Inside Politics: Boris Johnson hit by surprise Tory rebellion over aid cuts

The prime minister is scrambling to avoid an embarrassing defeat during next week’s G7 summit, writes Adam Forrest

(EPA)

Excitement is building over a soon-to-be-released US government report on UFOs. Barack Obama has claimed evidence of alien visitations – if confirmed – would give rise to new religions. But he said politics probably wouldn’t change at all. “We’re good at manufacturing arguments for each other.” Despite the recess in parliament, there are plenty of political arguments being manufactured at Westminster for us to be getting along with. Boris Johnson’s catch-up tsar has quit in disgust at the paltry funding package for schools, while Tory backbenchers have hatched a big rebellion over aid budget cuts.

Inside the bubble

Policy correspondent Jon Stone on what to look out for today:

Ministers are expected to update the traffic light destination system today, which could see a few countries moving between the green and amber. The G7 health ministers’ summit begins this morning in Oxford, while Boris Johnson will chair a delayed Covid recovery summit with the leaders of the devolved nations this afternoon.

Daily briefing

REBEL REBEL, WHAT COULD HE KNOW? Boris Johnson is facing an embarrassing Tory rebellion over cuts to the foreign aid budget during next week’s G7 gathering in Cornwall. Chief mutineer Andrew Mitchell has told the BBC he is confident of getting the 45 or so Conservative rebels he needs to defeat the government, after tabling an amendment to re-instate the 0.7 per cent aid target into law. The MP knows four former ministers and chairs of eight Commons committees will back the rebellion. It comes as Johnson’s education recovery commissioner Sir Kevan Collins rebelled and quit over the lack of “credible” catch-up funding. Sir Kevan said the £1.4bn “falls far short of what is needed” – claiming it would be “too narrow, too small and will be delivered too slowly.” He had reportedly asked for £15bn and 100 extra hours of teaching per pupil. Labour’s Kate Green, the shadow education secretary, said his exit was a “damning indictment” of the Tory catch-up plan.

TWO-WAY TRAFFIC: Portugal could be moved from the green category back into amber when the government decides on its update foreign travel list today. Boris Johnson said ministers would not “hesitate” to pull countries from the green list. And advisers are seriously worried about Portugal’s rising Covid infections, according to The Telegraph. Only a handful places are expected to be allowed quarantine-free travel, with Malta said to be a strong contender to go green. It comes as Matt Hancock boasted about the UK’s incredible vaccine success – revealing that three in four adults have now had their first dose. The health secretary played into crass national cliches and claimed Britain’s love of queuing had helped the rollout. Hancock sounded a bit gloomy on the 21 June reopening, saying there was nothing in the data to “say we are definitively off-track”. Johnson, meanwhile, admitted the data was too “ambiguous” to make a decision right now.

SPOONS LAMPOONED: The Brexiteer boss of Wetherspoons is back in the headlines. Tim Martin has been widely mocked after suggesting he wanted more a more “liberal” visa scheme for EU workers to help tackle staff shortfalls. But Martin told the BBC his remarks to The Telegraph had been taken out of context – insisting he always favoured an “Australian-style” system which treated Britain’s near neighbours preferentially. He also claimed there “no recruitment issue” at Wetherspoons – except in small coastal towns. Europhiles didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Too late mate,” said former Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood on Martin’s call for immigration change. Unite’s Dave Turnbull said it was “a national scandal” that pub bosses like Martin want more EU migration to fill vacancies when so many remain out of work. In other Brexit news, the 11 members of the Asia-Pacific region’s trade pact agreed to start negotiations for the UK’s entry. Trade secretary Liz Truss will lay out her plans for the talks in the next few weeks.

HEROES GET ZERO: Priti Patel is planning to hike visa fees for NHS and other workers from EU countries – sparking criticism from Labour of “a stealth tax on frontline heroes”. The home secretary is exploring removing a £55 discount on application fees for citizens from 26 countries. Most of them are EU members. Patel’s proposed changes would also mean employers would lose their exemption from paying a £199 fee as part of their sponsorship. “What does the home secretary have against NHS and care workers?” asked Labour’s shadow home secretary Nick-Thomas Symonds. Tory MPs are more concerned about what Patel will do to tackle another spike in English Channel crossings. More than 700 migrants crossed from France in five days. “Urgent action must be taken to stop these crossings,” Natalie Elphicke, MP for Dover and Deal. “That means tackling the criminal gangs at source, doing more to stop the small boats leaving France in the first place.”

THE BEASTLY EAST: Boris Johnson has said Nato nations must “stand together against threats from the east”. The PM condemned the “appalling, outrageous” hijacking of the Ryanair flight over Belarus and the arrest of a dissident journalist, after meeting Nato’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg at No 10. While he did not attack Russia – or mention the build-up of troops near the Ukrainian border – Johnson said it important to stand up against “all the kinds of intimidation that some Nato members still feel there on Nato’s eastern borders”. Any new sanctions on the horizon over the hijacked Ryanair flight? Stoltenberg said he wanted to see sanctions already agreed by the UK and the EU to be fully implemented. “I also know that other allies are looking to whether they can step up further.”

DIRTY SECRET? Could the next big lobbying scandal come from Westminster’s seemingly innocuous All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs)? More than 20 lobbying firms are backing these groups with funding, according to The Times. The newspaper has been told it’s a “dirty secret” that lobbyists use MPs on the APPGs to push their agendas. Chris Bryant, chairman of the Commons standards committee, called for an inquiry. In other news, the leader of the Scottish Tories is isolating in a hotel after the Scotland Office minister David Duguid tested positive for coronavirus. Ross was told by text message while already in the Scottish parliament – and headed off to the Edinburgh hotel where he has been living. Four other Tory MSPs will take tests as a precaution, while two MSPs from another party have been advised to do likewise.

On the record

“I am aware that this isn’t a vaccine World Cup – different nations don’t compete for one prize. We know that when everyone’s safe we’re all going to be the winners.”

Matt Hancock struggles not to brag about the UK’s vaccine success…

From the Twitterati

“So funny that Wetherspoons Brextremist bigmouth Tim Martin is now demanding more migration from Europe … after he whipped up anti-EU prejudice, fuelling myths and banning European booze. Prat.”

Kevin Maguire has no sympathy for the Wetherspoons boss…

“I’m a helpful person. To assist Tim Martin with his staff shortages I’ll continue not to drink in Wetherspoons.”

…while Simon Bye will do his bit to help Tim out.

Essential reading

Sean O’Grady, The Independent: Time for Leave voters to step up and work in Weatherspoons

Anton Spisak, The Independent: We still don’t have a plan for life after the EU – so how do we make Brexit a success?

Zoe Williams, The Guardian: Furlough was a success – now let’s talk about a universal basic income

Andrew Adonis, Prospect: The resistible rise of Boris Johnson

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