That’s all from us this evening.
Here’s a summary of the key events from today:
- MPs to get vote on Thursday relating to claims Johnson lied to parliament, Speaker announces.
- No 10 refuses to back Lewis’s claim that PM’s fine for breaking lockdown rules like parking ticket.
- Theresa May says Rwanda plan may be illegal and impractical, and is likely to increase trafficking of women and children.
- Johnson restates apology for lockdown breach, claiming he has ‘even greater’ sense of duty to deliver on priorities of British people.
- Starmer reprimanded by Speaker after telling MPs Johnson is “dishonest”.
- Mark Harper, the former Tory whip, says he no longer thinks Boris Johnson is “worthy of the office he holds”.
- Bereaved relatives of people who died from Covid called Boris Johnson “a liar and a charlatan debasing the office of prime minister”.
- Boris Johnson started his meeting with the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs by telling them that their government “has got the big calls right”.
- During “bullish” 35-minute private meeting, he repeatedly asked if Tories preferred Labour government to Johnson leadership.
- Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and the BBC criticised by PM for views on Rwanda.
Updated
NHS Millions, a not-for-profit organisation set up by a team of NHS staff during the pandemic to encourage support for hospital workers, is not satisfied by the PM’s performance in the Commons today – nor the continued support of Conservative MPs at the 1922 Committee meeting this evening.
The group tweeted:
Tory MPs expected NHS staff to have the courage to fight Covid for over two years, and more than 1,500 health and care staff lost their lives.
— NHS Million 💙 (@NHSMillion) April 19, 2022
Yet the majority of them don’t even have the courage to stand up against a proven liar. pic.twitter.com/HlnKG7qkMS
The Mirror’s Whitehall corespondent Mikey Smith said that the mood in the private Tory party meeting this evening was “bullish”.
Posting on Twitter, he wrote: “Source says PM accepted it was ‘right’ for him to say what he did in the Commons, but there was no specific apology to MPs.”
On Keir Starmer’s blistering attack, he posted:
One Tory MP accused Keir Starmer of “whipping up hysteria” and “visceral hatred”. PM said to have distanced himself from that “a bit”. But said there had been a “coarsening of the debate”
— Mikey Smith (@mikeysmith) April 19, 2022
Source said one Tory had urged colleagues not to go to the press. Quoted as saying “If we throw the boss under the bus, do we think the left will suddenly be nice to us? Of course not. I'm sticking with the man we have here."
— Mikey Smith (@mikeysmith) April 19, 2022
The BBC was also heavily criticised by the PM in his speech to the 1922 Committee.
Updated
Jacob Rees-Mogg told Andrew Marr to “get a sense of perspective” this evening, after the broadcaster described the “intense anger” he felt at the death of his father.
Marr, who presents the LBC show Tonight with Andrew Marr, told the Cabinet minister:
I buried my father on the week that one of those parties took place and it was a party. He was an elder of the Church of Scotland – that church was locked and barred. We had a small gathering, most of the family weren’t there. The other parishioners he would have loved to be there weren’t allowed to be there because we followed the rules. And I felt intensely angry about that – and I do not regard this as fluff.”
Rees-Mogg told Marr that while he believed closing churches during Covid was a “great mistake”, he did not regret using the word “fluff” to describe partygate allegations.
“What is happening now two years on against what’s going on in Ukraine, what is going on with the cost of living crisis, one has to get a sense of perspective,” Rees-Mogg said.
“What is going on in Ukraine is fundamental to the security of the Western world.
“And you are comparing this to a fine issued for something that happened two years ago.”
He added: “I think we need to look at what is fundamental to the security of our nation and the security of the Western world.”
Marr told the Brexit opportunities minister that what happened to him “happened to so many others up and down the country.”
“We find, I would say, that word ‘fluff’ quite offensive”, he said.
But Mr Rees-Mogg replied: “I still think that in comparison with the war in Ukraine… a fine for something that happened two years ago is not the most pressing political matter”.
“The Daily Mail headline said ‘don’t forget there’s a war on’ and this is something we have to remember - we need a sense of perspective”.
Updated
In today’s political sketch, John Crace tackled the PM’s “flimsy and feeble” apology to the Commons, referring to Johnson throughout as “the convict”.
Here’s a excerpt of that:
The Convict began by saying he wanted to make a full apology. Which would have sounded more convincing if he hadn’t already made several apologies to the Commons on previous outings. Each time hoping to draw a line under whatever he had done wrong – or more importantly, been found out to have done wrong. But if practice doesn’t make perfect, it certainly makes Johnson a slightly better apologiser. In the past he has never really sounded that sorry for anything – rather just irritable that he had got himself into yet another situation where he was obliged to apologise.”
Read the sketch in full here:
Updated
Boris Johnson started his meeting with the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs by telling them that their government “has got the big calls right”.
According to the Byline Times’s Adam Bienkov:
Boris Johnson keeps asking the 1922 Committee if they'd rather have him in charge than Labour. This feels quite a low bar for a room full of Conservative MPs.
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) April 19, 2022
Johnson also used his platform to criticise Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and his condemnation of the Rwanda policy. He apparently argued that Welby was far less scathing in his criticism of Putin than he was of Priti Patel’s bombshell refugee reform.
PA reports: “Sources close to the Prime Minister said he told Tory MPs in a private meeting it was a ‘good policy’ despite some ‘criticism on the BBC and from senior members of the clergy’ who he said ‘had been less vociferous in their condemnation on Easter Sunday of Putin than they were on our policy of illegal immigrants’.”
Updated
Boris Johnson has arrived to address the 1922 committee of Conservative backbenchers, with PA Media reporting he was met by “sustained banging and the odd whoop”.
Updated
Opposition parties have called for a special body known as the privileges committee to look into if Johnson deliberately misled MPs.
The prime minister made repeated denials to the Commons that any rules were broken in Downing Street – but Scotland Yard has now put paid to that, and confirmed that parties which breached lockdown laws did take place in No 10 and other parts of Whitehall.
Given that the ministerial code carries the unambiguous direction that any breaches should result in a resignation, Labour wants the matter to be scrutinised instead of being brushed under the carpet.
But what is it? And how does it work? An excellent piece here explaining everything you need to know about the privileges committee:
Conservative MP Mark Harper told the Commons that Boris Johnson was no longer worthy of the “great office” he holds earlier.
The former chief whip has since spoken to the BBC about his decision to submit a letter of no confidence in the PM.
“I’m not expecting lots [of Conservative MPs] follow me today, but they’re going to have to reflect in the coming days and weeks,” he said.
“I think many of them will reach the same conclusion that I have.”
Bereaved relatives of people who died from Covid called Boris Johnson “a liar and a charlatan debasing the office of prime minister” after he defended his actions over partygate in the Commons today.
Fran Hall, whose husband Steve Mead died of the virus three weeks after the couple married in 2020, described Johnson as “a man without shame, without morals and without honour”. Hall, 61, from Buckinghamshire, told PA:
The endless apologies that the prime minister gave to the house when he finally stood up half an hour late to make his statement mean nothing to me – nor do they mean anything to him. He is a liar whose lies slip easily from his mouth. He will never resign. We depend completely on the backbench Tory MPs to finally decide that he is a liability rather than a leader. Until then, we have a liar and a charlatan debasing the office of prime minister.”
Kathryn de Prudhoe, 47, from Leeds, whose father Tony Clay died with Covid-19 in April 2020, said Johnson’s apology “doesn’t go nearly far enough”.
“My family suffered two devastating Covid-19 deaths in a period of seven months while these parties were taking place in Downing Street,” she told PA.
“My dad died alone and there were five people allowed at his 20-minute funeral.”
