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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Nadeem Badshah (now) and Andrew Sparrow (earlier)

Dominic Raab bullying claims: deputy PM refusing to resign after reading report – as it happened

Dominic Raab Today United Kingdom Chris Mason Lords the Home Office
Dominic Raab
Downing Street says there will be no decision today on Dominic Raab’s future. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA

We are expecting Rishi Sunak to make a decision tomorrow on Dominic Raab’s future. Thanks for following our coverage.

The front page of Friday’s Telegraph.

Friday’s Guardian front page also leading on Raab.

The Times leads with Sunak sleeping on the Raab report.

Friday’s Daily Mail.

Here is some of Friday’s front pages, starting with the i.

A summary of today's developments

  • No 10 is not going to announce a decision about Dominic Raab’s future today. Raab was fighting for his political life as the prime minister pored over a “stinging” report into bullying allegations that will decide the future of one of his closest allies.

  • Government sources suggested that Raab wanted to be allowed to stay on as deputy prime minister and justice secretary despite what were said to be searing findings from the five-month inquiry into claims of bullying by civil servants. Sunak spent hours on Thursday afternoon examining the report by Adam Tolley KC, which has not concluded whether Raab broke the ministerial code, leaving the final decision to the prime minister. According to one Ministry of Justice source, Raab was battling to stay in post, believing the findings – which he has read – do not mean he should have to resign. By Thursday evening, however, he and Sunak had yet to hold any direct discussions.

  • Raab was investigated over eight formal complaints about his behaviour as foreign secretary, Brexit secretary and during his first stint as justice secretary. Downing Street had declined throughout the day to indicate when the report will be published but insisted a resolution will be sought “as swiftly as possible”.

  • Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said: “While the prime minister dithers and delays, trying to summon up the guts to sack his own deputy, working people are battling the worst cost of living crisis for a generation – food bills and mortgage rates are rising, wages are stagnating, and too many of us are waiting months and even years for health treatment.” The Liberal Democrats also accused Sunak of “dither and delay”.

  • The NHS has launched a legal challenge that could end in the high court to block the second day of an upcoming strike by tens of thousands of nurses.

  • The Bar Council, which represents barristers, has joined the Law Society in saying the amendments to the illegal migration bill proposed by the government would undermine the rule of law.

Asylum centres could be fast-tracked without local approval under a controversial new planning power for critically urgent government developments.

While the streamlined procedure “may not be a suitable route” for the migrant housing crisis, Tory frontbencher Earl Howe did not rule out its future use to create accommodation.

The provision, proposed in draft legislation, would place the decision for developing Crown land, where the scheme was of national importance and needed immediately, in the hands of the Secretary of State rather than the local planning authority.

Critics argue the measure, contained in the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill, is designed to force through centres to house asylum seekers.

Speaking in the House of Lords as peers continued their detailed scrutiny of the Bill, Labour frontbencher Baroness Hayman of Ullock said: “The Government has consistently sought to avoid public scrutiny and consultation about the construction or operation of large-scale institutional facilities for asylum accommodation.

“Our concern is that the powers provided for in this clause is to facilitate the driving through of centres regardless of their impact on the people placed in them or on the local communities in which they are situated.”

Dominic Raab was fighting for his political life as the prime minister pored over a “stinging” report into bullying allegations that will decide the future of one of his closest allies, write Aubrey Allegretti and Pippa Crerar.

Government sources suggested that Raab wanted to be allowed to stay on as deputy prime minister and justice secretary despite what were said to be searing findings from the five-month inquiry into claims of bullying by civil servants.

Rishi Sunak spent hours on Thursday afternoon examining the report by Adam Tolley KC, which has not concluded whether Raab broke the ministerial code, leaving the final decision to the prime minister.

According to one Ministry of Justice source, Raab was battling to stay in post, believing the findings – which he has read – do not mean he should have to resign. By Thursday evening, however, he and Sunak had yet to hold any direct discussions.

Updated

It will take at least two years for guidance aimed at saving the lives of children and young people with acute eating disorders to be consistently followed, a senior NHS official has admitted.

Campaigners have warned that people are dying because guidance on medical emergencies in eating disorders (Meed) introduced last year is not regularly being implemented by specialists.

Claire Murdoch, NHS England’s national mental health lead, was challenged on why Meed is not always being adhered to when she gave evidence to MPs on the Public Accounts Committee.

In response to a question from Labour committee member Olivia Blake, Murdoch, who is also chief executive of Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, said the guidance in itself is “not enough” to eradicate poor and potentially fatal practices.

She said it takes time to conduct the required training, identify poor performance and share best practice, adding demand pressures on the NHS had hindered progress.

On the report’s possible findings, ITV’s Lucy McDaid has tweeted this.

More than 43,000 people were declared dead by the time an ambulance arrived last year, according to statistics given to the Liberal Democrats.

The data, revealed following freedom of information (FOI) requests sent by the party to ambulance trusts in England, suggests an average of 120 people died per day before an ambulance reached them in 2022.

