Afternoon summary
Boris Johnson has said he will find it “very difficult” to vote for Rishi Sunak’s revised deal for post-Brexit trade arrangements in Northern Ireland, arguing that the plan ties the UK to EU regulations that will crush efforts to innovate and diverge. For a full summary and analysis of his speech, see 2.30pm.
Jean-Claude Juncker, who was president of the European Commission during most of the Brexit negotiations, has said the Northern Ireland protocol deal gives more authority to the EU than some in Britain are suggesting. (See 2.30pm.)
The Partygate investigator Sue Gray is set to be Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, in a coup for the Labour leader who has been looking to appoint a veteran civil servant to prepare the party for government. A Labour party spokesperson said:
The Labour party has offered Sue Gray the role of chief of staff to the leader of the opposition. We understand she hopes to accept the role subject to the normal procedures. Keir Starmer is delighted she is hoping to join our preparations for government and our mission to build a better Britain.
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SNP leadership candidates on the campaign trail this afternoon were swift to praise John Swinney, the hugely experienced and well-liked deputy first minister who announced he will step down from government after 16 years once a new first minister is elected. (See 3.48pm.)
After speaking to Ukrainian families in Glasgow, the Scottish finance secretary, Kate Forbes, said Swinney was “an incredibly able to politician who has put public service at the heart of his career” as well as “a friend to so many MSPs”. She went on:
I have valued enormously his advice and guidance over the years and I wish him well because he has put in some shift.
Visiting a community charity in Midlothian, the health secretary, Humza Yousaf, said:
John is one of those unique people in politics that appeals to people right across the political divide, even if you’re not politically involved.
He is one of the most caring, compassionate people I know. I’ve gone through some really hard times and the first person that’s picked the phone up to me has been John, time and time again. I’ll always be grateful for his love and support.
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Keir Starmer poised to hire Sue Gray as Labour chief of staff
The Cabinet Office has confirmed that Sue Gray has left the civil service. A spokesperson also said they would be “reviewing the circumstances under which she resigned”, which suggests some concern about how she might have been negotiating a move to Labour (to work as chief of staff for Keir Starmer) while working for the government as a civil servant.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said:
We can confirm that Sue Gray has resigned from the post of second permanent secretary in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. This was accepted by the department permanent secretary and cabinet secretary with immediate effect.
We will not be commenting further on individual personnel matters. We are reviewing the circumstances under which she resigned.
The Labour party has not officially commented. It is understood that it wants to wait until the appointment has been cleared with the advisory committee on business appointments, which issues guidance on ministers and senior officials taking jobs outside government when they leave. But Labour sources say Starmer is set to appoint her as his chief of staff.
My colleague Jessica Elgot has the story here.
Former EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker says protocol deal better for Brussels than some in UK are suggesting
Jean-Claude Juncker, who was the president of the European Commisison during most of the Brexit negotiations, has said the Northern Ireland protocol deal gives more authority to the EU than some in Britain are suggesting.
In an interview for LBC’s Tonight with Andrew Marr, Juncker described the deal as “a real breakthrough”. But he went on:
I think that the European Commission will have more authority than it seems. And as the European court of justice has been reconfirmed in its role as an arbiter when it comes to internal market questions concerning Northern Ireland.
So I think that, although the deal is giving a response to the major British concerns, there is a part of European Union in the deal some in Britain are trying to hide.
In the interview, Juncker also said he liked Boris Johnson “as a person”, even though he considered him “a piece of work”. He said:
I like him as a person. He’s funny, but he’s serious nevertheless. And I had better relations with all the prime ministers of Britain I’ve known, starting with John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, even David Cameron, then mainly Theresa May, who was a lady.
And Boris Johnson was a piece of work, someone you cannot categorise, in normal definitions, but I liked him as a person.
