Boris Johnson is "fully cooperating" over the police questionnaire he received last week in relation to "partygate" but it is not his focus, Liz Truss has said.
Mr Johnson has four days left to respond to questions from Scotland Yard after No 10 confirmed he had been contacted in relation to reported Downing Street parties.
He is expected to argue he was working during an alleged party said to have taken place on November 13, 2020.
"He is fully cooperating with the police inquiry," the Foreign Secretary told Sky News. "But there is a very serious situation at present that we’ve been discussing, with Russia and Ukraine, and the Prime Minister is fully focused on that.
"He’ll be chairing a meeting of Cobra later this morning to make sure that we are really pursuing the diplomacy, that we’re pulling out all the stops on that, at the same time as preparing for the worst and making sure we are in the best possible position to respond alongside our Nato allies."
The Foreign Secretary also hit back at suggestions her trip to Moscow last week had been a humiliation. It came as the Prime Minister cut short a planned "levelling up" tour of northern England to chair today's Cobra meeting in face of continued tensions on the Ukrainian border.
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A senior officer in the Metropolitan Police has admitted that racism is a problem in the country's largest force but denied that "all of the organisation [is] a racist organisation".
Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Bas Javid also acknowledged that "people who have racist views and are racist" are among the force's staff.
When asked on BBC Newsnight if he accepted racism "is a problem in the Metropolitan Police", Mr Javid replied: "Yes, I do."
"Let me be really clear on this, there's absolutely no room for racism in policing," he told the programme. "Especially here in the Metropolitan Police, we made that very, very clear to our people, anyone who works for us and demonstrates any type of racism or discrimination behaviour will be removed from the organisation."
Full story: 'We've done a huge amount of anti-racist work'
Labour is hiring a "Director of Attack and Rebuttal" with a view to the next general election, as the party looks to expand on what is only a thin lead over the embattled Conservatives in the most recent polling.
The advertisement for the role, as spotted by Guido Fawkes, promises a cool ￡68,000 per year and seeks to find someone "who will responsible for the production and dissemination of materials to support Labour’s election strategy".
The successful candidate would "ensure prompt and effective rebuttal of claims made by political opponents".
After Steve Reed, the shadow justice secretary, said at the weekend Tony Blair had "got it right" on crime, it seems Sir Keir's party is also looking to revert to the New Labour era of "spin wars" a year after Baron Mandelson reportedly came back on the scene in the party.
In recent developments on the Russia-Ukraine crisis, tens of thousands of Russian troops have massed on the borders of Ukraine, raising fears Moscow could invade imminently.
As a result, Western leaders are desperately rushing to find a diplomatic solution to avert a potential invasion, while the UK believes Vladimir Putin is planning a "false flag" event as soon as tomorrow.
At midday (GMT) tomorrow (Weds, Feb 16), you can join the Telegraph's senior foreign correspondent, Roland Oliphant and Moscow correspondent, Nataliya Vasilyeva, as they discuss the Ukraine stand-off.
Sign up to our webinar here
In his recent speech to the Institute for Government, Sir John Major won headlines for his claim that "at No 10, the Prime Minister and officials broke lockdown laws", writes Charles Moore. He may be proved right - but it was surprising to hear him say it.
Although making a speech defending the rule of law, he was publicly intervening while a police investigation is still in progress. You are not supposed to do that, especially if you are an ex-prime minister.
The headlines distracted from Sir John's most concrete point. He sidled up to it: "There is rarely a good time for a bad idea, but sometimes – when faced with the alternatives – a bad idea can appeal. So it is with the funding of politics."
He does not want to ban private donations to political parties completely but says they should be capped, and continues: "If a restriction on donations means an increased level of public funding of political parties, of elections, of referendums, then so be it."
Charles Moore: John Major sounded reasonable - but was mistaken
Priti Patel is to introduce a new law that will prevent Sadiq Khan from summarily sacking or suspending the next Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Charles Hymas can reveal.
The Home Secretary is planning the legal change to prevent police and crime commissioners (PCCs) dismissing chief constables, including the Met Police Commissioner, for political or personal reasons.
The move was already being planned before the Mayor of London forced the resignation of Dame Cressida Dick amid concerns within the Government that a pattern has been emerging of Labour PCCs disposing of policing chiefs.
It is thought that the departure of Dame Cressida, who quit after being told that she had lost the support of Mr Khan, will accelerate the shake-up to protect her successor and other chief constables who fall out with their political masters.
Ms Patel is the person by law who appoints the Met Commissioner, although the legislation requires her to consult the Mayor. There are no plans to change this process.
Read the full story here
Matt Hancock has taken part in a "heated podcast" in which he was grilled about his departure from the front bench.
The former Health Secretary was accompanied by Gina Coladangelo, his girlfriend, to the interview with Steven Bartlett, the newest Dragon on Dragons' Den and the founder of social media marketing agency Social Chain.
Mr Bartlett said the podcast would touch on "partygate", where the infamous CCTV footage of Mr Hancock and Ms Coladangelo had come from, and mistakes the former Health Secretary had made.
"This is the first time in the history of The Diary Of A CEO that things got a little heated between me and a guest at one point," the entrepreneur wrote. "However, Matt did answer all of the tough questions I asked him and nothing will be edited out."
New unemployment figures show the Conservatives' plan for the economy is working, Rishi Sunak said as the number of payrolled workers hit a record high.
