Tory leadership race – live: Johnson under fire after ambassador resigns, as Labour face questions over antisemitism probes
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Conservative MPs rounded on Boris Johnson after it emerged that the US ambassador had decided to resign in the wake of the senior Tory's lack of support.
Sir Kim Darroch said his job had become “impossible” after the leak of diplomatic memos highly critical of Donald Trump’s administration.
His decision is understood to have been made after Mr Johnson repeatedly refused to support him during a televised Tory leadership debate on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Labour denied claims senior figures in the party interfered with anti-semitism complaints as a BBC Panorama documentary was set to air at 9pm.
A Labour spokesman accused the broadcaster of “pre-determining” the outcome of its investigation – while the broadcaster claimed the party was “criticising a programme they have not seen”.
See below for live updates
Shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, has accused Boris Johnson of a "pathetic lick-spittle response" to criticism of Sir Kim Darroch from Donald Trump.
She said: “It makes a laughing-stock out of our government, and tells every one of Britain's brilliant representatives abroad that the next Tory prime minister will not stand up for them, even when they are simply telling the truth and doing their job.
“Sir Kim Darroch should hold his head high for the wonderful job he has done representing our country, while Boris Johnson should go and hang his head in shame.
"He claims to regard Winston Churchill as his hero. But just imagine Churchill allowing this humiliating, servile, sycophantic indulgence of the American President's ego to go unchallenged.
“Johnson likes to accuse opponents of being 'supine invertebrate jellies'. How does he think he looks today?
"If this is what represents the future of leadership in our country, then it is all the more reason why we must force Johnson to call an election, and let the British people decide if such an obsequious weakling should be our Prime Minister.”
Downing Street confirmed that there had been some "initial discussions" between government and the police regarding the Whitehall investigation into the leak of Sir Kim's dispatches.
"There have been some initial discussions with the police on the investigation.
"If there was concern about criminal activity the police would become involved more formally at that point," a No 10 spokeswoman said.
Dominic Grieve says the fight to give MPs the power to stop Boris Johnson shutting down parliament in October can still be won, as it moves to the House of Lords.
Peers are likely to reinstate clauses, thrown out in the Commons, designed to prevent the Tory leadership favourite forcing through a no-deal Brexit, the Conservative rebel said.
More here:
Cressida Dick has told the Home Affairs Committee that the Met has not yet received a referral from the Cabinet or Foreign Offices over the leak of Sir Kim Darroch's diplomatic memos.
She said: "As police, we are interested in whether a crime may or may not have been committed, and that is the point at which we would get involved in terms of a referral and scoping process. We are not at that stage yet."
The Metropolitan Police commissioner would not be drawn on what civil servants or politicians any investigation might look at.
"We think about whether it is at all likely to be able to identify who committed a crime, prove it, and what level of resource would be required to do the inquiry," she added.
"There does have to be a crime."
NEW: Jeremy Corbyn's team repeatedly interfered in disciplinary cases relating to antisemitism, according to revelations by whistleblowers in a new documentary.
The Labour leader was personally copied into emails in which Jennie Formby, the party's general secretary, appeared to promise to interfere in a case involving an activist who had claimed Jews were responsible for the slave trade, according to the BBC's Panorama programme.
Westminster has been braced for the Panorama report for days, after bits of the work appeared in the Sunday newspapers. Labour is furious, and has complained to the BBC about it.
Here is a preview of tonight's show:
Staff in the House of Lords have been bullied and harassed by peers and colleagues, an independent report has found.
Naomi Ellenbogen QC found that there was a "prevailing culture" of staff being disrespected and reluctant to report wrongdoing.
Ms Ellenbogen found evidence that "staff have bullied and harassed other staff" and "members have bullied and harassed staff".
More here:
The vote to liberalise abortion law in Northern Ireland has sparked a ferocious backlash from the Democratic Unionist Party and campaigners.
MPs resoundingly backed the right to abortion in the country at a historic vote on Tuesday. Northern Ireland currently has a ban on abortion in almost all cases – even rape or incest. Women seeking a termination can face life imprisonment.
Boris Johnson’s refusal to budge on Brexit has backed him into a corner – and a general election will be the only way out, writes Independent columnist Andrew Grice.
Read his column here:
People who film themselves undertaking "grotesque" acts of animal cruelty on their phones should receive an aggravated sentence, a Labour MP has suggested.
Anna Turley spoke out in the Commons about the trend of such filming with the aim of sharing and uploading videos to social media.
She said: "We see many examples at the moment on social media of video clips of cruelty going viral.
"People kicking cats, tormenting small animals, horrific things that get shared on social media.
"The perpetrators of cruelty are not content simply with inflicting injury on their animals, but they are motivated to do so to go viral, to get hits and to be shared.
"This is grotesque and I think this practice demonstrates a greater level of malicious intent."
Speaking during the second reading debate in the Commons of the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill, the MP for Redcar said such offences possibly required a "specific deterrent".
She said: "I'd urge the government to consider the possibility of an aggravated sentence for those who film themselves undertaking these kinds of acts and I'll be tabling an amendment at committee and ask the government to support that."
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