For the past three years, the figures suggest the number of people who have died before an emergency services team reached them has stood at more than 43,000, indicating an annual trend.

The Lib Dems said the statistics were “truly shocking” and blamed “a Conservative government starving the NHS of the resources it needs”.

But the Department of Health and Social Care said it was “misleading” to imply a link between deaths and ambulance waiting times.

Officials at the department also pointed out that the annual headline figure had “not significantly changed over the three-year period”.

Updated

The foreign secretary has defied the Tory right by arguing that the UK should remain a signatory of the European convention on human rights (ECHR), as Rishi Sunak caves to demands from hard-right MPs to ignore European court rulings on small boats, write Pippa Crerar and Rajeev Syal.

James Cleverly said he was “not convinced” that leaving the ECHR was necessary to ensure the immigration system was robust, and that the UK had the clout to push for changes if needed, prompting speculation he may be uncomfortable with the move.

The development comes as the government prepares to propose safe and legal routes for refugees to come to the UK next year, in a move meant to placate the party’s left.

Updated

The shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry, accused Rishi Sunak of lacking the courage to sack Dominic Raab as deputy prime minister.

The Labour MP told the PA Media news agency: “I think it’s another example of Conservative chaos and not addressing the problems of the country.

“He’s going to spend tonight looking at the report and trying to summon up the courage to work out whether he should sack his deputy or not, when really what he should be doing is focusing on a cost of living crisis.

“He’s got the report, read the report; if he’s a bully, sack him.”

Asked whether Sunak should take time to consider the findings, Thornberry responded: “A bully is a bully.”

Updated

The education secretary is to meet the family of the headteacher Ruth Perry, who they say killed herself while awaiting an Ofsted report.

It comes after Matt Rodda, Perry’s MP, asked Gillian Keegan in the Commons on Monday to meet Perry’s family and local headteachers to discuss her death.

The family of Perry, who headed Caversham primary school in Reading, have said she killed herself in January while awaiting an Ofsted report which downgraded her school from the highest rating to the lowest.

Updated

Angela Rayner accuses PM of ‘dithering’ over decision on Raab’s future

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said: “While the prime minister dithers and delays, trying to summon up the guts to sack his own deputy, working people are battling the worst cost of living crisis for a generation – food bills and mortgage rates are rising, wages are stagnating, and too many of us are waiting months and even years for health treatment.

“While the Tories are yet again mired in chaos, Labour is focused on cutting the cost of living, cutting crime, and cutting waiting lists with our long-term plan to give Britain its future back.”

Updated

Dominic Raab ‘has read Tolley’s report and will not be resigning’

The Guardian’s Aubrey Allegretti has tweeted that Raab continues to deny any wrongdoing.

ITV’s Robert Peston has also tweeted this in the past few minutes.

Updated

A peer has been found to have broken the code of conduct after failing to properly declare her role in a not-for-profit company.

Lady Caroline Cox has agreed to apologise to the House of Lords after an investigation by the standards commissioner.

The peer had claimed her failure to register her directorship of Equal and Free Ltd was “inadvertent”, citing her “massive commitment to humanitarian aid and advocacy” combined with little administrative support in her duties.

But the commissioner found these reasons to be insufficient, concluding: “Considering Baroness Cox’s otherwise diligent approach to registering and declaring her interests during the period in question, I do not consider the reasons she provided for not registering and declaring her interests in Equal and Free Ltd to be sufficient.”

In a letter to the commissioner, Cox offered her “profound apologies” and said she “never personally received funds from Equal and Free Ltd”.

But she acknowledged she had benefited from the support of part-time researchers employed by the company.

Equal and Free describes itself on its website as “UK-based network of academics, parliamentarians, lawyers and women’s groups” who “champion the rights of British Muslim women who do not (yet) have the protection of legal marriage”.

Updated

The reasons behind the delay of the Raab report are unclear, but a source told the PA news agency that Sunak was “taking time to go through the report thoroughly”.

A No 10 spokesman indicated Sunak and his deputy had held talks.

Asked if the PM had spoken to Raab, the spokesman said: “I’m not going to get into private conversations while the process is ongoing.”

Raab was investigated over eight formal complaints about his behaviour as foreign secretary, Brexit secretary and during his first stint as justice secretary.

Downing Street had declined throughout the day to indicate when the report will be published but insisted a resolution will be sought “as swiftly as possible”.

Updated

The general secretary of the FDA civil service union has criticised the process of deciding the fate of Dominic Raab.

Dave Penman tweeted: “Can you imagine being a civil servant who has raised a complaint, sitting in the department that Dominic Raab is the secretary of state for, watching TV to find out your fate?

“This whole process is a farce. We need serious reform of the way ministerial bullying is dealt with.”

According to the BBC’s Chris Mason, allies of the civil servants who complained about Dominic Raab are furious that no decision is being taken today about his future. On the BBC’s live blog, Mason reports.

