Summary
With the Gray report expected next week, the prime minister is among about 30 people to have been given a gist of the criticism about him, with those contacted by the inquiry team given a few days to respond.
Gray is said to be keen to name senior civil servants, but no decisions have been taken on how many and who will be identified, or whether the report will contain any photos.
• Ireland’s taoiseach has said it is unacceptable for one party in Northern Ireland to block others from taking power, as he visited Belfast to try to break the deadlock over the Brexit protocol and power-sharing at Stormont.
After meetings with party leaders, Micheál Martin said the Northern Ireland assembly and executive should be formed while negotiations continue between the UK government and the EU over the protocol.
“Our view is there should be parallel discussions,” he said as he urged the DUP to abandon their decision not to return to power-sharing until “decisive action” was taken over reforms to Northern Ireland’s Brexit arrangements.
• The Bank of England will intensify its squeeze on the economy over the coming months as it seeks to bring down the highest inflation rate in 40 years, its chief economist has warned.
Noting that Threadneedle Street was facing its toughest challenge since being granted independence in 1997, Huw Pill said “further work needs to be done” to bring the annual inflation rate back to the government’s 2% target.
Inflation soared to 9% in April as the rising cost of gas and electricity pushed household energy bills to record levels and the escalating cost of food and transport also contributed to the surge in the cost of living.
• Rishi Sunak has become the first frontline politician to be ranked among the UK’s wealthiest people, only days after the chancellor warned consumers that “the next few months will be tough” as the cost of living squeeze intensifies.
Sunak, a former hedge fund manager, and his Indian heiress wife, Akshata Murty, were named on the Sunday Times rich list as the 222nd wealthiest people in the UK, with a combined £730m fortune.
Becoming the first frontline politician to be named in the annual ranking since its inception in 1989 is likely to increase pressure on Sunak to do more to help households struggling with inflation, which hit 9% in April, its highest level in 40 years, and soaring energy bills.
• The UK government’s independent adviser on tackling violence against women and girls has suggested her calls for street harassment to be made a crime are being blocked.
Nimco Ali, a close friend of Boris and Carrie Johnson, told the BBC’s Political Thinking with Nick Robinson that her proposal had experienced “pushback” and hinted the prime minister had not fully supported it.
• The government has blocked the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, and government ethics chief Darren Tierney from appearing before the public administration and constitutional affairs committee.
The pair were due to give evidence as part of the committee’s inquiry into the propriety of governance in the wake of Greensill.
The hearing was confirmed several weeks ago and it was due to discuss the Downing Street parties, the management of conflicts of interest and unregulated appointments in the civil service, and the proposed cuts to the civil service of 100,000 jobs.
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Isle of Man minister quits in whistleblowing scandal
The Isle of Man’s treasury minister — the Manx equivalent of Rishi Sunak — has resigned in a whistleblowing scandal.
David Ashford quit on Friday in the fall-out of an employment tribunal involving the island’s former chief medical director Dr Rosalind Ranson. The tribunal found she was unfairly dismissed while Ashford was minister for health, after raising concerns about the Isle of Man’s approach to Covid.
Ashford’s evidence to the employment tribunal was found to be “practised and diplomatic seemingly guided by the principle of deniability of anything potentially inconvenient unless/until objective evidence was available to the contrary”.
Alfred Cannan, the island’s chief minister, said he accepted Ashford’s resignation and thanked him for his contribution during the Covid-19 pandemic. The new treasury minister is Dr Alex Allinson, who moves over from the enterprise ministry.
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Voters support windfall tax and back Labour on cost of living crisis – poll
Voters believe Labour would be better at handling the rising cost of living, according to a poll for Mail Online.
Only a quarter (24%) said the Conservatives would be better at handling the issue, compared with 39% who said the Labour party.
The survey by Savanta Comres also found that there is major support for a windfall tax on the profits of big oil and gas firms.
Three in four (75%) back the idea according to the survey, based on online interviews with 2,021 UK adults from 18-19 May.
Earlier today, Jacob Rees-Mogg argued it is wrong to raid the “honey pot of business” to fund measures to ease the cost-of-living crisis by imposing a windfall tax on oil and gas giants.
The Brexit opportunities minister argued that the one-off measure on the companies’ soaring profits potentially to reduce consumer bills would ultimately see the public pay more tax.
Boris Johnson has not ruled out the move, instead urging firms to invest their soaring profits, and Downing Street hinted that a decision would be coming “soon”.
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Almost 6,000 landlords in England started court proceedings against tenants in the first three months of 2022 after serving them with a so-called “no-fault” eviction notice, figures show.
