A summary of today's developments
- Boris Johnson will face a Commons inquiry over whether he lied to parliament after Downing Street withdrew an attempt to force Conservative MPs to delay the new Partygate investigation. Two more Tory MPs called for Johnson to quit on Thursday, including the influential Brexiter Steve Baker. A Labour motion to launch a parliamentary investigation into whether Johnson lied to MPs about Downing Street parties passed without a vote on Thursday afternoon. Hours earlier, government whips had pulled an amendment that would have delayed any vote to start the inquiry until after the Sue Gray report was published.
- Asked if a general election should be called now, Sir Keir Starmer said: “I think the prime minister’s lost trust, I don’t think he has the moral authority to lead, and I think he should go. “Obviously I can’t force that – it’s for his own MPs to reflect on the situation they are in and decide for themselves whether they’re still prepared to go on defending the indefensible. I don’t think they should. I think they should call on him to go. Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, believes Boris Johnson is too “distracted” by the Partygate allegations to lead the country.
- Earlier, Johnson spoke about the No 10 whipping U-turn on his trip to India. In an interview with Sky’s Beth Rigby at the Akshardham Temple in Ahmedabad, Johnson said the government dropped its amendment because it did not want to look as if it had something to hide.
- The Home Office’s top civil servant has told thousands of his staff that they will not be breaking the law or be guilty of racism if they enforce Priti Patel’s plan to send people with rejected UK asylum claims to Rwanda. Matthew Rycroft, the permanent secretary, faced questions at an online staff meeting asking if the home secretary’s policy of giving people a one-way ticket to Kigali was racist, while others demanded to know if the new policy was within international law.
- The Metropolitan police has said that it will not make any further announcements about people being fined for lockdown breaches at No 10 ahead of the May local elections. Fines could still be issued, but there won’t be announcements about them.
We will close this blog now but you can read our story on Boris Johnson’s position within the Tory party here:
Updated
The Home Office’s top civil servant has told thousands of his staff that they will not be breaking the law or be guilty of racism if they enforce Priti Patel’s plan to send people with rejected UK asylum claims to Rwanda.
Amid growing anger from the department’s workforce, Matthew Rycroft, the permanent secretary, faced questions at an online staff meeting asking if the home secretary’s policy of giving people a one-way ticket to Kigali was racist, while others demanded to know if the new policy was within international law.
Rycroft told staff they had to implement ministers’ decisions, and reminded them of the civil service’s neutral role, sources said.
Updated
