Inside Politics: ‘Running away’

Downing Street moves to delay vote on whether Johnson should face investigation over claims he misled parliament as PM visits India, writes Matt Mathers

The Government will attempt to delay a vote on a probe into whether Boris Johnson misled Parliament over partygate, after the PM suggested the scandal matters little to voters (Stefan Rousseau/PA) (PA Wire)

Will Boris Johnson be investigated over claims that he misled parliament on Partygate? The can (or cans, depending on which Downing Street shindig we’re referring to) has been kicked down the road, after the government last night moved to delay a decision on whether the PM should face a Commons committee. The PM is in India on a trip No 10 says is designed to forge closer ties between the two countries.

Inside the bubble

Commons action gets underway at 9.30am with international trade questions, followed by any urgent questions or parliamentary business questions to Commons leader Mark Spencer. Later, Labour’s Partygate motion will be heard.

Coming up:

– Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi on ITV GMB at 8.30am

– Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting on LBC at 9.50am

Daily Briefing

• CAN KICKING: Part of No 10’s strategy to defend the PM throughout the Partygate scandal has been to delay, delay – and then delay some more. That theme continued last night as the government, worried about mass abstentions, tabled an amendment to Labour’s plan for a vote today to refer Johnson to a parliamentary committee to investigate whether he knowingly misled the Commons in his previous statements to MPs, a resigning matter under the ministerial code. Tory MPs are on a three line whip to back the amendment, meaning it will likely pass and kick the Partygate can down the road once again. Conservative back benchers worried about being seen to publicly block an investigation have been given some reprieve – and the PM will now avoid damaging headlines about how many of them chose not to support him by abstaining on the vote. But all the amendment does is delay a decision on whether or not the PM should face the music at the privileges committee. With Labour continuing to press the issue, it looks as though Johnson and his MPs will face a day of reckoning sooner or later. Only time will tell if Downing Street’s latest gamble pays off.

• ‘RUNNING AWAY’: Johnson won’t be around to oversee the proceedings in parliament today because he is in India for a two day trip, which No 10 says is aimed at strengthening ties between London and Delhi. Naturally enough, opposition MPs are again accusing him of “running away” as he faces difficult questions at home about his conduct – and claim that the trip will achieve nothing significant. Johnson landed in Gujarat in the early hours of the morning and was in typically bullish form, telling travelling journalists that they should stop asking questions about his future, insisting that he will remain as PM and lead his party into the next election. Out on the broadcast round for Labour earlier, Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, repeated his party’s attack line that government whips “obviously knew they couldn’t vote this [amendment] down.” He told BBC Radio 4 Today: “They seem to have learned absolutely nothing from asking their MPs to defend the indefensible in the case of Owen Paterson”. We’ll have live updates on Partygate and the PM’s visit to India on our liveblog.

• UKRAINE UPDATE: The long-besieged city of Mariupol will fall to the Kremlin’s forces today, the leader of the Russian republic of Chechnya has claimed. Ramzan Kadyrov, whose forces are fighting for Vladimir Putin, claimed Russia will finally succeed in capturing the Azovstal steelworks, Ukraine’s last foothold in the city, where hundreds of fighters and civilians remain. “Before lunchtime, or after lunch, Azovstal will be completely under the control of the forces of the Russian Federation,” he said, two months into Russia’s relentless siege of the port city. Elsewhere, the World Bank has warned that a “human catastrophe” is unfolding due to a rising food crisis across the world triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, impacting global nutrition.

• ASYLUM PLAN ROW: With just two weeks to go until the local elections, there is no end in sight to the row about the government’s Rwanda asylum seeker plan and Downing Street yesterday appeared to set itself up for an ongoing showdown with the Church of England over the policy, which critics have branded inhumane and unworkable. At PMQs, Johnson declined Labour leader Keir Starmer’s invitation to apologise to Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, who he reportedly criticised at a private meeting of Tory MPs. Instead, the PM doubled down on his attack on the archbishop, insisting that the removals are “the morally right thing to do”. The CoE, which said it will continue to speak out against the plans, had earlier branded the PM’s comments as a “disgraceful slur”.

• COST OF LIVING LATEST: Around two-fifths of families with children at home were already struggling to pay their bills in early April as the cost of living crisis deepened, a survey has found. Some 41 per cent of households with children living at home said they had struggled with their bills over the past week, according to the research carried out on 6 and 7 April. The latest findings will not yet have captured the full impact of higher bills and additional financial pressures placed on households in April, including the energy price cap increase, council tax rises and a national insurance hike to help pay for health and social care.

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.

On the record

“If true, a disgraceful slur.”

Church of England responds after PM criticises Justin Welby

From the Twitterati

“Kinda wild that there was a YouGov poll yesterday where the public had like a minus 60 approval rating on every major public policy issue and I am sitting here looking at the procedure of a vote that means nothing other than making sure the Lib Dems can do some targeted ads.”

Politico London Playbook editor Alex Wickham on vote.

Essential reading

• Salma Shah, The Independent: Anatomy of a Scandal is a far cry from the reality of Westminster
• Hannah Fearn, The Independent: You might be living in fuel poverty – but not even realise
• Martin Kettle, The Guardian: Johnson will win this vote, but what about the next one? His days are numbered
• Anne-Elisabeth Moutet, The Spectator: Le Pen drives Paris mad. That’s why her voters love her

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