Summary
Here’s a roundup of the key development from the day:
- Boris Johnson is facing continued pressure from within his own party as the fallout from Partygate rumbles on and more MPs call for him to resign as prime minister. Former Tory minister Tobias Ellwood said the Conservative party stills seemed to be “in denial”.
- Jeremy Wright, a former culture secretary and attorney general, has become the latest Tory MP to call for Boris Johnson to resign – although his statement saying this disappeared from his website, before reappearing. In the statement, the Kenilworth and Southam MP said the saga had done “real and lasting damage to the reputation not just of this government but to the institutions and authority of government more generally”.
- The Conservative MP Elliot Colburn has submitted a letter calling for a vote of no confidence in the prime minister, Boris Johnson. In an email to a constituent, Colburn reportedly said: “I am especially appalled at the revelations of the poor treatment of security and cleaning staff … so my letter remains submitted.”
- Nickie Aiken has called on Boris Johnson to submit himself to a vote of confidence to “end speculation”, Tom Larkin of Sky News is reporting. The Tory MP told constituents that “events in Downing St during the pandemic has damaged the govt and Conservative Party”.
- Downing Street has refused to deny that a social event took place in Boris Johnson’s flat during lockdown that was not considered by the Sue Gray inquiry, but officials insisted there is no need to reopen any investigations and that the matter is closed.
- A culture minister has said it is not “immediately obvious” that there should be an investigation into an alleged second event at No 10 hosted by the prime minister’s wife. Chris Philp was asked on Sky News about reports emerging at the weekend that Carrie Johnson had organised a couple of parties in the Downing Street flat. “Well, I think we have had an unbelievably comprehensive set of investigations going on now for a period of nearly six months,” he said.
- Boris Johnson is “abusing the ministerial code” by redrafting it to reduce the potential sanctions for ministers who break rules, a former member of the government’s ethical standards watchdog has said, urging Conservative MPs to challenge this. Jane Martin, who served on the committee on standards in public life for five years until December 2021, said Johnson had wrongly used a report by her committee as a spur to weaken the code.
- Half of Britons believe the wrong people will be held accountable for Partygate, a survey has found. The Ipsos poll, conducted after the release of Sue Gray’s report into lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street, found only 41% of people were confident the report would lead to the right people being held accountable while 50% said they were not confident.
-
Yesterday, the Observer reported Martin Reynolds, Johnson’s former principal private secretary, who quit in February following outrage about Partygate, could be the next UK ambassador to Saudi Arabia but Paul Waugh of the i paper has now heard he instead might be lined up for a senior international trade post. This is perhaps due to the reaction people had to the idea of the man mentioned 24 times in the Sue Gray report representing the Queen as the ambassador in Riyadh.
- Labour has said that the take-up of the government’s flagship tutoring programme is so slow that all current secondary pupils in England will have left school by the time the Conservatives finally deliver on their education catch-up promises. At the rate of delivery for this academic year, Labour says that figure will not be reached for at least five and a half years, by which time all pupils currently in secondary school will have completed year 11 and moved on.
- Stormont parties have urged the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) to back the election of a new speaker as the assembly was recalled on Monday. The Sinn Féin vice-president, Michelle O’Neill, told MLAs that people in Northern Ireland wanted action, not protest.
Thanks so much for joining me today. I’ll be back again tomorrow.
You can follow our Russia-Ukraine war liveblog here:
Updated
Tory MP Nickie Aiken urges Johnson to have confidence vote to 'end speculation'
Nickie Aiken has called on Boris Johnson to submit himself to a vote of confidence to “end speculation”, Tom Larkin of Sky News is reporting.
The Tory MP told constituents that “events in Downing St during the pandemic has damaged the govt and Conservative Party”.
London MP Nickie Aiken calls on PM to submit himself to a VONC to "end speculation". She's told constituents that "events in Downing St during the pandemic has damaged the govt and Conservative Party".