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John Swinney to stand down as Scotland's deputy first minister
John Swinney has announced that he will stand down as Scotland’s deputy first minister when a new first minister is elected to replace Nicola Sturgeon. In his resignation letter, he pointed out that he had been in government for almost 16 years. He said:
When I joined the Scottish National party at the age of 15 in 1979, our political prospects were poor and I could scarcely have imagined that over so many years I would have the opportunity to serve Scotland in government in the way I have.
In her reply, Sturgeon said:
I could not have wished for a better partner in government than you, and there is no doubt that our Scottish government would have achieved much less had you not been in it.
Joe Pike at Sky News is reporting that the senior civil servant Sue Gray has now been offered the job of chief of staff to Keir Starmer. At least one other journalist was saying this earlier. (See 11.57am.) Labour has still not commented.
EXCL: Sue Gray has been appointed chief of staff to Labour leader Keir Starmer.
— Joe Pike (@joepike) March 2, 2023
As a senior civil servant, the job offer will be subject to ACOBA process before formal confirmation.
Major coup for the Labour leader and part of an effort to prove the party is preparing for govt. pic.twitter.com/IksivN0XFm
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Johnson says return of Parthenon marbles to Greece would harm British Museum
Boris Johnson’s speech did not just cover Brexit. He also included a passage on the Parthenon marbles, where he argued strongly against their return to Athens. He said the British Museum in London, where they are now, “tells the story of the evolution of the human spirit”. He went on:
If you give back the Elgin Marbles to Greece, then you leave a huge gap in that narrative.
And, above all, you have no answer in the years ahead to the theoretical claims for restitution from Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Nigeria, everywhere whose treasures are housed in Bloomsbury.
And suddenly in trying to please the world and correct thinking, you’ve deprived the world of one of its great treasures and cut some vital panels from its great pageant of human progress.
This passage is probably best understood as an exhibit from an ongoing Tory feud. George Osborne, the former chancellor, is chairman of the British Museum, and has reportedly been pushing for an agreement that would see the marbles returned to Greece. He is also a longstanding rival of Johnson’s (in 2015 they were probably the two Tories with the best chance of succeeding David Cameron), and he regularly uses his slot on Andrew Neil’s show on Channel 4 on Sundays to disparage the former PM.
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Cost of living crisis prompting over-50s in UK to seek work, IFS thinktank suggests
People in their 50s and 60s are re-thinking their decision to take early retirement after being made poorer by Britain’s cost of living crisis, the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests. My colleague Larry Elliott has the story here.
Boris Johnson's speech and Q&A - summary and analysis
The opening minutes of Boris Johnson’s address at the soft power summit in London were dreadful. But it was well worth perservering because, once he started talking about Brexit, he gave what was by his standards a remarkable speech.
Johnson is famous for his trademark boosterism. He is also someone who has never shown much interested in self-reflection, and is notorious for never admitting fault. He gave a glimpse of this trait in his jibe about Partygate. (See 12.12pm.) But when he started talking about the Northern Ireland protocol, he turned uncharacteristically humble.
While ERG and DUP diehards, in so far as they have criticised Rishi Sunk’s deal, have focused on issues like the ongoing role of the European court of justice, Johnson was much more astute, focusing how the protocol remained “a drag anchor on divergence”. This is probably the strongest argument available against the deal.
But Johnson also admitted that the protocol deal he originally signed was flawed, saying “it was all my fault”. He was conceded that there was no longer any public appetite for the confrontational approach to Brussels that he championed, and sought to enact through the Northern Ireland protocol bill. And, most tellingly of all, he admitted that he had failed to persuade people of the benefits of Brexit.
“Brexitism as the doctrine of national renaissance through conflict with Brussels is dying,” my colleague Rafael Behr argued in a great column yesterday. Johnson did not put it like that, but the tone of his speech did a lot to support Rafael’s argument.
Here are the main points.
Johnson criticised Rishi Sunak’s Northern Ireland deal, saying that it was “not about the UK taking back control” and that it would act as a “drag anchor on divergence”. He was not entirely negative. He accepted that it would reduce friction at the GB/NI border, and in that respect he said “we’ve got to hope that it works”. But goods made in Northern Ireland would still have to be be made to EU standards he said. He went on:
The EU single market remains paramount. And in that sense, this deal … acts as a drag anchor on divergence, which is the point of Brexit. There’s no point in Brexit unless you do things differently.
