Boris Johnson news - live: MPs to investigate PM over potential partygate Commons lies
PM accused of ‘running away’ from Commons drama with twice-delayed India trip
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Boris Johnson is set to be investigated for potentially lying to MPs over parties held at Number 10, after a landmark decision by the House of Commons.
This comes after the prime minister rejected a call by former Brexit minister Steve Baker for him to resign over Partygate, insisting that he has “absolutely nothing, frankly, to hide”.
Tory MP claimed the prime minister “now should be long gone” after – in a major U-turn, amid fears of a rebellion – the government backed down from a bid to force its MPs to delay a vote on whether to hold a Commons inquiry into whether he misled parliament, which is now expected to go ahead.
Ahead of Thursday’s debate, Labour threatened to plaster the names of MPs who blocked the probe across election leaflets, and accused Mr Johnson of using his two-day trip to India as a distraction.
Speaking from a JCB factory in Gujarat, Mr Johnson claimed he was “very keen for every possible form of scrutiny” and said MPs “must do whatever they want.”
In the Commons, the SNP’s Ian Blackford branded Mr Johnson a “liar” – and was not ordered to retract his remark by the Speaker.
Tory Party not ‘a fit and proper party any longer’, Wes Streeting claims
A Labour frontbencher has claimed he doesn’t believe that Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party “is a fit and proper party any longer”.
Speaking ahead of a vote on a Commons inquiry into whether the prime minister has misled parliament over Partygate, Wes Streeting told Sky News: “I think Conservative MPs need to show where they stand today and if they don’t stand with their voters, on 5 May, the voters have a chance to send a direct message to Boris Johnson and to Conservative MPs.”
The shadow health secretary added: “I don’t believe that the Conservative Party is a fit and proper party any longer. I don’t believe that Conservative MPs are upholding basic standards in public life. I don’t believe that they’re standing up for their constituents. I don’t believe that they’re standing up in the national interest.
“I’d love them to prove me wrong today. But if they don’t, I would appeal directly to decent Conservative voters – in many cases lifelong Conservative voters, who are horrified by what they have seen from their prime minister – I urge them to use the 5 May elections to send a direct message to the Conservative Party.”
Labour fears Tory MPs will act ‘like lemmings’ – despite ‘agonising’ over vote
The government’s Partygate amendment is an attempt “to provide cover for Boris Johnson to try and distract and deflect, and allow MPs to go back to their constituents and wash their hands of this”, Wes Streeting has said.
Labour’s shadow health secretary claimed many Tory MPs were “agonising” about the looming vote on a Commons inquiry into Mr Johnson’s Partygate claims – but said he feared they will “troop through the lobby like lemmings today because they don’t have the courage to stand up for what is right”.
The Labour frontbencher accused the prime minister of “trashing one of the oldest and most successful political parties in the history of Western democracy”.
He added: “It’s as plain as the nose on my face that Boris Johnson has lied to parliament. We need this parliamentary investigation.”
Boris Johnson claims he is ‘very keen for every possible form of scrutiny’
Boris Johnson has defended the government’s efforts to delay any potential parliamentary investigation into whether he deliberately misled parliament over the Partygate scandal.
Speaking to reporters during a trip to India denounced by his opponents as an attempt to distract from his Partygate strife in the Commons, Mr Johnson told reporters at a JCB factory in Gujarat: “I’m very keen for every possible form of scrutiny and the House of Commons can do whatever it wants to do.
“But all I would say is I don’t think that should happen until the investigation is completed.”
He added: “I think what people should have is the full facts. In the meantime what I want to do is get on with the job.”
Mr Johnson said he hopes to broker a post-Brexit free trade deal with India “by the end of the year, by the autumn”.
Boris Johnson denies misleading parliament, claims MPs ‘must do whatever they want’
Boris Johnson has denied that he misled parliament over the Partygate scandal, ahead of a Commons vote on whether the matter should be investigated by a committee of MPs.
Asked on the first day of his trade mission to India whether he knowningly or unknowingly misled parliament, Mr Johnson said: “Of course not.”
While Tory MPs are understood to have been whipped to back an amendment delaying the vote on an inquiry into his comments until after the Metropolitan Police investigation is concluded, the prime minister told reporters that MPs “must do whatever they want”, adding: “That is their prerogative.”
‘We always raise the difficult issues,’ Boris Johnson says ahead of Narendra Modi meeting
Boris Johnson has said that India “is democratic” in response to concerns that his counterpart Narendra Modi has been making the country more authoritarian.
Asked by broadcasters during a visit to a JCB factory in Gujarat what he planned to discuss with Mr Modi, Mr Johnson suggested he would raise restrictions on the press, the protection of minorities and the use of bulldozers to destroy Muslim homes.
