UK Politics

Boris Johnson supports and abides by rules which state that a minister who knowingly misleads parliament should resign, Downing Street has said.The assurance comes soon after former No 10 aide Dominic Cummings accused the prime minister of lying to the Commons when he said he believed “implicitly” that a gathering in the Downing Street garden in May 2020 was a work event.Mr Cummings said he was willing to swear under oath that the PM knew it was drinks party. He claimed the PM gave the OK for the gathering to go ahead, after principal private secretary Martin Reynolds consulted him after being warned it would not be appropriate at a time when the UK was under lockdown restrictions.Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab this morning said that a prime minister would “normally” be expected to quit if he intentionally misled parliament.And Mr Raab’s statement was backed by Mr Johnson’s official spokesperson, who told a regular daily Westminster media briefing: “The ministerial code is very clear on this point, when it comes to knowingly misleading the House, and the prime minister abides by that and we fully support it.”However, the spokesperson stressed that this did not amount to saying that the PM will quit if the “partygate” inquiry being led by Whitehall mandarin Sue Gray finds against him.“It’s important not to jump ahead and seek to conflate what is clearly set out in the ministerial code -which the prime minister supports – and conflate that with what the investigation may or may not conclude,” said the spokesperson.He added: “You have seen us say repeatedly that it is untrue that the prime minister was warned about the event in advance and you have got the prime minister’s statement to the House.”Chancellor Rishi Sunak today insisted he accepts Mr Johnson’s explanation for the events of 20 May 2020, backing the PM’s appeal for patience while Ms Gray completes her inquiry.But pressed during a pooled session with broadcasters whether he supports the PM “unequivocally”, Mr Sunak abruptly removed his microphone and broke off the interview.In the Commons last week, the Prime Minister admitted spending 25 minutes at the gathering but insisted he had believed “implicitly” that it would be a work event.Mr Raab told Times Radio: “The suggestion that he lied is nonsense. He’s made it very clear to the House of Commons that questions on this… that he thought it was a work event.”Pressed on what would be expected if Mr Johnson had lied to the Commons, Mr Raab told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If it’s lying, deliberate in the way you describe, if it’s not corrected immediately, it would normally under the ministerial code and the governance around Parliament be a resigning matter.”Mr Raab also described the event in question as a “party” before rowing back on the remark.“There was speculation that the May 20 party was held in my honour, to thank me, which is just ridiculous,” he told Sky News.Asked if that means it was a party then, he said: “No, no, no, this was the claim that was made and it was nonsense, I wasn’t invited and I didn’t attend.” More

Former Conservative Party leader William Hague has launched a stinging attack on Boris Johnson, saying he was “appalled” by the prime minister’s failure to tackle the drinking culture at No 10.As Mr Johnson battles to save his premiership amid the partygate scandal, Mr Hague suggested that previous Tory prime ministers would not have allowed drinks events at Downing Street during a pandemic.“I am appalled because I can’t imagine … that being allowed in any government that I have served in, which is quite a few governments,” the ex-leader told Times Radio.Mr Hague added: “The scale and regularity of what we’ve read about – it’s not something I can picture happening under David Cameron or John Major or Margaret Thatcher without them saying, ‘What the hell do you think you’re all doing? Get back to your desks and put away that drink.’”Mr Johnson is facing renewed calls to quit after his former adviser Dominic Cummings claimed the PM had been warned against the “bring your own booze” event in the No 10 garden during the first lockdown.Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab insisted on Tuesday that Mr Cummings’ allegation that the PM had lied to the Commons about what he knew of the May 2020 event is “nonsense”. But he also said any minister would “normally” be expected to resign if he was found to have intentionally misled parliament.Chancellor Rishi Suank said on Tuesday that he accepts Mr Johnson’s explanation that he was not warned in advance about a No 10 drinks party in May 2020.Asked by reporters if he believed the PM, the chancellor said: “Of course I do. The prime minister set out his understanding of this matter last week in parliament. I refer you to his words.”The Independent reported on Friday that No 10 officials have come up with a plan to sack senior officials and protect Mr Johnson – referred to as “Operation Save Big Dog” – after Sue Gray produces her report on social gatherings in government.One Tory MP has reportedly dubbed the efforts of some backbenchers to replace Mr Johnson as “Operation Rinka” – a reference to the dog killed during the 1970s scandal involving then-Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe.On Monday Mr Cummings claimed that email and witness evidence will show that Mr Johnson “lied to parliament” when he denied knowing he was attending a party on 20 May 2020.Mr Cummings claimed in his latest blog post that Mr Johnson’s principal private secretary (PPS) Martin Reynolds told him he would “check with the PM if he’s happy for it to go ahead”.The former No 10 strategist also claimed he then personally challenged Mr Johnson himself about the ‘bring your own booze’ event, saying: “The PM waved it aside.”No 10 has said it was “untrue” to claim that Mr Johnson had been “warned about the event”. The PM’s official spokesman said: “As he said earlier this week, he believed implicitly that this was a work event.”One Tory backbencher MP told The Independent that Mr Johnson was in “a seriously sticky position” – but is still waiting for Ms Gray’s before deciding whether to send a letter of no confidence.“His defence he didn’t know he was at a party is pretty weak. If he is found to have knowingly gone to a party, I don’t know how he survives.”Meanwhile, leading Tory donor John Griffin has called on Mr Johnson to resign. “It is a shame. The whole situation has become comical. Boris has blotted his copybook and now needs to start again,” the founder of taxi firm Addison Lee told The Guardian.Three other Conservative donors spoke about their concerns over Mr Johnson leading the party at the weekend. It follows criticism from John Caudwell, the Phones4U founder, who last week warned: “Sort it out, Boris, or step aside.” More