She added: “To then hear him conflate the issue with Ukraine is exactly the sort of, ‘I’m sorry, but look how great I am’ none apology I’ve come to expect from him.
“He has no authority to lead and nothing but his resignation will do.”
Meanwhile, Oxford doctor Rachel Clarke tweeted the following:
Quite mind-blowing that @BorisJohnson's excuse to the Commons for breaking the law (& then lying about it to the nation) is that he didn't understand his own laws.
— Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) April 19, 2022
Even though at 5pm every night he told us the rules were life-and-death.
Even though he signed off on this. pic.twitter.com/j8ujgi27wI
Updated
With Boris Johnson’s rather repetitive turn at the dispatch box now at an end, we have a short wait on our hands before the PM addresses Conservative backbenchers in private at 8pm.
Will his many apologies be enough to sway the crucial vote on Thursday, or will more of his party decide to get writing and submitting letters of no confidence to 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady?
Johnson will not be there for the Commons debate on whether his actions over partygate merit a referral to the privileges committee. Conveniently, he’ll be in Ahmedabad in India before he travels to New Delhi on Friday to meet Indian PM Narendra Modi.
He is, however, expected to appear in front of MPs for PMQs on Wednesday.
Updated
Former MP Anna Soubry reminding us all that there are still at least five police investigations left to conclude that could spell even more trouble for the PM.
Some very glumfaces on the Govt front bench. Reckon they know the game is up. Remember the police are investigating at least 5 more Downing St parties which #BorisJohnson attended. It will only get worse. #Resign
— Anna Soubry (@Anna_Soubry) April 19, 2022
Soubry resigned from the Conservative party on 20 February 2019, along with Heidi Allen and Sarah Wollaston, and joined ill-fated The Independent Group, later Change UK.
Updated
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group said Boris Johnson will need to resign before grieving families “move on from Partygate”.
Spokesperson Safiah Ngah lost her father, Zahari Ngah, 68, to coronavirus in February 2021.
She said:
Today’s apology from the prime minister was the words of someone who is sorry they’ve been caught, not someone who regrets the harm they’ve done. There are already over 50 Partygate fines issued aside from his own, and many more parties to be investigated, including in his own flat. His claim that he didn’t realise rules were being broken is just laughable, and shows he still takes us for idiots.
She added: “Backbench Tory MPs might want us to move on from Partygate, but first they’ll need to move Johnson on from his office.”
Updated
Johnson's apology over fine for breaking lockdown rules – snap verdict
Boris Johnson has just finished. He has delivered multiple apologies now over Partygate, but this is probably the third major one he has had to do in the House of Commons. And it is a marked improvement on the other two.
The first came in December, after ITV released a video of Allegra Stratton, his then press secretary, joking with colleagues about a No 10 party that Johnson had said did not take place. Johnson claimed that he was “furious”, but badly failed the sincerity test.
In January Johnson again apologised, after the publication of Sue Gray’s “update” cataloguing the extent of wrongdoing in No 10. He briefly managed to sound apologetic, but within minutes he had reverted to party politics (and dishonesty), smearing Keir Starmer by suggesting that he had stopped the CPS prosecuting Jimmy Savile.
Today Johnson managed to maintain his contrite composure all afternoon. He was following what in the New Labour era was called a “masochism strategy” (when Tony Blair decided just to suck up criticism of the Iraq war). Several of the PM’s Tory colleagues (with a naive understanding of what is helpful) sought to minimise the seriousness of Partygate (Bill Cash was the worst offender – see 5.27pm), but Johnson kept refusing to take their bait. He wasn’t seeking to make light of what happened, he insisted.
Presentationally, it was an improvement, and a large cohort of Tory MPs still seem to support him – at least for now. But, by and large, those defending him are not people who would be seen as members of the Conservative party’s A team, and the contributions that will be remembered will be those criticising him – particularly from Starmer (who was outstanding). Today might not have been fatal to Johnson, but it has been profoundly humbling.
That is all from me for today. My colleague Jenn Selby is now taking over.
Updated
Earlier on, Labour and Coop MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle called the government frontbenchers “tax-dodging, Russian-financiered snowflakes”, prompting what has become one of many calls by the Speaker for the use of “moderate” language.
“Let’s try and see if we can keep it temperate and moderate, there was no individual mentioned so therefore it was within, not what I would expect, but that’s where we are,” Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said.
The prime minister said he did not agree with Russell-Moyle’s remarks, including about the frontbench.
In a stinging attack, Labour MP Zarah Sultana accused Johnson of “robbing the public purse” – an accusation the Speaker described as “just not the case” before asking her to withdraw her remarks.
Updated
In her intevention Angela Eagle (Lab) asked why Boris Johnson was holding himself to lower standards than Matt Hancock, who resigned for breaking lockdown rules, or Allegra Stratton, who resigned for joking that a party could be described as a business event - a defence that Johnson is now using himself.
Why is PM holding himself to lower standards than those who’s resignations he accepted for breaching COVID guidelines & joking about No10 parties? #Partygate #ResignJohnson pic.twitter.com/yo3YFkZRMv
— Angela Eagle DBE (@angelaeagle) April 19, 2022
In the Commons Boris Johnson has repeatedly said he does not want to minimise the significance of Partygate. But - not for the first time - Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Brexit minister, is not following the same script. He has just told Andrew Marr on LBC that he still thinks it is “fluff” compared to other problems facing the world.
This is from LBC’s Ben Kentish.
Asked if he regrets dismissing the Partygate row as “fluff”, Jacob Rees-Mogg tells @AndrewMarr9: “No I do not.” Says it’s important to keep a sense of “proportion”.
— Ben Kentish (@BenKentish) April 19, 2022
Carol Monaghan (SNP) asks Boris Johnson to explain, “for the sake of children across these isles”, what the difference is between a lie and a mistake.
Johnson says he has apologised for what he did.
Nadia Whittome (Lab) asks Johnson if he agrees that comparing his fine to a parking ticket was insulting.
Johnson says he is in no way minimising the importance of the fine.
Government sources are saying the India trip definitely is going ahead, Jason Groves from the Mail reports.
Govt source says Boris Johnson's India trip is 'going ahead' tomorrow, despite concerns about missing Thursday's vote https://t.co/v1WCZ3GTK4
— Jason Groves (@JasonGroves1) April 19, 2022
UPDATE: From Steven Swinford
No 10 have been in touch to say the trip *is* going ahead
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) April 19, 2022
But I'm told there were discussions in No 10 about pulling it this afternoon
Updated
Stella Creasy (Lab) asks if Johnson expects more fines to come.
Johnson says he would love to give the Commons more commentary on this, but that he cannot do that until the police investigation is over.
Steven Swinford, the Times’ political editor, says No 10 is thinking of cancelling Boris Johnson’s India trip so that he can attend the debate on Thursday.
I'm told No 10 is giving serious consideration to cancelling Boris Johnson's trip to India so he can attend Thursday's vote
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) April 19, 2022
Not clear where they've landed - conversations said to be ongoing - but there are concerns the vote will completely overshadow trip
Henry Zeffman, Swinford’s colleague at the Times, points out a flaw with this plan.
When Boris Johnson’s argument to Conservative MPs is that he’s getting on with/delivering business as usual, it’s surely far from ideal if partygate means he can’t leave the country on a diplomatic visit as planned? https://t.co/4Y8VqJEXQ7
— Henry Zeffman (@hzeffman) April 19, 2022
I’ve beefed up some of the earlier posts with fuller quotes, including from Ian Blackford’s response to Boris Johnson. (See 5.28pm.) To see the updates, you may need to refresh the page.
