UK Politics

Boris Johnson’s position will be “untenable” if he was found to have attended a drinks party in the No 10 garden in breach of Covid lockdown rules, a Conservative MP has said.The prime minister is under increasing pressure over the “bring your own booze” gathering – with backbenchers demanding he reveals whether he attended at PMQs on Wednesday.Nigel Mills MP said it would be resigning matter if he was found to have been at the 20 May 2020 event. “I would say anybody who organised or willingly attended a party at that time can’t possibly stay in position,” the backbencher told Times Radio.He added: “I can’t see how anybody who broke the rules in such a blatant way at the worst possible part of the pandemic possibly be remaining in a position to have any influence over Covid policy.”Mr Mills told BBC’s Newsnight the PM had “accepted resignations for far less,” adding: “He accepted the resignation of his spokesperson [Allegra Stratton] for not attending party but joking about it at a time of much lighter restrictions. I just think that’s untenable.”Tory peer Ros Altmann also told Newsnight: “If those who were attending, and breaking the law, include the prime minister, then obviously the position becomes untenable.”Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, has also warned that Mr Johnson would have to resign if he was found to have broken the rules. He called on the prime minister to tell the public whether he attended, rather than refer to Sue Gray’s ongoing investigation.Mr Johnson faces an uncomfortable grilling over party-gate by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs, who comes out of self-isolation on Wednesday after testing negative for a second consecutive day.Peter Cardwell, former special adviser to Mr Johnson, said the PM must “level with the country” today and explain whether he attended the drinks events.“Keir Starmer only needs to ask the same question six times – ‘Did you attend the party on 20 May 2020, yes or no?’ – and Boris Johnson must give an answer,” he told Sky News on today’s PMQs.Two sources told The Times that Mr Johnson attended the 20 May 2020 party and was seen “wandering round gladhanding people”. The newspaper claims one official even joked about the risk of a drone capturing the garden party from above.It comes as The Independent was told that No 10 staff were advised to “clean up” their phones by removing information that could suggest parties were held at No 10. Two sources claimed a senior member of staff told them it would be a “good idea” to remove messages.Asked about the story, Mr Cardwell said: “If anyone’s deleting any information that is very unethical and possibly criminal, and they absolutely should not be doing.”Another senior Tory backbencher told The Independent that Mr Johnson’s position would be “difficult” if a probe by Whitehall mandarin Sue Gray found against him. The MP said backbenchers were “p***ed off”, adding: “When there’s so much about bending the rules, ignoring the rules – you can only go on for so long.”Senior Tory councillors in the north of England have said Mr Johnson must resign if he attended a garden party at the height of lockdown. “If he is found to have attended this gathering, as they call it, he has no option but to resign,” Alan Marshall, a cabinet member with Darlington council, told The Independent. However, senior Tory MP Huw Merriman has said that Mr Johnson does not need to resign if he attended a drinks party in May 2020.Asked on Radio 4 Today’s programme if the PM should step down if he would have to step down, Merriman said: “No, I don’t believe so. I do think it needs clearing up. But if you’re saying, ‘Is that a resigning moment’, I don’t believe it is.”Senior Tory MP Tobias Ellwood urged Mr Johnson to “show some contrition” today. “I strongly urge the prime minister to act now, to apologise for No 10’s poor judgment, to show some contrition and to be committed to appropriately respond to Sue Gray’s findings when they come out,” he told Sky News.In a pointed message to Mr Johnson, Tory MP Christian Wakefod called for “openness, trust and honesty” in politics, and “that starts from the top”. The MP said on Twitter: “How do you defend the indefensible? You can’t!” Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said that Mr Johnson’s position would be “untenable” if it is proved that he had attended parties in contravention to lockdown rules. She said the Metropolitan Police had an “obligation” to investigate if lockdown rules were broken. More

Boris Johnson has seen his parliamentary majority reduced after the Conservatives removed the party whip from a backbencher who voted with Labour over the cost of living crisis.Anne Marie Morris will now sit in the Commons as an independent after she voted for Labour’s opposition day motion proposing a VAT cut on energy bills on Tuesday.“It is deeply disappointing to have had the whip removed by the government – especially on a matter of simply standing up for what I believed to be the best interests of my constituents,” Mr Morris said on Wednesday.The MP for Newton Abbot added: “I believe removing VAT is the right thing to do and I won’t apologise for supporting measures that would help my hard-working constituents at a time when the cost of living is rising.”A group of 20 Tories have already called for VAT to be cut from fuel bills, but the government said it could not allow a Tory MP to vote for a motion letting Labour seize control of the Commons order paper.