Inside Politics: Watchdog considers inquiry into ministers’ private email use

Boris Johnson’s own use of email is under scrutiny after his ministers were found using private accounts for government business, writes Adam Forrest

Boris Johnson won’t say if he’s used private email for government business (Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images)

It’s hard to know what our leaders get up to in private. North Korea watchers believe the “emaciated” Kim Jong Un has undergone dramatic weight loss to show his people he’s working so hard that he skips meals. Our own dear leader has been cutting down on food since last year – but he’s refusing to give up much else. Boris Johnson won’t tell us whether he’s using his private email address to conduct government business. It looks like the biggest fall-out from the Matt Hancock affair is the emerging scandal over ministers’ insatiable appetite for private email accounts.

Inside the bubble

Chief political commentator John Rentoul on what to look out for today:

Cabinet meeting this morning. In person they would bang the table to welcome (back) a new member: Sajid Javid will have to make do with Zoom waves and thumbs up. Boris Johnson is hosting a Pride month reception at Downing Street. Expect fireworks at education committee from Kevan Collins – the recovery tsar who resigned over inadequate funding for schools catch-up.

Daily briefing

PRIVATE EYES: A third health minister has been found to have used a private email account for government business, following revelations about Matt Hancock and Lord Bethell’s use of Gmail. Social care minister Helen Whately had used her Gmail address for work, according to The Guardian. The information watchdog said it was considering an investigation. Boris Johnson refused to deny using his personal email account for government business. “I don’t comment on how I conduct government business,” he said. It comes as a Cabinet office minister said the security camera in Hancock’s office which caught the snog was an “outlier”. Julia Lopez told the Commons that as a rule “there are not cameras sited within ministers’ offices”. Hmmm. Curiouser and curiouser. In other developments, Johnson hinted that he’d been in control of Hancock’s exit all along. Dominic Cummings mocked the idea – claiming “trolley” Johnson only let Hancock resign following “89 texts an hour” from his wife Carrie.

THE END IS NIGH: Sajid Javid left the lockdown sceptics on the Tory backbenches purring with satisfaction on Monday – saying “we have to learn to live with” Covid. The new health secretary says he sees “no reason” to go beyond 19 July for the end of England’s lockdown curbs,  suggesting there would be no more lockdowns. “The restrictions on our freedoms, they must come to an end,” said Javid. The restrictions on travel are not coming to an end, however. Hong Kong is banning all flights from the UK in a bid to end the spread of the Delta variant. Portugal and Malta, meanwhile, have announced measures to restrict British holidaymakers who are not fully vaccinated. Hopes of reopening air travel with the US anytime soon appear to be fading. Talks are likely with Washington are likely to fail because of Delta variant fears, according to The Times. But there is some good news for holidaymakers. The UK is reportedly close to a deal with the EU on “passports” for the double-dosed.

BANGERS AND SPLASH: It looks like the UK and EU are close to an agreement on both sausages and fish. European Commission VP Maros Sefcovic suggested a deal to address the Brexit “sausage wars” could be struck in the next 48 hours – hinting that Brussels would agree to the UK’s request to extend the current “grace period” for another three months. And Jersey authorities announced they would give French trawlers another three months to fish without Brexit permits. Anything more permanent on the horizon? Well, The Times says Brussels will agree to change EU law to allow any medicines licenced for use in Great Britain to be prescribed in Northern Ireland too. As for wider trade issues, Sefcovic told NI Assembly members on Monday that a Swiss-style agri-food deal remains the one “obvious” way to reduce red tape. But No 10 continues to resist it.

SPENT FORCE IN SPEN? It looks like Labour chiefs should brace themselves for a collapse in the Muslim vote in Batley and Spen. Community organisers have told The Independent they expect many to vote for George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain – angry over international issues and perceived neglect. “There will be a big protest vote,” said Nadeem Raja of the Al-Hikmah Centre, whose organisation serves 3,000 people and has seven mosques affiliated to it. Voters of south Asian origin make up more than 20 per cent of the electorate in the Yorkshire seat. It comes as West Yorkshire Police issued an image of a man wanted over the attacks on Labour activists pelted with eggs and kicked in the head. Labour bosses have themselves been accused of stoking some of the racial division in the area. The party’s leaflets warn Muslims that the Tories are “not on your side” – with a photograph of Boris Johnson and Indian PM Narendra Modi. Labour Friends of India condemned the leaflet.

BUS FUSS DISCUSSED: The government is “very sorry” that classified military documents were left in soggy heap behind a bus stop in Kent. Defence minister Jeremy Quin apologised in the Commons and said it appeared to be a “mistake” made by a senior official. The individual’s access to sensitive material has been temporarily suspended. Quin suggested there was nothing more sinister to it than stupidity – though espionage cannot yet be entirely ruled out. “I don’t want to prejudge the investigation, but it appears it was a mistake made by an individual.” Some Tory MPs criticised the BBC for reporting the documents and claimed they should have been handed straight back to the government. Quin didn’t quite agree. “Although I would have preferred naturally the BBC to have handed them over immediately and not made reference to them, they have a job to do,” he told MPs.

BUBBLE WOBBLE: England’s children commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza urged the government to end bubbles and isolation rules at schools – warning of the “trauma” being inflicted on this generation of kids. The government is planning on ending isolation rules for schools in England in the autumn. Ministers have written to secondary schools asking them to prepare to offer on-site Covid testing in bid to cut the disruption caused by the children having to quarantine. It comes as Gavin Williamson bangs on about the evils of mobile phones again. The education secretary said he will push ahead with his phone ban to create “calm classrooms”. Head teachers accused Williamson of being “obsessed” with the issue. Speaking of obsession, the SNP pounced on figures showing the UK is the poorest country in north west Europe, based on wealth per head of population. Britain lags behind all 13 of its closest neighbours when it comes to per capita wealth. The SNP’s Kirsten Oswald said it showed why Scotland would be better off breaking from “the poor man of northwest Europe”.

On the record

“We owe it to the British people … not to wait a moment longer than we need to.”

Health secretary Sajid Javid is gung ho on lockdown lifting.

From the Twitterati

“Javid does know that the job is health secretary not wealth secretary?”

Keith Burge worries about the Saj’s emphasis on the economy…

“Sajid Javid, a cost cutting investment banker who has been anti-lockdown is going to be even worse for the NHS and public health than Matt Hancock.”

…while Dave MacLadd worries about his history.

Essential reading

Sean O’Grady, The Independent: We may actually miss Hancock now he’s been replaced with a lockdown sceptic

Mat Hope, The Independent: GB News coverage is failing the public with its coverage of the climate crisis

Zoe Williams, The Guardian: A shift on aid hints voters are finally tiring of the politics of spite

Ben Walker, New Statesman: Labour is in trouble in Batley and Spen

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