He also said this meant it was not about taking back control (the slogan of the leave campaign that he led in 2016). He said:
I’m conscious I’m not going to be thanked for saying this, but I think it is my job to do so, we must be clear about what is really going on here.
This is not about the UK taking back control and although there are easements this is really a version of the solution that was being offered last year to Liz Truss when she was foreign secretary.
This is the EU graciously unbending to allow us to do what we want to do in our own country, not by our laws, but by theirs.
He said that he would find it “very difficult” to vote for the deal. (See 12.31pm.) But he did not say he would vote against it, and he admitted to having “mixed feelings”. He said:
When I look at the deal that we have now, I, of course, have have mixed feelings. I’m conscious of where the political momentum is and people’s deep desire just to get on.
He said that he hoped the government would not rule out bringing back the Northern Ireland protocol bill (which will allow the UK to unilaterally ignore parts of the protocol) because “I have no doubt at all that that is what brought the EU to negotiate seriously”.
But he also accepted that the public now wants to “move on” and end confrontations with the EU over Brexit. He said:
It’s clear … people to move on. They want to do a deal. They don’t want any more ructions, and I get that, I totally get that, and I got to be realistic about that.
He admitted that he made mistakes when he signed the original protocol. “It’s all my fault,” he said. The protocol imposed checks goods travelling from Britain to Northern Ireland. He said:
I thought those checks would not be onerous since there isn’t that much stuff that falls into that category; most of the goods stay in Northern Ireland.
As an aside, he muttered: “It’s all my fault, I fully accept responsibility.” It sounded spontaneous, and half in jest. But it is the first time he said that, and it means in future he can say that he has accepted his responsiblity for the flaws in the deal.
He conceded that he should have done more to persuade people of the benefits of Brexit. He said:
I’ve got to put my hands up for this as much as anybody – we haven’t done enough yet to convince them that it can deliver the change they want to see.
And I think that they’re particularly dismayed about things like the small boats crossing the Channel, but they also don’t feel the economic change and so we’ve got to break out of the model that we’re in.
At the end, talking about his plans for the future, he said he needed to do “a better job of explaining and supporting and defending Brexit”.
He said that he wished he had slashed business taxes after the UK left the EU, to show that Brexit would give the country a new economic model. He said:
What I wish we had done is put a big ‘invest here’ sign over Britain as soon as we were out of Covid. As soon as it was remotely credible, I think we should have done something. We should have outbid the Irish.
We had this long, long, long, long, long civil war about what Brexit was. And we never really – we haven’t yet said we’re doing things differently. And that’s the point. Things like the genome editing – get on and do it.
He suggested that without Brexit, the government was “nothing”. He said:
This is nothing if it is not a Brexit government and Brexit is nothing if we in this country don’t do things differently …. It is because this is a Brexit government that we got the biggest share of the vote since 1979 [at the 2019 general election].
He claimed that he did not expect to do a big job in politics again. At the end of the Q&A he said:
I think it very, very unlikely that I will need to do anything big in politics again.
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Johnson says he needs to do 'better job of explaining and supporting and defending Brexit'
Asked about his “next big job”, Johnson says he has got a “big budget of words” to write (a reference to his memoirs). But he also says he needs to do “a better job of explaining and supporting and defending Brexit”.
He says he cares deeply about the fact that Britain is so unbalanced. He wants to continue campaigning for levelling up.
And he says he will continue to support Ukraine.
That’s it. The Q&A is over.
Johnson claims UK more influential in Europe after Brexit than it was before
Johnson says he thinks the UK is more influential in Europe now, outside the EU, than it was before.
I genuinely think it is true that we are now more influential in Europe, about foreign policy, because we’re outside it, outside the EU structure, than we were when we were in.