“This motion was clearly put forward to seize control of parliament business, which we cannot accept,” a government official told Politico.It is the second time that Ms Morris has had the Tory whip removed. She was briefly suspended in 2017 for using the phrase a “real n***** in the woodpile” at a meeting about Brexit, but had the whip restored after for “using such inappropriate and offensive language”.Ms Morris said she would remain “strongly committed to Conservative principles” but would vote on the issues of the day “in the best interests of my constituents”.The rebel MP added: “I’m afraid I believe that any disagreement over parliamentary procedure will always come second to standing up for the best interests of my constituents.”Last week a group of 20 Tory MPs and peers penned an open letter asking the chancellor Rishi Sunak to scrap VAT and green levies on rapidly-rising energy bills.Jake Berry, leader of the Northern Research Group (NRG), said on Wednesday he wanted the government to freeze council tax and take the poorest households out of the coming 1.25 per cent national insurance tax rise, as well as ditching green levies.Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party have called for a windfall tax on oil and gas profits in a bid to cut average household energy costs set to soar further in April.Unions, charities and green groups have also urged the government to impose a levy on North Sea giants. TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady told The Independent: “Using a windfall tax on profits would help address the cost-of-living crisis and alleviate domestic gas bills.” More

Some lorries bringing goods from the EU to the UK have been stuck at the border for four days, as logistics bosses blamed disruption on “terrible” new Brexit red tape.Truck drivers have reported queues of up to eight hours trying to get through customs controls at the French port of Calais – causing delays in deliveries as firms struggle with the new rules which came into force at the start of January.Jon Swallow, who runs the logistics company Jordan Freight, told The Independent that he has had two trucks containing automobile parts stuck at customs controls at Felixstowe for the past four days, despite getting over the border into the UK.The driver was able to leave the port, but the goods have been stuck there since Friday. “We just don’t know what the problem is – It’s crazy,” said Mr Swallow. “We’ve been told by HMRC that they are just too busy to deal with it. These delays are very frustrating and costly for companies.”Customs experts said problems were partly down to the government’s new IT system, which means all imports from the EU must be processed using the Goods Vehicle Movement Service (GVMS) managed by HMRC. Many drivers have been unable to get their reference codes accepted.But firms are also struggling with complex new customs declarations and rules-of-origin forms they have been required to complete on goods imported from the EU since 1 January 2022.Steve Cock, director of the customs consultancy firm The Customs House, said one of his clients had 20 lorries of food products coming to the UK stuck in Calais and Rotterdam for around 48 hours at the end of last week because of the red tape.“It’s a bit of pickle at the moment – it’s not just the IT system,” he told The Independent. “Not everyone knows exactly what they need for customs declarations and other paperwork.”One British driver posted on Twitter about being forced to wait at Calais for just over eight hours “for a f***ing bar code” and described the queues at the port since 1 January as “mental”.Another haulage driver, who did not wished to be named, told The Independent he had waited in a queue at Calais for around four hours at the end of last week – causing him to miss to push back another delivery to the following day.“It’s so frustrating. The inland border park at Calais was full of trucks stuck in checks. I’m seeing 20 per cent to 25 per cent of trucks sent there for extra checks because of incorrect paperwork. This is a quiet period, and the queues are massive. So I’m expecting a lot of delays when things get busier in February.”Michael Szydlo, who runs Quick Declare, a business advising importers and exporters, said clients have had to spend a whole day emailing back and forth with HMRC about lorries waiting at ports.“There are a lot of issues showing that GVMS is not yet fully ready. Lots of importers will get delayed at some point,” he said. “There will be shortages from time to time. The situation needs to be sorted.”Japanese car giant Honda is among the companies hit by delays and the hold-up of parts at the border. “Some teething problems are not unexpected as the UK’s new customs systems come online,” a spokesperson said last week. “We are currently looking into the details behind this.”Rod McKenzie, Road Haulage Association, said he hoped the “teething problems” at the border could soon be worked out as firms adjust to the new requirements. “It’s patchy. If there are trucks held up because they don’t have the right codes it creates a backlog, which is frustrating.”On problems with the IT system, he added: “Whenever there is a new system, we see people struggle with it at first. There’s friction, but then they adjust. We still don’t know how quickly those [drivers and firms] in the EU will adjust.”Long queues of lorries also built up at the port of Dover in Kent on Thursday, as the Operation TAP temporary traffic system was implemented to help ease traffic.The port’s chief executive Doug Bannister said the failure to provide enough lateral flow tests was causing the congestion – despite the government’s scheme to give 100,000 key workers daily tests.An HMRC spokesperson said the GVMS has been live for over 12 months and is “working well” with over 15,000 customers using the IT service.“We recognise that the introduction of full customs controls is a significant change for hauliers and traders, which is why we are providing comprehensive support both through the customs and international trade helpline and jointly with representative bodies and the border industry,” the spokesperson added.“Indications since 1 January are that traders and hauliers are adapting very well to these changes, and where issues are arising, we are working quickly to provide a solution.” More

