Boris Johnson news – live: Labour denies Sue Gray appointment a ‘distraction’ from Partygate inquiry
Labour chairwoman Anneliese Dodds says she is “delighted” Sue Gray has joined Labour and that the right procedures will be followed
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Your support makes all the difference.Hiring Sue Gray to work as Keir Starmer’s next chief of staff is not a “distraction” said Labour’s chairwoman, Anneliese Dodds, responding to criticism of the appointment.
In an interview with Sky News Ms Dodds hit back at criticism that by hiring Sue Gray Labour was needlessly causing controversy and undermining confidence in civil service neutrality.
Ms Dodds said: “Sue Gray is a person of enormous integrity. Someone who served in the civil service under ministers of a number of parties actually, someone who’s always served with that integrity.”
She added: “I’m really delighted she’s joining the Labour team at that point where we’re readying ourselves for government if the British public backs us at the next general election.
“What’s important to us as Labour, as ever, is that we see the same rules and approaches being applied to this, as she would see with any other appointment. That’s why the civil service procedures on confidentiality will be followed.”
However, the appointment has provoked widespread outrage in the Convservative Party with some MPs saying it raises question about the impartiality of her report on Partygate that contributed to Boris Johnson’s resignation.
Johnson communications chief admitted ‘great gaping hole’ in Partygate account
Boris Johnson faces growing pressure over the Partygate scandal after a parliamentary inquiry said it would have been “obvious” that events he attended in No 10 breached Covid restrictions.
The former prime minister may also have misled the Commons about lockdown parties in Downing Street on four occasions, the cross-party committee said.
But an indignant Mr Johnson insisted the investigation had uncovered “absolutely no evidence” he had committed any contempt of Parliament.
Kate Devlin reports.
Aide warned of ‘gaping hole’ in Johnson’s Partygate account
Official warned No 10 worried ‘about leaks of PM having p*** up’
Isabel Oakeshott gives blunt response to presenter asking if she was 'friends' with Hancock
Truss refuses to apologises for economic chaos caused by her mini-budget
Former prime minister Liz Truss has refused to apologise for the economic chaos that came as a result of her mini-budget last autumn.
In a TV interview with ITV News Anglia, Ms Truss said that despite the turmoil caused by her and chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s ill-advised economic choices, she wished she had been “given more time” by MPs and the financial markets.
She told the broadcaster: “The issue was caused primarily by problems in the bond market... which I didn’t know about.”
“So I am prepared to take responsibility for things I knew about and can foresee, but not things I don’t know about.”
She added: “In retrospect we could have communicated better but there were serious issues we didn’t know about, in particular how fragile the financial market was.”
SNP MP apologises for ‘grossly offensive’ comment
An SNP MP has apologised after coming under fire for saying politicians who use too much make-up for television appearances “tandoori themselves”.
John Nicolson made the remark in a video recorded while he had his make-up done for a TV show.
Mr Nicolson, the MP for Ochil and South Perthshire, said on Twitter on Friday: “A number of newspapers are running online pieces about a light hearted comment I made the other night before I went on to ‘Debate Night’.
“I’d really no intention of hurting anyone’s feelings. My apologies to those who felt hurt.”
In the video, which was later deleted, the MP said: “If politicians put on make-up themselves, they tend to go, I’m right in saying, they go a bit overly brown, they tandoori themselves. That’s why you need a professional make-up person.”
After the 40-second clip was uploaded online, Ms Gosal wrote to Mr Nicholson to demand that he removed it and apologised.
She said: “I can’t believe John Nicolson thought this ignorant racial slur was remotely appropriate.
“To use the term ‘tandoori’ in relation to brown skin colour is grossly offensive. The subtext is clear: brown people eat curry.
“It’s an offensive stereotype that I’d hoped we’d left behind in the 1970s, yet here we have a supposedly ‘progressive’ politician using it in 2023.”
Boris Johnson pictured amid Partygate furore
Johnson suggests Starmer’s appointment of Gray casts her Partygate inquiry report in ‘different light’
Boris Johnson has suggested the appointment of Sue Gray as Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff raised questions as to her motives in conducting her inquiry into lockdown parties in Downing Street.
“I am sure that people may want to draw their own conclusions about the confidence they can place in the motives behind her, and the way she conducted her inquiry and in her report. I think people may look at it in a different light,” Mr Johnson said in a pooled clip for broadcasters.
“If you told me at the time I commissioned Sue Gray to do the inquiry, if you told me all the stuff that I now know, I think I might have cross-examined her more closely about her independence.
“I might have invited her to reflect on whether she was really the right person to do it.”
Ambulance strikes suspended after government agrees to pay talks
Ambulance strikes scheduled for next week have been suspended after the government agreed to discuss pay for this year, the GMB and Unison unions have said.
The union said it has received assurances from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) that there is cash available for potential pay rises covering both this year and next year.
GMB added that ministers have also said they are open to discussions about improvements to ambulance workers’ terms and conditions.
Katy Clifton reports.
Ambulance strikes suspended after government agrees to pay talks
Ambulance workers were set to walk out on 6 and 8 March
Bombshell inquiry Whatsapp messages in full
Read the complete messages cited in the report, arranged in chronological order, with the precise time each text was sent:
Read bombshell Partygate inquiry Whatsapp messages in full
‘I’m struggling to come up with a way this one is in the rules in my head’
Messages reveal staff struggled to justify lockdown parties
The newly released internal messages show officials in No 10 struggled to explain how lockdown gatherings in Downing Street complied with Covid restrictions.
The Commons Privileges Committee, which is investigating whether Boris Johnson misled Parliament, has published extracts from a series of WhatsApp exchanges involving then communications director Jack Doyle and other officials.
On April 28 2021 - seven months before the first reports of lockdown parties appeared in the press - one unnamed official sent a message noting another official was “worried about leaks of PM having a p***-up and to be fair I don’t think it’s unwarranted”.
On January 25 2022, Mr Doyle sent a message asking “Have we had any legal advice on the birthday one?” followed by another one saying “Haven’t heard any explanation of how it’s in the rules”.
The query related to a gathering in No 10 in June 2020 where Mr Johnson was presented with a cake to mark his 56th birthday for which he and others were subsequently issued with fixed penalty notices by the Metropolitan Police.
Later that morning an official messaged Mr Doyle, saying: “I’m trying to do some Q&A (a question and answer briefing for officials dealing with the media queries), it’s not going well”.
Mr Doyle replied: “I’m struggling to come up with a way this one is in the rules in my head”, adding: “PM was eating his lunch of course”.
Evidence rule breaches ‘obvious’ to Johnson
Evidence strongly suggests breaches of coronavirus rules would have been “obvious” to Boris Johnson during partygate, the inquiry into whether he lied to MPs with his denials says:
Evidence rule breaches ‘obvious’ to Johnson, partygate ‘lies’ inquiry says
The Commons Privileges Committee is investigating whether the former prime minister lied to MPs with his partygate denials.
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