Afternoon summary
- Neil Parish, the Conservative MP for Tiverton and Honiton, has reported himself to the parliamentary authorities over allegations that he watched pornography in the House of Commons chamber. The former Labour deputy leader, Harriet Harman, told Times Radio that this was a “new low” for the House of Commons and that Parish should resign immediately. Karen Bradley, the Conservative former cabinet minister, minister, told the BBC’s PM programme she hoped Parish would “do the right thing and not come into parliament” while being investigated. The Liberal Democrats said Boris Johnson should force Parish to resign now (see 4.16pm) and the Labour party accused the government of trying to cover up the scandal, because Parish’s name could have been released earlier. (See 4.13pm.)
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Labour's Jess Phillips says men should take responsibility for their behaviour instead of blaming Westminster 'culture'
Keir Starmer suggested earlier today that sexism at Westminster was linked to a problem with the culture there. (See 4.46pm.) Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, made a similar argument yesterday. But the Labour MP Jess Phillips told Times Radio today that she thought there was a much simpler explanation for men engaging in sexist behaviour. She explained:
One thing I’m going to say about the culture in Westminster, and I have been asked this week over and over again, ‘Is it a toxic environment for women?’ And the answer is no, it isn’t a toxic environment for women.
I go about my business working in Westminster perfectly reasonably. There’s dreadful sexism, dreadful abuse, dreadful power imbalance, all of those things definitely exist.
But I am a tiny bit irritated by the idea that it is a pervading culture, that people can’t fight against it, the reason that somebody thought it was okay to watch porn in the chamber is because of the late nights and the drinking and the culture in Westminster - utter rubbish. The reason that person did that is because, for want of a better word, they’re an arsehole. And they should take personal responsibility for their behaviour.
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Starmer strongly rejects Daily Mail claim that he's guilty of hypocrisy over lockdown breaches
In an interview in Scotland, recorded before the Neil Parish story broke, Keir Starmer said politicians needed to listen to women and change the culture at Westminster. Talking about the problem with sexism in politics, he said:
I think we need to listen to women on this, particularly MPs and their staff in parliament. And obviously each allegation has got to be looked into properly and thoroughly with an outcome. We also need to change the culture in parliament.
In his interview he also strongly rejected the claims from the Daily Mail that he was guilty of hypocrisy over breaches of lockdown rules. (See 12.57pm.)
He said that whether or not Angela Rayner attended the event where he had a drink while having a meal “makes absolutely no difference” because the gathering has already been investigated, and was within the rules, he said. He said this was in “stark contrast” to what was happening at No 10.
Everything that we the Labour party did was in accordance with rules. That is a huge contrast to the position of the government. We now know that there have been 50 fines issued in relation to goings-on in Downing Street. That makes it probably the most fined workplace in the whole United Kingdom.
Now I know what’s going on here. We’re a few days away from local elections and Conservative MPs are trying to throw as much mud as possible.
What I’d suggest is that they focus on the issue that is burning across Scotland, across the rest of the United Kingdom, which is the cost of living crisis. Because this week in their pay packets people have realised that the government’s tax has left them with even less money than they had before, in the middle of a cost of living crisis.
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From the Mirror’s Pippa Crerar
Tory MP Neil Parish has mentioned “broadband” in the House of Commons 58 times, mainly to decry the slow speeds we have in this country…
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) April 29, 2022
As Krishnan Guru-Murthy from Channel 4 News points out, Neil Parish cannot technically refer himself to the Commons standards committee. Complaints submitted through the standards process go to the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Kathryn Stone, first. She in effect triages them, deciding what merits investigation and what does not. If a complaint is valid, she investigates and produces a report, which then goes to the standards committee (MPs and lay members) who take the final decision about what punishment to recommend.
You can't refer yourself to the Standards Committee. Top line of their website says : The Committee on Standards cannot take on complaints about Members of Parliament. Such complaints should be directed to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards https://t.co/bGgyaKdgGr
— Krishnan Guru-Murthy (@krishgm) April 29, 2022
Parish is actually referring himself to the commissioner, ITV’s Anushka Asthana reports.