Johnson claims (not for the first time) that “Brexit saved lives” because it facilitated the UK’s speedy vaccine rollout programme.
(This is not true – although it is arguable that a more pro-European government might have joined the EU vaccine programme, instead of acting unilaterally. See this post, from the last time Johnson made this claim, for an analysis.)
Johnson says he wishes he had slashed business taxes, to outcompete Ireland, after UK left EU
The presenter takes Johnson back to Brexit.
Q: When this goes through, Brexit will be done.
Johnson says he doesn’t agree.
There is no point in this exercise if you don’t do things differently.
Q: So what would you differently?
Johnson says, in retrospect, he wishes they had “put a big ‘invest here’ sign over Britain as soon as we were out of Covid”. The UK should have outdone the Irish on low tax rates for business, he says.
He says they had a long civil war about Brexit. But the government has not yet shown what it will do differently, for example on gene editing. He says, on financial services and data, there should also be divergence.
UPDATE: Johnson said:
There’s no point now in just emulating the high-tax, high-spend, low-growth European model.
We should think not about raising corporation tax but cutting corporation tax to Irish levels or lower and really turbocharging investment to drive levelling up across the whole country, really showing the world what they wanted to see from 2016 onwards: that we are different now, because this is a Brexit government or this is nothing.
Updated
Johnson is now talking about the BBC. He says he owes everything to the BBC: “They launched me,” he says (referring to his appearances on Have I Got News for You). But when he goes to BBC studios they are full of people, while independent networks have far fewer members of staff, he says. He implies they are more efficient, and he says the independents have been “cannibalised” by the BBC.
He says he thought of this when he was responsible for making people pay the licence fee.
The BBC should also be raising more revenue for the UK, he says.
Updated
Asked about Ukraine, Johnson says he thinks it will win, but that it is going to be tough.
Going back to Brexit, he says he faced a tough audience with his message earlier. (The audience is mostly remain.) But he asks if anyone thinks Russia has a grain of a case with Ukraine, and he is gratified when he finds that on this he has the audience on his side.
Johnson says people want to 'move on' from Brexit and he 'gets that'
Johnson is now taking questions.
He says people do not feel economic change from Brexit.
But the country has to break from the economic model it is in.
The presenter raises the “Windsor framework”.
Johnson suggests he has said enough about this.
It is clear that people want to move on, he says. They want a deal, no more ructions. He gets that, he says.
Johnson says 'this is nothing if it is not a Brexit government'
Johnson says he will continue to campaign for proper Brexit.
I will continue to campaign for what I think of as Brexit … because this is nothing if it is not a Brexit government, and Brexit is nothing if we in this country don’t do things differently.
He cites examples where the UK can benefit from diverging from EU rules. Gene editing is one example, he says.
He says the Covid vaccine programme was another example of Britain benefiting by daring to be different.
And Ukraine policy is another example too, he says.
By daring to be different, Brexit has encouraged, now, the rest of Europe to give arms to the Ukrainians.
Johnson ends by expressing his support for Ukraine.
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Johnson says he would find it 'very difficult' to vote for protocol deal, which would be 'drag anchor on divergence'
Johnson says the protocol deal will be a “drag anchor on divergence”.
And, he asks, who votes for the people who will make the single market laws – about what pets can be taken to Northern Ireland, or what goods can be sold there?
No one in Britain or Northern Ireland votes for these people, he says. [He is referring to European commissioners, who propose laws that get voted on by MEPs.]
He says he would find it “very difficult” to vote for the protocol deal.
He hopes it will work, he says.
But if it doesn’t, the government should bring back the Northern Ireland protocol bill, he says. (This is the bill that would allow the UK to ignore parts of the protocol.)
UPDATE: Johnson said:
I’m going to find it very difficult to vote for something like this myself, because I believed we should’ve done something very different. No matter how much plaster came off the ceiling in Brussels,” he said.
