Sue Gray's report into allegations of parties at Downing Street during lockdown will not be published in full, the Education Secretary has suggested.
Ms Gray, the Second Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office, has been tasked with investigating a number of accusations and is expected to come back with her conclusions this week.
But Nadhim Zahawi emphasised that the terms of reference of her investigation mean her "findings" must be placed into the public domain, rather than necessarily a full report.
"That is the terms of reference [and] that will ensure that her findings are made public," he told Radio 4's Today programme. "That will ensure public confidence. This is exactly what she should be doing.
"She can follow the evidence wherever it takes her... The findings will be made public and the Prime Minister will submit himself to Parliament and make a statement and be scrutinised on those findings."
The conclusions could make or break Boris Johnson's premiership after the Prime Minister apologised to MPs for attending a gathering in the Downing Street garden on May 20, 2020, but continues to claim he thought it was a "work event".
？？Follow the latest updates below.
Grant Shapps will lay a bill in Parliament today seeking to take HS2 tracks from Crewe to Manchester.
The development will form part of the Government's Integrated Rail Plan, to which ministers have committed ￡96 billion.
"Imagine Manchester to London by rail in just 70 minutes," the Transport Secretary wrote. "Today I’m laying a Bill in Parliament that will make this a reality - taking HS2 tracks from Crewe to Manchester – improving services, increasing connections, boosting local economies & creating 17,500 direct jobs.
"[It brings] Manchester city centre its first new high capacity transport corridor since the 1970s & levelling up the North by delivering faster & better train journeys quicker."
Boris Johnson has visited Milton Keynes University Training Hospital in the last hour.
While there, the Prime Minister saw a coronavirus vaccination training hub and spoke to surgeons as he was shown the Versius robot, used for Minimal Access Surgery (MAS), at the hospital in Buckinghamshire.
Children are set to be given access to digital Covid passes in time for half term, as the Government prepares to announce relaxations to travel rules today.
Ministers were expected to have agreed to scrap a range of measures at today's meeting of the Covid-O committee, including tests for travellers arriving in the UK.
The changes are likely to be implemented in early February, allowing British holidaymakers to take advantage of the more lenient rules over the next school holidays.
Children aged 12 to 15 will finally be granted access to the NHS Covid pass app. At present, they are excluded from using it, thus curbing their ability to easily prove their vaccination status.
Lucy Fisher, our Deputy Political Editor, has the story
The President of the European Commission has confirmed the EU will almost double its bilateral assistance to Ukraine.
President Ursula von der Leyen has proposed a new emergency macro-financial assistance package of €1.2 billion, while there will be an extra €120 million of bilateral funds.
Kostiantyn Yelisieiev, the former Ukrainian ambassador to the EU, accused Russia of using all forms of "hybrid water" including misinformation and cyber-attacks on key Ukrainian infrastructure in an interview with Sky.
The Foreign Office said: "Some embassy staff and dependants are being withdrawn from Kyiv in response to the growing threat from Russia.
"The British Embassy remains open and will continue to carry out essential work."
A senior Labour MP demanded the full publication of Sue Gray's report in the wake of Nadhim Zahawi's comments this morning.
"The Sue Gray report must be published in full," Chris Bryant, the Labour MP for the Rhondda, wrote on Twitter, adding that "anything less" would constitute "a cover up".
Justin Madders, the shadow employment rights minister, echoed these comments: "In situations like this, people tend to ask 'what have you got to hide?' [and] with this government the answer tends to be 'plenty'."
Ukraine’s tragedy is to be trapped between two imaginations, the Russian and the European, writes Tim Stanley. One has arms and spirit, the other does not (to paraphrase Stalin, Ursula von der Leyen lacks divisions).
Germany has declined to send weapons to defend Kyiv and attempted to block another Nato country, Estonia, from doing so. In a hint of how it sees the crisis playing out, Berlin has kindly offered to send a field hospital instead.
Historian Timothy Snyder argues that Ukraine is “hyper typical” of the nation states that emerged from the First World War and struggled to survive. In 2013, when a pro-Moscow regime refused to sign an agreement with the EU and was toppled by protests, Ukrainians “demonstrated a strong commitment to the idea of European integration.”
We Britons might be surprised. To us, the EU is the antithesis of self-government, but to many post-Soviet states, it is the only basis upon which it is possible, for the EU provides a model of development along with institutions often superior to the corrupt state apparatus left behind by the Russians. It is aspirational.
Tim Stanley: The West's belief in nation states will be put to the test
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has been granted permission by the High Court to launch a Supreme Court appeal over his extradition to the United States.