They’ve clarified it is the parliamentary commissioner - Kathryn Stone https://t.co/kF5bNvYRXd
— Anushka Asthana (@AnushkaAsthana) April 29, 2022
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Harriet Harman, the former Labour deputy leader, has said in an interview with Times Radio that Neil Parish should resign immediately. These are from Ed Brown from Times Radio.
Harriet Harman tells @cathynewman @TimesRadio that if Neil Parish allegations are true "he should resign immediately"
— Ed Brown (@Edsbrown) April 29, 2022
Slow investigations in Parliament over allegations such as this "undermine democracy" she adds
— Ed Brown (@Edsbrown) April 29, 2022
The whips have got to recognise that they have a "responsibility to the whole of Parliament" not just their parties says Harriet Harman
— Ed Brown (@Edsbrown) April 29, 2022
"This is a new low for the House of Commons and we ought to come down on this like a ton of bricks" says Harriet Harman on Neil Parish allegations
— Ed Brown (@Edsbrown) April 29, 2022
Johnson should tell Neil Parish to resign immediately, say Lib Dems
Boris Johnson should tell Neil Parish to resign immediately, the Liberal Democrats say. Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader, said in a statement:
If Boris Johnson had any shred of decency left, he would tell Neil Parish to resign immediately.
In any other workplace this would count as gross misconduct and the person responsible would lose their job. parliament should be no different.
We don’t need to insult the women MPs who witnessed this with a lengthy investigation. All his bosses need to do is ask for his devices and look at his viewing history, this isn’t rocket science.
Labour accuses Tories of trying to 'cover up' porn MP scandal by not naming Parish earlier
Labour has accused the Conservatives of trying to cover up the scandal of the MP accused of watching pornography in the Commons chamber. Responding to the news that Neil Parish has now been named as the MP - four days after a meeting where a female Tory MP told the chief whip about seeing a colleague watching porn on his phone in the chamber, without naming him - Thangam Debbonaire, the shadow leader of the Commons, said:
The Conservatives knew for days about the disgusting behaviour of one of their MPs and tried to cover it up. From the Owen Paterson scandal to their failure to act against their paedophile MP Imran Ahmad Khan, this is a government rotting from the head down. Britain deserves better.
Although Chris Heaton-Harris, the chief whip, condemned the MP’s behaviour earlier this week, after the original story became public, he said that the incident should be investigated through the independent complaints and grievance scheme, which was set up to investigate sexual misconduct allegations at Westminster, but which is secretive and time-consuming. Labour said that the Conservative party should deal with the matter quickly, through its own disciplinary processes.
The whips’ office only named Parish, and said that he was now being investigated by the Commons standards committee, in response to an approach by the Telegraph.
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What Neil Parish said when asked earlier this week to react to news Tory MP has been seen watching porn in Commons
Neil Parish was interviewed by GB News earlier this week and asked for his reaction to the news that a Tory MP had been accused of watching pornography on his phone in the chamber.
When the presenter, Darren McCaffrey, asked Parish for his reaction to the story, and if he agreed the culprit would have to have the whip removed, Parish replied:
I think the whips’ office will do a thorough investigation and we will wait and see that result, and I think from that the decision will have to be made what action to be taken.
McCaffrey then asked if Parish thought there was a problem with the culture in parliament. Parish replied:
If you’ve got sort of 650 members of parliament in what is a very intense area, you are going to get people that step over the line ... I don’t think there’s necessarily a huge culture [problem] here, but I think it does have to be dealt with, and dealt with seriously. I think that’s what the whips will do in our whips’ office.
'You are going to get people that step over the line.'