Some 5,890 landlords started accelerated procedure claims between January and March after issuing renters with a Section 21 notice, according to figures published by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
This is up 63% on the previous quarter and 41% compared with the same period in 2020, before the coronavirus pandemic.
Matt Downie, chief executive of Crisis, said it was “unacceptable” that the government is allowing more people to be forced from their homes.
He said: “While families across the country battle to keep roofs over their heads, government inaction over the spiralling costs of energy, rent and food is causing more and more people to be sucked into this crisis.
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Ireland’s taoiseach, Micheál Martin, said that the Northern Ireland assembly and executive should be formed while negotiations continued between the UK government and the EU over the protocol.
He said:
All parties said to us that they are willing to abide by the [assembly election] result.
The Democratic Unionist party were clear that they have no difficulty in taking up the deputy first minister position but they have issues with the protocol. Our view is there should be parallel discussions.
The assembly and the executive should operate parallel with the UK government and the European Union engaging in substantive negotiations to resolve issues which have arisen in respect of the operation of the protocol.
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The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, said if the prime minister would not resign over the Partygate scandal, Conservative MPs should “grow a backbone and get rid of him”.
Launching his party’s byelection campaign in Tiverton and Honiton, he told the PA news agency:
Boris Johnson should resign because he broke the law and he lied to parliament, not on one occasion, but on many occasions. He’s not a decent prime minister for our great country and if he won’t go of his own accord, Conservative MPs need to grow a backbone and get rid of him.
If they don’t, frankly, I hope the voters punish the Conservative party for treating the voters like fools.
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Some Tory stalwarts may be angry but the state of the economy could be what brings the prime minister down, writes the Guardian’s political editor, Heather Stewart.
One Boris-sceptic backbencher suggested that while Gray’s report might solidify things in a few MPs’ minds, by setting out in black and white the unedifying details of the parties, it was unlikely to hit home with Johnson or his team.
The MP said:
I don’t know what Sue Gray’s report is going to say next week. It won’t be pretty reading, and in any normal world I’m sure it will be devastating, but they’ll no doubt crack on regardless.
Some senior Tories regard the privileges committee investigation as the more dangerous of the two.
One former cabinet minister said:
The privileges committee is the lethal one. The fundamental question is misleading the house, and whether it was deliberate or not.
It seems to me very hard to argue that it wasn’t, because we now know he attended a number of parties. Either he’s very stupid or he’s very dishonest.
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We reported earlier that Johnson said he was “grateful” to the Met for their investigation into the Downing Street lockdown gatherings. You can watch a clip from that interview here:
Downing Street’s demand that civil servants get back to the office has backfired for the Department for Education, where desk shortages have resulted in staff being sent home and others forced to work in “chaotic” conditions.
With officials working in cramped corridors or sharing desks, civil service unions have protested to Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary. Zahawi ordered an end to homeworking last month after pressure from the efficiency minister, Jacob Rees-Mogg.
The extent of the chaos was revealed by Schools Week which reported that Susan Acland-Hood, the DfE’s permanent secretary, had ordered staff to spend 80% of their time in the office – despite the department having twice as many staff as desks.
Civil servants said the first week of the new policy was “chaotic”, with staff milling around trying to find space to sit and canteen tables being taken up. One described the DfE’s Great Smith Street office as like “a tube station in rush hour” after the new policy was implemented.
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The prime minister’s father, Stanley Johnson, has secured French citizenship, according to reports.
French officials reportedly told the AFP news agency that Johnson, 81, whose mother was French, obtained French nationality on Wednesday.
Johnson, father to Boris, Rachel, Leo, Jo, Julia and Maximilian, campaigned for the UK to remain in the EU in 2016, while his son Boris led the leave movement. However, Johnson Sr has since expressed support for Brexit.
He confirmed he was applying for a French passport on the eve of Britain’s Brexit transition period coming to an end on 31 December 2020.
He joins thousands of Britons who have acquired EU citizenship since the Brexit vote. He previously said:
It’s not a question of becoming French. If I understood correctly, I am French. My mother was born in France, her mother was entirely French, and her grandfather too. So for me it’s a matter of claiming what I already have.
Senior civil servants blocked from appearing at committee inquiry
The government has blocked the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, and government ethics chief Darren Tierney from appearing before the public administration and constitutional affairs committee.
The pair were due to give evidence as part of the committee’s inquiry into the propriety of governance in the wake of Greensill.
The hearing was confirmed several weeks ago and it was due to discuss the Downing Street parties, the management of conflicts of interest and unregulated appointments in the civil service, and the proposed cuts to the civil service of 100,000 jobs.