Those representing the complainants are livid: many of them are in the Ministry of Justice, watching rolling news, knowing the deputy prime minister knows who they are.

That’s all from me for today. My colleague Nadeem Badshah is taking over now.

Sunak accused of 'dither and delay' after decision about Raab's fate postponed at least until tomorrow

The Liberal Democrats have accused Rishi Sunak of “dither and delay”. In a statement on Dominic Raab, Wendy Chamberlain, the party’s chief whip, said:

People will be fed up with this dither and delay from Rishi Sunak. It feels like almost every week there is an issue with sleaze and scandal where Rishi Sunak is either implicated himself or too weak to get to grips with it. People are crying out for a government that will just get on with tackling the issues that matter, not focused on saving their own skin.

Updated

The delay in announcing a decision about Dominic Raab provides an obvious attack line for Labour. This is from the Labour MP Stella Creasy.

It was nice of No 10 to tell us when Rishi Sunak received the Raab report, but previous administrations might just have refused to say until they were ready to make an announcement. Boris Johnson sat on the report into the Priti Patel bullying allegations for months before announcing what it said, and what he was doing about it (nothing). See 4.50pm.

Other journalists have also been briefed that No 10 won’t announced the outcome of the Dominic Raab investigation tonight.

These are from ITV’s political editor, Robert Peston.

What ministerial code says about bullying, and how Whitehall has previously ruled it does not have to be intentional

And this is what the ministerial code says about bullying officials.

Ministers should be professional in all their dealings and treat all those with whom they come into contact with consideration and respect. Working relationships, including with civil servants, ministerial and parliamentary colleagues and parliamentary staff should be proper and appropriate. Harassing, bullying or other inappropriate or discriminating behaviour wherever it takes place is not consistent with the ministerial code and will not be tolerated.

Dominic Raab has always insisted that he did not bully officials, but that he did set high standards. To understand the point at which imposing high standards tips into bullying, it is worth reading what Sir Alex Allan wrote when, as the No 10 ethics adviser, he was asked to investigate claims Priti Patel, the then home secretary, was a bully.

No 10 never published his full report. But in November 2020 they did publish this summary of his findings. This is what Allan said about bullying.

I believe civil servants – particularly senior civil servants – should be expected to handle robust criticism but should not have to face behaviour that goes beyond that …

The definition of bullying adopted by the civil service accepts that legitimate, reasonable and constructive criticism of a worker’s performance will not amount to bullying. It defines bullying as intimidating or insulting behaviour that makes an individual feel uncomfortable, frightened, less respected or put down.

Allan concluded that some of Patel’s behaviour did reach this threshold. But he said that there was no evidence she was aware of the impact of her behaviour – implying that bullying did not require intent.

Allan said that although Patel did breach the ministerial code, because her conduct could be described as bullying, she might have breached it “unintentionally”.

Boris Johnson decided to kept Patel in post despite this finding. In response, Allan resigned.

Updated

No 10 won't announce decision about Raab's future today

No 10 is not going to announce a decision about Dominic Raab’s future today

Updated

What Adam Tolley was asked to establish in his report on Raab

It is worth pointing out that Adam Tolley KC, who carried out the inquiry into Dominic Raab, was only asked to “establish the facts”, according to his terms of reference.

He was not asked to recommend what should happen to Raab.

And, according to the terms of reference, he was not even asked to form a judgment as to whether those facts show that Raab did bully officials. The terms of reference are explicit about that being Rishi Sunak’s job. They say:

As set out in the ministerial code, the prime minister is the ultimate judge of the standards of behaviour expected of a minister and the appropriate consequences of a breach of those standards.

Updated

This is from John Hyde from the Law Society Gazette.

No 10 says it is still hoping to publish Raab report 'swiftly'

At the afternoon lobby briefing Downing Street said Rishi Sunak was still considering the Dominic Raab report. The PM’s spokesperson said they wanted to publish it “swiftly”, but they would not say when.

This is from the BBC’s David Wallace Lockhart.

The longer this goes on, the better it may be for Raab.

If the report was clear-cut, with definitive proof of bullying, then Sunak’s decision would be easy, and we would probably have had an announcement already about Raab’s departure.

But if Adam Tolley KC, who investigated the bullying allegations and wrote the report, has produced something more nuanced and inconclusive, then he will have left the final judgment about what to do with Raab much more in the hands of Sunak. That may be where we are now.

Equally, if Raab had been categorically acquitted of any misconduct, we would probably have heard about it by now too. But given the weight of evidence against him, that always seemed the least likely outcome.

NHS threatens legal action to block second day of nurses’ strike

The NHS has launched a legal challenge that could end in the high court to block the second day of an upcoming strike by tens of thousands of nurses, Daniel Boffey reports.

Some advisers in No 10 think Dominic Raab won’t have to resign, Cat Neilan from Tortoise reports.