— GB News (@GBNEWS) April 29, 2022
Neil Parish, who has had the whip removed following accusations he watched pornography in the Commons, spoke to Darren McCaffrey earlier this week and denied there was a cultural problem in Parliament. pic.twitter.com/bHHQedHpdo
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From Tim Durrant from the Insitute for Government
I think that's now 5 Conservative MPs that have had the whip removed - 4 for sexual misconduct of different kinds (Neil Parish, Imran Ahmad Khan, David Warburton and Rob Roberts) and 1 for voting against the government (Anne Marie Morris).
— Tim Durrant (@timd_IFG) April 29, 2022
Have I missed anyone?
Neil Parish suspended from Tory party after being named as MP seen watching porn in Commons chamber
The Conservative MP Neil Parish has been identified as the backbencher accused of watching pornography in the Commons chamber, the Telegraph reports. He has had the whip withdrawn, and has reported himself to Commons standards committee.
A spokesperson for the chief whip, Chris Heaton-Harris, said:
Having spoken to the chief whip this afternoon, Neil Parish MP is reporting himself to the Standards Committee of the House of Commons.
Mr Parish has been suspended from the Conservative Whip pending the outcome of that investigation.
The Telegraph says Parish, who represents Tiverton and Honiton in Devon and who chairs the Commons environment committee, reported himself to the committee after a conversation with Heaton-Harris.
Originally the Tory whips said the allegation about the MP watching porn in the chamber should be dealt with through the independent complaints and grievance scheme, but this led to complaints that the party was seeking to bury the controversy. Keir Starmer said the Tories should deal with the issue themselves.
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Covid rates in Britain continuing to fall, says ONS
Coronavirus rates are continuing to fall in Britain, according to the latest results from the Office for National Statistics’ infection survey, which is seen as the most reliable guide to the prevalence of the virus in the community. But in Northern Ireland it is less clear what the trend is.
Here are the figures for the week ending last Saturday, nation by nation
England
One person in 25 infected – equivalent to 2,408,300 people.
The previous week it was one in 17.
Wales
One person in 18 infected – equivalent to 172,300.
The previous week it was one person in 15.
Scotland
One person in 25 infected – equivalent to 218,000 people.
The previous week it was one person in 19.
Northern Ireland
One person in 25 infected – equivalent to 74,700 people.
The previous week it was one person in 30.
(Although this looks like an increase, the ONS says the trend in Northern Ireland is uncertain.)
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UK sending war crimes experts to Ukraine to help investigate Russian atrocities, Truss says
A team of British war crimes experts is being sent to Ukraine to help investigate atrocities committed by Russian troops, Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, has announced. She said:
Russia has brought barbarity to Ukraine and committed vile atrocities, including against women. British expertise will help uncover the truth and hold Putin’s regime to account for its actions. Justice will be done.
Labour has biggest lead over Tories on best party for taxation for 10 years, poll suggests
Some workers will today be getting pay packets showing the impact of the national insurance hike that comes into force at the start of the month, and Labour has been highlighting this in its local election campaigning.
Today pay packets will be squeezed even tighter by the Tories.
— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) April 29, 2022
You deserve better. Labour has a sensible, costed plan including cutting home energy bills by up to £600 and scrapping the National Insurance rise. pic.twitter.com/3USAn0wveV
The party will be buoyed by polling from Ipsos Mori showing Labour has its highest lead over the Tories on taxation for 10 years. This is one of the findings from Ipsos’s latest monthly political monitor report, which is a trove of good data. Here are some of the key findings:
- Labour is ahead of the Tories on best party for taxation by seven points, the poll suggests - its highest lead on this measure for 10 years. Labour is on 32% and the Tories on 25%. At the last election the Tories were ahead by 12 points on this.
- The Conservatives still lead Labour on managing the economy, the poll suggests. But their lead is just six points. At the 2019 election, they had a 24- point lead on this. Although voting-intention polling results attract most attention, often the indicators that provide the most reliable guides as to which party will win are the polling figures on the economy, and on leadership.
- The proportion of people who think the Conservative party should replace Boris Johnson as leader before the next election has fallen by six points since January, the poll suggests - but it is still 55%. Theresa May’s ratings on this measure were never as bad as this.