Boris Johnson remains trapped in a fight for his political life as public anger festers over reports of a series of rule-breaking Downing Street parties that allegedly took place while the rest of the country was in lockdown to thwart the coronavirus pandemic.The prime minister’s fate now appears to hang on the outcome of senior civil servant Sue Gray’s inquiry into the affair.Having initially said in December he was “sickened” at the prospect of Downing Street employees ignoring social restrictions, Mr Johnson found himself sidestepping questions about whether he personally attended an event on 20 May 2020.ITV News had reported that the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, had invited over 100 people by email to a “bring your own booze” bash in the grounds of the PM’s Westminster residence that day “to take advantage of the lovely weather”.At the time of the alleged gathering, strict controls on social mixing were in place, prohibiting households from intermingling, schools were shut to most pupils and pubs, restaurants, nightclubs, sports stadia, cinemas and theatres were all closed.So strict were the rules at the time that police prosecuted people for having parties in their own homes, erected random checkpoints in some areas and, in Derbyshire, used drones to monitor beauty spots in the interest of shutting down illicit picnics.Police forces in England and Wales issued 14,244 fines for breaches of lockdown laws between 27 March and 11 May 2020, according to figures from the National Police Chiefs’ Council, also breaking up political demonstrations and social meet-ups in open areas like Hyde Park in central London in the interest of stopping the spread of the virus.An hour before the gathering in question is understood to have taken place, Cabinet minister Oliver Dowden had told members of the public via a live news conference about the Covid-19 outbreak: “You can meet one person outside your household in an outdoor, public place, provided that you stay two metres apart.”People would not be allowed to meet outside in groups of six until 1 June.Nevertheless, Mr Johnson and his then-partner (now wife) Carrie Johnson were among 30-40 people alleged to have attended the garden party in blithe indifference to the hardships the electorate were enduring, having responded to Mr Reynolds’ cheery invite email.According to ITV, to whom a copy was leaked, it read: “Hi all. After what has been an incredibly busy period it would be nice to make the most of the lovely weather and have some socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden this evening. Please join us from 6pm and bring your own booze!”A source told The Independent the prime minister had indeed “hung out” with staff for at least an hour as they knocked back drinks.Not all recipients were so keen to attend, however, with one staff member responding “Is this for real?” Another, according to the BBC, texted: “Um. Why is Martin [Reynolds] encouraging a mass gathering in the garden?”The bash was scheduled just five days after another cheese-and-wine social reportedly took place in the same venue, an event that is already the subject of Ms Gray’s investigation (she was appointed replaced Cabinet secretary Simon Case after he recused himself from the probe after it was revealed he had known about a festive quiz held within his own department), along with at least four more social events. More

