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.
Starmer withdraws accusations over Boris Johnson’s comments to Tory MPs
Sir Keir Starmer has withdrawn accusations he made that Boris Johnson had been critical of BBC journalists over their coverage of the Ukraine invasion.
At a private meeting of Tory MPs, the Prime Minister was said to have attacked the BBC and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby for criticising his Rwanda asylum plan, claiming they had been “less vociferous” about condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But Mr Johnson denied criticising the BBC over its coverage of the Ukraine war after Sir Keir seized on reports of the meeting at PMQs.
Raising a point of order on Thursday, the Labour leader told the Commons: “The prime minister's comments on Tuesday night to his backbenchers were briefed to journalists by a spokesperson.
“Those comments were reasonably interpreted by several media outlets, including the Daily Telegraph, as being criticisms of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the BBC for their comments and coverage of Ukraine. Government ministers were out on broadcast rounds yesterday morning and they didn't seek to correct that interpretation.
“But since then the government has corrected the record and said the prime minister's comments only referred to the archbishop and not the BBC, so I'm more than happy to echo that correction and withdraw my comments of yesterday.”
Here is some more reaction to the government’s U-turn.
The Telegraph’s political editor Ben Riley-Smith suggests that the debacle shows the government underestimated Tory unease, an analysis echoed by his counterpart at ITV, Robert Peston.
Ian Dunt, a columnist at the i newspaper praised Labour’s handling of the situation, while The Sun’s deputy political editor Kate Ferguson predicts there will be many Tory abstentions today.
According to The Guardian’s chief political correspondent Jessica Elgot, several Tory MPs are already heading back home.
Starmer denounces comparisons of Covid fines with speeding tickets
Anyone comparing Covid fines to speeding fines “just doesn't understand the enormity of the difference”, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
The Labour leader told the Commons that while he does not seek to diminish the right of MPs to defend each other from accusations, Boris Johnson’s supporters “don't seek to do that” and “instead many of them seek to simply dismiss its importance”.
“They say there are worse crimes: 'he didn't rob a bank, he only broke the rules for 10 minutes, it was all a long time ago’,” Sir Keir said.
“Every time one of these arguments is trotted out, the status of this House is gradually eroded and our democracy becomes a little weaker, because the convention that parliament must not be misled and that in return we don't accuse each other of lying, are not curious quirks of this strange place, they are fundamental pillars on which our constitution is built.”
Sir Keir suggested that the fact that people, including his own family, felt a sense of “guilt that because we followed the rules, we didn't do what we thought was actually right by our elderly relatives”, was “why it hurts so much”.
“And that’s why anybody trying to say this is just like a speeding ticket doesn't understand what this goes to politically, and emotionally,” he said.
UK announces new sanctions against Putin’s ‘war leaders'
Away from the Commons action for a moment, to the government’s announcement of new sanctions against Vladimir Putin's “war leaders”.
The move will target those “commanding the front line” to commit “heinous” acts in Ukraine, according to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
This includes Lt Colonel Azatbek Omurbekov, a commanding officer in the Russian army with involvement in the “Bucha massacre”; Colonel General Andrey Serdyukov, commander of airborne forces; Major General Valery Flyustikov, commander of special operations forces; and Colonel General Nikolay Bogdanovsky, first deputy chief of the general staff, the FCDO said.
The new wave of 26 sanctions will also see the UK take action against individuals outside of Vladimir Putin's military, who are “actively supporting his illegal invasion of Ukraine”, including Oleg Belozyorov, the chief executive and chairman of vital logistics company Russian Railways, and Ilya Kiva, the defecting and expelled Ukrainian MP who has publicly supported Russia's actions in Ukraine, the department said.
Foreign secretary Liz Truss said the “new wave of sanctions hits the generals and defence companies that have blood on their hands”.
Full Fact accuses both Johnson and Starmer of having ‘repeatedly misled’
A fact-checking organisation has urged MPs to “take action and fix our broken political system which acts as if accuracy doesn’t matter”.
“The crisis of honesty in politics goes further than the current news cycle of whether the prime minister misled parliament on attending parties in Downing Street during the pandemic,” Full Fact’s chief executive Will Moy said.
“At Full Fact we know from experience that MPs are more honest than prevailing perceptions, but the actions of a few are damaging the reputations of all MPs and parties.
“The prime minister and the leader of the opposition were elected to lead, not mislead. Both have repeatedly misled, whether it’s inaccurate employment claims made in the Commons or misleading statements on the cost of living crisis used in election campaigning. It’s their duty as leaders and democratic representatives to tell the truth.”