“We always raise the difficult issues, of course we do, but the fact is that India is a country of 1.35 billion people and it is democratic, it’s the world's largest democracy,” Mr Johnson said.
While Ukraine is likely to be a sore point in talks – with India having sharply increased its imports of Russian oil in recent months – Downing Street has said that the PM will not “lecture” Mr Modi on the need to cut ties with Moscow, but will engage “constructively” on alternative ways for Delhi to source its energy and defence needs.
We’ve failed on housing, admits Michael Gove
Michael Gove has admitted the government has “failed” to make sure Britain has enough affordable housing, with even the most “Thatcher-worshipping” people wanting more social housing.
Speaking at a conference hosted by the charity Shelter, the housing secretary also conceded that the inadequacy of many private rented homes, and the “vulnerability” that renters face in their daily lives, was “insupportable and indefensible”.
Mr Gove added: “It’s urgent that we address the lack of social housing and the poor quality of social housing at this time.”
You can read more on his comments here:
We’ve failed on housing, admits Michael Gove
Even the most ‘Thatcher-worshipping’ people want more social housing, says cabinet minister
Tory MP suggests Labour motion for Commons inquiry will be successful
Last night, Tory MP Andrew Mitchell – who has called on Boris Johnson to resign – appeared to suggest that Labour’s motion for Boris Johnson to be referred to the privileges committee over his comments on Partygate could pass in the Commons, even without the need for a formal vote.
“I shan’t be there, quite a lot of my colleagues are heading off either tonight or tomorrow morning to their constituency. We expect this matter to be referred to the privileges committee, and I think the government will go along with it,” he told ITV.
The broadcaster’s political editor Robert Peston suggests that, because Labour’s motion would explicitly delay the “substantive” work of the inquiry until after police investigation is concluded, Sir Keir Starmer will “describe the Tory amendment not as a delaying tactic but as a wrecking amendment”.
Pointing out that what is at stake in the Commons today is “whether the conduct of a prime minister perceived to have broken important rules can be properly and transparently assessed by his peers”, Mr Peston suggested that “it is not hyperbole to describe this impasse as a constitutional crisis”.
Government appears to issue double U-turn over Commons inquiry into Boris Johnson
Following earlier reports that Tory MPs would be subjected to a three-line whip in a vote on whether to Boris Johnson should be investigated by the privileges committee, Commons leader Mark Spencer has now said that his colleagues will have a “free vote” in today’s debate.
Furthermore, the government has reportedly dropped its last-ditch amendment which sought to delay a vote on an inquiry until after the conclusion of the police investigation into Partygate.
The Guardian’s political correspondent Peter Walker calls the apparent whipping U-turn “quite a change of stance”, adding:
The BBC’s deputy political editor Vicki Young said she had been told by multiple Tory MPs that an inquiry was “inevitable”.
Meanwhile, the FT’s Whitehall editor quotes a senior Tory insider as saying the vote is “a nightmare for our MPs”.
Labour calls government U-turn ‘humiliating for Tory MPs'
Labour has accused the government of being forced into a “humiliating” U-turn after being caught in an attempted “cover up” with its amendment to delay an inquiry into Boris Johnson’s Partygate claims.
“This is humiliating for Conservative MPs who were being pressured to vote for the government’s cover-up amendment,” said the party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner, adding: “Tory MPs should do the right thing, respect the sacrifices that their constituents made during the pandemic, and vote in the national interest.”
After Tory MPs were granted a free vote, following earlier reports of a three-line whip, a senior government source claimed that Mr Johnson was “happy to face” a parliamentary inquiry.
“He’s happy to face whatever inquiries parliament sees fit, and is happy for the House to decide how it wishes to proceed today and therefore will not be whipping Conservative MPs,” the source said.
Tory MPs had been deeply uneasy about the government amendment, with one ex-minister telling The Independent that it looked like “a blocking move”.
My colleague Adam Forrest has more on the response to the government’s U-turn in this breaking story, which you can refresh for updates:
Government ditches attempt to delay Boris Johnson Partygate
Tory MPs will be given a free vote on Labour motion to establish probe
Labour motion seeks to defend principle that truth matters in politics, Starmer says
Sir Keir Starmer has introduced Labour’s motion for a Commons inquiry into whether Boris Johnson misled parliament with his Partygate denials.
The Labour leader said the motion “seeks to defend the simple principle that honesty, integrity and telling the truth matter in our politics”, adding: “That is not a principle that I, or the Labour Party, have a special claim to.
“It’s a British principle. It’s a principle that’s been cherished by Conservatives for as long as that party has existed, embraced by unionist and nationalist parties alike, and one that still guides members from every political party in this house.”
You can watch the debate live here:
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