which is his default when he senses danger.”Mr Cummings first revealed the lockdown-busting No 10 garden party, in May 2020, that is still the biggest threat to the prime minister’s survival. More