However, the committee were then told that ministerial approval for the pair to appear had been pulled. The hearing has now been rescheduled for 28 June.
The committee’s chair, William Wragg MP, said:
The session with the cabinet secretary was an important one considering the number of propriety and ethics issues on the agenda.
We had also hoped to get clarity on the government’s plans for civil service reform, public scrutiny of which was much-needed after they were briefed to the press last weekend.
The intervention to pull the session at such short notice evades timely parliamentary scrutiny of these plans and puts government transparency in a poor light.
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Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, and Sinn Féin’s leader in Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill, have been holding face-to-face talks in what might yet evolve as an interesting new political relationship, especially if the latter’s party manages to secure the post of first minister at Stormont at some point.
It barely needs to be pointed out, but the thought of two parties who aim to break up the United Kingdom holding the first minister posts in two of the constituent parts of the UK will not exactly help defenders of the union sleep at night.
Sturgeon said the meeting was an “excellent opportunity” to discuss some of the shared challenges Scotland and Northern Ireland faced.
She said:
We also discussed the Northern Ireland protocol – most notably the extremely concerning announcement by the UK government that they intend to legislate to enable unilateral action to disapply parts of the protocol – and the incredibly damaging effects this would have in communities right across the UK.
In a cost of living crisis and teetering on the edge of recession, pitching us into a trade dispute with the EU could be what tips us over.
Sturgeon said that intergovernmental relations were essential when it came to tackling shared challenges.
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As ardent Tory critics withdraw their confidence letters and Sue Gray gets ready to publish her full report, the Guardian’s Rajeev Syal has been looking at some of the lurking threats to Boris Johnson’s leadership.
For the first time in many weeks, the Prime Minister will not have to wonder this weekend if he is about to be toppled by Tory MPs angry about the Partygate scandal. But there are other potentially damaging challenges ahead this summer which could add to the impression that his days are numbered.
They include:
Privileges committee inquiry
In yet another unwanted precedent, Johnson will face a Commons inquiry over whether he lied to parliament about Downing Street parties and whether he attended them.
Northern Ireland protocol
Johnson has declared that the government will introduce a new law which will override the Brexit deal it signed with the EU which set down trade rules for Northern Ireland. He is being cheered on by Brexiter commentators and the DUP, and a row with the EU does win approval from the Tory base vote.
Byelections
Having survived the local elections, Johnson is braced for two more potentially damaging electoral battles in June. The Conservative party will hope to fight off a Lib Dem challenge in Tiverton and Honiton, where the party is running second; and in Wakefield, where the party unexpectedly won in 2019 but now faces a resurgent Labour party.
Windfall tax
How to confront the growing cost of living crisis while raising cash to pay for levelling up is the issue that many “Red wall” Tories want Johnson to tackle.
The Sue Gray report
This week will see the publication of the report by the senior civil servant Sue Gray who oversaw an inquiry into the Partygate scandal.
Reports have claimed that it will be highly critical of Johnson both for attending some of the events and the culture in No 10 under his leadership.
An intervention by the US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, in a row over the Northern Ireland protocol has been slammed by the DUP leader as “unhelpful”.
Pelosi said the US Congress would not support a free trade agreement with the UK if the government persists with “deeply concerning” plans to “unilaterally discard” the protocol.
In a strongly worded intervention, she urged the UK and the EU to continue negotiations on the post-Brexit trade arrangements to uphold peace in the region.
Pelosi said in a statement:
The Good Friday accords are the bedrock of peace in Northern Ireland and a beacon of hope for the entire world.
Ensuring there remains no physical border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland is absolutely necessary for upholding this landmark agreement, which has transformed Northern Ireland.
The comments from Pelosi are a reminder of the ongoing interest in Northern Ireland at the highest levels in Washington, amid political instability following the assembly election.
The Democratic Unionist party (DUP) is currently blocking the re-establishment of Stormont’s power-sharing institutions in protest at the protocol, which has created economic barriers on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
On Friday afternoon the DUP leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, described Pelosi’s contribution as “entirely unhelpful”.
I noted that Speaker Pelosi talked about the lack of bipartisan approach or agreement on what the UK government are doing.
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Analysis
Fresh from learning that he will not face any further lockdown fines from a Scotland Yard probe into Whitehall parties, an upbeat Boris Johnson has delivered an address to the Welsh Conservative conference in which he branded Labour “a bunch of semi-repentant Corbynista loons”.
The prime minister delivered a typically Johnsonion address, veering off from script to chase laughter from the Tory faithful while also emphasising the government’s eagerness to invest in rural communities, including in areas such as where it lost ground to the Lib Dems in recent local elections.
