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Partygate: Johnson faces no further action as police investigation concludes
Downing Street staff who received fines for attending the same lockdown parties as Boris Johnson have reacted with fury after the prime minister escaped further sanctions.
“It’s a joke,” one No 10 source told The Independent, saying that the prime minister had “told people to ‘let their hair down’ and enjoy their drinks which they’d earned for ‘beating back the virus’”, adding: “He’s a man of little or no integrity.”
Announcing the conclusion of their Operation Hillman probe on Thursday, the Metropolitan Police said a total of 126 fines had been issued to 83 people, over events spanning eight dates between May 2020 and April 2021.
A leading expert on Covid laws, barrister Adam Wagner, also questioned the “inconsistency” of the fines, after it emerged some junior staff have amassed as many as five fines while the PM and other senior figures avoided fresh action.
It is now expected that Sue Gray, the senior civil servant carrying out a wider report into the scandal, will publish her findings as soon as next week.
Recommended Partygate: Full timeline of government gatherings and Covid fines Partygate: Legal expert questions ‘odd’ fines for junior No 10 staff while PM escapes US won’t agree UK trade deal if Boris Johnson ‘discards’ protocol, says Speaker Pelosi Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak may regret the government confusion over a windfall tax
Key points Downing Street staff furious as Johnson escapes Partygate fines Legal expert questions ‘odd’ inconsistency over No 10 fines ‘US won’t agree to UK trade deal if Johnson discards protocol’ Johnson overhauls No 10 as he awaits Sue Gray report
Show latest update 1653037511 Tories ‘suggesting it might be better to lose the next election'
Multiple reports this morning suggest that some Conservatives are privately suggesting it might be better for their party to lose the next general election.
Citing conversations with a “half dozen or so Tory politicians”, including “a couple of people who’d be good bets for cabinet rank some time in the next decade”, The Spectator reports a prevailing view that “winning next time would be truly dismal: a Tory administration with a small majority and no ideas, stumbling through a fifth term, is an utterly uninspiring prospect even for some Conservatives”.
In The Times, the same magazine’s political editor James Forsyth also reports that “some Tories are beginning to whisper a heretical thought”, particularly in light of the “anaemic economic growth forecasts for the first half of the next parliament”.
According to both reports, these Conservatives believe that a progressive pact between Labour and potentially the SNP could be a likely possibility in the event of a Tory defeat, which they believe “would struggle to survive more than a term”.
Andy Gregory 20 May 2022 10:05
1653036378 Sinn Fein accuses DUP of ‘denying democracy’ over Brexit protocol
Sinn Fein has accused the DUP of denying democracy by refusing to enter government in Northern Ireland in protest at the post-Brexit trade protocol agreed by Boris Johnson in 2020.
Speaking ahead of her meeting with Ireland’s Taoiseach Michael Martin in Belfast, Sinn Fein’s vice president Michelle O'Neill said he “has a very significant role in terms of being the co-guarantor of our peace agreement and therefore has a stewardship role to play”.
She added: “At a time where democracy is being denied, at a time where the DUP are continuing to prevent the facilitation of an executive being formed, an executive that could start to deliver for the public, I think it is important that he is here to assert his role and to listen to all of the parties.
“There are parties here that want to be in government together, there are parties that want to be in the executive but unfortunately the DUP, sponsored by the British government, are holding back all of that progress and preventing us from being able to start to put money in people's pockets.”
Andy Gregory 20 May 2022 09:46
1653036097 UK has moved ‘too far in a unilateral way’ on NI Protocol, Ireland’s PM warns
Boris Johnson’s government has moved “too far in a unilateral way” over its approach to the Northern Ireland Protocol, Taoiseach Micheal Martin has warned.
Speaking ahead of a meeting with political leaders in Belfast today, Ireland’s premier said the idea that the EU was being “inflexible” simply “is just not the truth”, accusing the UK government of an “our way or no way” approach.
“I believe that the current UK government has moved too far in a unilateral way on issues, be it legacy, be it the protocol. In my view that is not fully in accordance with the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement which involves collaboration, working together,” he said.
With the DUP still refusing to enter the the devolved powersharing institutions at Stormont in protest over the post-Brexit trade protocol, Mr Martin warned: “We can’t have a situation where one political party determines that the other political parties can’t convene in a parliament.”
While he said he understood there were “legitimate issues” with the protocol, he accused London of failing to “respond in any meaningful way” to the EU’s proposals, adding: “The challenge that I see here is that the goalposts keep on changing in respect of the protocol, or where the landing zone for a resolution of the legitimate issues that have been raised by people are.”
Andy Gregory 20 May 2022 09:41
1653035577 Raab denies Sue Gray’s report is delayed because she is fighting to publish it in full
The justice secretary has denied that Sue Gray's Partygate report has been delayed because she is fighting to publish it in full, without name redactions.
