Afternoon summary
- Boris Johnson has made Jacob Rees-Mogg the new minister for “Brexit opportunities” and installed a key loyalist as his chief whip in a reshuffle intended to shore up his position after weeks of terrible headlines. Commenting on the purpose of the reshuffle, the PM’s spokesperson told at the afternoon lobby briefing:
As the PM said last week, it is important that we both make immediate changes to improve both how the No 10 operation works and the work of the Cabinet Office, and further changes to strengthen cabinet government and improve that vital connection between No 10 and parliament.
The changes being made today will strengthen that connection. We have changes to the whips’ office, improving engagement with MPs and helping to drive the government’s ambitious agenda.
We have a new Brexit opportunities minister, a role that’s been created to drive forward the changes we are able to make now that we have left the EU, delivering on our post-Brexit agenda across Whitehall.
Enforcing protocol checks cost NI at least £8.6m last year, says Poots
A Stormont minister has criticised the “huge” operating costs of Northern Ireland Protocol checks as he outlined the multimillion-pound bill for the first year in operation, PA Media reports. PA says:
Agriculture minister Edwin Poots detailed around £8.65m of expenditure throughout 2021, but said other costs outside of his department meant the overall total was significantly higher.
Poots, who last week ordered a unilateral halt to the agri-food checks, was responding to a Stormont Assembly question posed by Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister.
A high court judge has suspended Poots’s direction to stop checks on incoming GB goods pending a full legal challenge into his decision next month.
Addressing the assembly today, the minister said the salary costs of the additional staff needed to complete the checks at Northern Ireland ports was around £4,447,500. He said that total included almost £1m on agency staff.
He said the running costs of the checking facilities in Northern Ireland and the service contract for lorry seal checks carried out on the GB side of the Irish Sea totalled £4.2m.
Updated
Here is some Twitter comment on the reshuffle.
From the Sunday Times’ Tim Shipman
More than one MP in my WhatsApps also pointing out that every move so far is just "boys, boys, boys" as well
— Tim Shipman (@ShippersUnbound) February 8, 2022
Picking up some dismay among female MPs that Mark Spencer still has a job when he is under investigation over claims by Nusrat Ghani
— Tim Shipman (@ShippersUnbound) February 8, 2022
From the Sun’s Harry Cole
The He-Shuffle https://t.co/1412j2L4nU
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) February 8, 2022
After Shipman posted his tweet, Helen Wheeler did get promoted. See 3.14pm.
From Catherine Haddon from the Institute for Government thinktank
It is looking v much like a reward for loyalty shuffle.
— Dr Catherine Haddon (@cath_haddon) February 8, 2022
Every reshuffle, for everyone you promote there are the many who get looked over again or are aggrieved to see who does get something. https://t.co/H8Awk0tMK3
This is from James Johnson, a pollster who used to work in No 10 when Theresa May was PM, on the significance of the Savanta ComRes poll quoted earlier. (See 3.24pm.) It is a good explanation for the findings, which include almost a third of respondents saying that Boris Johnson’s comments were “completely responsible” for what happened to Keir Starmer. (This is an extreme and unlikely view, given that other politicians have been mobbed by protesters outside the Houses of Parliament in this manner in the past. Saying Johnson’s comments were “somewhat responsible – as 42% of respondents did – seems a lot more plausible.)
We are now in a world where the public will automatically side against the government on most things, even if they’re not that aware of the issue. This is what happens when a leader is viewed overwhelmingly negatively and their brand with the public is spent. https://t.co/YvXL53uq3G
— James Johnson (@jamesjohnson252) February 8, 2022
Updated
Sturgeon says PM's anti-Starmer smear like 'battery acid' corroding trust in politics
In an interview with Sky News this afternoon, Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, said Boris Johnson knew exactly what he was doing with his smear against Keir Starmer. She said rhetoric of this kind was like “battery acid” that would corrode trust in politics.
[Johnson] knew what he was doing. He’s many things, but he’s not naive and any politician who choses to weaponise a conspiracy theory circulated around social media by the far right against an opponent knows what they are doing. And either they are trying to stir up the kind of hate that flows from that, or they don’t care about that being the consequence. And either way that is behaviour is just unbefitting somebody in Boris Johnson’s position.