David Morris (Con) says he wants to see Johnson carry on. He says he trusted Johnson to deliver on Brexit, and he did. And Johnson is “leading the world” in support for Ukraine.
Johnson says he will carry on, but that he does not want to minimise what he did.
In response to a question from Julian Lewis (Con), Johnson said he did not want to see the full Sue Gray report published until the police investigation is over.
Lewis asked:
Does my right honourable friend have the power to authorise Sue Gray to publish her report in full? And if so, will he use that power in order to put an end to this matter, so that we do not get diverted away as we are being from such crucial questions as supplying armaments to Ukrainian democrats.
Johnson replied:
I thank my right honourable friend very much, but I think it’s very important that the Met should conclude their investigation before Sue Gray’s final report.
Updated
From the Telegraph’s Ben Riley-Smith
Over and over the PM is apologising and saying sorry about partygate. Must be more than a dozen times now. After almost every intervention.
— Ben Riley-Smith (@benrileysmith) April 19, 2022
MPs are giving differing views on the sincerity of the words but no doubt about how many times the PM is voicing his apologies.
Full text of Starmer's response to Johnson
And here is the text of Keir Starmer’s response to Johnson.
It was probably the most powerful and effective speech Starmer has given in the Commons, and it should go a long way to quash claims that he is boring, or powerless. As he concluded, Tory MPs were listening in silence. It is worth posting in full.
What a joke. Even now as the latest mealy-mouthed apology stumbles out of one side of his mouth, a new set of deflections and distortions pour from the other.
But the damage is already done.
The public have made up their mind.
They don’t believe a word the Prime Minister says.
They know what he is.
As ever with this Prime Minister those close to him find themselves ruined and the institutions he vows to protect damaged.
Good ministers forced to walk away from public service.
The Chancellor’s career up in flames.
And the Leader of the Scottish Conservatives rendered pathetic.
For all those unfamiliar with this Prime Minister’s career.
This isn’t some fixable glitch in the system.
It’s the whole point.
It’s what he does.
It’s who he is.
He knows he’s dishonest and incapable of changing.
So he drags everybody else down with him.
The more people debase themselves, parroting his absurd defences, the more the public will believe all politicians are the same.
All as bad as each other.
And that suits this Prime Minister just fine.
Some members opposite seem oblivious to the Prime Minister’s game.
Some know what he’s up to but are too weak to act.
But others are gleefully playing the part the Prime Minister cast for them.
A minister on the radio this morning saying it’s the same as a speeding ticket.
No it’s not.
No one has ever broken down in tears because they couldn’t drive faster than 20mph outside a school.
Don’t insult the public with this nonsense.
But Mr Speaker, as it happens the last Minister who got a speeding ticket and then lied about it ended up in prison and I know because I prosecuted him.
And last week we were treated to a grotesque spectacle.
One of the Prime Minister’s loyal supporters accusing teachers and nurses of drinking in the staff room through lockdown.
Members opposite can associate themselves with that if they want.
But those of us who take pride in our NHS workers, our teachers and every other key worker who got us through those dark days will never forget their contempt.
Plenty didn’t agree with every rule the Prime Minister wrote.
But they followed them nonetheless because in this country we respect others, we put the greater good above narrow self-interest and we understand that the rules apply to all of us.
This morning, I spoke to John Robinson, a constituent for the Member for Lichfield, I want to tell his story.
When his wife died of Covid, John and his family obeyed the Prime Minister’s rules.
He didn’t see her in hospital, he didn’t hold her hand as she died.
Their daughters and grandchildren drove 100 miles up the motorway, clutching a letter from the funeral director in case they were questioned by the police.
They didn’t have a service in the church, John’s son-in-law stayed away because he would have been the forbidden seventh mourner.
Doesn’t the Prime Minister realise that John would have given the world to hold his dying wife’s hand, even if it was just for nine minutes?
But he didn’t.
Because he followed the Prime Minister’s rules.
Rules that we now know the Prime Minister blithely, repeatedly and deliberately ignored.
After months of insulting excuses, today’s half-hearted apology will never be enough for John Robinson.
If the Prime Minister had any respect for John and the millions like him who sacrificed everything to follow the rules he’d resign.
But he won’t.
Because he doesn’t respect John.
He doesn’t respect the sacrifice of the British public.
He is a man without shame.
Looking past the Member for Lichfield and the nodding dogs in the cabinet.
There are many decent, honourable members on the benches opposite.
Who do respect John Robinson.
Who do respect the British public.
They know the damage the Prime Minister is doing.
They know things can’t go on as they are.
And they know it is their responsibility to bring an end to this shameful chapter.
Today I urge them once again.
Don’t follow in the slipstream of an out of touch, out of control Prime Minister.
Put their conscience first, put their country first, put John Robinson first and remove the Prime Minister from office.
Bring decency, honesty and integrity back into our politics.
And stop the denigration of everything that this country stands for.
Full text of Johnson's apology
Here is the full text of Boris Johnson’s apology at the start of his statement.
I will come to Ukraine in a moment – since I’ve just left a virtual meeting with President Biden, President Macron, Chancellor Scholz and eight other world leaders – but let me begin in all humility by saying that on the 12 April I received a fixed-penalty notice relating to an event in Downing Street on 19 of June 2020.
I paid the fine immediately and I offered the British people a full apology, and I take this opportunity, on the first available sitting day, to repeat my wholehearted apology to the house.
As soon as I received the notice, I acknowledged the hurt and the anger, and I said that people had a right to expect better of their prime minister, and I repeat that again in the house now.
Let me also say – not by way of mitigation or excuse but purely because it explains my previous words in this house – that it did not occur to me, then or subsequently, that a gathering in the cabinet room just before a vital meeting on Covid strategy could amount to a breach of the rules.
I repeat: that was my mistake and I apologise for it unreservedly.
I respect the outcome of the police investigation, which is still underway, and I can only say that I will respect their decision-making and always take the appropriate steps, and as the house will know, I have already taken significant steps to change the way things work in No 10.
And it is precisely because I know that so many people are angry and disappointed, that I feel an even greater sense of obligation to deliver on the priorities of the British people, and to respond in the best traditions of our country to Putin’s barbaric onslaught against Ukraine.
Updated
Peter Bone (Con) asks Johnson if he deliberately misled MPs from the despatch box. “No,” Johnson replies.
Updated
Richard Burgon says three quarters of the public think Boris Johnson lied to MPs about Partygate. Yet Johnson plans to order his MPs to vote against a privileges committee inquiry. If he has nothing to hide, why won’t he allow an investigation?
Johnson says: “The house will decide.”
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, told MPs that research published at the weekend showed that Johnson was dishonest. He was referring to this.
NEW @JLPartnersPolls in today’s @thetimes
— James Johnson (@jamesjohnson252) April 18, 2022
We asked a nationally representative sample of the British public what they think about Boris Johnson.
Of all 2,000 responses, 72% were negative, with 16% positive. The words most commonly used are in the image below. (1/13) pic.twitter.com/9daOfkmcE3
Labour’s Karl Turner said members of the public thought Johnson was a liar or a fool. Hoyle said today was a day for temperate language, and he asked Turner to withdraw the word liar, which he did.
Updated
Former chief whip Mark Harper joins Tories calling for Johnson to quit
Mark Harper, the former Tory whip, says he no longer thinks Boris Johnson is “worthy of the office he holds”. This is the first time he has said this.
He has just released on Twitter the text of the letter he has sent to the chair of the 1922 Committee calling for a vote of no confidence in Johnson.
My letter to @SirGrahamBrady. pic.twitter.com/cy7MEa3QyL
— Mark Harper (@Mark_J_Harper) April 19, 2022
UPDATE: Harper told MPs:
I strongly support the government’s actions in standing up to Putin’s aggression and helping Ukraine defend itself and our values, and it’s exactly at times like this that our country needs a prime minister who exemplifies those values.