Simon Case, the UK’s most senior civil servant, will oversee any action arising from the probe into lockdown-busting parties, despite his withdrawal as head of the investigation following claims of parties in his own office. Boris Johnson is under intense pressure after a leaked email showed that No 10 staff were invited to a drinks party in May 2020, when people were banned from meeting more than one person outdoors. Mr Johnson has refused to say whether he was present at the gathering, while Sue Gray, a senior civil servant, carries out an investigation into a series of allegations about rule-breaking parties at Downing Street and other government departments.Ms Gray’s inquiry is expected to focus on establishing the facts, leaving it to the prime minister to determine any consequences for his own position and political staff, while Mr Case is in charge of the fallout for the civil service, The Independent and Politico understand.As cabinet secretary and head of the civil service Mr Case is the ultimate arbiter of any disciplinary action faced by civil servants or proposals for culture change in Whitehall. He is also the line manager for Martin Reynolds, the senior aide who emailed staff about a “bring your own booze” gathering in the garden of No 10.Mr Case was originally placed in charge of the investigation into Downing Street parties, but recused himself in December after reports of social gatherings in his own department. Civil service officials claimed he had attended drinks outside his personal office in 70 Whitehall in December 2020, as first reported by The Independent and Politico — allegations which were categorically denied by the Cabinet Office. Mr Case was later accused of misleading staff about his knowledge of the event. Separately, The Times reported that Mr Case attended another Christmas party in his department after London had been placed in Tier 3 restrictions. The Cabinet Office acknowledged a virtual quiz had taken place but said Mr Case “played no part in the event”.Announcing Mr Case’s decision to step aside from the inquiry, a No 10 spokesperson said he had done so “to ensure the ongoing investigation retains public confidence”.It is not known whether Mr Case attended or had knowledge of any other parties which may have contravened COVID-19 restrictions, including those at Downing Street.However, Whitehall staff have since raised concerns over his role in enforcing any disciplinary measures or institutional reforms after Ms Gray has published her report.One official who attended the 70 Whitehall party pointed out that Ms Gray was technically answerable to Mr Case and it was “ridiculous” he would oversee any ensuing steps. Another said that the civil service ought to be able to avoid “these conflicts of interest.” They added that there needed to be a “clear route” to avoiding anyone “working directly with the prime minister and his office” or who had knowledge or took part in any parties from making decisions about the investigation. At present, the “cabinet secretary would effectively be either marking his own homework or marking the prime minister’s,” they said. Catherine Haddon, senior fellow at the Institute for Government, said Ms Gray’s report would most likely focus on the facts rather than any sanctions for individuals, “but the kind of language she uses is going to imply something about the leadership not only of the prime minister, but also by leaders in the civil service”.She added: “Case himself is going to have questions to answer, because these are civil servants as well. And if he knew it was happening, then ultimately the responsibility lies with him.”Thus far, Ms Gray has focused her time and interviews on senior staff and those already named in press reports, according to several officials with knowledge of the process. She has insisted on interviewing the prime minister as part of her enquiries, the same officials said.A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “We are not going to speculate on the outcome of an ongoing investigation.”Have you got a story you would like us to report on? Contact us by clicking here More

Downing Street staff were advised to “clean up” their phones by removing information that could suggest lockdown parties were held at No 10, The Independent has been told.Two sources claim a senior member of staff told them it would be a “good idea” to remove any messages implying they had attended or were even aware of anything that could “look like a party”. Boris Johnson is facing an internal investigation into lockdown-breaching parties, being carried out by senior civil servant Sue Gray, and fury at revelations that 100 Downing Street workers were invited by email to a drinks event on 20 May 2020, when Britons were allowed to meet only one other person outdoors.Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said it raised “yet more questions for a prime minister who seems to have no answers”.The “clean-up” suggestion was made early last month after the first reports emerged of parties at Downing Street, the sources allege.One said they were “told to clean up their phone just in case” they had to hand it in to the investigation.A second said: “I was being leant on [during the discussion with a senior colleague] and told to get rid of anything that could look bad.”Both sources told The Independent they felt under pressure to delete communications and images. The claims that a senior member of staff directed junior colleagues to remove potential evidence contradicts an email, also sent in December, that instructed staff not to destroy any material that could prove pertinent to an investigation, criminal or otherwise. This was meant to refer to emails, WhatsApp messages, and calendar invitations, but it was allegedly not observed by some staff, many of whom conducted discussions via WhatsApp on their personal phones as well as work devices.Personal phones cannot be accessed by Ms Gray’s investigation unless staff volunteer them. However, staff can be forced to hand over workplace handsets.With many staff who attended lockdown-busting events no longer working at No 10, and others having wiped messages from their phones, it will be hard for Ms Gray to gather all available evidence of wrongdoing, sources claim. Emails at No 10 are automatically deleted after 90 days for security reasons. This is also the case in some other sensitive government departments but not all. Ultimately, deleted emails can be recovered from servers, but this is far more challenging than accessing historic messages in some other departments, according to people familiar with the process. Lord Evans of Weardale, chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said civil servants should remember that all messages that are relevant to government business ought to be retained and recorded. A No 10 spokesperson told The Independent that they did not recognise the claims. “Staff were given clear guidance to retain any relevant information. As set out in the terms of reference, all staff are expected to fully co-operate with the investigation,” the spokesperson said.Ms Rayner said: “The latest revelations about this scandal raise yet more questions for a prime minister who seems to have no answers.“From missing minutes to secret WhatsApp messages, a culture of cover-up is endemic in Boris Johnson’s No 10 and the rot starts at the top.“The prime minister has a habit of trying to dodge scrutiny, but the consequences are catching up with him. The public deserve to know the truth about what went on while they were making so many sacrifices to obey the rules.”Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said: “Destroying evidence for what may soon be a police investigation is an incredibly serious offence. “No wonder the public has lost all faith in Boris Johnson’s Downing Street. This would be a new low, even for his government. “Sue Gray must ask all those involved if they have been pressured or ordered to delete messages and emails relating to any parties. If a cover-up took place, then it must be exposed and all details made public. There should be no more hiding or lying from this prime minister.” More

Leading Conservatives in northern England say Boris Johnson must resign if he attended a Downing Street garden party at the height of the 2020 lockdown.Senior Red Wall Tories voiced anger on Tuesday at finding themselves once again having to placate voters furious about allegations the prime minister broke his own coronavirus rules.They fear that Mr Johnson may now be so toxic it will lose the party both parliamentary and council seats at future elections.“If he is found to have attended this gathering, as they call it, he has no option but to resign,” Alan Marshall, a cabinet member with Darlington council, told The Independent. “I stress that caveat: ‘if’. But if he went [to the party], absolutely he has to go. Being prime minister does not put you above the rules or the law.”Mr Johnson has refused to say whether he attended a drinks event in the garden of 10 Downing Street on 20 May 2020, a time when Britons were only allowed to meet one other person outdoors.An email inviting roughly 100 staff to the “BYOB” event was sent out by the PM’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds.Mr Johnson has refused to comment until an inquiry into several alleged parties said to have been held in Downing Street has been concluded by senior civil servant Sue Gray, but witnesses have said he attended the event.Antony Mullen, the Conservative leader on Sunderland City Council, said: “Martin Reynolds should have been sacked, and I think Boris Johnson will inevitably have to follow him”.Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme, he added: “I think this is such an atrocity, I can’t see how he can survive… It is now a question of the scale of the wrongdoing rather than whether there has been any.”The criticism from within the PM’s own party came as a poll showed two-thirds of voters believe he should resign in the wake of the latest No 10 party allegations, which follow claims of other Downing Street gatherings during strict Covid restrictions in the winter of 2020.Councillor Marshall, who sits on the first Tory council in Darlington for 40 years, told The Independent: “I’ll reserve my full judgement until the investigation comes out but, if the s*** hits the fan, we [in the north] will have to deal with that.”Darlington is widely considered one of the jewels in the Conservatives’ take-over of the north’s old Labour heartlands, and the Tory council victory in May 2019 foretold that year’s general election landslide.“At a local level, we are making good progress and people are recognising that,” Councillor Marshall said. “But these constant controversies from Westminster – it makes the job harder and it will certainly make winning elections harder.”Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, has also called on the PM to resign, and other northern Tory leaders have voiced fears Mr Johnson’s comments will hurt them locally.Adrian De La Mare, the leader of the Conservative group on Lancaster city council, told The Independent: “Put it like this: there is a feeling among people here that there has been a dual standard, and that doesn’t sit well with them.”Although he declined to comment on the PM’s future, he said: “I believe that anyone who goes into public service has to abide by the rules and the laws in place and, if they don’t … there needs to be a way of moving forward.”He pointedly added that he would not have attended an invitation to drinks on that date “because the rules were very clear”.Speaking on condition of anonymity, other Conservatives were less diplomatic.“The crucial thing about Boris was that he could win elections by appealing to voters who weren’t traditionally Conservative,” said one council cabinet member. “That’s gone now. So you have to ask: what does he bring to the table as leader?”Perhaps just as telling about the feeling towards Mr Johnson within the party were the number of Conservatives across the region who declined to defend him.Ben Houchen, the mayor of the Tees Valley, refused to comment, while the party’s intake of 2019 young northern MPs, including Jacob Young and Dehenna Davison, remained silent on the issue. More

Senior Conservatives have turned on Boris Johnson over the “partygate” scandal, as the prime minister dodged demands to reveal whether he attended a Downing Street drinks event at the height of the Covid lockdown.The leader of Tories in Scotland, Douglas Ross, called on the prime minister to come clean, and warned that he would have to resign if he had broken the rules. Meanwhile another former minister branded the situation “humiliating”, while a senior Tory backbencher told The Independent that Mr Johnson’s position would be “difficult” if a probe by Whitehall mandarin Sue Gray found against him.Mr Johnson dodged a House of Commons debate on the row, sending a junior minister to answer an urgent question from Labour on his behalf. But he will be dependent on supportive Tory MPs to rally behind him when he faces a hostile grilling at the weekly session of prime minister’s questions on Wednesday.An overwhelming two-thirds (66 per cent) of voters – including 42 per cent of those who backed Tories in the 2019 election – polled by Savanta ComRes said that Johnson should resign over the issue, up 12 points on a similar survey in December. Fewer than a quarter (24 per cent) said he should stay.Downing Street and a succession of ministers insisted that the government could not comment on the “bring your own booze” party in the No 10 garden on 20 May 2020 until Ms Gray’s investigation is concluded.But Ruth Davidson, the former leader of Scottish Conservatives, responded: “This line won’t survive 48 hours. Nobody needs an official to tell them if they were at a boozy shindig in their own garden.“People are rightly furious. They sacrificed so much – visiting sick or grieving relatives, funerals. What tf were any of these people thinking?”Mr Johnson’s official spokesperson refused to say whether the PM had approved an invitation to “socially distanced drinks” sent to 100 No 10 staffers by his principal private secretary Martin Reynolds – or whether Mr Johnson had himself initiated the plan. There was no official denial of claims that Mr Johnson and his wife Carrie were present at the event, where around 40 members of staff are understood to have eaten picnic food and drunk wine set out on a long table in the warm sunshine.But former Downing Street officials who spoke to The Independent said there was “zero chance” that the invite could have been sent without the prime minister or his senior political advisers being consulted.At the least, it was likely that Mr Johnson would have given verbal approval, said one.And another said such a plan would never have been hatched under his predecessors Theresa May or David Cameron.“The tone is definitely set from the top,” said the former insider. “From what I’ve heard from people still in the building, there was very much an attitude that it was OK for them to be doing that kind of thing – the justification being that they were all working very hard and needed to keep morale up.”Mr Ross said he was “furious” over the Reynolds email, which put rocket boosters under the row over parties which Mr Johnson hoped had been defused over the Christmas break.“I can understand that feeling of fury, anger and rage that people across the UK are feeling right now,” the Scottish Tory leader said.“’It’s not pre-judging Sue Gray’s inquiry for the prime minister to come forward and say if he was at the party or not… We should hear the answer right now.