If he had a shred of decency - and I appreciate that that may be the flaw in the argument that I’m about to make - he will withdraw the comments that he made completely and he will fully, unreservedly, unequivocally apologise to Keir Starmer, and he will join with others in saying that we should hold each other to account ... but we should all draw the line at bringing the smears and the lies and the conspiracy theories of the far right, and the other trolls that populate social media, into the mainstream of our democracy. Because if we allow that to happen, it’s like battery acid that will corrode trust in our politics and corrode the very fabric of our democracy.
Updated
James Cleverly will become the Foreign Office minister for Europe, No 10 has said, replacing Chris Heaton-Harris. (See 1.53pm.) Cleverly was already a Foreign Office minister, but responsible for the Middle East, North Africa and North America.
Boris Johnson has said the UK stands “shoulder to shoulder” with Lithuania and its other Nato allies amid rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine. At a meeting with Ingrida Šimonytė, the Lithuanian PM, in Downing Street today, Johnson said:
We are closer than ever before, I think it’s fair to say. We see eye to eye on a lot of very important matters ....
We’re shoulder to shoulder with you and all our Nato allies and we want to make clear that we support you ... We support you when it comes to the immigration issues in Belarus and all the questions that we’re now facing.
Šimonytė said:
It’s very to good to know that, you know, we have a very strong partner and friend and at least that we are together, like Nato and others, and I think it’s extremely good what you are doing on Ukraine.
Photograph: WIktor Szymanowicz/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock
Updated
Almost 70% of people think PM wholly or partly responsible for mob harassing Starmer, poll suggests
Savanta ComRes has released the results of a snap poll suggesting that most Britons think there was a link between Boris Johnson’s Jimmy Savile smear and Keir Starmer getting harassed by a mob in Westminster yesterday.
🚨NEW SNAP POLL🚨
— Savanta ComRes (@SavantaComRes) February 8, 2022
💥69% say PM responsible for LOTO being harassed
💥54% 2019 Con also say this
💥68% say he should publicly apologise to Starmer
💥68% say he should withdraw comments
💥64% say politics has gotten nastier in last 5 yrs
1,094 UK adults, 8 Feb 2022
Here is an extract from the firm’s news release about the findings.
Seven in ten (69%) say that the prime minister’s comments relating to Keir Starmer failing to prosecute child abuser Jimmy Savile are responsible for the behaviour of protesters who harassed the leader of the opposition yesterday, according to a new snap poll by Savanta ComRes.
The figure includes a quarter (27%) who say that the prime minister’s comments are completely responsible for the protesters’ behaviour, while 42% say that his comments are somewhat responsible for the harassment. A quarter (26%) say that the prime minister is not responsible for the behaviour of the individuals, whose hounding of Starmer and the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, led to them both being escorted away in a police car.
In the wake of many Conservative MPs calling for the prime minister to apologise and retract the comments he made during PMQs that, during his time as director of public prosecutions, Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile, the poll finds that 71% say the PM should condemn the behaviour of the protesters – which he has already done – while 68% say he should go further and both apologise publicly to Starmer and withdraw his comments officially in the House of Commons.
And while recency bias is likely to have had some effect, the poll also shows that 57% of Brits say that Boris Johnson is the most likely prime minister to make false claims about opposition leaders in the House of Commons, considerably more than those who say Tony Blair (11%). All other ex-prime ministers, from Thatcher to May, only had between 1-3% of the public saying they were most likely to make false claims about opposition leaders in the House of Commons.
With this incident raising some concerns about the safety of MPs going about their jobs, the poll finds that two-thirds (64%) say that politics has got nastier than it was five years ago, while a sizable proportion (36%) say that it is generally unsafe for politicians in the UK to go about their work.
Updated
More reshuffle news. No 10 has announced that Heather Wheeler will become a junior minister in the Cabinet Office, while retaining her job as a government whip.
Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, has posted this about what happened to Keir Starmer yesterday, saying politicians should “learn to disagree well”. That’s a diplomatic way of condemning Boris Johnson’s Jimmy Savile smear.
When politicians are harassed and threatened it’s a threat not just to the MPs themselves, but to the health of our democracy. We must condemn it and stand united against it. I continue to pray for all who work in politics, and for a culture where we can learn to disagree well.
— Archbishop of Canterbury (@JustinWelby) February 8, 2022
Michael Ellis becomes minister for Cabinet Office
Michael Ellis, currently a minister in the Cabinet Office, will become minister for the Cabinet Office. He will also attend cabinet for the first time, and retain the paymaster general role he already has. That is a promotion, and it means he is taking over some or much of the work that has been done by Steve Barclay, who has been minister for the Cabinet Office and who is now the PM’s new chief of staff.