I regret to say that we have a prime minister who broke the laws that he told the country they had to follow, hasn’t been straightforward about it and is now going to ask the decent men and women on these benches to defend what I think is indefensible.
I’m very sorry to have to say this, but I no longer think he is worthy of the great office that he holds.
Updated
Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, told MPs that the public deserved a leader who tells the truth. He said the question for Tory MPs now was whether they would “finally grow a spine and remove this person from office”.
UPDATE: Blackford said:
The rules of this house prevent me from saying that the prime minister deliberately and wilfully misled this house. But maybe today that matters little, because the public have already made up their minds ...
And they know that the prime minister is only apologising for one reason and one reason only, it’s the only reason he ever apologises, because he’s been caught. After months of denials, his excuses have finally run out of road, and so must his time in office.
The prime minister has broken the very laws he wrote. To try and argue that he did not know he had broken his own laws would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious. Prime Minister, you can’t hide behind advisers, he knows, we know, that the dogs in the street know, that the prime minister has broken the law.
A lawbreaking prime minister - just dwell on this. A prime minister who has broken the law, and remains under investigation over additional lawbreaking. Not just a lawbreaker, a serial offender. If he has any decency, any dignity, he would not just apologise, he would resign.
Updated
The first Tory backbencher to speak was Sir Bill Cash, a lawyer. He asked a lengthy question which focused on the point that a fine does not mean someone has committed a criminal offence, and paying one does not give someone a criminal record.
It is crystal clear that a fixed penalty notice such as in his own case is a civil penalty fine which if paid within 28 days eliminates future prosecution in the criminal courts, and furthermore without any admission of guilt.
In a recent criminal appeal case, and in that judgment, it was said that if the payment was made within those 28 days a fixed penalty notice was held not to be a conviction as the defendant, to quote the court’s judgment, ‘was not admitting an offence or criminality and would have no stain imputed to his character’. That is the perspective and that is the case.
Protests from opposition MPs implied that Cash had seriously misjudged the mood of the house.
Even Johnson seemed to think Cash had struck the wrong note. Johnson told Cash he was not trying to minimise what happened.
I want to make it absolutely clear that I in no way minimise the importance of this fine, and I am heartily sorry for my mistake and I accept completely the decision of the police.
Updated
In response to Starmer, Johnson apologised to John Robinson, and accused Starmer of making personal attacks.
John Robinson, the Lichfield resident quoted by Keir Starmer, told his story in a letter to the Guardian last week. Here it is.
When my wife died of Covid early in the pandemic, my family and I obeyed Boris Johnson’s laws and rules. I couldn’t see her in hospital, couldn’t hold her hand as she died.
Our two daughters and three grandchildren drove 100 miles up the motorway, clutching a letter from the funeral director explaining why they were on the motorway in case they were questioned by the police. We met in the churchyard before the burial and bid tearful farewells there, as we were not allowed to meet in our family home. No service in the church, no other relatives or friends present as only six mourners were allowed. Our son-in-law had to stay at home as he would have been the forbidden seventh mourner.
Johnson flouted his own laws and rules. He partied his way through them. Am I angry? Anger doesn’t even touch the sides of how I feel about this pathetic excuse for a man, and I suspect that the majority of us little people share my views, will never forget and will never forgive.
Updated
Starmer turns to what the Tory MP Michael Fabricant said last week about teachers and nurses breaking lockdown rules too.
He says this morning he spoke to a constituent of Fabricant’s, called John Robinson, who said that when his wife died of Covid during lockdown, his son-in-law could not attend the funeral because he would have been one mourner too many.
He says Robinson would have loved to have held the hand of his dying wife in hospital – even if just for nine minutes.
He ends by saying Tory MPs should get rid of Johnson.
Today I urge them once again; don’t follow in the slipstream of an out of touch, out of control prime minister. Put their conscience first. Put their country first. Put John Robinson first.
Remove the prime minister from office. Bring decency, honesty and integrity back into our politics and stop the denigration of everything this country stands for.
Updated
Starmer turns to what Brandon Lewis said about the fine being like a speeding ticket.
But he says no one ever broke down in tears because the speeding rules would not allow them to drive over the limit.
He says the last cabinet minister who got a speeding ticket, and who lied about it (Chris Huhne), ended up in prison. “I know because I prosecuted him,” he says.
Updated
Starmer reprimanded by Speaker after telling MPs Johnson is 'dishonest'
Keir Starmer starts his response: “What a joke.”
He says the PM has made a “mealy mouthed apology”. But the damage is done. The public has made up its mind, he says. “They don’t believe a word the prime minister says,” Starmer says.
He says Johnson has dragged down people associated with him, like the chancellor and the Scottish Conservative leader.
He says this isn’t a glitch. This is how the prime minister works.
He calls Johnson “dishonest”. Tory MPs start to object, but Starmer continues for a while. After longer than these interventions usually take, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, asks Starmer to withdraw.
Starmer says he accepts that, and withdraws.
After covering the fine, Johnson told MPs about his trip to Ukraine, the UK’s support for the Ukrainian fight against Russia, and the government’s energy security strategy.
Johnson restates apology for lockdown breach, claiming he has 'even greater' sense of duty to deliver on priorities of British people
Johnson says he will update MPs on events at home and abroad.
He has just left a virtual meeting with President Biden and other world leaders.
But he will begin, “in all humility”, by telling MPs that he received a fine over a lockdown breach, and paid it immediately.
He apologised at the time, and is repeating that now, he says.
He says he said at the time people had a right to expect better of their prime minister, and he repeats that now.
He says it did not occur to him that a gathering in the cabinet room just before a vital meeting on Covid strategy was a breach of the rules – although he is not saying that as an excuse, or in mitigation, he says.
He says he apologises unreservedly.
He says he respects the outcome of the police investigation.
And he says he has already changed the way No 10 operates.
And he says that, because he knows how angry and disappointed people are, he feels “an even greater sense of obligation to deliver on the priorities of the British people”.
Updated
Boris Johnson arrives for Commons statement
Boris Johnson has arrived, and is starting his Commons statement.
From ITV’s Anushka Asthana
V few Tory MPs likely to vote against PM on Thurs- many support him (especially over this cake event as many think fine harsh) but even PM critics don’t want to make life harder for local council candidates given elections. But I know some keen to go missing and avoid the vote…
— Anushka Asthana (@AnushkaAsthana) April 19, 2022
Many – but by no means all – Conservative backbenchers speaking in this statement have backed the Rwanda plan. Peter Bone said:
The only way you’re going to stop the people smuggling is if you reduce the demand for it and the Home Secretary’s Rwanda policy is absolutely right. Would she agree with me that her policy is morally the right thing to do.
And, referring to opposition to the plan from the archbishop of Canterbury, Sir Edward Leigh said:
Is not the ‘ungodly’ thing to do, is to do nothing and have a mass drowning of children in the Channel this winter? And given that there is no end of people who want to cross the Channel, however many we let in legally, isn’t it morally incumbent on those who oppose this policy to explain to the House now how they are going to break the business model that once you get here you are put in a hotel and you are never sent back.
But David Davis, the former Brexit minister, was one of the Tories criticising the plan. He said:
The World Bank has said that Rwanda has one of the highest incidences of malaria in the world. Our own government website warns travellers about hepatitis A and B, tetanus, typhoid, cholera and tuberculosis, not to mention rabies and dengue fever which can’t be vaccinated against.
So what is the government going to do both from an ethical and moral point of view and to protect the British taxpayer against compensation claims to protect the asylum seekers who go to Rwanda?