— Tom Larkin (@TomLarkinSky) May 30, 2022
Her Westminster council was a big loss to Labour in local elex
Updated
Paul Waugh, the i paper’s chief political commentator, has this on Martin Reynolds, Johnson’s former principal private secretary, who quit in February following outrage about Partygate.
Yesterday, the Observer reported “Party Marty” could be the next UK ambassador to Saudi Arabia but Waugh has now heard he instead might be lined up for a senior international trade post.
This is perhaps due to the reaction people had to the idea of the man mentioned 24 times in the Sue Gray report representing the Queen as the ambassador in Riyadh.
Waugh writes in his latest column:
The man who was dubbed “Party Marty” for his “bring your own booze” invitation to a No 10 garden party saw his reputation further trashed after Gray’s final report revealed he had messaged that Downing Street had “got away with” one particular drinks event.
Reynolds went back to the Foreign Office in February and has since been touted as the next UK ambassador to Saudi Arabia, so has he “got away with” Partygate more broadly? Well, I’m told that he is in fact being lined up by Johnson for a senior international trade post. If the ambassador role is seen as too embarrassing a reward for failure, the alternative trade job would suggest Johnson really does want to ease the pain for at least some of those who supported him.
One source claimed that International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan opposed the proposed appointment and was overruled by No 10, but I understand the minister was not upset at all. If Reynolds does indeed get a new job, it appears he’ll have the full support of the Government.
Johnson certainly has a history of trying to help out those who remain loyal to him. Despite Kit Malthouse and James Cleverly (both former deputies of his at City Hall) initially deciding to stand for Tory leadership against him in 2019, they soon joined his campaign team. Both now have key ministerial posts.
The recruitment for a new director general of the National Crime Agency has been re-opened, with former Met Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe apparently the Prime Minister’s favourite. Today, No 10 failed to deny Johnson had intervened, saying only “the Prime Minister has no formal role in this process… a fair and open recruitment campaign is underway.”
With a reshuffle pencilled into many Whitehall diaries for the end of June, after the expected double loss of the Tiverton and Wakefield by-elections, Johnson is expected once more to show what MPs call “misplaced loyalty” by sacking-not-sacking some key figures (moving Priti Patel from Home Office to party chair would surprise few).
Updated
Labour has said that the take-up of the government’s flagship tutoring programme is so slow that all current secondary pupils in England will have left school by the time the Conservatives finally deliver on their education catch-up promises.
The analysis follows the prime minister’s pledge from last summer that there would be 100m hours of small-group tutoring over a three-year period to help pupils in England who have fallen behind in their learning due to the disruption caused by the pandemic.
However, according to analysis by Labour the figure would not be reached for at least five years, by which time all pupils currently in secondary school will have completed year 11 and moved on.
You can read Sally Weale’s full report here:
Updated
The conservative MP Elliot Colburn has submitted a letter calling for a vote of no confidence in the prime minister, Boris Johnson.
26 MPs have now called for the PM to stand down.
In an email to a constituent, Colburn reportedly said: “I am especially appalled at the revelations of the poor treatment of security and cleaning staff … so my letter remains submitted.”
You can read the full story here:
Updated
The Welsh government has said is to press ahead with plans to increase the number of Senedd members, despite opposition from senior Conservatives.
PA reports:
The reforms, proposed by Labour and Plaid Cymru as part of a cooperation agreement, would see the number of members increase from 60 to 96.
Currently the Senedd remains smaller than its other devolved counterparts, with the Scottish parliament having 129 members and the Northern Ireland assembly having 90.
A Senedd committee has backed the changes, saying a strengthened parliament would result in more powerful scrutiny of government and better representation of people in Wales.
Welsh Tories have called for the expansion plan to be put to a referendum, with party leader Andrew RT Davies calling it a “waste of both time and money”.
Updated
Stormont parties have urged the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) to back the election of a new speaker as the assembly was recalled on Monday.
The Sinn Féin vice-president, Michelle O’Neill, told MLAs that people in Northern Ireland wanted action, not protest.