“We always get this speculation, pre report. I can't comment on it. I don't know,” Dominic Raab told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
“The truth is Sue Gray is a very robust individual, I've met her other times before. I'm sure she will handle things the right way, according to her judgment and that's absolutely the proper thing to do.”
Andy Gregory 20 May 2022 09:32
1653035279 Rishi Sunak becomes first frontline politician to appear in Sunday Times Rich List
Our political correspondent Ashley Cowburn has more details on the news that Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty have come in at 222nd on the Sunday Times Rich List, as the chancellor faces pressure to do more to help people struggling with soaring costs and inflation.
Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister, said it was “fantastic” the chancellor had joined the rich list,
He added: “I think we want more of those people. I think it’s fantastic that you’ve got someone of British-Indian origin, showing all people in our country that you can get to the top of politics.
“And frankly, I think if I understood correctly, the Sunday Times Rich List was a reflection of not just him but his wife. His wife is an incredibly successful entrepreneur in her own right. Again someone that’s here, British-Indian, and actually I think we want to see more women succeeding in both business and politics.”
Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty make Sunday Times Rich List Chancellor becomes first frontline politician to join the rich list
Andy Gregory 20 May 2022 09:27
1653034393 Offshore oil and gas industry hits back at calls for windfall tax
As pressure rises on Boris Johnson to implement a windfall tax on oil and gas firms’ profits to help households weather the cost of living crisis, an energy industry body has insisted that the current tax system should not be changed.
Deirdre Michie, the chief executive of Offshore Energies – which represents the UK offshore oil and gas industry – told Times Radio that the Treasury will get ￡8bn from the sector and another ￡5bn next year, which is on top of ￡370bn which has been paid over the last decade.
“The point is that the tax regime is working,” Ms Michie said. “The government can use those monies to spend on helping consumers. We recognise the crisis is a massive and significant one which does need addressing.”
“We need these companies to keep investing in oil and gas for security of energy supply but we also need them to invest in the energy transition,” she added.
"We have identified up to ￡250 billion of investment opportunity over all of the energies but only a third of that is sanctioned, so that if people start to feel this is not a good place in which to invest they will take their investment elsewhere."
Andy Gregory 20 May 2022 09:13
1653033853 Nancy Pelosi ‘needs to recognise’ NI protocol is undermining Belfast agreement, DUP claims
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has struck back at a threat from US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi that the US Congress could block a free-trade agreement with the UK if Boris Johnson moves unilaterally to change parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The unionist leader told the BBC: “Nancy Pelosi states that the reason she is concerned is because the Good Friday Agreement might be undermined, but the protocol is undermining the agreement. That is absolutely evident.
“The protocol has changed some of the key principles of the Belfast Agreement and it has made it impossible to have powersharing on the basis of consensus because not a single unionist MLA elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in the recent elections supports that protocol.
“If Nancy Pelosi wants to see the agreement protected then she needs to recognise that it is the protocol that is harming and undermining the agreement and that is why we need to deal with it.”
Sir Jeffery insisted his party would not re-enter the power-sharing arrangement in Stormont in full “until we see decisive action taken on the protocol”, adding: “That is the mandate I sought from the people of Northern Ireland and on the strength of the votes that we received we have made clear to the government that decisive action is required.”
Andy Gregory 20 May 2022 09:04
1653033014 ‘Opacity’ of Partygate ‘has been draining of public confidence'
The “opacity” surrounding Partygate has been “draining of public confidence”, a former director of public prosecutions has said.
“I think that without us knowing who has received fixed penalty notices it's very difficult for us to disentangle exactly how the police investigation has proceeded and how fair it's been,” Lord Macdonald told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“It's notable that, the, as you said, the head of the civil service attended parties and hasn't been fined, but more junior colleagues who attended them have been.
“And I think the opacity that's surrounded this has been somewhat draining of public confidence, and I think it's been very unfortunate.”
Andy Gregory 20 May 2022 08:50
1653032534 Analysis | Three reasons Boris Johnson is in a much stronger position now
Our chief political commentator John Rentoul has suggested that Boris Johnson’s political future is in better shape than previously for three reasons: there is no “no oven-ready alternative”; the leader of the opposition “doesn't want to talk about lockdown law; and local elections and national opinion polls are “not bad enough”.
You can read his analysis here with Independent Premium:
Three reasons Boris Johnson is in a much stronger position than before | John Rentoul His political future was already no longer at immediate risk, but there was a widespread assumption that he would receive more penalty notices. Not now, writes John Rentoul
Andy Gregory 20 May 2022 08:42
1653031814 Public ‘remains very much in the dark’ on Partygate, former DPP says
The public “remain very much in the dark” about the details of who was involved in Partygate, a former director of public prosecutions has said.
Asked about junior workers being fined for incidents which Boris Johnson was not fined for, Lord Macdonald told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: “I think without the police providing an explanation for that it's very difficult for us to understand why they came to the conclusions that they did.”
He added: “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.”
Andy Gregory 20 May 2022 08:30
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