MPs will be complicit in slipping standards by failing to support inquiry, Starmer warns
By not supporting proposals to refer Boris Johnson to a parliamentary investigation over Partygate, MPs will be complicit in allowing standards to slip, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
“If we don't pass this motion, if we don't take this opportunity to restate the principles, then we are all complicit in allowing these standards to slip. We are all complicit in allowing the public to think we are all the same, nobody tells the truth, that there are alternative sets of facts,” the Labour leader told MPs.
He added: “The conventions and the traditions that we are debating this morning are not an accident. They have been handed down to us as the tools that protect Britain from malaise, from extremism and from decline.
“And this is important because the case against the prime minister is that he has abused those tools. That is the case against him, that he has used them to protect himself rather than our democracy. That he has turned them against all that they are supposed to support.”
Voters ‘are totally disillusioned now’, Labour MP says
Just prior to the Commons debate on a new Partygate inquiry into whether Boris Johnson misled parliament, former shadow chancellor John McDonnell warned of the “seriousness of this matter”.
The Labour MP claimed that while campaigning for the local elections, he had seen not only a shift in the vote from Tory to Labour, but people who are “totally disillusioned now, who have had enough of the system, were blaming the system itself”.
“That is what we are fighting for here,” Mr McDonnell said.
Breaking: No 10 concedes it may have to hand over Partygate photos to Commons inquiry
Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick has this breaking update:
No 10 has conceded it may have to hand over what are thought to be damning photos of lockdown-busting parties, after it abandoned attempts to block a Commons inquiry.
The Metropolitan police is examining more than 300 photos of the gatherings, many of which broke the law – which will be demanded by a committee of MPs, now likely to launch its own probe.
Boris Johnson’s spokesman did not commit to releasing them, but promised Downing Street would “work with the committee” on that issue, if its inquiry goes ahead.
That now seems almost certain after Downing Street caved in to pressure from Tory MPs, who had been asked to vote to shelve a decision on a probe by the Commons privileges committee.
They have been promised a free vote later – but an Opposition motion calling for the inquiry to start after the police investigation has concluded is likely to pass without any vote at all.
No 10 concedes it may have to hand over Partygate photos to Commons inquiry
Downing Street agrees to ‘work with’ privileges committee, which is set to launch new probe – with power to demand all evidence
‘Deeply unhappy’ Tory MP calls for inquiry to include Sue Gray evidence
Conservative MP John Baron said he was “deeply unhappy at the way Number 10 has performed over this period” but said a Commons inquiry “needs to weigh all evidence before coming to a decision” – including Sue Gray’s report.
Sir Keir Starmer had opened the debate by saying that the principle that honesty, integrity and telling the truth matter in politics is a “British principle”, and “a principle that's been cherished by Conservatives for as long as their party has existed”.
But Mr Baron intervened, saying he lost his mother to Covid-19 during lockdown, adding: “I have made my disquiet known to the prime minister a couple of times now, and he has taken that on board.
“I am deeply unhappy at the way No 10 has performed over this period in question, but what I would suggest to the right honourable member is that it’s perfectly natural in this country that you weigh all the evidence before deciding on intent, because the central issue here is whether the prime minister misled parliament.”
Sir Keir responded that there is “already a case before the House that's very clear”, and said that “if the motion is passed, the committee will not begin their substantive work until the police investigations are complete so that they will have all of that evidence before them”.
Lib Dem MP urges vote on inquiry to ensure there is ‘no hiding place for anyone'
Liberal Democrat former minister Alistair Carmichael has said there should be a vote at the end of the debate to ensure people know where every MP stands on the matter, adding: “At a time like this on an issue like this there should be no hiding place for anyone.”
Sir Keir Starmer replied: “I agree, because we have duty here today in relation to this motion and in relation to these principles, and if we fail in our duty, the public will not forgive and forget that we have done so.
"Because this will be the parliament that failed. Failed to stand up for honesty, integrity and telling the truth in politics. Failed to stand up to a prime minister who seeks to turn our good faith against us. Failed to stand up for our great democracy.
“It's not just the eyes of our country that are upon us, it will also be the judgment of future generations who will look back at what members of this great House did when our customs were tested, when its traditions were pushed to breaking point, when we were called up to stand up for honesty, integrity and for truth.”
But Tory MP Sir Peter Bottomley, the Father of the House, said it is “not the right time” for MPs to make a decision and suggested that “some part” of Labour moving the motion was to gain an advantage at the forthcoming local elections, adding: “I intend to have no part of that.”
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