But the DUP MLA Paul Givan said the recall by Sinn Féin of the Stormont assembly was not a serious attempt to restore power sharing, telling MLAs:
Today’s recall is another attempt at majority rule and has no credibility when it comes forward from the party that kept these institutions down for three years.
Sinn Féin proposed a recall last week, supported by Alliance and the Social Democratic and Labour party (SDLP). But a new speaker and the first and deputy first ministers cannot be installed without the DUP’s support. It has said it wants “action” first on the Northern Ireland protocol and has dismissed Sinn Fein’s move as a “stunt”.
Two MLAs, Mike Nesbitt of the Ulster Unionist party and Patsy McGlone of the SDLP, were nominated for the role of speaker.
Under assembly rules, no business can take place after an election until a new speaker is elected. An attempt to do so on 13 May failed because it requires cross-community support from a majority of unionist and nationalist MLAs.
O’Neill told the chamber:
The people have spoken and they want action, not protest. They want the parties and every single MLA elected to this democratic institution to get their sleeves rolled up and to get down to business.
The DUP’s standoff is with the public and not with the European Union. As I stand here today I am ready to work with others.
Givan told the MLAs:
The public will see the hypocrisy for what it is from Sinn Féin.
This isn’t a serious attempt to restore the principles of power sharing and these institutions. It is a stunt.
Read more here:
Updated
Jeremy Wright latest Tory MP to call for Boris Johnson to resign
Jeremy Wright, a former culture secretary and attorney general, has become the latest Tory MP to call for Boris Johnson to resign – although his statement saying this disappeared from his website before reappearing.
In the statement, the Kenilworth and Southam MP said that while he could not be sure if Johnson knowingly misled MPs in denying that lockdown-breaking parties had taken place inside Downing Street, the saga had done “real and lasting damage to the reputation not just of this government but to the institutions and authority of government more generally”.
He wrote:
That matters because it is sadly likely that a government will again need to ask the citizens of this country to follow rules it will be difficult to comply with and to make sacrifices which will be hard to bear, in order to serve or preserve the greater good. The collective consequences of those citizens declining to do so may again be severe.
Wright ended:
It now seems to me that the prime minister remaining in office will hinder those crucial objectives. I have therefore, with regret, concluded that, for the good of this and future governments, the prime minister should resign.
The statement did not say whether Wright had formally submitted a letter to the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs seeking a confidence vote in Johnson, which will happen when 15% of their number do so, totalling 54. Currently, somewhere near 20 are confirmed to have done so, although others may also have.
He was contacted for comment.
Updated
Conservative MP Anthony Browne has confirmed he is not among those calling for the prime minister to resign.
Speaking to the BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme, Browne was asked about Conservative former minister Jeremy Wright, who, in a statement on his website, called for Boris Johnson to quit.
The statement returned to his official website after disappearing. It was replaced with a “page not found” message for several minutes.
The statement, which said Boris Johnson should resign because of the real and lasting damage of Partygate, later reappeared.
Browne said:
Well, I came on to talk about economic growth. I mean, clearly, the whole parties in Number 10 has been a very painful episode.
I’ve been very disappointed by it, as many other people but the government, the prime minister has got the big measures right in terms of the pandemic and in terms of the war in Ukraine, which is obviously a huge international crisis that is ongoing at the moment.
On whether he is therefore not going to be among those calling for the prime minister to resign, the MP for South Cambridgeshire said: “No, but I am happy to answer questions about growth.”
Updated
Downing Street has refused to deny that a further party took place in the Downing Street flat after Boris Johnson’s birthday gathering in the Cabinet Room.
The Sunday Times reported at the weekend that the prime minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, hosted a further event in the flat where she lives with her husband later that day on 19 June 2020.
Asked about the report, a No 10 spokesman said Sue Gray had made clear in her terms of reference that she would look at other allegations where there were “credible” claims rules had been breached.
I have seen the same reporting that you have but I think this is covered in the terms of reference in Sue Gray’s report where she clearly said that any other gatherings ... where she received credible allegations, would be looked into.