I hope that it will work and I also hope that if it doesn’t work we will have the guts to employ that bill again, because I have no doubt at all that that is what brought the EU to negotiate seriously.
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Johnson says he has 'mixed feelings' about NI protocol deal, which is 'not about UK taking back control'
Johnson defends the Northern Ireland protocol bill.
He says it went through the Commons unamended.
And, given that, he has “mixed feelings” about Rishi Sunak’s protocol renegotiation, he says. (He has not mentioned Sunak by name.)
He says he has great respect for the Democratic Unionist party leader, Jeffrey Donaldson.
He says he must be clear – “this is not about the UK taking back control”.
This is about the EU “graciously unbending” to allow the UK to do what it wants to do in this country “not by our laws, but theirs”.
UPDATE: Johnson said:
I’m conscious I’m not going to be thanked for saying this, but I think it is my job to do so, we must be clear about what is really going on here.
This is not about the UK taking back control and although there are easements this is really a version of the solution that was being offered last year to Liz Truss when she was foreign secretary.
This is the EU graciously unbending to allow us to do what we want to do in our own country, not by our laws, but by theirs.
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Johnson describes Northern Ireand protocol as 'all my fault'
Johnson is now talking about Brexit, and Northern Ireland. News coming up ….
He says if the UK wanted to get out of the customs union, and keep an open border on Ireland, then there would have to be checks on goods going from Britain to Northern Ireland.
Purely “to help the EU”, the UK agreed to those checks.
Johnson says he thought the checks would not be onerous. “It was all my fault,” he says, as an aside.
Johnson said this almost as a joke. But it is not something he has said before, and it is a concession of sorts to Rishi Sunak.
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Johnson says the Guardian recently said a speech of his was “shocking”.
I’m not sure what he is referring to, but this one certainly is. It is hackneyed and rambling, almost incoherent. But his speeches often are.
Presumably, though, at some point he will say something that counts as news.
UPDATE: Johnson was referring to this report about a speech he gave in Singapore in November. The report quoted a guest who described it as “pretty shocking” because of the language used about China.
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While taking a swipe at Keir Starmer, Johnson adds a line about the Tories being “only a handful of points” behind Labour when he stood down as PM.
Boris Johnson claims he does not understand why he was fined over Partygate
Johnson says he still does not understand why he was fined over Partygate. But he understands the importance of the rule of law, and freedom under the rule of law.
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Johnson is now delivering the speech he used to give as London mayor about how great London, or the UK, is.
And he is criticising the idea of returning the Elgin marbles to Greece.
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Johnson is now on about freedom of speech, and Roald Dahl. He sings the Augustus Gloop song, and says nobody should be banned from reading the original James Bond novels.
(They’re not.)
Boris Johnson says he is going to use his speech to provide an analysis of soft power.
But he starts with a story about going for a run, and and someone sounding out a cheery London greeting, “Wanker”.
(I think Johnson has been telling this story, or a version of it, for at least a decade. In previous incarnations, Johnson was on his bike when he was shouted at.)
Johnson says this shows how “minimal” the distance is between the government and the governed in the UK. It would not happen to Vladimir Putin, he says.
(Johnson is overlooking the fact that he is no longer in government.)
Boris Johnson is being introduced now. Apparently it is his first major speech in Europe since stepping down as PM.
Boris Johnson is due to speak at the BrandFinance global soft power summit at 12pm. There is a live feed here.
According to the Times’ Steven Swinford, Johnson will use his speech to express concerns about Rishi Sunak’s Northern Ireland protocol deal.
Boris Johnson will today raise concerns about Rishi Sunak’s Brexit deal in first public intervention since it was announced
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) March 2, 2023
He won’t oppose it outright, but retains view that dropping NI Protocol bill is a mistakehttps://t.co/1den0KfBbO
Turning away from Matt Hancock for a moment, the Labour party has not denied a story from Sky’s Joe Pike last night saying Keir Starmer is considering hiring Sue Gray, the senior civil servant who conducted the Partygate inquiry, as his chief of staff. Pike says:
Allies of the Labour leader say that due to the relative inexperience of his team, a candidate who understands how to operate at the top level of government is essential.