Updated
Labour has caught up with the Conservatives in polling on which party is best placed to manage the economy, according to YouGov.
Labour has now caught up to the Conservatives on who is the best government to manage the economy:
— YouGov (@YouGov) April 19, 2022
A Labour govt led by Keir Starmer: 27% (+5 from mid-March)
A Conservative govt led by Boris Johnson: 27% (-4)https://t.co/toEVfvwqn0 pic.twitter.com/HvJ9au3KO7
Updated
Tory MP Robert Goodwill asks constituents who they would like to see as next Tory leader
The Conservative MP Sir Robert Goodwill has written to constituents asking who they think should replace Boris Johnson.
In his email, Goodwill mentions a host of potential replacements, including Liam Fox and Andrea Leadsom. He praises them all, although some of the names will come as a surprise to those assessing the plausible runners and riders for next Conservative leader.
Goodwill also says he will not be writing to the chair of the Conservative 1922 Committee calling for a no confidence vote himself.
This is from Lucy Fisher from Times Radio.
Exc: A Tory MP has sought his constituents’ views on which Conservative they think should replace Boris Johnson.
— Lucy Fisher (@LOS_Fisher) April 19, 2022
Sir Robert Goodwill outlines the potential merits of Sunak, Raab, Javid, Leadsom, Fox & Hunt, in correspondence sent after PM’s partygate fine.
Full text of email👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/CO6caaSRSH
She says Goodwill said his email was a ruse to identify Labour supporters.
Goodwill states, however, he 'will not be writing to the 1922 cmtte' to try & oust Johnson.
— Lucy Fisher (@LOS_Fisher) April 19, 2022
Quizzed about email by @TimesRadio, the Tory MP insists it was bid to 'smoke out' Labour backers writing to him
But adds he asked c.100 constituents for views on best next Tory leader...
Constituents named Hunt, Tugendhat, Ellwood (& non-MP Rory Stewart) among those Tories they would like to replace Johnson, says Goodwill.
— Lucy Fisher (@LOS_Fisher) April 19, 2022
But he stresses he is 'not suggesting' there should be a leadership contest, adding that one 'at this stage creates all sorts of problems'.
Updated
Boris Johnson's statement to MPs about Partygate and Ukraine
Boris Johnson is due to make his statement to MPs within the next few minutes. It will cover Ukraine, as well as his fine for breaking Covid regulations.
Statements like Priti Patel’s normally last about an hour. She has now done an hour and 10 minutes. Many MPs are still trying to get called, and so the Speaker may be letting it run to accommodate them. But Johnson has also been participating in a call for international leaders on Ukraine (see 12.40pm), and so that may be going on for longer than expected.
Back in the Commons Meg Hillier, the Labour chair of the Commons public accounts committee, has just tried asking Priti Patel the question posed by Theresa May earlier (see 4.07pm): won’t the people smugglers just load their boats with people not being sent to Rwanda?
Patel does not address the question directly, but she says the government has a moral responsibility to address the problem. She accuses Labour of not having a solution.
Henry Dyer from Insider says, although Jacob Rees-Mogg has said the government will oppose an inquiry into Boris Johnson by the privileges committee because it is chaired by a Labour MP (see 4.17pm), under Commons rules that committee has to be chaired by an opposition MP.
Standing order 122B.8.f: "No Member may be a candidate for the chair of the Committee of Public Accounts or the Committee on Standards unless his party is that of the official Opposition."
— Henry Dyer (@Direthoughts) April 19, 2022
Standards' membership same as Privileges except the lay members https://t.co/vvg7adUvFo https://t.co/lAizmucUBV
The government will tell its MPs to vote against the motion proposing a privileges committee investigation into claims Boris Johnson lied to parliament, the BBC’s Nicholas Watt reports.
Break: @Jacob_Rees_Mogg indicates to me the government will oppose referring @BorisJohnson to the commons privileges committee on the grounds it has a Labour chair - @RhonddaBryant. More on @BBCNewsnight
— Nicholas Watt (@nicholaswatt) April 19, 2022
Theresa May says Rwanda plan may be illegal and impractical, and is likely to increase trafficking of women and children
Theresa May, the Conservative former prime minister, was no liberal on immigration when she was home secretary. Yet she has just delivered a withering assessment of the Rwanda plan. She told Patel:
Can I say with respect to [Patel], from what I have heard and seen so far of this policy, I do not support the removal to Rwanda policy, on the grounds of legality, practicality and efficacy.
But I want to ask her about one very specific issue. I understand that those who will be removed will only be young men ... If it is the case that families will not be broken up - and the home secretary is nodding - does she not believe, and where is her evidence, that this will not simply lead to an increase in the trafficking of women and children?
Patel told May she was happy to meet with May to discuss this further.
She said the policy was legal. And she said May should understand why she was not willing to discuss the eligibility criteria for the scheme in public, because that might give people smugglers an incentive to send to the UK refugees not eligible for the Rwanda scheme.
(That was May’s point. Although Patel would not say so publicly, it was widely reported last week that children would not be sent to Rwanda, and that families would not be broken up.)
Updated
In the Commons Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, criticised Priti Patel for failing to provide proper costs for her Rwanda plan. She said the Home Office was paying Rwanda £120m, but that was before a single asylum seeker was sent to Africa under the scheme. So in practice that was the price of the press release issued by Patel last week, she said.
She said the permanent secretary at the Home Office said there was no evidence that this policy would serve as a deterrent.
And she said there was a backlog in the UK because the Home Office was taking too long to process claims. Now the government was paying Rwanda to process claims it should have been processing itself, she said.
UPDATE: Cooper said:
We have seen over the last week this unworkable, shameful and desperate attempt to distract from the prime minister’s law breaking that the home secretary should not go along with because she is undermining not just respect for the rule of law, but also her office by providing cover for him.
The policies that she has announced today are unworkable, unethical and extortionate in the cost for the British taxpayer. There is no information from the home secretary about the costs today. Will she admit the £120m she has announced doesn’t pay for a single person to be transferred.
She hasn’t actually got an agreement on the price for each person. In fact, the £120m is the eyewatering price the Home Office is paying just for a press release.
So, what’s the rest of the cost? What is this year’s budget? How many people will it cover? The Home Office has briefed it might be 30,000 per person to cover up to three months’ accommodation, but that is already three times more than the ordinary cost of dealing with asylum cases in the UK. And her statement says she is going to provide five years of costs.
Updated
Full Fact, the fact-checking website, says any inquiry into Boris Johnson misleading parliament should go beyond Partygate. Will Moy, its chief executive, said in a statement:
What is said in the parliament should be the cornerstone of our democratic debate. However, at present, our political system acts as if accuracy doesn’t matter.
Partygate is one example. However, dishonesty in parliament goes far beyond partygate.
The prime minister has repeatedly misused and misrepresented employment figures in the House of Commons. Despite an admission of his error, multiple challenges from Full Fact, various regulators and MPs, we’re yet to see an official correction from Boris Johnson.
MPs must stop putting up with their peers misleading the House of Commons and in turn the public. The system is broken and in order to rebuild trust in our political system, change is needed.
Correcting honest mistakes is not an admission of failure, and it’s up to our elected representatives to find a new mechanism for challenging misleading claims and upholding accountability.
Updated
Patel's statement to MPs about plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda
Priti Patel, the home secretary, is now making a statement to MPs about the plan announced last week for asylum seekers arriving in the UK on small boats to be sent to Rwanda.
The announcement was covered on this blog extensively on Thursday. This is what Boris Johnson and Patel said about the plans at the time.
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has issued this statement about the vote on Thursday.