Downing Street staff were given clear guidance to retain any relevant information and cooperate fully with the investigation.
Updated
The government does not expect the UK to experience power cuts this winter, or the need for energy rationing, a No 10 spokesperson has said.
He said:
I think you would expect government to look at a range of scenarios to ensure plans are robust, no matter how unlikely they are to pass. Neither the government or National Grid expect power cuts this winter.
You will know that we are in a fortunate position, we are not dependent on Russian energy imports and have one of the most reliable and diverse energy systems.
Asked about energy rationing, he added:
We don’t expect energy rationing this winter. Again, we are in a different position to other countries in that we are not as dependent on Russian energy as some. You will know that we have access to our own North Sea gas reserves and imports from other reliable partners.
But again, I think you would expect us to plan for all scenarios.
Updated
Every secondary school pupil will have left by the time the Tories deliver the post-Covid tuition they promised, Labour has said today.
Last summer Boris Johnson pledged to deliver 100m hours of post-coronavirus tutoring – designed to make up for lost hours in the pandemic – in three years for England.
But last year just 1.2 million pupils out of more than 8 million started their 15-hour tuition blocks, the Sun is reporting.
Based on that rate, Johnson’s target would not be reached for at least five-and-a-half years by which time all secondary school pupils will have already left, said Stephen Morgan.
The shadow education minister told the Sun:
This government’s farcical failure to help children recover lost learning threatens to limit their opportunities for decades to come.
Millions of children will have left school before the government delivers the support it promised.
You heard that right: every secondary student will have left by the time covid support is rolled-out.
— Peter Kyle MP (@peterkyle) May 30, 2022
We all know these new-variant Tories lie, trash Number 10 and make fools of our country.
But worst of all they’re just useless at running our economy and public services. https://t.co/4dqVPDX2Dy
Updated
Half of Britons believe the wrong people will be held accountable for Partygate, a survey has found.
The Ipsos poll, conducted after the release of Sue Gray’s report into lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street, found most people thought the civil servant’s investigation had been both thorough and independent, PA News reports.
But only 41% of people told the pollster they were confident the report would lead to the right people being held accountable for breaking coronavirus lockdown rules while 50% said they were not confident.
So far there have been no resignations as a result of Gray’s inquiry and the independence of her report has been questioned, with claims that she was lobbied not to name officials who attended events while England was in lockdown.
The polling company found much lower levels of confidence in the Metropolitan police’s investigation into Partygate, which led to 126 fixed-penalty notices being issued, including one to Boris Johnson.
Only 46% of people thought the police investigation had been thorough and independent, and just 41% thought it had led to the right people being held accountable. About 51% said they were not confident that the right people had been held to account by the police.
Stephen House, acting head of the Met, defended the force’s investigation last week, telling members of the Greater London assembly that it had been conducted “without fear or favour”.
Ipsos also found that the publication of Gray’s report had not diminished public support for the prime minister’s resignation.
The pollster found a slight increase in the number of people saying Boris Johnson should go, from 54% at the start of May to 58% following the release of Gray’s report.
The same proportion supported his resignation in late January, at the height of the Partygate allegations and includes 42% of those who voted Conservative in 2019.
Updated
Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, is considering extending the life of the Hinkley Point B plant but only if the nuclear power station complies with safety certification, a culture minister has suggested.
Appearing on Times Radio, Chris Philp was asked about reports that ministers had been warned of potential power cuts to as many as 6 million households this winter, with the government drawing up plans for rationed electricity if supply issues deteriorate.
Last month, Kwarteng wrote to the owners of the UK’s remaining coal-fired power stations to ask them to stay open longer than planned, and Hinkley Point B, a nuclear power station in Somerset, could also be given an extension, PA News reports.
Philp described the business secretary’s actions as “sensible” and “precautionary” and when asked about the risks of keeping Hinkley Point B open, the culture minister stressed that for the government “safety is paramount”.
He said no extension to the life of any power station in the UK would take place “unless the safety certification had been done in a very thorough way”.
