Summary of the day
It’s been another busy day in Westminster. Here’s a summary of what happened:
- Sajid Javid said the partygate scandal had been “damaging to our democracy”, and defended the lifting of mask rules in schools since it is “harder to teach children” if they wear them.
- The Conservative MP William Wragg accused the government of trying to “blackmail” MPs pushing for a confidence vote in Boris Johnson. No 10 swiftly responded and, without outright refuting Wragg’s claims, said it was “not aware of any evidence” to support them. The stance was repeated soon after by Johnson.
- The Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, accused Johnson of acting “like a mafia boss”, and Labour called for an investigation into the blackmail claims, which was echoed by the Scottish Tories. The former Brexit minister Steve Baker suggested that “it does look like checkmate” for Johnson, while the Treasury chief secretary, Simon Clark, said it would be “absolutely wrong” for government whips to threaten to withdraw constituency funding.
- Wragg’s claims were followed by allegations from Christian Wakeford, the Bury South MP who defected to Labour, that he had been threatened with a loss of funding for his constituency if he rebelled as a Tory MP.
- Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, called for an investigation into bullying and blackmail, which she called “gravely serious allegations”. She also cast her doubts on the decision to lift Plan B restrictions. “There are still significant uncertainties ahead,” she said.
- The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, accused the Conservatives of no longer being the party of business given that they had presided over a “lost decade” of low growth.
Both I and the blog are signing off for the evening. For coronavirus news from around the world, you can follow our global Covid blog:
Updated
The Guardian’s home affairs editor Rajeev Syal has done some research and found that there is a precedent for parliamentary authorities investigating threats to withhold funds from MPs if they vote certain ways.
He writes:
The Labour peer and QC Dale Campbell-Savours points out that the parliamentary authorities have previously investigated threats to withhold funds from an MP.
In 1981, when he was the MP for Workington, Campbell-Savours complained to the privileges committee – and had his complaint upheld – after being threatened by Iain MacGregor, the then head of British Steel.
He claimed that MacGregor had verbally threatened to withhold money from a steelworks in his Workington constituency.
In this excerpt from Hansard in January 1981, Campbell-Savours recalled the meeting with MacGregor, who had taken issue with his criticisms in parliament of British Steel.
“After further conversation about my general approach in the House concerning the steel industry, he said that if this was the way that I intended to conduct my case in parliament, and if I persisted in making such statements and attacks on the corporation, further investment in Workington would be ended. He made reference, in passing, to a particular investment project,” he said.
Campbell-Savours says the privileges committee ruled in his favour. MacGregor went on to become the head of the National Coal Board during the miners’ strike. He died in 1988.
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