Ms Gray’s appointment would echo Tony Blair’s recruitment of diplomat Jonathan Powell while Labour was in opposition in 1995.
In a post on Twitter, James Macintyre, the journalist and former New Statesman political correspondent, says he’s been told Gray has already accepted the job.
I’ve asked Labour for a comment, and will tell you when they respond.
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Another story from the Telegraph’s lockdown files quotes Helen Whately, the social care minister, saying there was not a “robust rationale” for the rule of six.
The Telegraph story, with the full version of this exchange, is here.
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WhatsApp messages reveal Boris Johnson's concern about performing repeated U-turns
One of the new stories from the Daily Telegraph’s lockdown files shows that the government decided to say secondary school pupils in England should be required to wear masks in communal settings such as corridors from September 2020, in part because ministers did not want to be out of step with Scotland, where masks were required in schools. As with most of the Telegraph’s lockdown stories, the biggest attraction is the voyeuristic opportunity to read what Boris Johnson and his advisers were saying in WhatsApp messages never intended for public distribution.
Here is the opening of the exchange featured in the story.
And here is Johnson’s final message.
It is sometimes assumed that prime ministers are omnipotent within Whitehall. That “God knows why” shows that they’re not – or at least that Johnson wasn’t. He was exasperated by his government’s own guidance.
The exchanges also show that criticism that his government was constantly performing U-turns (as in this article, published in the Guardian three weeks before Johnson wrote this WhatsApp message) clearly riled him.
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Penny Mordaunt, the Commons leader, has announced the business scheduled for next week in the House of Commons. She did not mention a vote on the Northern Ireland protocol deal, which means it is unlikely to happen next week (though it is not totally impossible – debates can always be scheduled at short notice).
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In an interview with Times Radio this morning Isabel Oakeshott said that she wanted to maintain “the moral high ground” in her dispute with Matt Hancock. Echoing what she told Today about not wanting to engage in a “slanging match” with him (see 9.09am), she told Times Radio:
I would prefer to maintain the moral high ground. If Matt Hancock wants to enter into an ugly fight with me, then that would be an interesting judgment on his part. I wouldn’t advise it.
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Sunak's approval ratings have risen in light of Northern Ireland protocol deal, poll suggests
Rishi Sunak’s approval ratings have risen following the announcement of his deal with the EU to revise the Northern Ireland protocol, according to figures released by YouGov. His ratings (based on responses to the question “do you have a favourable or unfavourable opinion of X”) are still lower than Keir Starmer’s, but they are a lot better than his party’s.
In a commentary on the figures, YouGov says:
[Sunak’s] popularity boost extends across the political spectrum. Among Tory voters, the proportion with a favourable view of the PM is up seven points from 50% to 57%, while among Labour voters it is up from 12% to 19%. More than four in ten leave voters (43%) now have a positive opinion of the prime minister, up from 38%, while among remain voters the increase has been from 25% to 32%.
Sunak’s net favourability of score -21 still trails Labour rival Keir Starmer’s (-11) by double digits. While about as many people have a favourable view of the leader of the opposition (37%) as the prime minister, fewer people dislike him (48%). Unlike Sunak, Starmer’s ratings are virtually identical to those from the previous survey.
Labour says Hancock/Williamson WhatsApp messages are 'kick in teeth for teachers'
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, has said the WhatsApp exchanges between Matt Hancock and Gavin Williamson (see 9.41am) show how little Conservatives value teachers. The messages were a “kick in the teeth’” for the profession, she claimed. She said:
These comments are a kick in the teeth for teachers who stretched every sinew for children during the pandemic.
They add insult to injury at a time when fewer people are joining the profession, and when teachers are leaving classrooms in their droves.
The Conservatives have shown us today exactly how much they value our teachers. Labour will always value the incredible work all school staff do.