It was announced that Hinkley Point B power station was to move into decommissioning within the next two years in November 2020. EDF said Hinkley Point B power station in Somerset would have been moved into the defueling phase no later than July 2022.
Philp told Times Radio:
I think what the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, did last week was take some sensible precautionary measures to guard against a potential worst-case scenario.
He asked, I think, the three remaining coal-fired power station operators to just keep their power stations available beyond the point of which they were due to be switched off, and I think he is considering whether Hinkley B, the large nuclear power station, might continue beyond its planned end of life as well.
That’s a sensible precautionary measure, given that gas supply coming out of Russia and Ukraine is, for obvious reasons, so heavily disrupted and we do, of course, use quite a lot of gas to generate electricity.
Only a very small proportion of that, of course, comes from Russia. A lot of ours comes from Norway and in the form of liquefied natural gas but, of course, disruption to the global gas market will have a knock-on effect that may affect the gas that we consumed domestically in the United Kingdom.
So, I think these are just sensible precautionary measures, just to guard against a potential worst-case scenario.
Updated
Rising costs have creating a “ticking timebomb” for UK small business owners, the chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses has said, with almost half a million firms at risk of going bust within weeks without a wave of government support.
While the FSB chairman, Martin McTague, applaudedthe chancellor Rishi Sunak’s latest support for consumers through the £15bn cost of living package announced last week, he said some of those recipients could lose their jobs unless the government rolled out targeted measures for their employers.
McTague told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
We don’t have any problem with the way the chancellor dealt with consumer needs. But there is still a massive problem with small businesses. They are facing something like twice the rate of inflation for their production prices, and it’s a ticking timebomb. They have got literally weeks left before they run out of cash and that will mean hundreds of thousands of businesses, and lots of people losing their jobs.
McTague pointed to figures from the Office for National Statistics, which showed that 40% - or 2m - of the UK’s small businesses had less than three months’ worth of cash left to support their operations. Of those 2m, the FSB chairman said about 10% – or 200,000 – were in “serious trouble”, and that another 300,000 “have only got weeks left”.
He said:
It is a very real possibility because … they don’t have the cash reserves. They don’t have any way they can tackle this problem.
Read the full story here:
Updated
Boris Johnson is “abusing the ministerial code” by redrafting it to reduce the potential sanctions for ministers who break rules, a former member of the government’s ethical standards watchdog has said, urging Conservative MPs to challenge this.
Jane Martin, formerly the local government ombudsman who served on the committee on standards in public life for five years until December 2021, said Johnson had wrongly used a report by her committee as a spur to weaken the code.
The prime minister was widely criticised on Friday after announcing a revision to the ministerial code to formally set out that ministers who breached the code would not be automatically expected to resign but could apologise or forfeit some pay instead.
In changes made before an inquiry by MPs into illicit lockdown parties inside Downing Street, Johnson blocked his independent ethics chief, Christopher Geidt, from gaining the power to launch his own investigations.
He also rewrote the foreword to the code, removing references to honesty, integrity, transparency and accountability.
In a letter to the Times, Martin said Johnson had used “shamelessly manipulative tactics” and ignored the committee’s report used as the basis for the code’s rewrite.
She wrote:
Its recommendations were absolutely not designed to water down standards, but intended to develop a balanced approach to accountability with appropriate sanctions – including retaining resignation for the most serious breaches, such as misleading parliament.
This prime minister is abusing the ministerial code, which is (and should be) owned by him. His redrafting demotes the seven principles of public life, indicating a choice to ignore the fundamentals of parliamentary accountability, which he of course understands.
I conclude that he is avoiding accountability through all conventional channels. Surely Conservative MPs cannot ignore this any longer.
Read more here:
Updated
Culture minister Chris Philp has said he will be giving his 400 energy bill rebate to a charity.
Asked by LBC’s Nick Ferrari if he is going to follow Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s lead, Philp said:
I hadn’t thought about that until you asked, Nick, but I think that’s a good idea. Yes, I’m going to give it to a local charity in Croydon.