The High Court ruled last month that Mr Assange could be extradited to the US as senior judges overturned an earlier decision in the case of the WikiLeaks founder.
Assange, 50, is wanted in America over an alleged conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information following WikiLeaks's publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
Rishi Sunak has tried to distance himself from the looming National Insurance tax rise after calling it the "the Prime Minister's tax", reports Danielle Sheridan.
In September last year it was announced that National Insurance contributions would rise by 1.25 percent from April to pay for health and social care service.
Since the announcement, the Chancellor has come under increasing pressure from Tory peers to backtrack on the planned tax rises after inflation hit its highest level since the early 1990s.
The Government has already broken key manifesto pledges not to raise income tax, National Insurance or VAT and broken the triple lock that protected increases in the state pension.
However, Tory MPs who have met with Mr Sunak over the cost of living crisis have been “left with the impression” that he is trying to distance himself from the National Insurance increase.
Full story: 'Rishi referred to it as the Prime Minister's tax'
Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UK has called for British soldiers to join their troops in the event of a Russian invasion, describing London as Kyiv’s “special support” within Nato.
It comes after Britain accused Russia of plotting to install a puppet leader in Kyiv. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss at the weekend publicly released specially declassified intelligence naming Yevhen Murayev, a former Ukrainian MP, as the Kremlin’s preferred candidate to take over the country.
Ambassador Vadym Prystaiko said he had been asked whether Kyiv would “invite partners like Britain to intervene with actual soldiers on Ukrainian soil, given that we are threatened by military forces much greater than our own”.
His response was that “if the threat is real, if there is a start of active operations, we will ask for anything, including British military personnel on our territories”.
？Danielle Sheridan has the story
Dominic Cummings will reportedly speak to Sue Gray today after confirming last week he would be interviewed by the renowned civil servant as part of her probe into Downing Street parties.
He made a separate offer to testify under oath last week after accusing Boris Johnson of having "lied to Parliament" over what he knew about events held at No 10 during lockdown. The claim was denied by the Prime Minister.
Gordon Rayner, our Associate Editor, has this must-read analysis about how smart Mr Cummings's latest may have actually been.
The chairman of the education select committee has accused the Conservatives of "acting in a Notting Hill sequel" by focusing on Cop26 and the green agenda.
Robert Halfon, the Tory MP for Harlow, called for Boris Johnson "white van working men and women up and down the country" to reverse the fortunes of his beleaguered government.
Speaking to the Express today, he said: "The last few months have seen the Conservatives acting in a Notting Hill sequel, with prioritisation focused on Cop26, windmills and solar power, rather than issues affecting citizens much closer to home.
"People across the country are worrying about feeding and clothing their families. We are seeing the price of petrol at an all-time high, energy bills are rising by ￡200 per month and the cost of living has increased by 5.4 per cent. Is it any wonder the public are losing faith in us?"
Despite feeling "dismayed and let down" after weeks of Downing Street party relevations, Mr Halfon stressed he was "not agitating for [Boris Johnson's] removal", because "to change a government in the midst of a pandemic would be folly... The public would not respect us for this bloodletting."
The PM has lost his authority, writes Nick Timothy. Every day Boris Johnson holds on, the more the public will believe his MPs, ministers and wider party are as deceitful as they judge him to be.
We are all familiar with the final stages of American gangster movies. Facing prosecution and prison, the accomplices and henchmen eventually talk. With nothing left to lose, their testimonies help to bring down the once imperious and untouchable kingpin.
Tories still loyal to the Prime Minister fear something similar will happen as the Downing Street parties are investigated. Senior officials, who once expected promotions, peerages or embassies in important countries, face the most ignominious of departures: sacked amid a wall of public criticism and anger.
Indeed, the PM considers their demise necessary to save his premiership. So what, other than unrequited loyalty, and perhaps a promise of compensation in the distant future, will stop Martin Reynolds and other Downing Street officials incriminating Boris Johnson?
Why, if the accusations Johnson faces are true, would they not assert or even prove that the Prime Minister broke Covid rules knowingly at the notorious garden party and, perhaps, on other occasions and in different places?
Nick Timothy: The Conservatives are in a perilous position
Tory voters will "evaporate" unless the National Insurance increase is scrapped, former Cabinet minister David Davis has warned.
He joins a chorus of prominent ministers calling for the hike scheduled for April to be called off amid concerns about how it will impact the price of living crisis.
Mr Davis told the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme: "One of the things that came up on every doorstep I went to in all the swing all the northern seats around me was - 'Jeremy Corbyn going to put taxes up, therefore, I'm going to vote for you'.
