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Oliver Dowden drew laughter from the government benches when he said he will “take no lectures on profligacy” from the SNP.The deputy prime minister stood in for Rishi Sunak during PMQs on Wednesday 7 June, when Mhairi Black questioned him over the “priorities” of the Tory party in the cost of living crisis.“This government plans to cut taxes for the richest, spend £6bn imprisoning people fleeing war and persecution and has lost £21bn to government fraud throughout this pandemic,” Ms Black said.“Is the view from the prime minister’s luxury helicopter so skewed that during a cost of living crisis, he thinks this is what people’s priorities are?”Mr Dowden then hit back, saying: “I’m going to take no lectures on profligacy from the SNP”. More

Angela Rayner urged deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden to “go back to school” and improve his “dire” PMQs “punchlines” as the pair clashed in the House of Commons on Wednesday 7 June.The duo stood in for Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer and exchanged barbs at the Despatch box, first over the Covid inquiry, before moving on to schooling issues.“For the last couple of years, he’s been trying to prep prime ministers for this, but these punchlines are dire,” Ms Rayner said of Mr Dowden’s performance.“He really needs to go back to school himself.” More

Boris Johnson refused to answer whether his political career is ‘over’ if accusations of ‘further lockdown breaches’ are proven to be true.The former prime minister blasted the accusations of ‘repeated breaches’ from Chequers and Downing Street to be ‘a load of absolute nonsense’.When questioned by Sky News on whether he’d be stepping back from politics he replied: “The answer is that, as I said before, there was absolutely no rule-breaking.””Those who want to make allegations shall make allegations…and so far no one has.”Click here to sign up for our newsletters. More

As former deputy chief of staff to Boris Johnson, Cleo Watson has a unique insight into life in Downing Street as a landslide election win, a Brexit deal and the Covid response, including partygate, unfurled so her new fictionalised novel, “Whips”, has been devoured by the Westminster scene.Cleo sat down with editor-in-chief Geordie Greig to discuss the book and what life was really like in Downing Street, as well as how it was working under Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings during the Covid pandemic.Click here to sign up for our newsletters. More