UK Politics

Boris Johnson has been accused of giving a speech at a leaving do for his defence adviser in December 2020 when Covid restrictions were in force.The prime minister has been embroiled in an ongoing scandal over a number of parties that were held at Downing Street while the public was being told to obey social distancing rules.According to The Mirror, Mr Johnson attended Captain Steve Higham’s leaving party “for a few minutes” in which he gave a speech “to thank him for his service”. The newspaper said a “small number of No 10 staff briefly said goodbye”.Although the exact date of the leaving do is not revealed, it was reportedly held in the run-up to Christmas – when London was under Covid rules.People were at the time being advised to work from home where possible and separate households were not allowed to mix indoors unless a household was linked to another as part of a “social bubble”. Those rules came into force on 2 December 2020.The number of people allowed at weddings, funerals, and wakes were also severely limited.London then went into tier 3 on 16 December and escalated quickly to tier 4 four days later.On 19 December, Mr Johnson stood at his lectern to announce the harsher measures, and told the public that Covid case numbers were rising rapidly in London and surrounding counties despite the “tough restrictions which are already in place”.Tier 4 rules saw “non-essential” shops and services close, people told they could not meet more than one other person outdoors, leave tier 4 areas, stay overnight away from home, or leave the country. More

Boris Johnson ‘broke the law’ at No 10 parties, says Keir StarmerThe Tories have vowed to abolish the BBC licence fee by 2027 if they are still in power, as culture secretary Nadine Dorries unveiled a £2bn funding freeze for the broadcaster.It comes amid a reported plot, dubbed Operation Red Meat, to stop Boris Johnson’s premiership being engulfed by the No 10 parties scandal, by announcing a raft of policies to assuage voters and Tory MPs, including a “booze ban” in No 10 – and a freeze on the BBC licence fee.Also echoing a report in The Independent suggesting Mr Johnson is planning to oust members of his inner circle in a plan named Operation Save Big Dog, Tory Party co-chair Oliver Dowden insisted a “contrite” Mr Johnson will seek to “address the underlying culture in Downing Street”.But Tim Loughton, the latest of six Tory MPs to publicly call for his resignation, warned a change of officials would not reverse the already “terminal damage”, while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer claimed the PM had not only “lost all authority”, but “broke the law” and then “lied about what had happened”.Show latest update