On at least two occasions recently (see here and here) Ellis has gone beyond the call of duty when defending Boris Johnson over partygate allegations in the Commons. His loyalty has not gone unnoticed.
Updated
Almost one teacher in 10 absent from schools in England last week, DfE says
Record numbers of teachers and school leaders were absent from English state schools last week, PA Media reports. PA says:
In total, nearly one in 10 - 9.1 % - of staff were estimated as absent on 3 February compared with 9% on 20 January, according to the latest figures.
The Department for Education (DfE) estimates that the proportion of staff off for Covid-related reasons fell slightly from 4.5% on 20 January to 4.4% on February 3.
Absence rates for pupils fell, with 320,000 pupils off school for Covid-related reasons on 3 February, down from 5.1% on 20 January.
An estimated 249,800 pupils were off with a confirmed case of coronavirus, or 3.1% of pupils, down from 321,800 on 20 January.
Levels have not fallen to where they were earlier last month when 159,000 pupils were absent with a confirmed case on 6 January .
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that having “almost a tenth” of teaching staff absent represented a “major headache” for school leaders.
“It is good to see that the number of students missing from schools last week fell, but the major headache for many education leaders remains one of trying to plug the gaps left by having almost a tenth of their teaching staff absent,” he said.
Barton said that nearly a quarter - 23% - of schools had more than 15% of teaching staff absent last week, “with many having no option other than to continue to spend more of their dwindling budgets on supply staff, assuming suitable staff are available”.
Turning back to the Sajid Javid statement, here is an assessment from James Illman from the Health Service Journal.
BREAKING: NHS elective backlog Recovery plan foresees two more years of waiting list growth
— James Illman (@Jamesillman) February 8, 2022
Plan commits NHS to:
* Ensuring list falling by March 2024
* 2-year waiters target pushed back from March to July 2022
* Eliminate 52-week breaches by March 2025 £https://t.co/51Mw1I9cOF pic.twitter.com/oR7Osjyzcs
The plan says sets out various staging points to eliminating waits of longer than a year by March 2025:
— James Illman (@Jamesillman) February 8, 2022
The plan says:
•July 2022: no patient will wait longer than 2 years
•April 2023: no patient will wait over 18 months
•March 2024: No one waits over 65 weeks
Plan waters down current diagnostic target:
— James Illman (@Jamesillman) February 8, 2022
Sets “ambition” for 95% of patients needing a diagnostic test to get it within 6 weeks by March 2025. Current but widely missed standard = all patients should wait less than six weeks for a diagnostic test from request being sent
And these are from Shaun Lintern, health editor at the Sunday Times
NHS waiting list will keep rising to March 2024 @sajidjavid has told MPs. NHS must end two year waits by July this year, and 1 year waits by March 2025.
— Shaun Lintern (@ShaunLintern) February 8, 2022
Remember the majority are supposed to be seen within 18 weeks.
The NHS will aim to get 95% of diagnostic tests done within six weeks by 2025 - currently around 75%. This is where the community diagnostic centres come in. But on staffing all he said was: "More healthcare support workers and a recruitment and deployment of NHS reservists"
— Shaun Lintern (@ShaunLintern) February 8, 2022
The recovery plan needs nurses, surgeons, anaesthetists, and all the associated staff that enables treatment to occur. The radiologists for scans, the lab staff for tests and yes the managers. We don't have enough of any of these groups.
— Shaun Lintern (@ShaunLintern) February 8, 2022
Overall, it looks like pragmatism has won out over Treasury fantasies about what could realistically be achieved. A definite win for @sajidjavid and @AmandaPritchard who are not set up to fail from the outset.
— Shaun Lintern (@ShaunLintern) February 8, 2022
But is still a huge ask for an understaffed, exhausted workforce.
Chris Heaton-Harris appointed chief whip
Chris Heaton-Harris is the new chief whip. He was Europe minister until lunchtime, but he has served in the whips’ office before.
Heaton-Harris is a diehard Brexiter who once sparked controversy by writing to universities asking for the names of professors lecturing students on Brexit, and for details of what they were teaching. A Johnson loyalist, he has also been one of the key operatives in “Operation Save Big Dog”.
