Inside Politics: Under pressure

Boris Johnson urged to set out what he knew and when about allegations against Chris Pincher and Starmer to give Brexit speech, writes Matt Mathers

(PA)

The Rolling Stones showed no signs of gathering moss last night as they rocked London’s Hyde Park. Are we getting nearer to the end of the road for Boris Johnson? The prime minister is this morning coming under intense pressure to say what he knew about Chris Pincher and when. Elsewhere, Keir Starmer is giving a big speech on Brexit.

Inside the bubble

Commons actions gets underway with education questions at 2.30pm followed by any urgent questions or statements. After that MPs will move onto more scrutiny of the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill. Tory MP Alexander Stafford has an adjournment debate calling for more teaching of medieval history in schools. Westminster hall petitions committee has a debate on assisted dying at 4.30pm.

Daily Briefing

Mounting pressure

Boris Johnson continues to face serious questions about his judgement in appointing Chris Pincher as his deputy chief whip in February. Pincher, forced to resign last week after being accused of groping two men at a private members’ club for Tories in central London, is now the subject of six separate misconduct allegations stretching back for years, all of which he denies. The case has also increased concerns for victims as our investigation shows parliament’s misconduct watchdog, responsible for looking into such complaints, is in some cases taking up to two years to reach its conclusions.

Despite Johnson reportedly referring to him as “Pincher by name, pincher by nature”, No 10 (which didn’t deny the story) is sticking to the line that the PM wasn’t aware of any “specific” complaints against the Tamworth MP, who had the Conservative Party whip removed on Friday and faces mounting pressure to quit his seat. This is despite Pincher resigning from the whips’ office in 2017 for making an inappropriate advance towards the Conservative Party candidate, Alex Story. Downing Street says the Cabinet Office ethics and propriety team did not raise any concerns.

That line, one which feels like it will come back to haunt the PM, was toed – albeit uncomfortably – by Thérèse Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, out on the broadcast round yesterday in a series of excruciating Sunday morning interviews. Coffey looked and sounded very much like she didn’t believe a word of what the No 10 press office had told her as she stressed, “to the best of my knowledge”, the boss wasn’t aware of any specific claims.

Looking to ramp up the pressure, Labour was written to Johnson asking him to confirm exactly what he knew about Pincher and when. “Only Boris Johnson could have looked at this guy’s record and thought ‘he deserves a promotion’”, Anneliese Dodds, the party’s chairwoman said. Labour is also demanding to know why it took the best part of 24 hours for Pincher to have the party whip removed.

If Johnson, desperate to avoid another byelection after two damaging defeats in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton, was hoping that the latest scandal to engulf his premiership and raise questions about his judgement would simply blow over, then he will be sorely disappointed this morning.

The story dominated the agenda over the weekend and does so again this morning, splashing several major outlets, including The Times, which reports that the Pincher case is revitalising rebel efforts to oust Johnson from office. The Telegraph says the issue has sparked a backlash inside the cabinet, with sources close to three ministers saying they were unhappy with Pincher being given a promotion for his work to help shore up Johnson’s position amid the Partygate scandal.

(PA)

Brexit

Labour will today try to make its position on Brexit crystal clear as leader Starmer vows not to take the party back into the single market or restore freedom of movement.

He will use a “make Brexit work ” speech to the Centre for European Reform think tank to say his government would not join a customs union with the EU in maintaining the hard Brexit deal brokered by Johnson.

Instead the opposition leader will pledge to make the existing “poor deal” work by first fixing the Northern Ireland protocol, which Johnson is threatening to override. He will also pledge to “eliminate most border checks” under the current deal.

Baroness Jenny Chapman, a shadow minister of state at Cabinet Office, said out on the broadcast round earlier that her party wants to resolve some of the ongoing issues surrounding Brexit.

“I think that would be the last thing the country wants to see,” the Labour politician told BBC Breakfast when asked if her party was trying to unpick Brexit.

“We’ve had so much division since 2016. I think the last thing certainly Keir Starmer wants to do is to revisit any of that. But we do think that the Conservatives, because they have this way of dealing with problems, which is all about, if we need to create a fight to garner some political support within our party, we’ll do that.

“They’re taking that approach to issues like Northern Ireland and we think that that’s irresponsible, and we want to see these issues resolved.”

On the record

“I’m not aware that [Mr Johnson] was made aware of specific claims. I don’t believe that he was aware – that’s what I’ve been told today.”

Thérèse Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, says Johnson was not aware of any specific allegations against Pincher – despite reportedly referring to him as ‘Pincher by name, Pincher by nature’.

From the Twitterati

“Even loyal ministers now feel the need to caveat their answers because they’ve all been caught out defending No 10s lies before.”

Journalist Sam Freedman comments on the remarks by Coffey above.

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