Inside Politics: Boris Johnson being ‘bullied’ by his scientists, Tory MPs claim

Backbenchers are urging the PM not to listen to the siren voices of experts and push on with 21 June’s lockdown lifting, writes Adam Forrest

(REUTERS)

We can’t seem to agree on anything these days. People on Twitter are currently arguing about London’s see-through sky pool. Some think the luxury swimming tank is amazingly cool. Some pointed out the social evils of banning “poor” tenants from use. Others said just looking at it made them feel dizzy. Boris Johnson will find a dizzying array of different opinions as he returns to work after his mini-honeymoon. Some of his own scientific advisers think it would be amazingly cool if the PM pushed the end of lockdown back to July. But angry Tory MPs are pointing to the social evils of further delay.

Inside the bubble

Political commentator Andrew Grice on what to look out for today:

Boris Johnson is back at work and is expected to say something on the latest Covid data this morning. Education secretary Gavin Williamson will set out the government’s £1.4bn plan to help pupils in England catch up on lost learning. Elsewhere, health secretary Matt Hancock is hosting a summit to boost vaccine confidence in G7 countries.

Daily briefing

THE BULLY-INTO CLUB: The lockdown sceptics on the Tory backbenches fear Boris Johnson is being bullied into delaying the lifting of lockdown on 21 June. Prof Ravi Gupta (a Nervtag member) suggested a delay of “at least a few weeks” would be wise, while Prof Adam Finn (an adviser on the JCVI group) said lifting of final restrictions on 21 June “may be a bad decision”. Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith fumed: “We listen to scientists far too much at the moment. They seem … to be bullying the government.” Fellow Tory MP Desmond Swayne added: “We cannot go on suppressing human interaction … or we will live in fear and penury.” Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 committee of backbenchers, pointed to the fact that the UK had zero daily Covid deaths on Tuesday for the very first time since March 2020. However, Nicola Sturgeon backed scientists by “pausing” the easing of restrictions for much of Scotland. She said 13 council areas would stay in level 2. “Let her play her games,” seethed IDS.

DONATIONS FROM THE DEAD? Labour is demanding an investigation into a report that two donations made to the Tories came from companies which had ceased to exist, were bereft of life, pushing up the daisies, etc. Labour’s chairwoman Anneliese Dodds has asked the watchdog Electoral Commission to see if anything dodgy about £16,000-worth of donations made by ex-companies Stridewell Estates and Unionist Buildings Limited – first reported by Business Insider. Elsewhere, MPs have clashed over calls for the government to share its supply of vaccines with the rest of the world. More than 100 MPs and peers have urged Boris Johnson to match every dose bought for the UK with a donation to the WHO’s Covax scheme. William Hague argued with Lib Dem MP Layla Moran about it on the BBC. The former Tory leader suggested countries with successful roll-out should be left to “build up their own ... capabilities” before giving more to others.

CLOONEY TUNES: So Keir Starmer did pretty well on ITV’s Life Stories last night – enjoying a matey rapport with host Piers Morgan and offering us new insights into his character. As well as sharing the pain of his mother’s illness with Still’s Disease, he revealed his difficult relationship with his father. “He was not emotional. He was a difficult man. He didn’t much like company.” It turns out that Starmer is pals with Amal Clooney and her actor husband. “George gives quite a lot of advice, including to me, and he has got very strong views on American politics,” he said of long, sometimes boozy lunches with the A-list couple. He had relatively little to say about how he was going to win back ex-Labour voters, but did say he would tour the country this summer to meet them: “Let me get out there and let me take the mask off”. Asked what he would do if he came across Boris Johnson on the football pitch, Starmer turned all blokey and replied: “I’d probably knock him over.” Ooh. Hard.

CATCH UP IF YOU CAN: The government has announced its £1.4bn “catch-up” plan for schools in England, which amounts to some extra tutoring. A proposal that will likely add an extra 30 minutes to the school day (those poor kids) will be decided later this year. Unions are angry that a more ambitious catch-up plan costing just over £10bn is thought to have been rejected by the Treasury. The NAHT union said “education recovery cannot be done on the cheap”. Labour’s education secretary Kate Green responded in kind, saying it “makes a mockery of the PM’s claim that education is a priority”. Elsewhere, the RMT union is not happy with the £1bn bailout agreed for TfL. The government demanded the pension scheme is reviewed and work is carried out on introducing driverless tube trains in return for the funding. London mayor Sadiq Khan admitted it was “not the deal we wanted”. The RMT warned members could take strike action to resist the “disgraceful stitch-up”.

WHEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE: Brexit minister David Frost has told business leaders in Northern Ireland the protocol is “unsustainable” in its current form. The minister is now due for a “stock-taking” meeting with his EU Commission counterpart Maros Sefcovic next week, where Frost will try to use his limited charms to wheedle some practical solutions out of Brussels. It comes as new research reveals a staggering £113bn has been wiped off exports of UK services because of Brexit. “What we find raises serious concerns about the damage to the UK’s services trade position,” said Prof Jun Du. She warned that the trend of services companies moving out of the UK is likely to accelerate this year. “It will now pick up and get worse as businesses see that there is not much going on in UK-EU negotiations. I think this is only the beginning.”

CULTURE VULTURE: The zeitgeist-chasing Rishi Sunak has revealed he watches Bridgerton and Emily in Paris. The chancellor conceded that his Netflix-heavy tastes were “probably not quite the same” as those of his cabinet colleagues. He also reminisced about growing up watching watch The A-Team, Baywatch and Blind Date in his interview with the Radio Times. More importantly, the chancellor also said he was an “enormous fan” of the BBC. “I was living thousands of miles away in California, and the BBC was still my homepage. There’s an emotional attachment to it.” Speaking of emotional attachments, Downing Street said Boris and Carrie Johnson did sneak off for a two-day “mini moon” after all. Asked where the newlyweds travelled, following reports of a trip the seaside, the spokesman said: “It’s a personal matter, so I won’t be getting into any further detail.”

On the record

“Taking a cautious approach now gives us the best chance of staying on the right track overall.”

Nicola Sturgeon on Scotland’s ‘pause’ in lockdown easing…

From the Twitterati

“The PM’s spokesman says Boris Johnson and new wife Carrie Symonds went on a mini-moon on Sunday and Monday. Refuses to say where they went because it’s a ‘personal matter’.”

Paul Waugh on the secret mini-moon…

“Mini-moon is not a thing.”

…while David Baddiel is having none of it.

Essential reading

Marie Le Conte, The Independent: Why ‘sorry’ seems to be the hardest word for politicians

Sadiq Khan, The Independent: Councils have to play a bigger part in fixing the housing crisis

James Kirkup, The Times: Boris Johnson needs a legacy beyond Brexit and Covid

Rachel Cooke, New Statesman: Keir Starmer played Piers Morgan at his own game and won

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