1642342802Here was the moment when an emotional Trevor Phillips, of Sky News, discussed the death of his daughter, who had “stuck to the spirit and letter of the rules” – while No 10 had apparently been throwing parties.“There will be thousands of people who have that story in their background, and if I may say so, you are in here telling me about a civil servant’s inquiry – that will not answer that anger. Does the prime minister really understand why people are angry?” Mr Phillips asked Oliver Dowden.Trevor Phillips breaks down telling minister his daughter died during lockdown partiesAndy Gregory16 January 2022 14:201642341318Starmer defends picture showing him drinking bottle of beer Sir Keir Starmer has defended a picture published on the front page of the Daily Mail this weekend showing him drinking a bottle of beer while with colleagues last year.Speaking of the picture which first emerged last year, the Labour leader told the BBC: “I was in a constituency office just days before the election. We were very busy. We were working in the office. “We stopped for something to eat and then we carried on working. No party, no breach of the rules and absolutely no comparison with the prime minister.”He added: “It was perfectly lawful to meet for work, which is what we were doing. The party that was put to the prime minister on Wednesday happened because an invitation was sent to 100 people saying ‘let’s have some socially distant drinks in the garden and bring your own booze’. There is simply no comparison.”Andy Gregory16 January 2022 13:551642340418‘No doubt’ No 10 team are working there ‘in the national interest’, Tory MP saysThe team in Downing Street are some of the “most dedicated and professional civil servants that you will find”, Treasury chief secretary Simon Clarke has said.The Tory MP told LBC: “There is no question in my mind that the team in Downing Street, who are obviously not just senior politicians but also some of the most dedicated and professional civil servants that you will find, are working there in the national interest.“There is no question that mistakes have been made and that is deeply regrettable, and obviously we are all, as I say, both frustrated and upset by what has happened.“But, look, it should not be allowed to morph into a situation where we tarnish people who are doing their very best in incredibly difficult circumstances to deliver for this country.”Andy Gregory16 January 2022 13:401642339578Our policy correspondent Jon Stone has more details on Nadine Dorries’s £2bn assault on the BBC and pledge to scrap the BBC licence fee at the next opportunity – if the Conservatives are still in power.Andy Gregory16 January 2022 13:261642338558Exclusive: Home Office threatened to deport asylum seekers for crimes they did not commitAway from the Partygate scandal for a moment, to this exclusive report from The Independent’s home affairs correspondent Lizzie Dearden, revealing that the Home Office has been threatening asylum seekers with deportation for alleged crimes they did not commit.A Court of Appeal judgment has revealed the existence of “notices of liability to detention”, which were handed to migrants crossing the English Channel on small boats and which claimed they were “illegal entrants” potentially “liable to removal or deportation” from the UK.But judges said the Home Office had misinterpreted the law and that crossing the Channel by dinghy to seek asylum did not amount to illegal entry – a mistake passed on to prosecutors, defence lawyers and the courts, sparking several unlawful prosecutions.Bella Sankey, the director of Detention Action, accused the government of misleading the public with a “campaign of misinformation” suggesting that all Channel crossings are illegal. You can read more details here: Andy Gregory16 January 2022 13:091642337538Nadine Dorries reportedly inspired name of plan to save PMHere’s more detail on the supposed origins of Boris Johnson’s Operation Red Meat plan aimed at enticing disillusioned Tory MPs and voters back on-side with a raft of popular policies.According to The Sunday Times, the name for the plan emerged after culture secretary Nadine Dorries had urged: “Stop talking about dead cats and start throwing some red meat on the green benches.”This morning, Ms Dorries has lent heavily into her ongoing war on the BBC licence fee, sharing a report in the Mail suggesting she intends to freeze the payment at £159 for the next two years – echoing one plank of the supposed Operation to save the PM.Andy Gregory16 January 2022 12:521642336458Conservative Party ‘definitely suffering’, former deputy PM saysDavid Lidington, who served as deputy PM to Boris Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May, has warned the Conservative Party is “definitely suffering” as a result of the Partygate allegations.“I will concede that he’s proved himself in the past a formidable campaigner, there’s things he’s doing on levelling up [and] on decarbonising the economy that I strongly support,” the former Tory MP told LBC. “But you need a prime minister who’s got public confidence and trust, and I think it’s those things that have really been badly damaged.”Andy Gregory16 January 2022 12:341642335498Liam Fox defends Boris Johnson’s position as PMA former Cabinet minister who was sacked by Boris Johnson has said it is the “wrong time” for the Conservative Party to be considering changing its leadership.Writing in the Mail On Sunday, former trade secretary Liam Fox said: “I did not vote for Boris Johnson in the last Conservative leadership election. He subsequently sacked me from the Cabinet, as he was perfectly entitled to do.“So, I cannot be accused of being a sycophant in writing that this is absolutely the wrong time for the Conservative Party to think about a change of leader.”The North Somerset MP said he was not suggesting “all is well in the Johnson premiership” and warned that the Sue Gray inquiry into whether Covid rules were broken has “opened a ‘one rule for one and another rule for others’ narrative that is difficult to dispel”.But he added: “We should defer judgment … It is not a time for a leadership challenge.”Andy Gregory16 January 2022 12:181642334426Tony Blair on Partygate: ‘You can explain it, but not really excuse it’Sir Tony Blair has said he could “understand how these things happen” when asked about the Partygate allegations.The former Labour prime minister, asked on Times Radio whether Boris Johnson should step down, said: “I don’t get into questions of resignation or not. I’ll leave that to the people in the front line of politics today.”He added: “I understand people feeling enraged and very angry about it. I can also, from the perspective of Downing Street, understand how these things happen. You can explain it but not really excuse it.”Sir Tony said he did not recall holding drinking parties during his 10 years in Downing Street, adding: “When you are there, it’s such a pressured environment and you’re usually working flat-out, so most people at the end of the busy day just want to go home.”Some Labour staff with experience of No 10 are said to be bewildered by the party stories, according to The Sunday Times, which quoted one as saying: “The only thing that was thrown in Gordon [Brown]’s No 10 were mobile phones.”Andy Gregory16 January 2022 12:001642332881‘A threat to the health of the nation’: Lib Dems push motion of no confidence in PMThe Liberal Democrats are calling for Conservative MPs to back a motion of no confidence in Boris Johnson, signed by politicians from four parties.The motion states that Parliament has no confidence in the prime minister as he has “broken the Covid lockdown laws his government introduced, misled both Parliament and the public about it, and disastrously undermined public confidence in the midst of a pandemic”.It has been signed by 18 MPs from four parties, including all 13 Lib Dems, two Labour MPs – Paula Barker and Mick Whitley – two from Plaid Cymru, and Stephen Garry from the Alliance Party.Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said: “By remaining in Number 10, Boris Johnson is a threat to the health of the nation – no-one will take anything he says seriously and that is simply unacceptable during a pandemic.“Conservative MPs should not only support our motion of no confidence but they should pressure Jacob Rees-Mogg to give the motion time for a vote and soon. The country deserves a chance to move on from this deceitful prime minister.”Andy Gregory16 January 2022 11:34 More