The UK employment rate rose by 0.1 percentage points to 75.5 per cent in October to December 2021, while the unemployment rate decreased by 0.2 percentage points and payrolled employees rose to an unprecedented 29.5million.
"Our ￡400 billion economic plan has protected our jobs market through the pandemic and it is now healthier than most could have hoped for," Mr Sunak said.
"Payrolled employee numbers are at a record high and redundancies are at an all-time low thanks to our Plan for Jobs."
Mr Sunak pointed to the ￡20billion provided across the next two financial years by the Government in a bid to ease the cost-of-living crisis.
With Ukraine on the edge of invasion, a question hangs over the West. Who is the real Vladimir Putin? asks Sherelle Jacobs.
Sherelle Jacobs: Our throw of the dice may not pay off
The location of the British Embassy in Ukraine is subject to "review", Liz Truss suggested after the United States confirmed it was closing its embassy in Kyiv due to a likely invasion.
"We have moved some staff to Lviv in the west of Ukraine," Ms Truss told the Today programme. "We still have staff in Kyiv. We continue to review that.
"But we do think it is very important that we are supporting British citizens in Ukraine and we do have a presence in Kyiv, but, clearly, I'm constantly looking at our staff safety to make sure they are protected."
Ms Truss revealed she "can't make any commitments about any refugees at this stage" in the event of an invasion, having avoided giving a number in her earlier Sky News interview.
"The point I would make is that we have asked British citizens to leave Ukraine while there are still commercial flight routes available," she said.
Scotland Yard will reveal the number of people fined at each "partygate" event being investigated and explain why the decision was taken, civil servants have been told.
A question and answer sheet sent to government officials caught up in the inquiry, a copy of which has been seen by The Telegraph, says the civil service will not be told who gets fined.
Government staff facing allegations of attending lockdown-breaking parties are told to talk to their supervisors if they need time off to deal with what is happening.
Ben Riley-Smith, our Political Editor, has this report
Britons should stop “obsessing” over pronouns and "decolonising" the school curriculum, the Conservative Party chairman has urged - as he decried the “painful woke psychodrama” of activists across the West.
Oliver Dowden warned that institutional Left-wing ideology risked a collapse in resolve, as he became the first Tory chairman to make a speech in Washington for more than two decades.
Speaking at the Heritage Foundation, the conservative policy think tank which enjoyed a close relationship with Margaret Thatcher, he noted the UK and US are where the so-called "woke agenda" is being "pursued the most aggressively".
"If all we hear is that our societies are monstrous, unjust and oppressive, why on earth would anyone fight to sustain them?" he asked.
End this 'painful woke psychodrama', Dowden tells West
Boris Johnson and Joe Biden on last night insisted not all hope was lost despite Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, appearing to suggest that Russia could invade on Wednesday, Lucy Fisher, Nick Allen and James Rothwell report.
After another frantic day of diplomacy, Mr Johnson and Mr Biden agreed that there was still a "crucial window" to avoid war.
It came as Mr Zelensky warned his people to prepare for a Russian invasion on Wednesday and urged them to greet it with a show of patriotism on the streets in a bizarre video address to the nation.
Ukrainians should "hang national flags, put on blue and yellow ribbons, and show our unity to the whole world", Mr Zelensky said. A close aide later said the president, a comedian turned populist politician, was being "ironic".
Last-ditch diplomatic push amid backtrack over invasion claim
Europe must end its reliance on Russian oil and gas to safeguard "freedom and democracy," Liz Truss said this morning.
In an interview with BBC Breakfast, Ms Truss pointed to the "very damaging" impact a war in Ukraine would have on costs at the petrol pump and stressed the need to "find alternative sources".
"In the United Kingdom only three per cent of our gas is from Russia, which is different from continental Europe. We are working to support people with the cost of living but of course a war in Ukraine would do further damage to the European gas market."
Ms Truss insisted the petrol duty freeze had saved people "￡15 every time they fill up with petrol" but pointed to a "global situation of high oil and gas prices", adding: "One of the things we need to do is reduce dependence on Russian gas for the long-term future of freedom and democracy in Europe."
Earlier, she used her Kay Burley at Breakfast appearance to describe the idea of Nord Stream 2 going ahead in the event of an invasion as "simply unconscionable" and said she hoped Olaf Scholz would send a "very clear" message to Vladimir Putin during talks today.
Liz Truss said she "deeply regrets" the mob that surrounded Sir Keir Starmer at the start of last week but insisted it was not Boris Johnson's fault.
Mr Johnson yesterday declined to take the opportunity to apologise to the Labour leader, who confirmed to BBC Radio Newcastle he had received death threats in the wake of the Prime Minister's claim, later clarified, that Sir Keir "spent most of his time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile" as Director of Public Prosecutions.
Ms Truss told Sky News: "The Prime Minister did clarify his remarks and of course I deeply regret what happened to Keir Starmer.
"Every politician needs to be able to go about their job without fear, that’s very important.
"But ultimately it’s the perpetrators who attacked Keir Starmer, who verbally abused Keir Starmer who we should be putting the blame on."
Boris Johnson is "fully cooperating" with the police in the criminal investigation into alleged Downing Street parties but it is not his focus, Liz Truss insisted as she warned a Russian invasion of Ukraine could still be imminent.
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