Bar Council says government amendments to illegal migration bill would undermine rule of law

The Bar Council, which represents barristers, has joined the Law Society in saying the amendments to the illegal migration bill proposed by the government (see 9.35am) would undermine the rule of law.

Nick Vineall KC, chair of the Bar Council, said in a statement:

Legislating to allow the UK government to ignore the rulings of a court undermines the rule of law, which is the foundation upon which domestic and international justice systems are built.

How can a government expect citizens to respect judicial rulings if it is willing to ignore them itself?

The Bar Council echoes the concerns raised by the former lord chief justice Lord Thomas. (See 9.35am.) This would be bad law, sets a dangerous precedent, and risks serious damage to the UK’s international reputation. We urge the government to reconsider this move.

Almost three-quarters of voters (72%) think Dominic Raab should resign if he is found to have bullied civil servants, according to Savanta, a polling firm, citing research it carried out a few weeks ago. And it says only 15% of them think he should not resign if he is found to have bullied officials.

Updated

King should pay for his coronation himself, Labour MP suggests

In the Commons today the Labour MP Richard Burgon suggested the king himself, and not the taxpayer, should pay for the coronation.

Referring to today’s Guardian revelations about the king’s wealth, Burgon said:

A new poll shows that 51% of people think the coronation should not be publicly funded, just 32% think it should.

Given the report today that the king has a reported personal fortune of £1.8bn, and given the monarch already benefits from not paying inheritance tax, it’s easy to see why so many people are not happy with this.

So could we have a debate about the levels of public money being spent on the coronation, especially given the incredibly difficult economic situation that so many people are in?

Burgon was speaking during the questions on next week’s Commons business. In response, Penny Mordaunt said she was not surprised the leftwing Burgon raised this point. She went on:

It does afford me the opportunity to say that I am very grateful that this nation has a monarchy. We benefit hugely from it – even in times of tremendous turmoil that we saw last year, they provided stability.

I’d urge [Burgon] to go read the tributes that were paid to her late majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. I think her son will be a similarly great monarch and that is something to celebrate.

The government has not said how much the coronation next month will cost the taxpayer. The late queen’s coronation in 1953 cost £912,000 – the equivalent of £20.5m today.

Updated

This is from Sky’s Sam Coates, on the Dominic Raab report.

New DWP research shows benefits cap 'only results in making poor families poorer', says charity

Research published by the Department for Work and Pensions today into the impact of the benefits cap shows that it “only results in making poor families poorer”, a charity said today.

The benefits cap was introduced by the coalition government in 2013 to put a limit on how much a working-age household could receive in benefits. Originally set at £26,000 a year for couples and lone parents, in late 2016 it was cut to £23,000 in London, and £20,000 in the rest of Britain.

Now it is set at £25,323 for couples in London and £22,020 elsewhere.

Today the DWP has published on its website two reports into the policy, a dataset and a research summary.

Commenting on the findings, Carl Emmerson, deputy director at the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank, said the research showed that only about 5% of capped households had an adult move into paid work as a direct result of the benefit cap. He went on:

The benefit cap increases incentives to move into paid work, to move home or to move onto a disability benefit that exempts a household from the cap.

The DWP study published today shows that each of those responses have occurred. In particular, around five in 100 capped households had an adult move into paid work as a direct result of the benefit cap, with this impact being bigger among those who are capped by a bigger amount, and those with pre-school children.

But about 90% of capped households do not respond in any of these ways – and presumably were having to find other ways to manage with a lower income. Indeed an accompanying study also published by DWP today suggests that common impacts include reduced spending, falling into arrears on bills, and borrowing from friends or family.

In November 2022, on average, affected households lost £50 of benefit income per week due to the cap and a small number saw very large reductions; almost 1,000 households saw their monthly universal credit award reduced by more than £1,000.

The IFS has also published this briefing on the new research.

Imran Hussain, director of policy and campaigns at the charity Action for Children, said the research showed the benefit cap “only results in making poor families poorer and makes it harder for them to escape the misery of hardship”.

Updated

Law Society says government's proposed amendment to illegal migration bill would 'damage UK's standing in world'

The Law Society has said that, if the UK were to ignore injunctions from the European court of human rights, as new amendments to the illegal migration bill would allow (see 9.35am), that would be “a serious breach of international law”.

Commenting on the proposed amendments, Richard Atkinson, deputy vice-president of the Law Society, said:

If the UK were to refuse to comply with a European court of human rights ruling this would entail a clear and serious breach of international law.

The rule of law means governments respect and follow domestic and international law and disputes are ruled on by independent courts.

This amendment would undermine the global rules-based order, set a dangerous precedent within the international community and damage the UK’s standing in the world.

For all these reasons the Law Society would be unequivocally opposed to such an amendment.

Updated

No 10 says the report into the Dominic Raab bullying allegations will be published in the form it was received by Rishi Sunak, the BBC’s Ione Wells reports. We will find out how Sunak will repond – ie, whether or not he will sack Raab – at the same time.