The British public have declared Boris Johnson a liar. Now it’s time for parliament to do the same.
The country cannot afford a prime minister who breaks the law and lies about it, especially when families are facing a cost-of-living crisis.
According to ITV’s Paul Brand, Tory MPs who vote against the Labour motion on Thursday will be accused by opposition of supporting a cover-up.
One interesting thing about the privileges committee is if it did investigate Boris Johnson it could request photos of the parties, which we hadn’t expected Sue Gray to publish. At least not when we were last talking about her full report in January, before the Met postponed it.
— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) April 19, 2022
Labour source: "Any Conservative MP considering voting to block this investigation would be voting for a cover up. They should reflect on the mess they got themselves into over Owen Paterson before falling into line."
— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) April 19, 2022
Which is of course all part of the political strategy by Lab.
Updated
Here is the full text of Sir Lindsay Hoyle’s statement to MPs.
I’ve received letters from a number of honourable and right honourable members, including [Keir Starmer], requesting that I give precedence to a matter of as an issue of privilege. The matter is the prime minister’s statements to the house regarding gatherings held at Downing Street and Whitehall during the lockdown.
The procedure for dealing with such a request is set out in Erskine May at paragraph 15.32. I want to be clear about my role.
Firstly, as members will appreciate, it is not for me to police the ministerial code; I have no jurisdiction over the ministerial code even though a lot of people seem to think I have. It is not the case.
Secondly, it is not for me to determine whether or not the prime minister has committed a contempt. My role is to decide whether there is an arguable case to be examined.
Having considered the issue, having taken advice from the clerks of the house, I’ve decided that this is a matter that I should allow the precedence accorded to the issue of privilege. Therefore [Starmer] may table a motion for debate on Thursday.
Scheduling the debate for Thursday will, I hope, give members an opportunity to consider the motion and the response to it.
The motion will appear on Thursday’s order paper to be taken after any urgent questions or statements. Hopefully there won’t be any.
I hope this is helpful to the house.
Updated
Debate on claims Johnson lied to MPs about Partygate scheduled for when he will be in India
The Labour motion for debate on Thursday will call for a privileges committee inquiry into claims Boris Johnson deliberately misled MPs about Partygate, my colleague Aubrey Allegretti reports. It will not be a motion just stating that that Johnson did lie, and was in contempt of parliament.
Phrasing the motion like this makes it sound less objectionable, and theoretically increases the chances of Conservative MPs supporting it - or at least not voting against it.
But the government is expected to treat as equivalent to a confidence motion in Boris Johnson, and so the opposition has almost no chance of winning.
There will, however, be a lot of interest in how many MPs abstain, and whether any Conservatives vote with the opposition.
One MP who won’t be voting will be Johnson himself. He will be in India on Thursday, and having the debate on Thursday, rather than tomorrow, will be a bonus for the government. It means Johnson won’t have to defend his own record (perhaps Michael Ellis is already working on his speech - he normally gets wheeled out to speak for Johnson on Partygate) and a lot of media attention will instead be on India, where Johnson will be engaged in what will be one of his first lengthy foreign tours as prime minister.
The Commons privileges committee is the same as the Commons standards committee, but without the lay members who sit on the standards committee. It has a Tory majority, but is chaired by Labour’s Chris Bryant. He says he will not be commenting.
I understand Mr Speaker will grant precedence on a motion to refer matters relating to the PM’s statements to the Committee on Privileges which I chair. I will therefore not be asking any questions on this, or doing radio or tv interviews of any kind.
— Chris Bryant (@RhonddaBryant) April 19, 2022
The standards committee deals with complaints about MPs breaking the code of conduct. The privileges committee deals with matters relating to parliamentary privilege and contempt of parliament. Contempt of parliament is an ancient and somewhat elastic concept, but it does cover lying to MPs.
Updated
MPs to get vote on Thursday relating to claims Johnson lied to parliament, Speaker announces
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, opens this afternoon’s proceedings with a statement.
A number of MPs, including Keir Starmer, have written to him about the prime minister, he says.
Hoyle says it is not for him to police the ministerial code. He has no jurisdiction over it, “even though a lot of people think I have”.
And it is not his role to consider if the PM has committed a contempt.
But, having taken advice, he says he has decided to allow this request to take precedence.
Starmer can table a motion for Thursday. Having it on Thursday will allow MPs to have time to consider it. The motion will be on the order paper for Thursday, he says, and he says it will be taken after questions (ie, at 10.30am), assuming there are no statements, which he says he hopes there won’t be.
And that is it. MPs are now on to health questions.
That means there definitely will be a debate on Thursday addressing the issue of whether Boris Johnson has committed a contempt of parliament by deliberating misleading MPs about Partygate.
But Hoyle did not say what the motion would say. It might call for the matter to be referred to the privileges committee for an investigation. Or it could state explicitly that Johnson has misled MPs intentionally, and is in contempt of parliament.
Updated
The Conservative MP Bob Seely told Radio 4’s the World at One that Boris Johnson should deliver “the mother of all apologies” when he addresses MPs this afternoon. But Seely also suggested the lockdown rules were excessive. He told the programme:
I think we all make mistakes, clearly. But I do think the mother of all apologies is the order of the day. And it’s quite clear that No 10 staff didn’t think they were risking death by having an end of works drinks. Clearly the rules imposed on us were not believed by some.
Updated
This morning Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, suggested that Boris Johnson’s fine for breaking Covid regulations was like a parking ticket. (See 9.34am.) Lewis seemed to be seeking to minimise its seriousness (although he claimed he wasn’t), but he was probably working on the assumption that people do at least pay their parking fines.
Not Johnson. As the Oxford Mail reported at the time, 15 years ago Johnson wrote about how he merrily ignored the parking tickets he received when he was a student in the city. His car was registered in Belgium, he explained, and so he was able to work on the basis the rules would not apply to him.
Energy boss calls for 'massive shift' in policy to give customers more support with rising energy bills
Scottish Power’s chief executive, Keith Anderson, told the Commons business committee this morning that the government should introduce a “social tariff” to protect energy customers with pre-payment meters (who tend to be poorer, and who normally pay more for their energy than other customers). He also accused the government of not doing enough to address the problems that huge price rises are causing, and said a “massive shift” in policy was needed.
These are from ITV’s Robert Peston on the hearing.
Energy bosses have told MPs they want radical reform of energy regulation and pricing, with the introduction of a “social tariff” so that what they see as the scandal of the poorest - those on prepayment meters - paying most per unit of energy would be ended, and…
— Robert Peston (@Peston) April 19, 2022
Energy bosses have told MPs they want radical reform of energy regulation and pricing, with the introduction of a “social tariff” so that what they see as the scandal of the poorest - those on prepayment meters - paying most per unit of energy would be ended, and…
— Robert Peston (@Peston) April 19, 2022
deductions from the bills of millions in fuel poverty in October, with the multi-billion pound cost put into a pot and paid off by richer customers through their bills over ten years. In the short and long term, energy bosses argue that those with deepest pockets should…
— Robert Peston (@Peston) April 19, 2022
subsidise the poorest. Will the government take up this approach? Should it? PS bosses of Centrica, EDF, E.On and ScottishPower, the biggest suppliers, all said October would be “horrific” for customers, with tariffs and consumption all set to soar. They were…
— Robert Peston (@Peston) April 19, 2022
unanimous the Chancellor would have to do more to help.
— Robert Peston (@Peston) April 19, 2022
Next phase of Ukraine war 'could last several months', cabinet told
Here are the main points from the Downing Street lobby briefing.