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People say things 'in heat of moment' on WhatsApp 'they don't really believe', says minister, defending Gavin Williamson
Nick Gibb, the schools minister who was doing the same job when Gavin Williamson was education secretary during the pandemic, defended his old boss in the light of what he said about teachers on WhatsApp. (See 9.42am.) In an interview with LBC, Gibb said people sometimes “in the heat of the moment” say things on WhatsApp “they don’t really believe”. He said:
I think [Williamson] was talking about the union, but I don’t think he believes that either. Gavin’s own wife is a primary school teacher – I’ve worked with Gavin for two years; I know he holds teachers in the highest regard.
We all in government hold teachers in the highest regard, both during the pandemic and in normal times as well.
People say things in the heat of the moment on WhatsApp that they don’t really believe.
In a separate interview, Gibb said it would be up to the Covid inquiry to decide whether or not the government made the right decisions about opening and closing schools during the pandemic.
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Here is an extract from Isabel Oakeshott’s interview with Piers Morgan on TalkTV last night. In it, she talks about getting a menacing message from Matt Hancock in the early hours of yesterday. (See 9.16am.) She also says that, after they collaborated on his Pandemic Diaries, Hancock reneged on an agreement to give her an interview for TalkTV, which she said was important to her because she is international editor there. But she said that was not the reason why she decided to release his messages.
Teaching union leader says Gavin Williamson's pandemic WhatsApp comments about teachers 'contemptible'
The Daily Telegraph has published WhatsApp messages showing Matt Hancock, the then health secretary, and Sir Gavin Williamson, the then education secretary, criticising teaching unions, or some teachers generally.
It has published this exchange from May 2020, when Williamson wanted schools to be able to get PPE from local resilience forums (LRFs). Williamson said some schools did not want to re-open “to avoid having to teach”.
In October that year the two ministers had a similar exchange, focusing on the teaching unions. The Telegraph reports:
At almost 10pm Mr Hancock got in touch with his Cabinet colleague, writing: “Cracking announcement today. What a bunch of absolute arses the teaching unions are”
Sir Gavin responded: “I know they really really do just hate work”
To which Mr Hancock replied: “😂😂🎯 “
This morning Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders union, said Williamson’s comments were “contemptible”. Barton told BBC Breakfast:
It’s contemptible because we have to remind ourselves that this was an age of extraordinary anxiety. We hadn’t got vaccines.
And the government was starting to look to the teaching profession to welcome those young people back into school … And essentially, the very people who then brought those young people back into school are being described in those snide terms by the former education secretary.
In a statement responding to the Telegraph report, Williamson said:
Further to reports in the Telegraph and other outlets, I wish to clarify that these messages were about some unions and not teachers. As demonstrated in the exchange, I was responding regarding unions.
I have the utmost respect for teachers who work tirelessly to support students. During the pandemic, teachers went above and beyond during very challenging times and very much continue to do so.
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Starmer urged to act after councillor barred from contesting ‘red wall’ seat
Keir Starmer has been urged to intervene in the selection process for a Labour target “red wall” seat, after a leading candidate who had the support of eight trade unions was blocked from standing, my colleague Aletha Adu reports.
In his statement this morning (see 8.45am) Matt Hancock denies sending Isabel Oakeshott a threatening message in the early hours of yesterday morning, after he realised she had given his WhatsApp messages to the Daily Telegraph. He says:
When I heard confused rumours of a publication late on Tuesday night, I called and messaged Isabel to ask her if she had ‘any clues’ about it, and got no response. When I then saw what she’d done, I messaged to say it was ‘a big mistake’. Nothing more.
In her Today interview, Oakeshott defended her decision to describe the message as “menacing” and “threatening”. She did not reveal exactly what he said. But she told the programme:
I’m saying that he sent me a message at 1.20am in the morning. It wasn’t a pleasant message.
In her Today interview Oakeshott also denied being paid by the Daily Telegraph directly for the messages. She said:
I’m a working journalist.