Boris Johnson may scrap his plan-B Covid restriction for “party management” reasons rather than because it is the right policy, Labour has said.Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting suggested that the prime minister could move to ditch the regulations early to get out of political trouble. Mr Johnson has been engulfed by claims of lockdown rulebreaking for weeks and his party is taking a significant hit in the polls – amid rumours he might be replaced.Speaking on Sky News on Sunday morning the shadow cabinet minister said Mr Johnson being in post was good for Labour’s political prospects but bad for the country. “If I’m thinking purely through the prism of party politics, then my message is: ‘Keep him on, knock yourselves out, you’ll be literally knocked out at the next election’,” he told the broadcaster.”But we are still in the middle of a national crisis here and the Prime Minister’s actions and judgments matter.He continued: “It comes back to the point I made about Plan B measures – if the Prime Minister or the Health Secretary from the Conservative Party is coming forward saying, ‘We’re going to remove Plan B measures’, I want to be absolutely confident they are making that decision in the national interest and not in the party interest, for party management reasons.”I don’t have total confidence about that.”Restrictions to tackle Covid are unpopular with some elements in Mr Johnson’s party and the prime minister has been balancing the prospect of rebellions and the political views of his MPs with the need for restrictions. The so-called “plan B” measures, which include mandatory mask wearing in shops and on public transport, are due to lapse on 26 January.Work from home guidance and Covid passports are expected to be dropped from that date, though some rules on masks may remain. More

The Conservatives have said they will scrap the BBC licence fee at the next opportunity – if they are still in government.Unveiling a £2bn budget cut for the public broadcaster Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said this year’s funding announcement “will be the last”.The BBC’s charter comes up for renewal in 2027, and Ms Dorries made clear on Sunday that she wants to use that opportunity to abolish the fee.Instead, the UK should “discuss and debate new ways of funding, supporting and selling” television programmes, she argued.”This licence fee announcement will be the last. The days of the elderly being threatened with prison sentences and bailiffs knocking on doors, are over,” she said on Sunday.The culture secretary is expected to freeze the annual licence at £159 for the next two years, with 5.1 per cent inflation expected to mean real terms £2 billion cuts to its budget.The Mail on Sunday reported that Ms Dorries is also considering taking the cuts further and pegging future fee increases to below inflation between 2024 and 2027.This would end up with even further real-terms reductions to the Corporation’s budget.The government is currently locked in negotiations with the Corporation over the settlement and is expected to make an official announcement soon.Some Tories have long been opposed to the BBC on ideological grounds, arguing that television should be privately run and not in the hands of the public.An ally of Ms Dorries told the Mail on Sunday that she believed “the days of state-run TV are over”.”It is not yet clear whether the future will be share ownership or subscription, but there will be no more licence fee renewals as long as Boris is PM.”Lucy Powell, Labour’s shadow culture secretary,  said: “The cat is out of the bag. The Prime Minister thinks those reporting on his rule breaking should pay consequences, whilst he gets off free.“We haven’t seen the full details of the licence fee deal, as it’s been leaked to the media before Parliament. The anticipated 5 year deal needs to be fair to the license fee payer while there’s a cost of living crisis, but also ensure the BBC is able to continue to do what it does best: making great programmes, providing local news, educating our children, and underpinning our creative industries in every part of the country.“The Prime Minister and the Culture Secretary seem hell-bent on attacking this great British institution because they don’t like its journalism. British broadcasting and our creative industries are renowned around the world and should be at the heart of Global Britain.”Liberal Democrat culture spokesperson Jamie Stone described the licence free freeze as a “stealth cut” that would put services, including local radio, at risk.“This latest Tory attack on the BBC threatens to destroy a service which is respected around the world for its high quality content,” he said.“What’s worse, there is no clarity about the future and threadbare funding will only further chip away at our cherished national broadcaster.“Our world leading creative industries support thousands of jobs, but Nadine Doris only cares about trying to silence unfavourable headlines.“The Government must stop this reckless ideological crusade and back off our BBC.” More