Familiar talking points included the assertion that the government had “made the right calls” in the past, meaning it now had the “fiscal firepower” to help the British people as they struggled with the cost of living crisis, and an emphasis on the UK’s relationship with Ukraine in the face of Putin’s aggression.
The war and security was brought together at one point in an attack on the Labour frontbench which perhaps gave a sense of some of the tactics that are likely to be deployed more often in future elections.
“Do you think at this juncture when Putin is muttering recklessly about using his nuclear arsenal, do we really want our defence policy handed over to a bunch of semi-repentant Corbynista loons, to put it mildly?” he asked.
“Eight of the shadow frontbench including the shadow foreign secretary voted to scrap this country’s independent nuclear deterrent.”
While telling the conference that new investment in nuclear energy was going to be going ahead, this was a speech that was short on new policy announcements, tailored more for a party political Conservative audience rather than voters in general.
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Towards the end of what has turned out to be a fairly short address, Johnson used a recent new attack line against Labour, seeking to draw links between the current leadership of the opposition and Jeremy Corbyn.
The current Labour party, Johnson told the conference, is led by “semi-repentant Corbynista loons, to put it mildly.”
He added that eight of its frontbench, including the shadow foreign secretary, voted to scrap the UK’s independent nuclear deterrent. He asks if that is “what is good for Britain ... Is it good for Ukraine?”
And that’s it. There are some fairly loud cheers from Tory activists.
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This government takes the “big decisions” and never shirks, Johnson told the conference, adding that it should be allowed to get on with its “levelling up” agenda.
With an eye on voters in Wales in particular perhaps, he was eager to emphasise investment in infrastructure that will help rural communities, through improving broadband and other services.
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There was a lightness of tone, elation almost, to Johnson who returned a few times in this speech to lockdown-themed jibes at his opponents.
“Didn’t Mark Drakeford [the Labour first minister of Wales] actually criminalise going into the office,” Johnson asked the Welsh Tories, to some subdued cheers.
It was perhaps hard to see Johnson being quite so eager to venture into this territory but for the fact that he is somewhat in the clear as a result of the end of the Met investigation into criminal breaches of lockdown restrictions, though Sue Gray’s report still looms.
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Johnson addresses Welsh Conservative party conference
The UK and the world will “get through” the current economic crunch and rising food prices but it will require the government to draw on its “fiscal firepower” and put its arms around the British people, Johnson has told the party faithful.
“The markets will adjust and prices will come down,” he said, zeroing in on the current Russian blockade of wheat coming out of Ukraine.
The UK government would support the public through the cost-of-living crisis in much the same way it did through the coronavirus pandemic.
Just as we got the most difficult challenges of Covid right, we got the big calls right, we will get this country through the big challenges now of the post-Covid aftershocks, the pressures caused in particular by the rise in the cost of living.
Everyone can see what’s happening, the cost of fuel pumps, the price of food, the cost of energy, we all know how tough it is and how tough it can be.
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Boris Johnson has taken the stage at the Welsh Conservative conference.
After kicking off his speech by telling a lockdown joke about God “working from home” in Wales during the pandemic (you may have had to be there) he’s on to familiar territory by talking about the government’s success with the vaccine rollout, and emphasising UK military assistance to Ukraine.
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Boris Johnson was asked during a visit to Powys in Wales about a protest outside Downing Street by Jamie Oliver, who is critical of what he regards as a failure by the government to follow through on pledges to tackle obesity.
The chef has been staging an “Eton Mess” protest over the government’s U-turn on its anti-obesity strategy, which Oliver has written about in the Guardian recently.
Oliver wrote:
The spurious reasons the government has given to justify these screeching policy U-turns are that they will help with the cost of living crisis and they will also help businesses. The government knows full well that neither of those things are true.
The Oliver protest appeared to be news to Johnson, who asked his interviewer initially: “Is he protesting against me?”
After the nature of the protest was clarified, the prime minister said:
OK we understand the vital importance of tackling obesity. It costs the NHS huge, huge sums of money. People feel healthier and happier and their quality of life is much better if they lose weight, speaking personally.
There are lots of things you need to focus on, eating less. But we think there are some things we think make very little difference to obesity and can affect people’s budgets. If people can save on their offers then we just have to be flexible.
POWERFUL turnout with @jamieoliver outside 10 Downing Street💥
— Dolitics (@dollytheis) May 20, 2022
Together we’re calling for the Prime Minister to put our children’s health above politics 🙏🏼#EtonMess #ChildHealthUTurn pic.twitter.com/GKuWoDmfN4
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Ireland’s taoiseach has said it is unacceptable for one party in Northern Ireland to block others from taking power, as he visits Belfast to try to break the deadlock over the Brexit protocol and power-sharing at Stormont.