"And what are we going to do? Put taxes up. What do you think's going to happen? Those votes, they're going to evaporate.
"So for our own political interest, but more importantly for the national interest - we should keep taxes down."
Boris Johnson has ordered a Cabinet Office investigation into Nusrat Ghani's Islamophobia claims.
Ms Ghani yesterday accused the Prime Minister of failing to take the matter “seriously” when she directly reported it to him shortly after she lost her job as a transport minister in a reshuffle in February 2020.
She claimed that she was told after being sacked in 2020 that her “Muslim woman minister status was making colleagues feel uncomfortable” and “that I wasn’t loyal to the party as I didn’t do enough to defend the party against Islamophobia allegations”.
Mark Spencer outed himself as the whip referenced in the allegations and denied the claims on Saturday night, labelling them “completely false” and defamatory.
Ms Ghani welcomed the investigation in a tweet of her own this morning, and wrote: "As I said to the Prime Minister last night all I want is for this to be taken seriously and for him to investigate."
Labour has been accused of plotting “eye-watering” tax rises on middle and high earners, writes Gordon Rayner, as analysis shows the party has made more than ￡90 billion of spending promises.
Pledges made by Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, would amount to an extra ￡2,138 per household if all of them were paid for through general taxation.
This, despite Ms Reeves describing the Conservatives as “the party of high taxation” when she set out her economic policy in a speech earlier this week.
She has made it clear that Labour would impose a raft of new wealth taxes if the party won an election, targeting property, shares, capital gains, higher earnings and private schools.
Ruth Kelly, the former education secretary and Treasury economic secretary under Sir Tony Blair, urged Sir Keir leader to reduce the size of the state to save money and devolve more powers locally including giving councils the ability to raise business taxes.
？Ruth Kelly: Every pound must be allocated with purpose
The "findings" of Sue Gray's report will be published rather than a full document, Nadhim Zahawi suggested on the Today programme.
Ms Gray, the Second Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office who has a decorated reputation in Whitehall, is widely expected to release her findings this week.
But as Mr Zahawi made clear, the "terms of reference" for her report mean that "the findings of her report will be made public".
Questioned on whether it would be the right thing to do to publish the full report, Mr Zahawi doubled down: "That is the terms of reference. That is the right thing, I think, that will ensure that her findings are made public. That will ensure public confidence. This is exactly what she should be doing.
"She can follow the evidence wherever it takes her. I've said this on your programme many times and she's doing exactly that. It's thorough and complete and the findings will be made public and the Prime Minister will submit himself to Parliament and make a statement and be scrutinised on those findings."
The UK has begun withdrawing its staff from the Ukrainian embassy in Kyiv amid the rising tensions between the country and Russia, reports Gareth Davies, our Breaking News Editor.
Sources at the Foreign Office told the BBC the move was not the result of any specific intelligence targeting British diplomats, but a response to the growing risk of a Russian incursion and the potential risk to UK officials in the Ukraine.
Tensions in Ukraine have been increasing for months after the Kremlin massed some 100,000 troops near Ukraine's borders, a dramatic buildup the West says is preparation for a war to prevent Ukraine from ever joining the NATO security alliance.
Growing risk of incursion prompts embassy withdrawal
Police officers who guard Downing Street have been interviewed by Sue Gray for the “partygate” investigation, Martin Evans and Lucy Fisher report.
Members of the Metropolitan Police’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command who were on duty when a string of lockdown-breaking gatherings are alleged to have taken place have provided detailed testimonies about what they witnessed.
The statements, described by one source as “extremely damning”, are expected to form a key part of Ms Gray’s report, which is due to be published within days.
The senior civil servant has also spoken to the Prime Minister, civil servants and political advisers, and accessed security pass logs and even Boris Johnson’s official diary.
Asked how significant the material they had disclosed was, one source said: “Put it this way, if Boris Johnson is still Prime Minister by the end of the week, I’d be very surprised.”
Sue Gray latest: Dominic Cummings 'will give evidence today'
For all the drama the House of Commons has brought us in recent weeks, the sight of David Davis telling Boris Johnson "in the name of God, go!" in an unexpected intervention at Prime Minister's Questions was possibly the most jaw-dropping.
But the former Brexit minister appears to have rowed back on his comments this morning, as he indicated on the Today programme he would wait for the Sue Gray report before making up his mind on the future of the Prime Minister.
"I like Boris, I've known him for 30 years but the truth is we're now into an issue of trust," he said. "I don't think any of the proposed people [to replace him as Prime Minister] I've seen in the papers have a trust issue.