The Court of Appeal has overturned a ruling that a Covid contract given to a company whose founders were friends of former Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings was unlawful.Last year, the High Court ruled that the Cabinet Office’s decision to award a £550,000 contract to market research firm Public First was unlawful as it gave rise to “apparent bias” because other agencies were not considered.But today’s ruling concluded that a “fair-minded and reasonably informed observer” would not see the decision as biased.Mr Cummings said it was “good news” the Court of Appeal had “seen sense and said I behaved lawfully”.He said the case showed the need for the government to urgently put in place “clear procurement rules” for emergencies.Campaigning organisation the Good Law Project, which brought the case over the links between the firm’s founders and Boris Johnson’s former adviser as well as then-Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove, said it will appeal the decision at the Supreme Court.Public First was given a contract for over £550,000 in June 2020 for focus groups and other research – including testing public health slogans such as “Stay at home, Protect the NHS, Save lives”.In the original ruling, Mrs Justice O’Farrell found that the “apparent bias” was not due to the existing relationships between Mr Cummings and Public First but because of a failure to consider any other research agency and record the objective criteria used in the selection.However, in a judgment on Tuesday, Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, sitting with Lord Justice Coulson and Lady Justice Carr, found that the original judgment was “unprecedented”.In its ruling, the court said: “The fair-minded and reasonably informed observer would not have concluded that a failure to carry out a comparative exercise of the type identified by the judge created a real possibility that the decision-maker was biased.”Writing on Twitter, Mr Cummings said the Court of Appeal ruling was a “total vindication for my decisions on moving super speedy on procurement to save lives”. He said that during the opening months of the Covid pandemic, he was having to “move very fast in totally opaque legal miasma”.In a reference to Good Law Project chief Jolyon Maugham, he added: “Lord Chief Justice crushes kimono-fox-killer.”In a statement, the Good Law Project said: “We haven’t lost a case in court since 2019. But you can’t win everything forever – especially when you fight the most difficult cases in the most difficult terrain.“We don’t think the Court of Appeal is right. And so we plan to ask the Supreme Court to hear an appeal.“We believe there is proper and widespread public interest in the extent to which the law restrains public servants from awarding valuable public contracts to their friends without adequate safeguards to protect against the risk of bias.”Additional reporting by Press Association More

Britain’s Conservative government has suffered a setback in Parliament in its attempt to give authorities stronger powers to curb peaceful but disruptive protests.Parliament’s upper chamber, the House of Lords, late Monday rejected some of the most contentious provisions in the Police Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. The defeated measures would give police officers the right to stop and search people at demonstrations without suspicion, allow courts to bar named individuals from attending protests and empower police to curb protests that are judged to be too noisy.Home Office Minister Susan Williams said the bill — targeted at environmentalists who have blocked roads and glued themselves to commuter trains to protest climate change — protected the “law-abiding majority” from “the highly disruptive tactics employed by a small number of people.”But civil liberties groups say the proposed measures violate long-held freedoms of assembly and speech. Thousands of people attended “Kill the Bill” protests across Britain in recent months to oppose the legislation. Brian Paddick, a Liberal Democrat member of the Lords and former senior police officer, said the government plans were “reminiscent of Cold War eastern bloc police states.”The move to put noise limits on protests has drawn particular criticism. Labour Lords member Vernon Coaker said “making a noise is a fundamental part of the freedom to protest properly in a democracy.”The Conservative government can try to reinsert some of the provisions when the bill goes back to the elected House of Commons where the party has a majority. Other measures, which were inserted into the bill by the government at a late stage in its passage through Parliament, can’t be reintroduced. More

Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen was heckled on live TV by a protester who called him a “village idiot.” The North West Leicestershire MP was appearing on a BBC Newsnight interview with host Faisal Islam where he was discussing his letter of no confidence in Boris Johnson when anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray interrupted. As Mr Bridgen began to speak, Mr Bray held up signs that read: “Toxic Tories destroying our nation” and “Save our Democracy”. On the flipside the signs read: “Get your Johnson out of our democracy!” and “A crock of s***”.Noticing the heckling in the background, Mr Islam remarked: “Looks like you’ve got a distraction,” to which Mr Bridgen replied: “I’ve got a village idiot here.” Steve Bray then heckled: “The village idiot is in front of the camera”.However, following the incident, Mr Bridgen took to Twitter the next morning defending Mr Bray’s right to protest. “Last night as I was appearing on @BBCNewsnight I was heckled by full time protestor Steve Bray.“I disagree with pretty much everything he says and how he says it but the right to protest is an important one, and it’s a right protected by the PCSC Bill,” he wrote. Speaking live from College Green in Westminster, Mr Bridgen said former aide Dominic Cumming’s claims will have to be investigated by Sue Gray, and said it’s “probably career-ending” if the prime minister is found to be telling fibs to parliament.Mr Bridgen went on to compare the government’s alleged “red meat” offerings, such as scrapping the TV licence fee, to being offered “sweets… you’ve already had in your pocket and you’ve already promised them”.After the broadcast, Mr Bray tweeted: “I hope you all enjoyed my cameo on Newsnight with Bridgen.” More