Keir Starmer has issued his angriest denunciation yet of Boris Johnson over lockdown parties in No.10.The Labour leader said Mr Johnson “broke the law” and then “lied about what had happened”.It follows a slew of revelations and allegations about what the PM knew and did about a drinking culture at No.10.Speaking on BBC’s Sunday Morning programme, Sir Keir, a former director of public prosecutions said: “I think he broke the law. I think he’s as good as admitted that he broke the law. “And, after all, Downing Street has now apologised to the Queen for some of the parties that have gone on.”Sir Keir continued: “I know that the Government’s holding position is ‘let’s all wait for the Sue Gray report’.”But I think it’s pretty obvious what’s happened, this industrial-scale partying had been going on at Downing Street, not much of it is really denied, and I think that the public have made up their mind. I think the facts speak for themselves. “I think the Prime Minister broke the law, I think he then lied about what had happened.”There have been over a dozen different allegations of festivities in government while lockdown rules have been in effect – but no charges have been brought by the police.Asked whether the police were right to wait for the results of the Sue Gray inquiry before investigating the Number 10 parties, Sir Keir said: “Once Sue Gray has come to her findings, she will set out all the facts, she is very well respected, I think that all of those should be passed to the police to look at.”I don’t go along with this idea that we’ve all got to wait somehow, I think it’s blindingly obvious what has happened.”The latest revelations have seen the Tories tank in the polls, giving Labour a lead of around 10 points. More

The official two-week campaigning period for Portugal’s Jan. 30 general election kicked off Sunday, but there will be none of the large flag-waving rallies usually associated with the buildup to the ballot because of the coronavirus pandemic.The vote comes two years ahead of schedule after parliament in November rejected the minority Socialist government’s 2022 state budget and the country’s president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa called an early election.The state budget is particularly important now because it sets out how billions of euros in European Union aid to recover from the pandemic will be spent.The ballot will elect 230 lawmakers to the Republican Assembly, Portugal’s parliament. Lawmakers will then vote on who forms a government.The center-left Socialist Party has governed Portugal since 2015 under Prime Minister António Costa, and recent opinion polls unanimously indicate the Socialists will collect the most votes.But the Socialists could again fall short of an overall majority, forcing it once again to seek support from its left-of-center allies, the Left Bloc and the Portuguese Communist Party, to pass legislation in parliament.The parliamentary votes of those two parties helped keep the Socialists in government, consigning the center-right Social Democratic Party —the country’s other major party — to opposition.The election could see a rise in the influence of smaller parties, including the populist Chega! (Enough!), which earned one seat in parliament in 2019 but could far exceed that this time.Around 89% of Portugal’s population of 10.3 million people is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and more than 3.5 million people have received booster shots, but new daily cases have set records of around 40,000 in recent weeks. The health ministry reported 38,136 new infections on Saturday.Even so, hospitalizations have remained much lower than in previous surges, and Portugal has been recording on average around 20 deaths a day in recent weeks. More

