Inside Politics: Johnson confirms end of Afghanistan mission as Sunak hints triple lock could be paused

Fears for Afghan people as Taliban advances, as chancellor says he and PM ‘on same page’ over triple lock, writes Matt Mathers

(PA)

Can you put a price on history? For some England fans, the answer is yes. £54,000, to be precise. That’s the figure touts have slapped on tickets for Sunday’s final with Italy. It’s doubtful fiscal hawk Rishi Sunak would shell out that much to watch the game. But at least he appears to have kissed and made up with Johnson over the pensions triple lock. Elsewhere, the PM confirmed UK troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. And one Tory MP is refusing to watch the Three Lions in their first final in 50 years because the team has chosen to take the knee...but he will check his phone for updates throughout and celebrate if they win.

PS – ‘The View from Westminster’ newsletter from John Rentoul offers his unique end-of-play analysis at 6pm each weekday. Sign up here.

Inside the bubble

• Tory MP and transport secretary Grant Shapps on Today at 8.10am
• Football Association CEO Mark Bellingham on Today at 8.30am

Daily Briefing

END OF FOREVER WAR: US President Joe Biden recently called it America’s “forever war” and after nearly 20 long years, UK troops are being withdrawn from Afghanistan. Johnson told the Commons most of Britain’s remaining personnel had already been pulled out as he officially confirmed the end of Britain’s mission in the region. He promised withdrawal would not be “the end of commitment” to the country. “I hope no one will leap to the false conclusion that the withdrawal of our forces somehow means the end of Britain’s commitment to Afghanistan – we are not about to turn away,” he said. But the move is causing alarm on both sides of the Atlantic. Military experts are warning there is no coherent strategy in place for when all British and America have departed. And with the Taliban resurgent and key cities at risk of being overrun, there are dangerous times ahead. Once again, it will be the people of Afghanistan who suffer most.

TRIPLE LOCK UNPICKED?: Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, Rishi Sunak was on the broadcast round and there were a number of lines coming from his interviews. Firstly, the chancellor dropped another big hint that the pensions triple lock may be paused as he attempts to balance the books post-pandemic. The tensions between No 10 and 11 Downing Street took up a lot of column inches following The Sunday Times’s great scoop last month that Sunak was preparing to confront his ‘cake and eat it’ boss at a meeting. But the big difference now is that the PM is on board with the move, at least that’s what the chancellor is telling us. Sunak said he and the PM are on “exactly the same page”. But with a commitment to protect the triple lock in the Tories manifesto, there may well be backbenchers who are reading a different book entirely. This one isn’t going away. Elsewhere, the Daily Telegraph this morning splashes on an exclusive, saying the chancellor is urging Britons to get back to the office after 19 July. The paper quotes Sunak as saying it is “really important” for the development of younger staff.

PINGS: Sunak also suggested the government is planning to make the NHS Covid app less sensitive to avoid seeing millions of Britonsforced to self-isolate over the summer. The head of the UK Health Security Agency told MPs that work was underway to decide whether smartphone notifications could be “tuned” differently to reduce numbers being “pinged”.Jenny Harries’ comments came as it was revealed that the weekly figure for people receiving messages via the app telling them to isolate hit a record of more than 360,000 across England and Wales. Grant Shapps yesterday double-jabbed Britons will not have to quarantine when arriving home from amber list countries.

MUST BE MUSTIQAN: Mr Teflon has escaped with a firm telling off over a luxury holiday. You might remember that the PM slipped off to the Caribbean island of Mustique over Christmas 2019 with then-fiancee Carrie Symonds. It later emerged that the trip, coming just weeks after Johnson secured his hefty majority, was paid for by a Tory donor (we’ve since learned that the PM doesn’t really pay for anything himself if it can be avoided). A Commons committee has cleared Johnson but described as “unsatisfactory” his explanation for how the£15,000 break in a luxury villa was paid for.

DOM PROBE: Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser Dominic Cummings is the subject of a probe into his activities since leaving office, after failing to seek the advice of a watchdog monitoring conflicts of interest. Elsewhere, the Home Office spent more than £370,000 to settle a top civil servant’s tribunal claim after he quit amid allegations of Priti Patel’s bullying, departmental accounts confirm. And health secretary Sajid Javid has cast doubt on the government’s promise to come up with a plan to fix the social care system by the end of 2021 – saying he could not put “an exact date” on the commitment.

HAVE A PINT FOR LEE: Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face - an old expression most of us learn the value of by age 9. But not, it seems, the Conservative MP for Ashfield Lee Anderson, who is refusing to watch England play Italy in the Euro final on Sunday because Gareth Southgate’s side has chosen to take the knee throughout. He said in a Facebook post: “I don’t like the taking the knee business, I think it associates with Black Lives Matter movement. I know the England players don’t think it does, but it does, it does to me.” On what could be the second biggest ever night for English football, Lee says he’ll still support the team and admitted: “I’ll be checking my phone for updates to see if they’ve scored and cheer if they have. And I hope they win and I hope it comes home”. Unbelievable stuff, Jeff. What a strange hill to die on. Elsewhere, Boris Johnson has not ruled out a bank holiday if England win on Sunday. Today’sSunandTimes cover the story on their front pages, with the former saying workers might be given a lie-in on Monday if the Three Lions can do the business.

On the record

“I hope no one will leap to the false conclusion that the withdrawal of our forces somehow means the end of Britain’s commitment to Afghanistan – we are not about to turn away.”

Boris Johnson says the UK’s commitment to Afghanistan hasn’t ended despite troop withdrawal

From the Twitterati

“I kinda grudgingly respect the rump tw*ttishness of the Lee Anderson/Laurence Fox nationalist contingent, who’ve f*cked themselves into not supporting England. At least they’ve stuck to their godawful principles, unlike Johnson and Patel.”

Politics.co.uk editor-at-large Ian Dunt on Lee Anderson’s confusing boycott of the England national team

“Good grief. We literally predicted this on last Friday’s show. Pretty much word for word. What on earth do the clowns in the Cabinet do all day? Macramé?”

LBC presenter James O’Brien on the number of being people being ‘pinged’ by the NHS Covid app

Essential reading

• Cathy Newman, The Independent: After England’s historic triumph, Keir Starmer would do well to emulate Gareth Southgate’s leadership skills
• John Rentoul, The Independent: How Rishi Sunak might redefine the ‘triple lock’ on pensions
• Yasmeen Serhan, The Atlantic: What Euro 2020 has revealed about Englishness
• Peter Franklin, UnHerd: Brexit isn’t going to plan