They did not pay me for the messages. I’ve been helping the Daily Telegraph with the investigation, you’ll see that I’ve been writing stories for the Daily Telegraph.
Anyone who thinks I did this for money must be utterly insane. This is about the millions of people, every one of us in this country that were adversely affected by the catastrophic decisions to lock down this country repeatedly, often on the flimsiest of evidence for political reasons.
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Isabel Oakeshott says it's 'ridiculous' for Hancock to claim no public interest in disclosure of WhatsApp messages
Isabel Oakeshott, the journalist who handed over Matt Hancock’s private Covid WhatsApp messages (which she had seen when co-authoring his Pandemic Diaries) to the Daily Telegraph, has been giving interviews this morning.
On the Today programme, where she was interviewed at 7.10am, she said she would not be getting into a “slanging match” with Hancock. She said:
Do you know what I’m not going to do, because it wouldn’t be pretty, is get involved in a slanging match with Matt Hancock.
He can threaten me all he likes. There are plenty of things I can say about his behaviour, by the way, that I’m not going to do – at least not at this stage – because this is not about Matt Hancock. It is so much bigger than that.
But that did not stop her doing a little bit of slanging after Hancock released his statement (see 8.45am) around an hour later condemning her conduct. Referring to his claim that there was “no public interest case” for what she had done, she told TalkTV:
What a ridiculous defence. For someone who’s as intelligent as Matt Hancock to issue a statement saying there is no public interest in these revelations is patently absurd. And he knows that very well.
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Matt Hancock says leaking of WhatsApp messages a ‘massive betrayal’ as he apologises to colleagues
Good morning. The Daily Telegraph has published another raft of stories based on Matt Hancock’s private Covid WhatsApp messages, filling the first nine pages of the paper. Here is my colleague Jessica Elgot’s story with the highlights.
This morning Matt Hancock has for the first time responded directly to the story. Yesterday his spokesperson issued a statement on his behalf, but this morning Hancock has put out a statement in his own name. He accuses Isabel Oakeshott, the journalist who gave the material to the Telegraph, of a “massive betrayal” and says he is “sorry” for the impact this has had on his colleagues (whose messages to Hancock are now also in the public domain).
He also denies a claim from Oakeshott that he sent her a menacing message in the early hours of yesterday morning, after the first Telegraph reports were published.
Here is his statement in full.
I am hugely disappointed and sad at the massive betrayal and breach of trust by Isabel Oakeshott. I am also sorry for the impact on the very many people – political colleagues, civil servants and friends – who worked hard with me to get through the pandemic and save lives.
There is absolutely no public interest case for this huge breach. All the materials for the book have already been made available to the inquiry, which is the right, and only, place for everything to be considered properly and the right lessons to be learned. As we have seen, releasing them in this way gives a partial, biased account to suit an anti-lockdown agenda.
Isabel and I had worked closely together for more than a year on my book, based on legal confidentiality and a process approved by the Cabinet Office. Isabel repeatedly reiterated the importance of trust throughout, and then broke that trust.
Last night, I was accused of sending menacing messages to Isabel. This is also wrong. When I heard confused rumours of a publication late on Tuesday night, I called and messaged Isabel to ask her if she had ‘any clues’ about it, and got no response. When I then saw what she’d done, I messaged to say it was ‘a big mistake’. Nothing more.
I will not be commenting further on any other stories or false allegations that Isabel will make. I will respond to the substance in the appropriate place, at the inquiry, so that we can properly learn all the lessons based on a full and objective understanding of what happened in the pandemic, and why.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10.30am: Penny Mordaunt, the Commons leader, makes a statment to MPs on next week’s business.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
11.30am: Rishi Sunak opens at an away-day for Conservative MPs at a hotel in Windsor, where they spend the day at presentations and seminars, before dinner. MPs are staying the night and there is another session tomorrow morning.
12pm: Boris Johnson is due to speak at a conference in Westminster on global soft power.
12pm: Nicola Sturgeon takes first minister’s questions at Holyrood.
I’ll try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com.
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