A reader has been in touch to argue that the post at 10.27am might be unfair to Suella Braverman. They say that there is a difference between group-based child sexual exploitation (CSE) and grooming, and that as a result a Home Office report saying group-based CSE offenders were mostly white does not necessarily disprove Braverman’s claim about grooming gangs being mostly British-Pakistani.

This is true up to a point. Street grooming is considered a category of group-based CSE.

But the Home Office report into group-based CSE quoted in the earlier post also includes data on street grooming which undermines what Braverman said. It says:

CEOP (2011) undertook a data collection with police forces, children’s services and specialist providers from the voluntary sector, looking at those allegedly involved in ‘street grooming’ and CSE. Data was returned on approximately 2,300 possible offenders, but approximately 1,100 were excluded from analysis due to a lack of basic information. In the remaining 1,200 cases, ethnicity data was unknown for 38% of them. Where data was available 30% of offenders were white, while 28% were Asian. Due to the amount of missing data, both basic offender information and ethnicity specifically, these figures should be treated with caution.

Here is the 2011 report from CEOP (the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre) quoted in the paragraph above. The data specifically covers “localised grooming”.

Updated

Irish PM says he hopes UK negotiates closer relationship with EU one day, though rejoining 'remote prospect'

Leo Varadkar, the taoiseach (Irish PM), has said that he hopes that the UK one day negotiates a closer relationship with the EU.

He described the prospect of the UK rejoining as “a remote prospect”. But, in comments suggesting he would like to see the UK back in the single market, he told a Bloomberg New Economy Gateway Europe event in Dublin:

One thing I would still hope for in the future, and it’s not impossible in my view, is that a future British government – maybe not the next one, maybe not the one after that – will seek a closer relationship with the European Union again.

That might not be rejoining, I think that’s a remote prospect, but it might involve a revision of the trade cooperation agreement to have a closer relationship, and that’s something that the door will always be open to.

Leo Varadkar
Leo Varadkar Photograph: Mark Marlow/EPA

Updated

Key event

Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, has taken questions from journalists in a brief huddle after FMQs. Here are the main points.

  • Yousaf said that SNP finances were on a “steady footing” and that the party was “not facing bankruptcy”.

  • He said the party still owed money to Peter Murrell, the former chief executive married to Nicola Sturgeon who lent the party more than £100,000. But Yousaf would not say how much. He said the details would be set out when the party published the outcome of its transparency review.

  • He said he did not think the SNP would be paying the legal fees of Colin Beattie, the former party treasurer who was arrested this week.

  • He said that he and Beattie came to a “mutual agreement” yesterday that Beattie should stand down as treasurer. He used the phrase when asked why he had not sacked Beattie.

  • He said the SNP has still not appointed new auditors.

Humza Yousaf talking to journalists after FMQs.
Humza Yousaf talking to journalists after FMQs. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA

Updated

A protester being removed from the public gallery during FMQs at Holyrood today. Climate activists have been regularly disrupting FMQs for weeks now.
A protester being removed from the public gallery during FMQs at Holyrood today. Climate activists have been regularly disrupting FMQs for weeks now. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA

Power sharing in Nothern Ireland likely to resume in autumn, Ulster Unionist leader says

Power sharing in Northern Ireland is likely to resume in the autumn, Doug Beattie, the leader of the Ulster Unionist party said today.

The UUP is the second largest unionist party in Northern Ireland. Beattie said he often talks to Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the leader of the Democratic Unionist party, the largest unionist party, which brought down power sharing when it began a boycott of Stormont last year over the Northern Ireland protocol. Beattie said his assessment was not based on inside knowledge of DUP thinking, but on an analysis of what was likely.

Beattie told the Nolan Show on Radio Ulster:

I’m in no doubt the executive will get up and running. It’s not a case of ‘if’, it’s a case of ‘when’ …

It’s my analysis of where we are, because there’s nothing else we can do. We have to get Stormont up and running again.

We have to grasp those opportunities. We have to start doing legislation to help the people of Northern Ireland, all the people of Northern Ireland, and I think we will do.

It’s a case of: when is that going to happen? Now we’re in the middle of an election, so nothing’s going to happen now or afterwards in the marching season.

But I would imagine in the autumn that we will definitely have an executive running again.

Updated

I am sorry, we have had to turn the comments off. That is because of concerns that people might post comments about the SNP crisis, and the arrest of leading party figures, that could be libellous, or prejudicial to a future court case. I hope we can open them again later.

Updated

Humza Yousaf says he is 'focusing relentlessly on day job' when asked about SNP crisis at FMQs

This week’s FMQs at Holyrood focused largely on domestic matters – guidance on avoiding custodial sentences for young offenders and the ferries crisis – but the centrifugal force of the SNP’s internal chaos seems inescapable for the new first minister.

Humza Yousaf was “bogged down in scandal”, said the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, while the Scottish Tory leader, Douglas Ross, told him he was compromised if “the party of government is about to go bankrupt, he himself may become involved in the police investigation”.