- No 10 refused to back Brandon Lewis’s claim that the fine levied on Boris Johnson for breaking lockdown rules was similar in seriousness to a parking ticket. (See 12.27pm.) The PM’s spokesperson confirmed that Boris Johnson would cover this in his statement to MPs this afternoon, but he would not say what Johnson would tell the Commons, beyond reiterating what the prime minister said on this last week.
- The spokesperson confirmed that, if Johnson receives further fines over Partygate, the public will be told. Asked if further fines would be followed by further statements to the Commons, the spokesperson said that would depend on the circumstances, but that he would expect Johnson to comment publicly.
- Cabinet ministers were told that the next phase of the war in Ukraine could last several months, the spokesperson said. Commenting on what happened at this morning’s cabinet, the spokesperson said:
The prime minister updated cabinet on the latest situation in Ukraine. He said Ukraine’s position remained perilous with Putin angered by defeats, but determined to claim some sort of victory regardless of the human cost. He said this meant it was more vital than ever to increase global support ...
Cabinet were updated by a senior national security official, who confirmed Putin was focusing his attention on the Donbas region and that the next phase of the war was likely to be an attritional conflict, which could last several months. Russia would aim to exploit its troop number advantage but Ukraine had already shown that this was unlikely to be decisive on its own. There are some signs that Russia had not learned lessons from previous setbacks in northern Ukraine. And there was evidence of troops being committed to the fight in a piecemeal fashion. Reports of poor Russian morale continued with claims of some soldiers leaving units and refusing to fight.
The chief of the defence staff updated cabinet on ongoing efforts to support the Ukrainian military. He said other countries, including the US, were expanding military aid to Ukraine and the UK continued to play a leading role, including in sourcing suitable equipment from other countries which could be used as part of Ukraine’s defence.
- The spokesperson indicated that Johnson would not publicly criticise India for not distancing itself from Russia when he visits the country later this week. India abstained last month in the United Nations vote condemning the Russian invasion, and in recent weeks it has increased imports of Russian oil. Asked what Johnson would do on his visit to persuade India to persuade it to find alternative sources of energy, the spokesperson said:
When it comes to India and other democratically-elected countries we think the best approach is to engage with them constructively, to try to broaden the alliance of democratic states against Russia.
We want to provide alternative options to countries which are perhaps more dependent on energy and security. That is the approach we think will be most effective.
We do not think that pointing fingers or shouting from the sidelines are effective ways of engaging with democratically-elected countries.
- Johnson told cabinet that he wanted to get civil servants back in the office, rather than working from home. At cabinet Jacob Rees-Mogg, minister for Brexit opportunities and government efficiency, briefing colleagues on his plans to get civil servants back to their desks. Rees-Mogg “said face to face working provided clear benefits both to staff and to the public and that it was important all departments took action to return to the pre pandemic position of full occupancy”, the spokesperson said. He went on:
The prime minister agreed and encouraged ministers in the department to do everything possible to speed up the return of more civil servants into the office.
Updated
MPs will probably get a vote on Thursday on holding an inquiry into whether Boris Johnson lied to MPs about Partygate, the Mirror’s Pippa Crerar reports.
Sources suggesting that MPs *will* get a vote - likely Thursday - on whether to refer Boris Johnson to Commons privileges committee to investigate if he had misled MPs over Partygate.
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) April 19, 2022
Tories likely to treat it as confidence matter and whip MPs - meaning plan is doomed - but bet your bottom dollar Opposition parties will be printing leaflets plastered with pics of Tory MPs they say are backing PM over Partygate row.
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) April 19, 2022
The Commons authorities have confirmed that there will be three statements in the chamber this afternoon.
At 3.30pm: Priti Patel, the home secretary, on sending asylum seekers to Rwanda.
After 4.30pm: Boris Johnson on what is being billed as a “government update” (Ukraine and his partygate fine).
After 5.30pm: Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, on the energy security strategy.
Normally the prime minister would go first, but Johnson is also participating this afternoon in a call for international leaders on the war in Ukraine, and his statement has been scheduled around that. Joe Biden, the US president, will also be on the call, alongside the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Romania, Japan, Nato and the EU.
Updated
No 10 refuses to back Lewis's claim that PM's fine for breaking lockdown rules like parking ticket
At the Downing Street lobby briefing, which has just ended, the prime minister’s spokesperson refused to support Brandon Lewis’s claim that the fine levied on Boris Johnson for breaking lockdown rules was similar to a parking ticket. (See 9.34am.) Asked if the PM agreed with what Lewis said, the spokesperson replied:
On this issue the prime minister will be making a statement to the house and I think, as much as possible, it’s right that parliament hear from him first rather than from me.
He’s talked about understanding the strength of feeling about this issue, which is why he has apologised, and fully respects the outcome of the police investigation.
Pressed a second time on whether Johnson agreed with the Lewis analogy, the spokesperson said he had not asked the PM about this.
Asked if the reports saying Johnson does not believe that he did anything wrong were correct, the spokesperson repeated the point about Johnson making a statement later. He went on:
You’ve heard from the prime minister direct [in his statement last week] ... He talks about [how] many will feel that he fell short “when it came to observing the very rules which the government I lead had introduced to protect the public” and he accepts the public had a right to expect better. And he fully respects the outcome and the decision the police have made.
Asked if Johnson himself is one of the many people who feels he “fell short”, the spokesperson said Johnson would be setting out his views himself later.
I will post more from the briefing shortly.
Updated
Energy company executives have been telling the Commons business committee this morning that rising prices will lead to a “significant” increase in fuel poverty. My colleague Jasper Jolly is covering the hearing on the business live blog here.
Boris Johnson must have known parties were taking place in Downing Street in breach of lockdown rules, Emily Thornberry, the shadow attorney general, told the Today programme this morning. Asked to justify Labour claims that Johnson was lying when he told MPs that the rules had always been followed and parties had not taken place, she replied:
The sheer number of parties going on at Number 10 on a regular basis make it perfectly clear to any reasonable person, let alone the person who made the rules, that those rules were being broken and they were being broken consciously.
The fact that Dominic Raab said that when he was in charge there weren’t any parties shows that people knew there were parties going on and he made sure that, when he was in charge of Number 10, when the prime minister was in hospital, that those sorts of things stopped, I think, again makes it clear.
Thornberry also confirmed that the opposition parties have been talking to the Commons Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, about holding a vote on Johnson’s conduct this week. But she said she could say more about the negotiations, which are confidential and ongoing. (As Erskine May, the Commons procedural rulebook, makes clear, it is for the Speaker to decide whether to allow such votes, and MPs planning to table a contempt motion are supposed to request permission privately, not in public.)
But Thornberry stressed that the outcome of any vote would be decided by Conservative MPs. She said:
Whatever means we take, the difficulty we will always have is that, since the 2019 election, the Conservatives have an 80-seat majority when there is a vote.
Unless Conservative MPs can look at their consciences and vote the right way, we are not going to get the sort of result that we should get.
Unless the prime minister looks to his own conscience and decides that he should do the right thing, we are not going to get the results that we should get and, frankly, the result that the public want us to get, which is that this prime minister should go.
Updated
UK to suppy Stormer anti-aircraft missile launchers to Ukraine
The UK will send armoured anti-aircraft vehicles to Ukraine to help Kyiv’s forces as they face a Russian onslaught in the country’s east, PA Media reports. PA says:
The Stormer vehicle launches Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles which can be used to target planes and helicopters.
Boris Johnson is expected to speak to allies including the US president, Joe Biden, today to discuss western support for Ukraine as Russian forces focused on capturing the Donbas region.
The supply of the Stormer to Ukraine comes after the UK invited Ukrainian generals to Salisbury Plain earlier this month to see the military kit which could be available to them, including armoured vehicles.
