Signs that Boris Johnson’s government could be effectively grinding to a halt are increasing after another senior minister pulled out of a parliamentary scrutiny session and key proposals to reform gambling laws were postponed again.
A day after Priti Patel, the home secretary, withdrew from a scheduled appearance before a Commons committee, Dominic Raab, the justice secretary, said he could not attend a meeting of the cross-party joint committee on human rights next Wednesday, as planned.
Raab was due to have been quizzed by the committee of MPs and peers about his so-far vague proposals for a British bill of rights, which would seek to reduce the role of the European court of human rights in overseeing British cases.
Joanna Cherry, the Scottish National party MP who chairs the committee, wrote to Raab, who is also the deputy prime minister, saying members were “extremely disappointed” at his decision.
“Whilst we understand that there are pressures that come with holding the dual roles of lord chancellor and deputy prime minister, accountability to parliament should take priority,” she wrote.
“This date has been in our diaries and yours for some time. It is not clear why, at such short notice, other matters should take priority.”
Patel, the home secretary, had been scheduled to update MPs on the Commons home affairs committee on Wednesday morning about policies including progress on deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda. But late on Tuesday, Patel said she could not attend because of “recent changes in government”, without apparent elaboration.
Also on Wednesday, it emerged that the long-running online safety bill had been dropped amid confusion during the continuing Conservative leadership race.
While ministers insisted this was because of a lack of parliamentary time due to Labour’s wish for a vote of confidence in the government on Monday, it has been pushed to the autumn over concerns whoever succeeds Johnson in September might have different views on the bill.
It has now emerged that proposals to reform gambling laws have been postponed for a fourth time, after Johnson’s advisers concluded they could not be published until a new leader is in place.
Whitehall sources told the Guardian that the gambling white paper had been added this week to the government’s “grid” of announcements and was scheduled to be published on Tuesday.
But senior Downing Street officials, including Johnson’s adviser David Canzini, are understood to have told him that he could not publish it as it would require legislation from his successor.
Under the terms for Johnson’s caretaker government, he can continue with existing policy while Tory MPs and then party members select a new leader, but not make signifiant fiscal changes or introduce new policy.
It is, however, the fourth time that the gambling white paper, the culmination of a review announced in 2019, has been shelved.
“I’m very sorry that this is the case because we worked hard to get this done,” said Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader who is among those pushing for tougher reforms.
“It wasn’t perfect but I’d have accepted it where it is now because it’s an advance on where we’ve been. A white paper has to be linked to legislation and a caretaker government can’t do the legislation.”
Also on Wednesday, the government sent out a junior health minister to answer an urgent question on a crisis in ambulance response times, rather than the new health secretary, Steve Barclay – prompting Labour to say the government “has simply given up on governing”.
No 10 rejected the suggestion that ministers were avoiding parliamentary scrutiny. “The government continues to work on the priorities that the prime minister has,” a spokesperson said.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said the introduction of the bill of rights “followed an extensive consultation, and it will be debated and scrutinised in parliament in the usual way”.