Ross challenged Yousaf to make a statement to the chamber about the financial crisis engulfing the SNP, which on Tuesday saw the arrest of the party treasurer Colin Beattie, following the detention of the former chief executive Peter Murrell and the two-day police search of the home he shares with the former SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon. Yousaf has since taken on the role of treasurer himself following Beattie’s resignation yesterday.

Yousaf told Ross he was “not going to shy away” from the issue, and reminded MSPs that one of his first acts as SNP leader was to agree a transparency and governance review with the party’s ruling council, but added he would be “focusing relentlessly on the day job”.

While I take my responsibility as leader of the SNP extremely seriously, I and the government that I lead will be focused relentlessly on the priorities of this country.

The new rules on public attendance at the Holyrood session seemed successful with only one protest disruption this week. (It’s a mark of how frequently previous sessions have stopped and started with climate protesters shouting from the galley in recent months that one incident feels like progress.)

Humza Yousaf at FMQs today.
Humza Yousaf at FMQs today. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Updated

Steven Swinford from the Times thinks we may have to wait some time to learn the outcome of the Dominic Raab inquiry.

No 10 says PM wants Raab situation resolved 'as swiftly as possible', but report will be read 'carefully'

Back to Dominic Raab, and at the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson said Rishi Sunak continued to have “full confidence” in Raab while he considers the report’s findings.

Asked about this, the spokesperson said:

[The PM] does have full confidence in the [deputy] prime minister – that still stands. Obviously he is carefully considering the findings of the report.

Asked when the findings of the Raab inquiry would be published, the spokesperson replied:

Obviously, we’ve always wanted this to be done as swiftly as possible. I think the public would understand that it’s right to carefully consider this.

At Holyrood Humza Yousaf has just started taking first minister’s questions. Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, began by asking a series of questions about the SNP funding crisis.

Annabelle Ewing, the deputy presiding officer, suggested his questions might be out of order, because they were about a party matter, not a government matter, but Humza Yousaf said he would be happy to answer.

He said the SNP had “serious issues” to address. He said he had already ordered a review into transparency and governance in the party. But he said he was “focusing relentlessly on the day job”.

There was a brief protest in the gallery, which led to proceedings being very briefly suspended (despite the Scottish parliament recently tightening the rules for admission to FMQs, to stop this happening).

In his second question, Ross dropped the SNP issue, and asked about sentencing.

UPDATE: I have corrected this post to say Annabelle Ewing, the deputy presiding officer, was in the chair, not Alison Johnstone. I’m sorry for the mistake.

Updated

This is from my colleague Pippa Crerar.

Sunak has received Raab bullying report and is 'carefully considering' its findings, No 10 says

Rishi Sunak has received the report into the allegations that Dominic Raab bullied officials and is “carefully considering” its findings, Downing Street has said.

The Tony Blair Institute has said the new amendments to the illegal migration bill being proposed by the government (see 9.35am) won’t make the legislation any more practical. In a statement, Harvey Redgrave, the thinktank’s immigration specialist, said:

The asylum system is broken and we have yet to see a workable government plan to fix it. Internal Tory debate on the illegal migration bill won’t address its fundamental flaws. Without return agreements the pledge that nobody coming over the Channel will be able to claim asylum is undeliverable. And while the government will try to portray these new amendments as tough, we already know the prime minister is unwilling to take the UK out of the ECHR. Doing so would shatter our reputation and amongst other things undermine the Windsor framework.

As TBI has previously said, if the government is serious about preventing illegal migration then they should focus on clearing the backlog, increasing the number of returns, introducing a system of digital identity verification and opening up safe and viable routes for asylum claims.

Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, told MPs this morning that the final day of debate on the illegal migration bill will take place on Wednesday next week. That is when the new amendments (see 9.35am) will be debated.

Why ASCL teaching union's decision to ballot members over strike action should concern ministers

Today’s announcement by the Association of School and College Leaders that it is to hold a formal ballot for national strike action for the first time in its history (see 9.49am) marks a significant development in the ongoing dispute between teachers and the government.

Up until now only members of the National Education Union (NEU) have taken strike action in England, with five more days of strikes planned for later this term. In addition a fresh ballot is to be held to provide the NEU with a mandate for further strike action up until Christmas.

ASCL, which represents many traditionally more cautious and conservative secondary school heads, was the only one of the four main education unions to hold off from a formal ballot last year over teacher pay erosion. Their decision to now go ahead after 87% of voting members rejected the government’s latest pay offer, on a turnout of 56%, marks the growing frustration and strength of feeling across the entire sector.

The government offer of a £1,000 non-consolidated payment for 2022-3 and an average 4.5% rise for 2023-4 has been rejected by all the education unions and the prospect of further disruption in schools involving more unions is growing.

While earlier ballots failed to reach the required threshold under strike legislation, the NASUWT teachers’ union has already warned the government it plans to ballot members over strike action and the National Association of Head Teachers is considering taking a similar step.