“It is unheard of in a democratic world that that parliament would not convene in the aftermath of an election. We can’t have a situation where one political party determines that the other political parties can’t convene in a parliament,” Micheál Martin told the BBC before meetings on Friday with leaders of parties including the Democratic Unionist party, which has refused to re-enter power-sharing until “decisive action” is taken to scrap elements of the Northern Ireland protocol.
He said he understood there were “legitimate issues” to be discussed with the DUP but that the only answer to the problem was collaboration, not confrontation.
Martin accused Boris Johnson of moving “too far in a unilateral way” over the UK’s approach to Northern Ireland after the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, announced plans to introduce domestic laws to override the protocol if the EU did not meet the government’s demands.
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Johnson a 'drag' on Conservative party - Theresa May pollster
James Johnson, a former Downing Street pollster who worked under Theresa May, has been telling the BBC’s World at One programme that Boris Johnson is now facing his toughest challenge yet, despite what might be seen by others as a good week for him as it emerged that he would not face any further fines for breaking lockdown restrictions.
Johnson said that some voters would move on in terms of their priorities and that Partygate would fade in some minds.
But he concluded:
We are now seeing Boris Johnson as a drag on the Conservative party brand, rather than an asset that he may have been in the past.
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Johnson: 'I am very grateful to the Met for their work'
Boris Johnson has been speaking for the first time since the Metropolitan police concluded their investigation into Downing Street parties
I am very grateful to the Met for their work. I am very grateful for the work they have done. I just think that we need to wait for Sue Gray to report and then … fingers crossed … that will be very soon.
Johnson, speaking on a visit to Powys, Wales, before an address to the Welsh Conservative conference, was asked if Downing Street would block Gray, the senior civil servant compiling a report on Partygate. He said it would be a matter that was entirely up to Gray.
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Sadiq Khan said “there is no other street in the country where more people have broken the law than Downing Street”, as he was asked about the so-called Partygate investigation.
Speaking to the PA news agency at City Hall, the mayor of London said:
I’ve said that from the beginning, it’s really important that politicians aren’t involved in operational management when it comes to the police. They’ve got to investigate and go wherever the evidence goes. That’s why I’m going to wait and see what Sue Gray’s report reveals next week ...
But when you just reflect for a second, there is no other street in the country where more people have broken the law than Downing Street, there is no other street in the country where more fines have been issued.
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Jacob Rees-Mogg has said it would be a mistake for Sir Keir Starmer to resign as Labour leader if he is fined over Beergate.
It was put to him on Sky News that, unlike Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Labour leader has said that he will resign if fined over any breaches of coronavirus restrictions.
“Well, that’s a matter for him,” Rees-Mogg said.
I think that is a mistake. I don’t actually think that these are resigning matters, I think people make mistakes.
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Downing Street has suggested it has not ruled out introducing a criminal offence of street harassment after comments from the UK government’s independent adviser on tackling violence against women and girls, Nimco Ali.
A No 10 spokesperson said: “I would point to a tweet from Nimco this morning where she addresses that and says I did not blame him, referring to the prime minister.”
Pressed on whether an offence of street harassment was still being considered, he said: “We will continue to look at where there may be gaps and how a specific offence could address those.”
Ali has suggested her calls for street harassment to be made a crime are being blocked.
Ali, a close friend of Boris and Carrie Johnson, told the BBC’s Political Thinking with Nick Robinson that her proposal had experienced “pushback” and hinted the prime minister had not fully supported it.
The murder of Sarah Everard, who was abducted while walking home in south London last year, triggered nationwide scrutiny of women’s safety and attitudes towards women.
Ali said: “For me, I would specifically love public sexual harassment to become a crime.”
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Before his address at 1.40pm to the Conservative party’s Welsh conference, Boris Johnson has been on a visit to Powys.
Some images have come through of a visit to Hilltop Honey in Newtown, which happens to be one of the places where the Tories lost out in the local elections to Liberal Democrat gains.
The Lib Dems became the largest party in Powys, where it claimed that Johnson’s behaviour during lockdown and the subsequent Partygate scandal had come up on doorsteps quite a lot.
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Decision on naming lockdown partygoers rest with Sue Gray - No 10
The decision on whether to name people involved in Downing Street and Whitehall lockdown parties will rest solely with the senior civil servant Sue Gray, No 10 said, with her report into Partygate due next week.
A spokesperson for the prime minister, asked about suggestions of a dispute about Gray naming senior officials in her document, told reporters:
I’ve seen the reports overnight and this morning but it remains the case that it is for Sue Gray to decide what information she includes in her report. I can’t pre-empt her content or presentation.