A photograph has emerged showing Carrie Johnson flouting social distancing rules despite the public being warned at the time that they should keep their distance from anyone they do not live with.In the photo, the prime minister’s wife can be seen embracing old school friend Anna Pinder at a private members’ club in Covent Garden, where they were celebrating the latter’s engagement.In the picture, published by The Telegraph, Ms Johnson is seen hugging her friend while they sat side-by-side on a sofa on the roof terrace of The Conduit. Ms Johnson has one of her legs draped over her friend and an arm around her shoulder as they posed for the snap, which was reportedly posted on Ms Pinder’s Instagram account.The image was taken on 17 September 2020. Days earlier, on 9 September, Mr Johnson told the British public: “If we are to beat the virus then everyone, at all times, should limit social contact as much as possible and minimise interactions with other households. “It is safer to meet outdoors and you should keep your distance from anyone you don’t live with, even if they are close friends or family.”He added that it was “crucial” to stay at least two metres apart, or one metre apart outdoors. At the time, Covid rules prevented people gathering in groups of more than six, with only a handful of exemptions including at weddings and funerals. A spokesperson for Ms Johnson told The Telegraph that she was “one of a group of six seated outside celebrating a friend’s engagement” and that she “regrets the momentary lapse in judgement in briefly hugging her friend for a photograph”.The emergence of the photograph comes during an ongoing scandal over the number of parties that were held at Downing Street during the pandemic.Senior civil servant Sue Gray has been tasked with investigating the parties held by staff at No 10.People who have had to deal with grief and hardships while having to comply with the government’s rules during the lockdowns are particularly outraged by the revelations of the drink events by those in power.Downing Street this week apologised to Buckingham Palace over two “deeply regrettable” parties held on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral, where the Queen had to sit on her own to comply with the Covid laws.Amid the party scandal, Mr Johnson is reportedly planning to give a number of his Downing Street staff the boot to salvage his premiership as part of a plot dubbed “Operation Save Big Dog”, The Independent reported earlier this week. Now, it has emerged that in another plan known as “Operation Red Meat”, Mr Johnson is planning to announce a series of policies in a desperate bid to shore up some support and save his tattered reputation.The policies are expected to include a workplace “booze ban” within No 10, a BBC licence fee freeze for two years, and a plan to task the military with stopping migrants crossing the English Channel in small illegal boats, The Sunday Times reports.Mr Johnson has been blaming “everyone but himself for the crisis,” a senior government source told the paper, adding that Mr Johnson had complained to his aides: “How has all this been allowed to happen? How has it come to this? How haven’t you sorted this out?”A number of Tory MPs have called on Mr Johnson to resign, with some sending letters of no confidence to the influential 1922 Committee of backbench Conservatives in the hope of triggering a leadership contest.Former minister Tim Loughton last night became the latest Tory MP to call for Mr Johnson to quit.The East Worthing and Shoreham MP, in a post on Facebook, said Mr Johnson’s “resignation is the only way to bring this whole unfortunate episode to an end”.He added: “I am working with colleagues to impress that view on Number 10.“I am deeply sorry for the great hurt that has been caused to many people who have made substantial sacrifices during lockdown, ultimately in some cases not being able to share precious final moments with loved ones.“Whatever our view on how disproportionate or impractical some of the lockdown measures may have been, it is entirely appropriate that we should all expect everyone to follow the rules equally, not least those responsible for implementing them.” More

A majority of Conservative voters support a new windfall tax on oil and gas companies, a new poll has found.Seventy-five per cent of Tory voters told Savanta ComRes they would support the levy to fund households struggling to afford rising energy prices. And 71 per cent of the general population supports the move too.Opposition parties are pushing for the policy, but the government has so far rejected the idea.Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said action was needed immediately to provide financial relief as people grapple with their winter bills.“The government needs to get a grip on this crisis before it’s too late,” he said. “Every day sees thousands more energy bills arrive through letterboxes, bringing real despair and anguish to families struggling to make ends meet.”“We need action now to stop people being left with the devastating choice between heating or eating,” he added. “A Robin Hood tax on the super-profits of oil and gas firms would fund a substantial package of support now for struggling to get by, along with an ambitious roll-out of home insulation.”The Lib Dems say the levy would raise £5bn to help families cope with soaring energy costs, with proposed measures including doubling and expanding the government’s warm homes discount. This would take £300 off the heating bills of around 7.5 million low-income households.Labour has also called for a windfall tax on oil and gas firms, in the form of a £1.2bn temporary increase in corporation tax, but the government has rejected both plans. “A windfall tax on oil and gas companies that are already struggling in the North Sea is never going to cut it,” cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi said this week.The refusal to intervene in the market may cost the government support. Sixty-nine per cent of voters say ministers are to blame for rising energy prices, ahead of household energy providers (65 per cent) and the regulator Ofgem (58 per cent). Only oil and gas companies themselves, the windfall tax targets, are seen as more blameworthy, with 78 per cent of voters saying they bear responsibility for the energy crisis. More