- Keir Starmer has better net ratings on who has what it takes to be a good prime minister than Johnson or any of his senior Tory colleagues, the poll suggests. Rather, Starmer’s ratings are less bad than anyone else’s, because all of them are negative. Johnson has a higher positive rating than Starmer, but his net rating is lower because he also has more people giving him a negative appraisal. Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, is the Tory doing best on this measure - not because his positive ratings are high, but because his negatives are low; many people do not have a view on him either way.
- Labour has a five-point lead over the Conservatives on voting intention, the poll suggests. Labour is on 40%, up one point from March. The Conservatives are on 35% (no change).
- The cost of living is by far the most important issue for voters in the local elections, the poll suggests. It is cited as a factor by 67% of people – before dealing with asylum seekers and climate change, the next highest issues, both on 47%.
The Evening Standard has written up the polling here.
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Labour rejects claims there is any comparison between Starmer having drink during workplace meal and Partygate
Students of newspaper hyperbole will be reading with admiration today the Daily Mail’s “damning six-page dossier” about Labour and lockdown breaches. For obvious reasons, the Conservatives are keen to suggest that Boris Johnson was not the only senior politician to have broken Covid rules (although he and Rishi Sunak are the only ones to have been fined by the police) and today the Mail has gone in all guns blazing with a report implying Keir Starmer’s attacks on Boris Johnson over Partygate have been hypocritical.
The main story focuses on the incident where Starmer was photographed drinking beer in an office with Labour staffers when they were campaigning in the run-up to the Hartlepool byelection in April 2021. Starmer says they were just having a meal break, the Durham police has said no Covid rules were broken.
This week the Conservative MP Richard Holden said the police could reopen the investigation into Starmer on the basis of a letter he had received from them. The police said they were not reopening the case, and that the letter to Holden was just a courtesy.
Today the Daily Mail says Angela Rayner, the Labour deputy leader, was also present at the campaign event deemed by police to have been within the rules. It presents this as a “sensational U-turn” on the grounds that for “the past three months” Labour has been saying she was not there. Labour claimed there was just one conversation, three months ago, when the Mail was told by mistake that Rayner had not been there.
The Mail also reveals that Starmer was given two birthday cakes in his office in 2020. Johnson was fined for attending a surprise birthday party in the cabinet room in June 2020, but at that point very strict lockdown rules were in force. The Mail acknowledges that lockdown was not in force when Starmer had his birthday, in September, but it says official guidance at the time said people should not hold celebrations or parties where social distancing was hard to maintain. But it admits that it does not know how many people were with Starmer as he ate his cake, and it does not present any evidence that a party took place.
Commenting on the main story, a Labour spokesperson said:
Keir Starmer was in the workplace, meeting a local MP in her constituency office and participating in an online Labour party event. They paused for food as the meeting was during the evening. No rules were broken.
There is simply no comparison between standing in a kitchen having something to eat between meetings, with multiple, flagrant rule-breaking drinks parties at the heart of government, dismissed by lies at the despatch box and resulting in an apology to the Queen.
It is not hard to see what is going on. This is from David Yelland, a former editor of the Sun.
There is only one way to read the Daily Mail’s extraordinary attack on Labour today. They are worried. Their man Johnson is worried. There is an election next week. pic.twitter.com/ElIYXoGubl
— David Yelland (@davidyelland) April 29, 2022
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A former senior civil servant in Northern Ireland who was deeply involved in the Brexit process has hit out against critics who claim the EU imposed the Irish Sea border checks.
Andrew McCormick, who was director general of international relations for the Northern Ireland Executive Office until last year, said the responsibility for Brexit checks on the Irish sea border lay “fairly and squarely” on Boris Johnson and the Conservative government.
Writing in the Constitution Society magazine, he said:
There is little credibility in any argument that the UK government either did not anticipate the implications of what it had agreed, or was constrained and unable to choose any other option.