As with the interim report, it is purely a matter for Sue Gray how she wants to present the report and what it includes.
Asked whether Downing Street was negotiating over who is named in Gray’s report, the spokesperson added:
Sue Gray is compiling the report independently and how she does that, and the contents of it, and what is presented is entirely a matter for her.
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Ireland’s Foreign Affairs Minister said he has “made clear” to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss that the Irish Government opposes the UK breaching international law.
Simon Coveney made the comment following his meeting with Ms Truss on Friday about ongoing concerns around the Northern Ireland Protocol.
He tweeted: “I made clear Ireland’s opposition to the U.K. breaching international law.
“The UK needs to get back to talks with the EU.”
He earlier said he urged the British Government to “move away” from threats of unilaterally breaching international law and “damaging international relations”.
“EU remains ready to negotiate pragmatic solutions to outstanding Protocol issues through partnership,” Coveney said.
Truss this month reiterated her threat to scrap parts of the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol, telling the EU’s Brexit negotiator it was a matter of “internal peace and security”
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The attorney general for England and Wales, Suella Braverman, wants the Conservative party to replace its tree logo with the torch of liberty which was used under Margaret Thatcher and then ditched during the cuddly sofa-rule era of David Cameron.
In an interview with Conservative Home she also opposes a windfall profits tax and says she would be happy to have her friend Lord Frost – formerly Britain’s chief negotiator during Brexit talks with the EU, as “a colleague in the Commons”.
There’s also a lot more red meat for the Tory faithful, with Braverman saying that the Conservative party of the 21st century was still trying to “stamp” out the “long tail of Blairism”.
That includes dealing with New Labour “creations like the Human Rights Act and the equalities agenda, which has built up a whole industry of people who make their living from rights-based claims”, and has led to “a feeble approach to common sense, decency, British values”.
Newsy titbit for political logo geeks
— Ben Quinn (@BenQuinn75) May 20, 2022
Suella Braverman wants her party to bring back the Tory torch logo, synonymous with Thatcherism but ditched by Cameron for the oak tree pic.twitter.com/N5sJe3YZaZ
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Keir Starmer managed to even get a few smirks from the government frontbench during PMQs this week when he likened Jacob Rees-Mogg to “an overgrown prefect” for leaving notes deemed to be passive-aggressive on civil servants’ desks in an effort to stop them working from home.
Now Schools Week has an exclusive on what are said to have been the unplanned consequences of the push to get civil servants back in to the office.
Staff at the Department for Education have had to work in corridors and canteens after the government’s return-to-the-office edict because the DfE has almost twice as many workers as desks, it reports.
Schools Week’s editor, John Dickens, tweets:
DfE had the highest WFH rate last month before the Rees Mogg return-to-office edict.
— John Dickens (@JohndickensSW) May 20, 2022
So they ordered everyone in and … there’s just not enough space. Some staff had to be sent back home, others working in corridors and canteens.
One office has 4x more staff than desks 🙈 https://t.co/l7HUQbauoc
The DfE is quoted as saying that hybrid working was “not new and does not stop offices being used at full capacity”. Such arrangements were in place before the pandemic.
As part of Rees-Mogg’s campaign to push workers back into offices, the cabinet minister has toured Whitehall buildings and published a league table of government departments based on how many staff are present.
It has now emerged he also distributed printed cards, which have been left on empty desks in the Cabinet Office department where he is based.
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Interest rates may need to rise further - Bank of England chief economist
Interest rates might need to rise further in the future as the economy is hit by high levels of inflation, according to the Bank of England’s chief economist.
Huw Pill said the 9% inflation rate – the highest in 40 years – was a “very uncomfortable situation” for decision-makers at the Bank.
In a speech to the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in Wales, he said the tightening of monetary policy – which means higher interest rates – “still has further to run”.
Pill is a member of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which sets the base rate used to decide the interest rates charged on mortgages and other loans. The full speech is here.
Others have meanwhile picked up on the explicit recognition by Pill of what the current economic situation means for the least well-off.
Pleased to see Huw Pill at least make this point up high in his speech.
— Andy Bruce (@BruceReuters) May 20, 2022
Have read other MPC speeches recently that talk as if the whole thing is an academic exercise pic.twitter.com/ZCCpOopNKU
Meanwhile, Nationwide executives have said they are “highly concerned” about the outlook for inflation, warning that rising costs could harm already struggling customers and drag down house prices.
In its annual earnings report, the member-owned building society said it had not yet experienced an increase in defaults on loans or mortgages.