"I think its pretty likely I would want him to go, but I will wait for those few days. "At the moment he has a legacy of having delivered Brexit and having brought us through the pandemic.
"As we carry on as we may do, month in, month out, it will do huge damage to the Conservative Party."
Nadhim Zahawi clarified that the "TL" badge he wore during his Sky interview this morning stands for "T-Levels" after Kay Burley quipped it was short for "Tory leader".
"I'm going to make them as famous as A-Levels," he said.
"They're technical, they're a fusion between an apprenticeship and an A-Level. And actually they're a fantastic thing, which you're going to hear much more about from me."
In a post on social media in the last few minutes, Ms Ghani has said:
The Education Secretary urged William Wragg and other Tory MPs to come forward with proof of their claims against the party whips.
Nadhim Zahawi recalled that his experiences during 11 years as a backbencher did not "at all" resemble the allegations made by Mr Wragg and Christian Wakeford, who last week crossed the floor to join the Labour Party.
"I think they have a responsibility to put their evidence forward. All I can say from my experience is I haven't experienced any of that. I've rebelled before and it hasn't impacted anything to do with my constituency or due process."
He denied that as Education Secretary he would have the power to deny an MP the funding for a school in their constituency, as claimed by Mr Wakeford about Gavin Williamson, Mr Zahawi's predecessor, in the Sunday Times this weekend.
Nadhim Zahawi has never experienced any form of racism "institutional or otherwise" in four decades as a member of the Conservatives, he said this morning.
He was responding to criticisms by Baroness Warsi, a former party chairman who claimed the Singh report into Islamophobia showed the Conservative Party was "institutionally racist" - despite the findings having said otherwise.
"With all respect to Baroness Warsi or anyone else, I've been a member of the party since the late eighties.
"I've risen through the party, I've been a local councillor for three terms, I've been a volunteer in the voluntary party, I've been a Member of Parliament. I have not actually experienced any form of racism, institutional or otherwise.
"My view is of course we can always do better which is why we had the inquiry, which is why we are overhauling our process. There is no place, as I said in my tweet over the weekend, for racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism in our politics, in our party.
"In a case where a valued colleague comes forward and says I've heard this or there's issues I want aired and dealt with, it's only right in the meantime. I work very closely with Mark [Spencer] - he's categorically denied this and said it's defamatory. One of our values is fairness and people have a fair hearing and I'm not going to impugn the reputation of either colleague."
Boris Johnson offered Nusrat Ghani an investigation two years ago, Nadhim Zahawi insisted this morning as he defended the Prime Minister's personal record.
"These are really painful allegations for anyone of Nus's background to make," he told Sky. "I think it's important she gets to put her evidence forward.
"I think the right thing to do is allow the Cabinet Office to investigate."
Challenged on Boris Johnson's "bank robbers and letterboxes" comments, Mr Zahawi said: "He's also the Prime Minister who has promoted Nadhim Zahawi to Secretary of State for Education, Sajid Javid to Health Secretary, Priti Patel, Rishi Sunak, Kwasi Kwarteng...
"I'm not saying anything other than the important thing to remember is that this is a Prime Minister who in my view doesn't look at your background, your religion or anything else. He looks at your ability and whether you're capable of doing a job.
"At the same time this is a Prime Minister who actually asked Professor Singh to conduct an inquiry into Islamophobia. The inquiry came back with some recommendations and the party is overhauling itself."
Nadhim Zahawi, the Education Secretary, has said he would "not impugn" either of his Conservative colleagues amid Nusrat Ghani's claims against Mark Spencer.
"Nus is a valued colleague, I've known her for a very long time," Mr Zahawi told Sky News. "She's worked incredibly hard both as an MP and a minister.
"She's made a very serious allegation, the Prime Minister spoke to her last night and said that the Cabinet Office will look at this and look at the detail of this. She put out a statement last night saying actually this could be, to be fair, people who aren't even members of the Conservative Party.
"Which is why we have to get to the bottom of this very quickly and of course the Chief Whip has come out and named himself as the individual. I work with both colleagues and I think it's important that someone like a Cabinet Office senior civil servant should look at this properly because the Chief Whip has categorically denied this."
Asked if he believed Mr Spencer's denial, Mr Zahawi said: "I'm not going to impune either colleague. We're one team, we work well together as a team and that's what the nation expects."
Boris Johnson has ordered a Cabinet Office investigation into Nusrat Ghani's Islamophobia claims, it has emerged in the last few minutes.
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