The facts and choices had been spelt out clearly over the whole period from 2016 onwards and the detail of the provisions (notably most of the applicable EU law contained in annex 2 to the protocol) were known at latest in autumn 2018.
And the time constraint to ‘get Brexit done’ was entirely self-imposed. Indeed, as some have pointed out, the UK government could not explain the Protocol without having to explain properly the wider consequences of Brexit.
His comments come as David Frost, the former Brexit minister, claimed the peace agreement in Northern Ireland was on “life support” because of staunch opposition to the protocol in the unionist communities.
In a speech for Policy Exchange this week he also warned that any move after the Stormont elections on 5 May to disapply parts of the protocol should not “raise any issues of wider UK compliance with international law”.
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Government defeats two FoI legal challenges over 'government by WhatsApp'
The government has defeated two legal challenges brought against it over “government by WhatsApp”.
Transparency campaigners All the Citizens and the Good Law Project had both brought judicial reviews challenging the use of private communication systems such as WhatsApp, Signal private email etc for government business. They claimed that the use of these channels and disappearing messages meant that public records that should be retained were not.
They argued that it is unlawful because it is incompatible with the Public Records Act 1958 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FoIA”) and an unjustified breach of various of the government’s own policies.
However, in written judgments published on Friday, the high court dismissed both of the claims on all grounds, ruling that the policies were not contrary to any legal obligation on the government and that the legislation does not impose an obligation to create or retain records nor prohibit automatic deletion.
Both of the claimants were granted permission to appeal to the court of appeal.
Gemma Abbott, Legal Director of Good Law Project said:
The use of private email accounts by ministers creates information blackholes, thwarting freedom of information requests and critically undermining public inquiries. At a time when trust in politics is at an all time low, it’s shocking that the government would argue in Court that there is no issue in running the country like this.
With respect, we do not believe the high court’s conclusions can - or should be - be the law and we will therefore be seeking permission to appeal.
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross says Johnson 'fit for office'
Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, has said Boris Johnson is “fit for office”. In January, as the Partygate revelations escalated, Ross said that he thought Johnson’s position was “no longer tenable”, and he said he was joining colleagues writing letters demanding a no confidence vote in Johnson as party leader. But Ross withdrew his letter after the invasion of Ukraine, on the grounds that the war required Johnson to remain in office.
Asked by the Scotsman if Johnson was “fit for office”, Ross replied:
Yes, because he is leading the UK response to this crisis at the moment.But that doesn’t in any way diminish what he did and the actions that have been taken by those who investigate it.
He is fit for office to continue with what the UK government have done, his government has done, to help the people of Ukraine.
That’s not just me saying it, that’s president [Volodymyr] Zelenskiy who singled out Boris Johnson as a Western leader who has provided some of the greatest support. That relationship I don’t believe should just be cut off because clearly President Zelenskiy and the people of Ukraine welcome the support they’ve had from the prime minister and the UK government.
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Sinn Féin still on course to take first minister's post in Northern Ireland, poll suggests
Sinn Féin remains on course to emerge as the largest party in next week’s elections to the Northern Ireland assembly, a LucidTalk poll for the Belfast Telegraph suggests. It suggests the republican party will get 26% of first preference votes (no change from the same poll a month ago). The DUP is on 20%, up one point.
Since the Northern Ireland assembly was established 24 years ago, the first minister has always been a unionist. But if Sinn Féin ends up as the largest party, its leader in Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill, will be entitled to take up the post. This is likely to trigger a crisis because the DUP has not said that it would nominate a deputy first minister to serve alongside O’Neill. In practice, the first minster and deputy first minister are joint first ministers - key decisions have to be agreed together – but the DUP would find it hard to stomach the impression of being junior to Sinn Féin. My colleague Lisa O’Carroll explains more about what might happen under this scenario here.