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Sunak and wife join UK rich list
Rishi Sunak has become the first frontline politician to be ranked among the nation’s wealthiest people – only days after the chancellor warned the public that “the next few months will be tough” as the cost of living squeeze intensifies.
Sunak, a former hedge fund manager, and his Indian heiress wife, Akshata Murty, were named on the Sunday Times rich list as the 222nd wealthiest people in the UK, with a £730m combined fortune.
Becoming the first frontline politician to be named in the annual ranking since its inception in 1989 is likely to increase pressure on Sunak to do more to help households struggling with inflation, which hit 9% in April, its highest level in 40 years, and soaring energy bills.
At a CBI dinner on Wednesday night, Sunak said: “There is no measure any government could take, no law we could pass, that can make these global forces disappear overnight. The next few months will be tough. But where we can act, we will.”
As we’ve been reporting, Dominic Raab has called for ministers issued with fixed penalty notices for attending lockdown gatherings to be named. But will anyone else find themselves under the spotlight when the report is eventually published?
ITV’s Anushka Asthana reports that Gray wants to name around 15 or 20 senior officials found to have broken lockdown rules. Some of those people, to whom Gray has written, are said to be “livid”.
Have heard there may be some disagreement on whether to name anyone in Sue Gray report. Had heard that she wanted to name around 15 /20 senior officials. But sounds like some not happy about that.
— Anushka Asthana (@AnushkaAsthana) May 19, 2022
The Times, meanwhile, reports that the Met police are refusing to tell Gray who has been fined, “hampering her ability to name individuals”.
Civil servants were contacted yesterday by a cabinet official liaising with the Met, who acknowledged it was a “challenging time” and warned that a “small number” of the 126 fines remain to be issued in the coming days.
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The justice secretary was also asked how many people will be sent to Rwanda under the new scheme – but, as with the timings, he was unable to give a detailed answer.
He said:
I think that we’ll have to wait and see how operationally it works in practice. I think I’d be careful about managing expectations. It is not going to deal with the whole problem.
Asked if hundreds or thousands of people would be removed every year, he added:
I would have thought it was more likely to be in the hundreds.
The Home Office previously disputed suggestions that modelling by its own officials indicated that only 300 people a year could be sent to Rwanda.
Away from Partygate, the justice secretary has also been speaking this morning about the government’s plans to send people seeking asylum in the UK to Rwanda.
Under the £120m scheme announced last month, people deemed to have entered the UK unlawfully will be transported to the east African country, where they will be allowed to apply for the right to settle.
Boris Johnson said earlier this week that 50 people have been told they will be sent to Rwanda within the next fortnight.
That timeframe is now in doubt, however, and Dominic Raab could not say when exactly the deportation flights would take place. Asked about timings, he told the Today programme:
Well, that’s for the home secretary to work through in terms of the operational considerations, but as soon as possible.
Pressed on whether the plan, which has been widely criticised by opposition parties and human rights groups, would work, Raab claimed it would act as a deterrent for “criminal gangs”.
The reason we’re doing [this], as you know, is to stem the pull factor, the trade in misery with the criminal gangs preying on people who are either fleeing persecution or who are trying to come to a better life for economic reasons in this country. And we want to encourage people to use the legal routes.
I think we’ve shown whether it’s Hong Kong, Afghanistan or Ukraine, the big-hearted welcome that we will show those fleeing persecution, but what you don’t want to do is have, frankly, criminal gangs pursuing criminal routes.
And so the the Rwanda policy is one element of all of the stuff we’re doing and that the home secretary is working on, and we’ll get it up and running as soon as possible.
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12 events that were under police investigation
20 May 2020: ‘bring your own booze’ party
A leaked email from the prime minister’s principal private secretary showed No 10 staff were invited to “bring your own booze” to an event in the Downing Street garden.
18 June 2020: Cabinet Office leaving do
A gathering took place in the 70 Whitehall building to mark the departure of a private secretary, Hannah Young.
19 June 2020: Boris Johnson’s 56th birthday
Downing Street has said staff “gathered briefly” in the Cabinet Room. Johnson, his wife and the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, all received fines, it has been confirmed.
13 November 2020: Downing Street flat do
Carrie Johnson reportedly hosted parties in the official flat over No 11 where she and the prime minister, including one event on 13 November, the night of Dominic Cummings’s acrimonious departure.
13 November 2020: leaving party for senior aide
Johnson was reported to have given a leaving speech for Lee Cain, his departing director of communications and a close ally of Cummings.
17 December 2020: Cabinet Office ‘Christmas party’
The cabinet secretary, Simon Case, removed himself from the inquiry into parties – to be replaced by Sue Gray – after reports emerged of a gathering in the Cabinet Office.
