Boris Johnson will attempt to seize back control of the government agenda this week with a policy blitz, a Brexit bill and flying visit to Ukraine, as Westminster remains in the grip of paralysis over the Sue Gray and police inquiries into No 10 parties.
Amid frustration in No 10 at the uncertainty surrounding the report on rule-breaking parties in Downing Street, sources said Johnson was determined to deflect public outrage with a schedule of high-profile announcements and photo opportunities that he also hopes will show MPs he remains focused.
On Monday, Johnson is announcing plans for legislation to make it easier to rip up EU regulations and protections, after criticism from Conservative MPs that the government has not taken sufficient advantage of Brexit. He is also expected to visit Ukraine with the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, early this week, and the levelling-up white paper is scheduled for publication on Wednesday.
Whitehall sources said they also expected developments this week on help for families struggling with the cost of energy bills, after the prime minister and the chancellor definitively ruled out cancelling the national insurance rise and cutting VAT on energy bills.
Johnson could receive the long-awaited report on lockdown breaches in No 10 as soon as Monday, after which he is expected to give an immediate statement to MPs.
Scotland Yard’s special inquiries team will this week scour evidence of lockdown-breaking by Johnson’s aides sent to them by the Gray inquiry. Detectives received the information from the Cabinet Office on Friday and police chiefs have been stung by fierce and widespread criticism after pressing for Gray’s report to give only “minimal reference” to the gatherings under investigation.
Those are believed to be the most clear-cut breaches of the lockdown rules, and probably the most politically dangerous for Johnson. The police request caused widespread fury in Westminster and the report’s contents are expected to be significantly weakened.
The Met was unable to say on Sunday when it will start to write to those identified by Gray as having potentially breached lockdown rules. They will be asked if they have a reasonable excuse and then police will decide whether they should face a fine. Cabinet Office sources said on Sunday night that they were still in discussion with the Met.
Opposition parties have been discussing what can be done to force the publication of a full version of the report, which is now only likely after a police inquiry has been completed.
Johnson, who spent the weekend at his Chequers residence, is said to have been struck by MPs’ criticism that the government has been unable to communicate the benefits of Brexit.
On Sunday night he unveiled plans for a new law – called the “Brexit freedoms” bill – intended to make it easier to amend or remove some of the bridging law kept on the statute book after Brexit. No 10 said that, as it stands, much of that regulation would require primary legislation to remove it, and the new bill could sidestep that process.
Critics said Johnson must make clear whether he intends to target employment protections, and pointed out that businesses and government have already faced billions of pounds of costs as a result of additional red tape due to Brexit itself.
Sarah Olney, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for business, said: “This odd announcement raises questions about what kind of environmental rules, data protections and workers rights this government may look to water down. This bizarre press release leaves ministers with serious questions to answer.”
A Labour source said: “The key question for the government is which of the proposed changes in regulation depend on the passage of this bill, and if the answer is none, what other changes are they planning that do? Until they can explain all that, we have to ask what the point of this bill is.”
Downing Street said it would release a public catalogue of all retained EU laws to determine if they are beneficial to the UK.
In a statement announcing the new bill, two years after Britain’s exit from the bloc, Johnson said: “Getting Brexit done two years ago today was a truly historic moment and the start of an exciting new chapter for our country. The plans we have set out today will further unleash the benefits of Brexit and ensure that businesses can spend more of their money investing, innovating and creating jobs.
“Our new Brexit freedoms bill will end the special status of EU law in our legal framework and ensure that we can more easily amend or remove outdated EU law in future.”
The government will also publish a riposte to critics who claim little advantage of Brexit has been taken, with a document titled The Benefits of Brexit: How the UK is Taking Advantage of Leaving the EU.
It will claim that reforms have led to a more agile digital and AI sector and a less burdensome data rights regime compared with the EU’s GDPR. It will also claim that there have been benefits in changing clinical trials, strengthening environmental protections and establishing a domestic subsidy regime.
With hopes rising in No 10 that Johnson can swerve a no confidence vote, the prime minister is also understood to have told staff he hopes to save his chief of staff, Dan Rosenfield, or move him to another role.
Gray’s report will criticise the culture in No 10 and make a series of recommendations on changes to the organisation, according to those who have given evidence, but Rosenfield has not been implicated publicly in any egregious breaches.
No 10 is braced for further damaging revelations in the press once Gray’s slimmed-down report is published. One of Johnson’s fiercest critics, Dominic Cummings, told NYMag on Sunday that it was his “duty to get rid” of Johnson as prime minister, describing it as “sort of like fixing the drains”.
Cummings, who was Johnson’s chief adviser, called his former boss a “complete fuckwit” whose only preoccupations were “Big Ben’s bongs” and “looking at maps” to “order the building of things” in his honour.