“If he has breached his own guidance, if he has not been truthful, then that is an extremely important issue. And I’ve said previously, if the prime minister has misled parliament, then he must resign.”And the former No 10 chief of staff to Theresa May, Tory peer Lord Barwell, said it was “not entirely clear why the prime minister needs to wait for Sue Gray’s report to find out if he went to a party in his own garden”.At the time of the alleged party, Britons were permitted to meet with only one person out of doors.In the House of Commons, a string of MPs told how they and their constituents had been unable to support loved ones, with DUP MP Jim Shannon overcome with emotion as he described how his mother-in-law died alone as relatives obeyed lockdown rules.Manchester Gorton MP Afzal Khan told the Commons: “My mum died of Covid in March 2020. She died alone in hospital while I sat in the car outside trying to be as close to her as I could. Even burdened with our grief, my family obeyed the rules.”Labour MP Jo Stevens said Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford had moved into a hut in his garden to protect his shielding wife and mother-in-law.Only a handful of Tory MPs turned out to hear cabinet office minister Michael Ellis respond that there was “absolutely no indication” that the prime minister knowingly misled parliament when he said that lockdown rules had been observed in Downing Street.Asked if Mr Johnson would resign if he was shown to have broken the law, Mr Ellis replied: “It is an entirely hypothetical position. The prime minister is going nowhere.Campaign group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice wrote to Mr Johnson urging him to “do the right thing” and say whether he attended the garden party and calling on him to apologise for “smirking” when asked about it during a TV interview.Group member Hannah Brady said her father’s death certificate was being signed on the day of the Number 10 gathering.“You can only imagine the pain, anguish and anger this news has brought to me and those of us lost a loved one to Covid-19,” she told the PM.Former defence minister Johnny Mercer apologised for the situation in a message to a constituent “I’m sorry. It’s humiliating, and does not reflect the majority of my colleagues who at least try and lead by example.”And a senior Tory backbencher told The Independent that the party’s MPs were ”p***ed off” after thinking the Christmas break had given them the chance of a fresh start.The MP said that there was “no avalanche” of letters being sent to 1922 Committee chair Sir Graham Brady, who must order a no-confidence vote if 55 MPs demand it.But the MP added: “If (Ms Gray) concludes the prime minister was wrong in quite a hard-hitting way, his position becomes difficult. When there’s so much about bending the rules, ignoring the rules – you can only go on for so long.”One loyal Tory said that MPs were “getting flak” from constituents because of Mr Johnson’s refusal to clarify if he attended the party.The former minister told The Independent: “It would be far better if he were to fess up. I think that a clean breast approach would take quite a bit of heat out of the situation.”Major Conservative donor John Caudwell issued an ultimatum to Mr Johnson: “Sort it out, Boris, or step aside and let someone else sort it out so that the Tories aren’t wiped out at the next election.”And Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “Boris Johnson, your deflections and distractions are absurd. Not only did you know about the parties in Downing Street, you attended them.“Stop lying to the British public. It’s time to finally come clean.” More

A Labour motion seeking to force a cut in VAT on energy bills amid concerns over a looming cost-of-living crisis has been defeated in the Commons by Tory MPs.MPs voted by 319 to 229 — a majority of 90 — against the proposal, with Anne Marie Morris the only Conservative MP to rebel and support the measure.If the motion had passed the Commons it would have forced government ministers to guarantee time for legislation on a VAT cut to energy bills ahead of an expected hike this spring.Labour has previously said it would tax North Sea oil and gas companies to pay for the reduction in VAT, which the party said could “save households £200 off their bills, with up to £600 in total for those who need it most”.After the motion was defeated, Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said Conservative MP had been given the “opportunity to put families, pensioners and struggling businesses first, with a VAT cut on energy bills”.“They voted against it,” he added. “Instead of providing security for those who need it the most, the Conservatives are abandoning them”.Speaking in the Commons, the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who accused the chancellor Rishi Sunak of being in “hiding”, said the companies had “profited massively because of exploding prices”.Boris Johnson, whose government is scrambling for a solution over concerns of the cost-of-living, has previously dismissed the option of cutting VAT, describing it as a “blunt instrument” — despite parading the option to scrap the “unfair and damaging tax” during the Brexit referendum.Earlier this week, however, he admitted more must be done to protect families, especially those on low incomes, from an imminent hike in energy bills, with an extension to the winter homes discount reportedly under consideration.The increase in consumers’ bills will also coincide with a manifesto-busting hike in national insurance, leading to major concerns, including in Conservative circles, over the cost-of-living.Echoing the prime minister’s comments in the Commons on Tuesday, Simon Clarke, the chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “No-one in this government is under any illusion about the challenges families are facing with their household finances and we will of course continue to look closely at all the options that exist.”He told MPs: “The government recognises the pressure that people are facing on their household finances including on their energy bills and we have taken steps already to ease those pressures where and when we can and we will of course continue to look at other things that we can do.“The reality is that the higher inflation that we’ve seen is primarily due to global factors relating to a large degree to the fallout from the pandemic and to a global spike in energy costs.” More