Dominic Raab appeared to briefly admit there was a “party” in No 10 while the rest of the country faced severe Covid lockdown restrictions — before rowing back on his remarks.The comments from the deputy prime minister came as he attempted to dismiss the explosive claims from Dominic Cummings, the former chief Downing Street adviser, that Boris Johnson had lied to Parliament.Just last week the prime minister was forced to admit he attended the “bring your own booze” event in the Downing Street on 20 May 20 — but insisted to MPs he “believed implicitly that this was a work event”.In an awkward exchange, Mr Raab, who also serves as the justice secretary, told Sky News: “There was speculation that the 20 May party was held in my honour to thank me — it’s just ridiculous. Of course not, ridiculous”.When challenged by presenter Kay Burley, who said “so it was a party on 20 May then”, the deputy prime minister backtracked, saying: “No, no, no — this is the claim that was made. “It was nonsense, I wasn’t invited and I didn’t attend,” he stressed, referring to claims last week the event had been arranged partly to say thanks to Mr Raab for “holding the fort” when the prime minister was in hospital after contracting Covid.Mr Raab added: “What I can tell you from what I saw… is No 10, particularly during that period when the PM was unwell and in hospital, but also throughout the pandemic, has been working phenomenally hard under gruelling conditions. “I do not personally from my own experience recognise the caricature that they were all partying.”Speaking after Mr Cummings claimed Mr Johnson had been warned by at least two people in No 10 to cancel the invite sent to 100 staff members to the “drinks party”, Mr Raab insisted: “The PM has been very clear that that’s not true or accurate”.He also told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that for a prime minister to deliberately lie to Parliament would “normally” be a resigning matter.“If it’s lying, deliberate in the way you describe, if it’s not corrected immediately, it would normally, under the ministerial mode and the governance around Parliament, be a resigning matter.”However, he declined to be drawn on Mr Johnson’s position, saying: “I’m not going to pre-judge the facts in this or any other aspect of the claims that have been made.” More

Dominic Raab has described Dominic Cummings’ claim that Boris Johnson lied to Parliament over parties held in No 10 during lockdown restrictions as “nonsense”.It comes after the prime minister’s former chief adviser stressed he “would swear under oath” what happened on 20 May, 2020, when over 100 Downing Street staff were invited to “bring your own booze” to the rose garden.Asked about the former chief adviser’s comments, the deputy prime minister Mr Raab told Times Radio: “The suggestion that he [Mr Johnson] lied is nonsense”.Quizzed on Sky News whether the prime minister should resign if he misled Parliament, he said: “I’m not going to speculate on hypotheticals. I’m confident he’s been straightforward with the House of Commons.”“The PM has been very clear that that’s not true or accurate,” he added when pressed on Mr Cummings’ claims in an explosive blogpost last night.The former chief adviser said that, after Mr Johnson’s private secretary Martin Reynolds sent the party invitation to Downing Street staff, “a very senior official replied by email saying the invite broke the rules”.“This email will be seen by Sue Gray (unless there is a foolish coverup which would also probably be a criminal offence),” he has written – of the senior civil servant leading the investigation.Mr Cummings claimed Mr Reynolds told him he would “check with the PM if he’s happy for it to go ahead”, on 20 May 2020. “I am sure he did check with the PM. (I think it very likely another senior official spoke to the PM about it but I am not sure),” the post stated.Mr Raab’s comments on Tuesday also came as Conservative backbenchers — incensed at the multiple reports of rule-breaking events inside Downing Street — said they had received “enormous” amounts of angry correspondence from voters.While the deputy prime minister admitted “there is some frustration” and there were “mixed views” on the doorstep in his own constituency, he also claimed on Sky News didn’t “get raised a lot with me”.In a sign of how perilous the prime minister’s position has become, however, serving ministers have been openly critical of the events in No 10 in correspondence to constituents, including the science minister George Freeman.According to The Times, Mr Freeman insisted the “prime minister and his office should set the highest standards”, adding: “Whatever the outcome of the investigation I fear the whole saga has caused serious damage to public trust in democracy generally, the government specifically and a real danger that public consent to the Covid rules and the wider rule law may be damaged”.Maria Caulfield, a health minister who worked on Covid wards during the pandemic, also published a statement on her website on Monday, saying: “There were no after-work drinks for us.“I saw my constituents; the bus drivers, the shop workers, the delivery drivers, and the rail workers having to carry on and put themselves at risk serving the public so that others could work safely from home. There were no work drinks in the supermarket car parks or in the bus or rail depots after a hard shift.She added: “I spoke out publicly when Dominic Cummings broke the rules during lockdown and called for his resignation and so I will be calling for action against anyone who has been found to have broken the rules.“It is clear that there was a culture inside No 10 where even if rules were not technically broken, the spirit of the rules were, and this is completely unacceptable.” More