The provision of Stormers - reported by the Sun - has not yet been officially confirmed, but defence secretary, Ben Wallace, is expected to update MPs this week.
A defence source said: “It is no secret that the UK has committed to helping Ukraine with its anti-air capabilities. The defence secretary will be making a statement to parliament this week.”
Updated
Labour has said it would insulate 2m houses within a year to slash bills and reduce reliance on Russian gas, accusing Boris Johnson of a “shameful” failure to stop Britain’s homes leaking heat, my colleague Rob Davies reports.
And here are some more lines from the Keir Starmer’s interview with ITV’s Lorraine.
- Starmer said it was “offensive” for No 10 to use the Ukraine war as a reason to argue Boris Johnson had to remain in office. He said:
I don’t really buy into this idea, by the way, that Johnson is the only person of any importance in the Ukraine crisis ... He is using that, really, as a shield and I think that’s pretty offensive.
- He said Tory MPs were making a “huge mistake” if they thought the public would just forget about Partygate. “I think people still talk about this, they really hurt about it,” he said.
- He said he believed Johnson had lied to parliament about it.
Updated
Starmer says Tory MPs should be ashamed of defending PM over breaking lockdown rules
Keir Starmer has also ridiculed the claim that Boris Johnson’s fine for breaking lockdown rules was like a speeding ticket. In an interview on ITV’s Lorraine this morning, he said:
I have never had anybody break down in front of me because they couldn’t drive at 35mph in a 30mph zone; I have had no end of people in tears - in real bits - about complying with rules that really, really hurt them.
In a reference to ministers like Brandon Lewis, Starmer said there had been a “pathetic display of Tory MPs going out to defend the indefensible” and it was “something they all ought to be ashamed of”.
'I've never had anybody break down in front of me because they couldn't drive at 35mph in a 30mph zone; I have had no end of people in tears about complying with rules that really hurt them'@Keir_Starmer says @BorisJohnson's partygate fine is not comparable to a speeding ticket pic.twitter.com/iUik9I4iVC
— ITV News Politics (@ITVNewsPolitics) April 19, 2022
Updated
In his overnight story my colleague Aubrey Allegretti confirms that the local elections have become the new Sue Gray report - the event being cited by Tory MPs as the moment when they may take a decision about removing Boris Johnson. (“Now” never seems to be the right time.)
In an interview on the Today programme, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, treasurer of the Conservative 1922 Committee, said that his colleagues were not calling for the prime minister to go at the moment because “they are withholding their judgment and waiting to see what happens”.
He said he wanted to see “all the evidence” which would include whether more fines are issued, what Sue Gray has to say when she publishes her final, full report into Partygate, and what the verdict of the British people is in the local government elections.
Triggering a leadership contest now would be a mistake, he said. He explained:
At a time when thousands of our constituents are facing the biggest squeeze in their cost of living for a generation, when we are facing a bloody war in Europe the like of which we haven’t seen since the second world war, when we are seeing a slowdown of the world economy because of all of that - to force the prime minister out and have instability at the top of government for at least two months, as I know as treasurer of the 1922 when we re-selected a successor to Theresa May, I think would be not in the country’s interests.
Updated
Comparing PM's lockdown fine to parking ticket 'insult to bereaved families', says Ed Davey
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has called Brandon Lewis’s comments this morning (see 9.34am) “an insult to bereaved families”. He said in a statement:
The excuses of Conservative ministers are getting more pathetic by the day. There is a massive difference between getting a parking fine and Boris Johnson breaking his own lockdown rules.
It is an insult to bereaved families and all those who made huge sacrifices while Johnson partied in Number 10. Conservative MPs need to discover their moral backbone and sack Johnson instead of defending the indefensible.
Brandon Lewis mocked for comparing Johnson’s Partygate fine to a speeding ticket
Good morning. It used to be said that Boris Johnson was a politician who always refused to apologise for anything. While in some respects true (although most politicians are loth to issue an apology), it is no longer a useful observation to make about Johnson because he has now established quite a substantial back catalogue of Partygate apologies. We will get another addition to the collection today.
Today’s is likely to be modelled on the statement he made on camera at Chequers a week ago today which started:
Today I have received a fixed-penalty notice from the Metropolitan police relating to an event in Downing Street on 19 June 2020, and let me say immediately that I have paid the fine and I once again offer a full apology.
And in a spirit of openness and humility, I want to be completely clear about what happened on that date.
Over the last week some of Johnson’s aides and allies have been briefing journalists, without attribution, that the fine does not matter much because it is akin to a parking ticket, or a speeding offence. This morning. Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, tried deploying this argument on the record. He told Sky News:
I think we do see consistently, whether it is through parking fines or speeding fines, ministers of both parties over the years have been in that position. We’ve had prime ministers in the past who have received penalty notices, from what I can see, and also frontbench ministers.
I saw there was a parking notice that Tony Blair had once. We’ve seen frontbench Labour ministers and, let’s be frank, government ministers as well.
You’ve asked me, can someone who sets the laws and the rules, can they also be someone who breaks the rules. That clearly has happened with a number of ministers over the years.
It was not clear what Lewis was referring to – Blair never drove a car when he was PM, so parking tickets were a matter for his driver – but the folly of making the parking/speeding ticket comparison were highlighted when Lewis tried it again an hour or so later on the Today programme. He said there had been cases in the past where Labour or Conservative ministers were given speeding fines (no mention of Blair and a parking ticket this time). When the presenter, Mishal Husain, asked him to clarify this, Lewis said:
As I say, if somebody gets a speeding ticket – and I’m not in any way trying to equate a speeding ticket that somebody has had with the situation of the sacrifices people made through Covid, I’ll be really clear about that ...
Husain interrupted, telling Lewis: “You’ve actually literally just done that.” Later she told him:
These were rules that we were told we couldn’t even flex because lives are at stake. This was a moment of national crisis in which all our lives changed. And you are essentially downplaying that by bringing in some spurious reports that you’ve heard without even backing.
At this point Lewis retreated, falling back on his point that when Johnson told MPs that the rules had been following in No 10, he was saying what he believed to be true at the time.
Opposition party MPs have ridiculed Lewis for his comments. This is from the Green MP Caroline Lucas.
Oh spare us Brandon Lewis - have some self respect & stop trying to defend PM. “If someone gets a speeding ticket …I’m not in any way trying to equate a speeding ticket with sacrifices people made.” That’s exactly what you’re doing & trashing decency in public life @BBCr4today
— Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) April 19, 2022
And this is from the Plaid Cymru MP Hwyel Williams.
Across the UK good people are shouting at the Today Programme R4 as Brandon Lewis MP discredits and debases himself by protecting Boris Johnson. Tory MPs should realise this is no longer just about Johnson's fate, but about their own credibility with the people who elect them.
— Hywel Williams AS/MP (@HywelPlaidCymru) April 19, 2022
Here is my colleague Aubrey Allegretti’s overnight preview story. Although there will be interest in the exact nature of Johnson’s latest apology, and the Tory reaction to it, the main news today is likely to come when Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, announces how he will respond to opposition calls for a debate on a motion about claims Johnson deliberately misled MPs. It seems we are likely to have a vote later this week on some form of contempt motion, either calling for an inquiry, or declaring outright that Johnson did intentionally mislead MPs. Given the size of the Tory majority, Johnson is almost certain to win, but the opposition parties want to shame the MPs who have to defend him.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10.30am: Energy companies give evidence to the Commons business committee about energy prices.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
After 3.30pm: Boris Johnson is due to make a statement to MPs, covering Ukraine and his fine for attending a surprise birthday party in No 10 in breach of lockdown rules.
Early evening: Johnson is due to address a private meeting of Conservative MPs.
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