Inside Politics: Hangovers

Plotting against Boris Johnson intensifies as he meets with G7 leaders in Germany, writes Matt Mathers

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There will be plenty of sore heads heading out of Glastonbury this morning following a weekend of hedonism at the famous Worthy Farm site. Boris Johnson is failing to shift his leadership hangover as the plotting against him ramps up again in the wake of last week’s byelection defeats. The PM will use meetings at the G7 summit today to press for more support for Ukraine as Volodymyr Zelensky addresses leaders.

Inside the bubble

Commons action gets underway at 2.30 pm with levelling up questions, followed by any post-weekend urgent questions or ministerial statements. After that comes the second reading of the Northern Ireland protocol bill, anytime after 3.30 pm.

Daily Briefing

Groundhog Day

It may be a new day, a new week and nearly a new month, but questions about Boris Johnson’s premiership continue to dominate the domestic agenda. Everything the prime minister now does is being viewed through the lens of how it affects his chances of hanging on in No 10 Downing Street. And that is exactly why confidence ballots are so damaging for a leader and why Johnson’s allies unsuccessfully did everything within their power to stop the vote from happening.

But the genie is now well and truly of the bottle, and plotting against the Big Dog is once again intensifying following last week’s byelection defeats as he mingles with other leaders at the G7 summit in Germany (one of the UK’s top diplomats today accuses Johnson of shredding the country’s reputation abroad with what he says are his plans to break international law – in an exclusive story available on our daily edition).

In a weekend when Johnson bizarrely claimed to be planning for a third term, reports said that a new wave of no confidence letters had gone into Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1992 Committee of backbenchers, while one cabinet minister said that they would reach a tipping point if the upcoming privileges committee into Partyagte found that he had misled the Commons in his statement to MPs claiming that no rules were broken during Covid lockdown.

Westminster watchers will this week be looking closely at the 1922 Committee and elections to its executive (nominations open this week) that could mark a crunch moment for the PM, as rebel MPs try to organise a slate of candidates who would seek to change the leadership rules to allow another vote on Johnson within 12 months. It is not at all certain that he would win that contest second time round, as the fallout out from the Tories’ catastrophic result in Tiverton and Honiton rumbles on.

George Eustice, the environment secretary who reports say could be axed in an upcoming reshuffle, has been given the Monday morning media round, in which he said the cabinet is fully behind the PM. “The way that collective government works is that those who are in the cabinet, yes, we have our full support,” he told Sky News. “We work as a team. We have the support of the prime minister, the prime Minister has our support, we work together and we stick together through difficult times.”

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G7 latest

Johnson, who has pledged to help rebuild Ukraine’s railways, will meet with other leaders in the Bavarian Alps today as the G7 tries to put on a united front amid Vladimir Putin’s brutal assault on the Donbas region.

But there is plenty of wrangling going on in the background, with particular attention being paid to how Johnson is getting on with the recently neutered Emmanuel Macron, with London and Paris engaged in rows over Channel crossings (the pair are said to have swerved the issue) and Brexit’s Northern Ireland protocol.

Campaigners are also urging leaders at the summit not to water down commitments on climate change amid growing fears they are set to pursue “disastrous” fossil fuel projects to ease supply problems stemming from the war in Ukraine.

Germany and Italy have announced plans to revive old coal plants as gas supplies from Vladimir Putin’s Russia dwindle, while Boris Johnson has hinted at support for a new mine in Cumbria.

Alex Scott, climate diplomacy lead at the EG3 think tank, told The Independent that “we’re getting signals that some are rowing back” on the green energy transition commitment. “It was a big triumph getting Japan to sign up to ending investment in overseas fossil fuels,” Ms Scott said. “We’re worried Germany could now water down the language because of the urgency they feel in replacing short-term gas supplies.”

This morning, the PM was up early for a swim in the Ferchensee lake near the Schloss Elmau hotel where G7 leaders are meeting. He will use meetings later to continue to press for more support for Ukraine and international efforts to release grain trapped by the Russian naval blockade.

Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is set to address the summit to and press Ukraine’s allies for more weapons in his first-ever such note as the clamour grows to support Kyiv a day after at least 14 missiles struck the capital and the region in a “symbolic attack”.

On the record

“That’s not going to happen.”

Johnson says he won’t change or undergo any ‘psychological transformation’ when asked about his future.

From the Twitterati

“David Lammy takes most hardline Labour stance yet against rail strikes. Shadow foreign sec tells me: ‘I don’t support strikes… It hurts working people… This is not a moment for posturing, standing on picket lines’. Key Q: do his remarks represent toughening LOTO stance?”

Times Radio chief politics commentator Lucy Fisher on Labour’s rail strike position.

Essential reading

• John Rentoul, The Independent: Oliver Dowden’s resignation is part of a plan to make Rishi Sunak prime minister
• Trevor Phillips, The Times: Tribalism is dead, let’s bring on fresh voices
• Nadine White, The Independent: Making a Windrush documentary showed me how the TV industry fails Black viewers
• Borzou Daragahi, The Independent: For the first time in history, a left-wing government has won in Colombia. Now comes the hard part

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