Easter recess is over and it’s the first FMQs session for new leader Humza Yousaf since the arrest of two key SNP figures as part of the ongoing police investigation into the party’s finances.

It’s also the first session since presiding officer Alison Johnstone introduced strict new entry requirement for members of the public wanting to view FMQs from the chamber gallery, following weeks of disruption by climate protesters.

One way or another, climate is on the agenda today, after a new report from the Audit Commission found that the Scottish government’s plans to tackle global heating were “vague” and risked missing its own targets for reducing emissions to net zero by 2045, originally set by Yousaf’s predecessor Nicola Sturgeon.

Updated

Liz Kendall, the shadow social care minister, has told ITV that the Dominic Raab bullying report should have been published more quickly, and that Raab should have been suspended while the inquiry was being carried out.

BMA says junior doctors' demand for 35% pay rise not 'set in stone'

The government has said it will not hold talks with junior doctors about pay, and how to resolve the dispute that has led to strikes, until the British Medical Association “moves significantly from its unrealistic position of demanding a 35% pay increase”.

But this morning Prof Philip Banfield, chairman of the BMA council, insisted that 35% was not “set in stone” as its demand. He told the Today programme:

People are tied up on this 35% figure. There is no number that is set in stone here, it is the principle of restoring pay that has been lost in its value.

In order to discuss what that means and how that is achieved, it needs people to sit around the table. This government does not want to sit around the table. It does not want to have any kind of independent arbitration of this because it’s worried that it might cost it money.

The BMA has been calling for a 35% pay rise for junior doctors because it says this is what would be required to return their pay to the level it was in 2008. But it has also said 35% is not a precondition for talks.

Banfield in the Today programme responding to a call from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges for the dispute between the government and junior doctors to be referred to an independent arbitrator, like Acas.

The BMA has backed this idea, but the government has said it does not want to involve a third party.

Sunak expected to receive Raab bullying report later this morning

Rishi Sunak is expected to receive the report into the Dominic Raab bullying allegations later this morning, my colleague Aubrey Allegretti reports.

Braverman doubles down on her controversial claim about role of British-Pakistanis in grooming gangs

Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has used an article in the Spectator to dismiss claims that her recent comment about people in UK grooming gangs being mostly British-Pakistani were racist, or wrong. Even Tories were alarmed by her language.

In the Spectator she says:

The pursuit of truth is a good lodestar for the right policies. If we are to address the injustice of the grooming gangs scandal we must be willing to acknowledge the role that ethnicity played in covering it up. To say the overwhelming majority of perpetrators in towns such as Rotherham, Telford and Rochdale were British-Pakistani and that their victims were white girls is not to say that most British-Pakistanis are perpetrators of sexual abuse. The former is a truth, one that made authorities reluctant to confront the issue. The latter is a lie, the speaking of which would be a disgraceful prejudice. I know that my motives will be questioned – such is a politician’s lot. But there are lines that we must not cross. If everything is racist, nothing is. Casually accusing me of racism for speaking plain truths distorts the meaning of the term, and does a great disservice to all of us working to combat racism …

There is something peculiar about this political moment, where those of us advancing unfashionable facts are beaten over the head with fashionable fictions. I suppose the ethnicity of grooming gang perpetrators in a string of cases is the sort of fact that has simply become unfashionable in some quarters. Like the fact that 100% of women do not have a penis.

But Braverman is defending something she did not actually say. No one accused her of saying that most British-Pakistanis are child abusers, and no one disputes that some of the biggest grooming scandals in recent years involved British-Pakistanis.

What was objectionable about Braverman’s comment, in an article for the Mail on Sunday, was that all grooming gangs were largely British-Pakistani. She said:

There are four critical facts about the grooming gangs phenomenon. Each must be acknowledged and addressed in turn if we are to eradicate these gangs and bring justice to their victims …

Second, the perpetrators are groups of men, almost all British-Pakistani, who hold cultural attitudes completely incompatible with British values. They have been left mostly unchallenged both within their communities and by wider society, despite their activities being an open secret.

This is wrong. The Home Office itself published a report in 2020 saying “research has found that group-based CSE [child sexual exploitation] offenders are most commonly white”.

UPDATE: See the post at 2.03pm for more on this topic.

Suella Braverman
Suella Braverman Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Updated

ASCL teaching union to ballot members nationally on strike action for first time

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) has said it will hold a formal ballot for national strike action in England for the first time in its history “over the school funding crisis, the erosion of teacher and leader pay and conditions, and consequent staff shortages which are undermining the education system”.

The union’s executive committee of senior elected members met yesterday afternoon and unanimously decided to move to a formal ballot on strike action, PA Media reports.

Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the ASCL, said:

ASCL has never before formally balloted at a national level and this is clearly a very significant step. The fact that we have reached this point reflects the desperate situation regarding inadequate funding, long-term pay erosion, teacher shortages, and the intransigence of a government which we can only conclude does not value the education workforce or recognise the severe pressures facing the sector.

