A summary of today's developments
The Commons privileges committee has implied that it will not publish the ‘case for the defence’ dossier it has received from Boris Johnson about its Partygate inquiry today. In a statement a spokesperson for the committee said: “The committee of privileges can confirm it received written evidence from Boris Johnson MP at 2.32pm on Monday. “The committee will need to review what has been submitted in the interests of making appropriate redactions to protect the identity of some witnesses. “The committee intends to publish this as soon as is practicably possible. The material will be published on the committee website.”
MPs investigating Boris Johnson over his Partygate denials are not expected to release their final report on whether he misled parliament until next month at the earliest, the Guardian has been told.
The Conservatives could lose more than 1,000 seats in the English local elections in May, on the basis of current polling, according to psephologists. In an article for the Local Government Chronicle, Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, two of Britain’s leading local election specialists, said the Tories will record losses on this scale even if the swing to Labour from the Conservatives is less in the local elections than current national polling suggests it might be.More than 8,000 seats across 230 councils in England are up for grabs on Thursday 4 May, making this the biggest set of election in the four-year local elections cycle.
In a statement about the settlement with Network Rail, Mick Lynch, the RMT general secretary, stressed that the union’s dispute with the train operating companies was still on. But he said he hoped this could lead to the government allowing them to make a better offer.
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, has said that its eight MPs will vote against the deal to revise the Northern Ireland protocol on Wednesday. But the party has been engaged in an extensive consultation on the proposal, and in his statement Donaldson said that voting against was indicative of the party’s “current” position. He said that the deal represented progress in some areas and that the DUP was still seeking “further clarification, reworking and change”.
Nicola Sturgeon believes the SNP will emerge after its leadership contest in a “stronger position”. She added she does not normally agree with Tony Blair, but she thought he was right when he said recently that social media was a “plague” on democracy. She said social media forces people “to speak first and think later” and encourages polarisation.
NHS strikes in Scotland have been averted after unions representing midwives and nurses voted to accept the Scottish government’s pay offer.
MPs investigating Boris Johnson over his Partygate denials are not expected to release their final report on whether he misled parliament until next month at the earliest, the Guardian has been told.
After the former prime minister submitted what was termed a “bombshell” 50-page dossier laying out his defence on Monday afternoon, sources suggested a verdict by the privileges committee would come after Easter.
With the Commons in recess until 17 April and local elections several weeks later, which the committee would not want to be accused of influencing, sources indicated a ruling may not be made until May.
When the final report is drawn up, Johnson will also be given two weeks to review it and respond. There are concerns that if the committee finds he did mislead parliament, then Johnson could use this period to build a campaign against it.