17 December 2020: leaving drinks for former Covid taskforce head
Leaving drinks were held in the Cabinet Office for the former director general of the government’s Covid taskforce Kate Josephs.
17 December 2020: No 10 leaving do
A leaving do for a departing Downing Street official took place at No 10.
18 December 2020: Downing Street Christmas party
Officials and advisers reportedly made speeches, enjoyed a cheese board, drank together and exchanged Secret Santa gifts, although the prime minister is not thought to have attended.
14 January 2021: more Downing Street leaving drinks
A gathering in No 10 on the departure of two private secretaries.
16 April 2021: leaving drinks for the outgoing communications director James Slack One of two leaving dos held on the night before the Queen sat alone at Prince Philip’s funeral.
16 April 2021: leaving do for another departing Downing Street official
This is another event, separate to Slack’s leaving do, that took place at a Whitehall location.
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Lord Macdonald, a former director of public prosecutions, spoke to the BBC this morning about the prime minister’s single fine.
He said it was not known why Johnson was fined for being at one party, but not others, or why the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, was not fined.
Asked about junior workers being fined for incidents which the PM was not fined for, he told the Today programme that without a police explanation “it’s very difficult for us to understand why they came to the conclusions that they did”.
The crossbench peer added that the lack of transparency about such a “major scandal” was “not good enough”.
We don’t know who these people are, and I do feel for the junior civil servants and I quite see why they would be distressed by their names being given, but there’s a wider public interest here.
This was a major scandal at the heart of government, at the heart of the civil service, and we remain very much in the dark about who was involved, who organised the parties, and who was responsible.
Of course the prime minister and the head of the civil service are ultimately responsible, but there plainly were other people as well who were involved in this and we simply don’t know who they are, and I think that’s not good enough.
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Disbelief at single fine for PM
As we first reported last night, civil servants and special advisers have reacted with fury and disbelief after Scotland Yard confirmed Johnson got only one of 126 fines levied for law-breaking parties at the heart of Downing Street and Whitehall.
The Metropolitan police has come under intense pressure to explain how it reached its conclusions after Downing Street said officers confirmed no further action would be taken against the prime minister despite him attending gatherings for which others were fined.
A former Met chief said the force was open to claims it had bungled the investigation unless it took steps to explain itself.
Brian Paddick, now a Liberal Democrat peer, said: “The Met has no defence to the accusation that it gave the prime minister one fixed-penalty notice (FPN) as that was the minimum he could be fined, but did not do so for other events for political reasons,” he said.
“The decision not to explain is a mistake. It was a mistake not to investigate in the first place. They said there was no need to investigate and then they issued 126 fines, which is not good for their credibility.”
Officials who were among those fined were struggling to understand how Johnson could have escaped further censure. He, his wife, Carrie, and the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, received one fine each for celebrating the prime minister’s birthday in June 2020 when indoor gatherings, except for work purposes, were banned.
Transparency needed if ministers have been fined over Partygate, says Raab
Good morning and welcome to our live UK political coverage, which sees Partygate and the subsequent Met investigation still dominating headlines.
Yesterday, the force announced its four-month £460,000 investigation had concluded, with 126 fines issued in total. Just one of those was for the PM.
This has led to fury and disbelief among civil servants and special advisers.
One Whitehall source pointed out that junior civil servants had received FPNs for going to at least one event which the prime minister not only attended but also gave a speech at. Another said: “It’s the twentysomethings I feel sorry for – who went to events that were their seniors’ leaving bashes and things.”
The conclusion of the investigation does, however, pave the way for the publication of the Sue Gray report.
Her preliminary report found “failures of leadership and judgment by different parts of No 10 and the Cabinet Office”.
Now, the justice secretary has said there should be “transparency” in the report about any ministers who have been fined.
Asked if Downing Street was trying to prevent the senior civil servant from publishing individual names in her report into social events at Downing Street during pandemic lockdown restrictions, Raab told BBC Breakfast that that was a matter for the police and Sue Gray.
I think that these are matters, who is identified, for Sue Gray and the Met.
What we have said is that it’s right that if there’s a minister who has been fined, of course there needs to be transparency around that. I think that’s right.
Asked when the report would be published, Raab did not specify a time but told Times Radio it would come “as soon as possible”.
Obviously we’ve already had the interim report, and the prime minister has acted on it - the overhaul at number 10.
We will, at the minute we get the final report, publish it as soon as possible.
And the prime minister said he will come to the House of Commons and take questions so that we get have that additional tier of transparency and accountability.
The House of Commons is not sitting today, but we’ll bring you all the latest developments from Westminster and beyond throughout the day.
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