We have made every effort to resolve this matter through negotiations prior to reaching this point. Unfortunately, the government’s offer has failed to sufficiently address pay and conditions, and, critically, did not provide enough funding for even the meagre proposal it put forward. Following the rejection of the offer by all education unions involved – ASCL, NAHT, NEU and NASUWT – the government has made no effort to reopen negotiations and has said only that the issue of pay will now revert to the school teachers’ review body.

The conclusion of the executive committee is that the government has left us with no option other than to conduct a formal ballot for national strike action.

The ballot will be held during the summer term at a date to be decided and if members opt to strike, the union said action would be expected to take place during the autumn term of the next school year, PA reports.

Updated

In an article for its website, Chris Mason, the BBC’s political editor, says most people in government assume Dominic Raab will resign, or be sacked, when the report into the bullying allegations about him is published. Mason says:

Speaking to senior folk in government privately, most assume that Mr Raab – who is also justice secretary – is “toast” as one figure put it to me.

“The breadth of this, the number of people complaining, surely he can’t survive?” said another.

“He’s got to be done for, so many people think he’s a nightmare,” one minister told me.

“How does he go home to his wife and kids when there have been so many headlines about him about this stuff?” another said. “To his credit, mind you, he manages to. He’s been getting on with things.”

Updated

Plan to let UK ignore European court injunctions blocking migrant deportations could be defeated in Lords, peer suggests

The government’s illegal migration bill, which will stop people arriving in the UK illegally from ever claiming asylum here and allow them to be detained and deported, was already billed as the toughest piece of immigration legislation introduced for decades. Now it is about to get tougher.

The bill is due to have its final day of debate in the Commons next week and, according to a report by Matt Dathan in the Times which has been confirmed by government sources, the government will accept two amendments that would significantly tighten its already-draconian provisions (which ministers have accepted might prove incompatible with the European convention on human rights). Dathan writes:

The government has agreed to amend its illegal migration bill to allow ministers to ignore interim injunctions from the European court of human rights that attempt to stop a deportation flight. Known as rule 39 orders, they have been branded “pyjama injunctions” by Conservative MPs after a judge from the Strasbourg court suspended the first scheduled deportation flight to Rwanda last June late at night.

The government had previously only committed itself to introducing the power to ignore last-minute injunctions if ministers failed to persuade the Strasbourg court to reform rule 39 orders.

A second concession offered to the rebels will also prevent UK courts from granting injunctions to stop migrants being deported, apart from in very limited circumstances. The Home Office has agreed to amend the bill to ensure that the only way in which a migrant who arrives illegally can avoid being removed from the UK will be by proving they face a “real risk of serious and irreversible harm” in the territory to which they are being deported.

These amendments are a concession to around 60 Tory backbenchers, led by Danny Kruger and Sir Bill Cash, who want to stop the government being constrained by the ECHR. It is thought that Suella Braverman, the home secretary, largely supports what they are trying to do.

Another group of Tories on the liberal wing of the party have been calling for amendments to the bill to protect child migrants and establish more safe and legal routes for asylum seekers hoping to come to the UK. According to Dathan, there will be a concession to them too. He reports:

The Home Office is expected to bring forward an amendment that would commit it to publishing its plan for new legal routes for refugees within six months of the bill passing into law. It is also about to make a commitment to introduce stringent safeguards to protect unaccompanied child refugees.

Rajeev Syal and Nadeem Badshah have more on the concessions here.

This morning Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, a former lord chief justice and a crossbench member of the House of Lords, said that allowing the government to ignore rule 39 orders would be an “immensely serious step” and one that “sets an extraordinarily bad example”.

These interim injunctions do not “in any way detract from the importance of a judgment being made by a court”, he said in an interview with the Today programme.

Thomas said that, when the bill went to the Lords, peers were likely to object this provision because it would amount to allowing the government to ignore the rule of law. He told Today.

Many people would say having the power to ignore a court order is something – unless the circumstances were quite extraordinary – this is a step a government should never take because it is symbolic of a breach of the rule of law.

Updated

Report into Dominic Raab bullying allegations expected to be published today

Good morning. After months of waiting, Dominic Raab, the justice secretary and deputy prime minister, seems likely to find out today whether he will be sacked over the claims that he bullied civil servants. The outcome of the investigation into those allegations is expected to be published today, alongside the decision from Rishi Sunak as to what will happen next.

As Aubrey Allegretti, Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot report, if Raab is cleared, some civil servants working in the Ministry of Justice are expected to resign.

Here is the agenda for the day.

10am: Amanda Pritchard, NHS England’s chief executive, gives evidence to the Commons public accounts committee on improving mental health services

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Noon: Humza Yousaf takes first minister’s questions at Holyrood.

Keir Starmer is in Belfast.

If you want to contact me, do try the new “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a PC or a laptop. (It is not available on the app yet.) This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line, privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate), or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.

Updated

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