On caveat is the the STV voting system used in Northern Ireland makes predicting the final seat allocation particularly difficult, because transfers (second-, third-preference votes etc) become crucial. The unionist vote is split three ways (DUP, UUP and TUV) but, as Suzanne Breen from the Belfast Telegraph points out, TUV second-preference votes should boost the DUP.
The TUV could lend a lifeline to save the DUP in #AE22. Three-quarters of TUV voters say they'll give a 2nd preference to Donaldson's party, as do 52% of UUP supporters. That might be enough to see DUP MLAs elected in marginal constituencies.https://t.co/OxVnHKRcYa
— Suzanne Breen (@SuzyJourno) April 29, 2022
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As my colleague Richard Adams reports, today the Commission on Young Lives, chaired by the former children’s commissioner for England Anne Longfield, is calling for primary schools to stop excluding pupils by 2026.
Speaking about the proposal on the Today programme, Longfield said:
This isn’t trying to ignore the problems that are clearly being displayed with the child, nor is it about reducing expectations around academic achievement, but it is about taking that responsibility for all children within the classroom.
And what we know is if we intervene early and offer that support to those children, often who will have special educational needs, they will be able to thrive in school.
But schools really often find themselves wanting to do that, but between a rock and a hard place. They don’t have often that specialist support on hand, and to some, sadly, they say exclusion is the only option for them.
That’s why we want to see a new era of inclusivity that can support those children to thrive.
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In an interview this morning Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the international trade secretary, said that the death of a British military veteran in Ukraine was “terribly sad”. The Briton is understood to be Scott Sibley, who had reportedly volunteered to fight the Russians. Trevelyan rejected claims that Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, had caused confusion at the start of the conflict by saying she would support Britons going to fight in Ukraine, when official advice was, and remains, that people should not join the conflict. Trevelyan told Times Radio:
The government was clear that the travel advice was: do not go to Ukraine. It was clear and it was reiterated many times.
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UK to send 8,000 soldiers to eastern Europe on expanded exercises
Labour’s Pat McFadden, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said scandals such as the one involving the unnamed Tory MP accused of watching porn on his phone in the Commons chamber, were bad for politics generally. He told Times Radio this morning:
Apart from individual instances, which are really bad and have to be investigated with proper action taken, and so on, the collective impact of all of this is to corrode faith in politics. That’s a bad thing for the country because this is still the arena where we have to decide the big challenges facing the country.
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Cabinet minister says she was ‘pinned against wall’ by male colleague as Tory porn scandal continues
Good morning. In his Times column this morning James Forsyth quotes one long-serving Tory saying that “the Japanese knotweed of sleaze” has returned to plague the Conservative party. The term was first widely used in the 1990s, as a useful catch-all that could cover sexual and financial misconduct, and in those days a sex scandal normally meant an extra-marital affair. Attitudes have move on a lot in the last 30 years, and now an affair barely counts as news. But tolerance of misogyny and sexual misconduct, once sky high, has plummeted, with the result that a swathe of new sex-related sleaze scandals are emerging, intensified by technology that allows you to watch pornography on your phone in the Commons chamber.
Here is our overnight story on porngate.
An important set of elections is now less than a week away, but when Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the international trade secretary, gave interviews this morning, one of the main takeaways was her advising male colleagues not to grope women.
In normal circumstances this would not be news; it would not even need to be said. But as the knotweed tightens its grip on the Conservative party, this is where we are.
In an interview with LBC, Trevelyan also talked about her own experience of sexual harassment and said that she had once been pinned against the wall by a male MP who thought his status meant she must find him desirable. Talking about her experiences, she said:
Well, we might describe it as wandering hands if you like. We might describe it as a number of years ago being pinned up against a wall by a male MP who is now no longer in the house, I’m pleased to say, declaring that I must want him because he was a powerful man.
These sorts of things, the power abuses that a very small minority of male colleagues show, is completely unacceptable.
Parliament has prorogued now, and there is not much in the political diary for the day. But there is a lot of campaigning going on, and the politics news has not dried up. Hopefully it won’t all be about sex.
I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com.
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