A culture minister has said it is not “immediately obvious” that there should be an investigation into an alleged second event at Number 10 hosted by the prime minister’s wife.
Chris Philp was asked on Sky News about reports emerging at the weekend that Carrie Johnson had organised a couple of parties in the Downing Street flat.
On whether he thought the alleged gatherings should be investigated, Philp said:
Well, I think we have had an unbelievably comprehensive set of investigations going on now for a period of nearly six months. We have had obviously the Sue Gray investigation published last week. And she interviewed, goodness knows, dozens or possibly even hundreds of people in the course of her investigation, looked at emails, messages, and everything else.
And we have had the Metropolitan police investigation, which again, has gone over and gone on over a number of months. And they conducted that with full police powers.
So, having had two separate investigations, including by the police over many months, it is not immediately obvious to me that we need any more investigations when this has probably been the most... rightly been, the most thoroughly investigated set of incidents in recent times.
For a recap on the story of the party in question, here’s the full story:
Updated
The UK’s foreign policy in Ukraine will not change based on whether Boris Johnson is prime minister, Tobias Ellwood has said.
The Conservative former minister told Sky News:
Don’t assume that, just because Boris Johnson may or may not be replaced, that our foreign policy will change in Ukraine. We have been providing weapons systems and support since 2014.
As I’ve just been illustrating, there is a vacuum of leadership in Europe at the moment. That’s where I would like to see Britain step forward in consolidating a coalition if Nato isn’t going to do it. That’s what I’d like to see Britain do.
So, let’s not use Ukraine as a fig leaf to deny the fact that we have a serious issue in our party that needs to be addressed. There’s now been talk of a reshuffle to remove any further questioning voices, you know, that might criticise what the prime minister does in private.
This is exactly the wrong way we should be going. It is the absence of these inquisitive minds being heard that actually allowed legislation to support Owen Paterson, for example, to go unscrutinised.
On whether he would be waiting for a call if there was a reshuffle, Ellwood said: “I wouldn’t. I’m not sure that I would answer that.”
Updated
Boris Johnson is facing continued pressure from within his own party as the fallout from Partygate rumbles on and more MPs call for him to resign as prime minister.
Former Tory minister Tobias Ellwood said the Conservative party stills seemed to be “in denial”.
The prominent critic of the prime minister told Sky News the party was “increasingly in a difficult place”.
He said:
This is going to be a testing summer. Polling is now saying we could lose 90 seats. And we still seem to be in denial. It’s time to shake off this partisan Stockholm syndrome, I believe.
Our party brand is suffering. We will lose the next election on current trajectory as reflected in recent elections by local elections.
And when you get the church elders in the party, such as Lord Hague, now expressing huge concern, you know, we need to listen.”
When asked on Sky News if he has received more public support for his view of the prime minister, Ellwood said he’d been receiving a lot of private support from people who agree with him but were not ready to state it publicly.
He said the concerns within the party were not just about Partygate. He says bringing back imperial measurements is not “one-nation Conservative thinking”, for example, and the way the government seems to keep leaking announcements ahead of time is also sowing discontent.
He said:
There is not only just a concern on the conduct of behaviour in Number 10 because that has breached the trust with the British people, it is now concerns about Number 10 thinking, what our policies are.
What we are now seeing is an approach to shore up and chase a slice off the electorate with policies such as bringing back imperial measurements.
There will be some people in our party which will like this nostalgic policy in the hope that it’s enough to win the next election. But this is not the case. This is not one-nation Conservative thinking that is required to appeal beyond our base.
It’s far from the inspirational, visionary progressive thinking that we require. And it fits into a pattern I am afraid of micro-announcements that are increasingly thrown out there, which actually is sowing further discontent with with more MPs.
Welcome to today’s liveblog. Do get in touch if you have any questions or think I’m missing anything. My email is nicola.slawson@theguardian.com and I’m @Nicola_Slawson on Twitter.
You can also follow our dedicated Ukraine liveblog here:
Updated