Updated
This might not be a major government reshuffle, but it is a significant shake-up of the whips’ office. The chief whip, Mark Spencer, has gone, and No 10 has just announced that Stuart Andrew, the deputy chief whip, is moving too. He has become housing minister, replacing Chris Pincher. (See 1.20pm.)
Mark Spencer moved from chief whip to leader of the Commons
Mark Spencer has replaced Jacob Rees-Mogg as leader of the Commons. He was chief whip.
He is also lord president (of the privy council) - a separate post normally (but not always) held by the leader of the Commons.
As leader of the Commons, he will attend cabinet, rather than serve as a full member, as Rees-Mogg did in that capacity.
Again, this is a sideways move. As leader of the Commons, Spencer, whose only government jobs have been in the whips’ office, which he joined in 2017, will have a higher public profile. As lord president, he will also have regular meetings with the Queen.
But he will no longer spend so much time in No 10 as a member of the PM’s inner circle.
Updated
Rees-Mogg becomes minister for Brexit opportunities
Jacob Rees-Mogg has got a new job. He was leader of the Commons, but is now minister for Brexit opportunities and government officiency. The No 10 announcement says he will be a minister of state but a member of the cabinet.
Effectively this is a sideways move. As leader of the Commons, Rees-Mogg had a higher profile. But technically he only attended cabinet, rather than attended as a full member, and so in one respect he is moving up.
His new job roughly corresponds to Lord Frost’s Brexit minister post, although (perhaps for understandable reasons) Rees-Mogg does not seem to have been given any responsibility for negotiating with the EU.
Boris Johnson has been under pressure for some time from Brexiters to embrace the opportunities offered by Brexit more enthusiastically. Remainers argue that said opportunities are fairly minimal (at best).
Updated
Johnson commences mini-reshuffle
Turning away from the Sajid Javid statement, the reshuffle has started, Sky’s Sam Coates reports.
Chris Pincher in through the front gate of Downing Street
— Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) February 8, 2022
Stuart Andrew in through the back via 70 Whitehall
Chris Pincher, housing minister and a former deputy chief whip, is seen as a possible new chief whip, replacing Mark Spencer. Pincher is one of the Johnson loyalists who have been running what is reportedly called “Operation Save Big Dog”, the effort to stop triggering a no confidence vote in the PM.
Updated
In his opening statement Sajid Javid said that 10m was the number of people who stayed away from the NHS during the pandemic, contributing to the backlog now. He did not explicitly say he expected the backlog to rise to up to 10m, as an earlier post said. I have corrected that now and included Javid’s full quote. See 12.41pm.
This is from the Health Service Journal summarising the key announcement from Javid.
Key messages from Javid's recovery plan:
— Health Service Journal (@HSJnews) February 8, 2022
- End one year waits by March 2025
- End two year waits by July 2022
- NHS thinks 10 million people did not seek treatment during pandemic
- Overall waiting list (currently 6m) to start reducing by March 2024.
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, told Javid his elective recovery plan “falls seriously short of the scale of the challenge facing the NHS and the misery that is affecting millions of people stuck on record high NHS waiting lists”. He said:
We’ve been waiting some time for his plan to tackle NHS waiting times, we were told it would arrive before Christmas, we were told it would arrive yesterday, and it’s not clear from his statement today that the delay was worth the wait.
There’s no plan to tackle the workforce crisis, no plan to deal with delayed discharges and no hope of eliminating waits of more than a year before the general election in 2024.
The only big new idea seems to be a website that tells people they’re waiting a long time, as if they didn’t already know.
What we did hear was a series of re-announcements including some perfectly sensible proposals for community diagnostic and surgical hubs - we welcome those - but the secretary of state cannot pretend that they meet the scale of the challenge.
In response, Javid accused Streeting of playing politics, and nurturing his own leadership ambitions.
Updated
Third, Javid says tackling the waiting list will also give the NHS an opportunity to deliver more flexible personalised care.
And, fourth, he says he wants to introduce more transparency. He says the My Planned Care platform announced yesterday should achieve this, by allowing people to get more information about their planned surgery, “putting patients at the heart of their care”.
Javid says by March 2024 waiting list should be reducing
Javid says the government has already allocated an extra £2bn to tackle waiting lists this year, with another £8bn being spent over the next three years. And he says it is also spending £6bn on capital investment in the NHS
He says the plan comprises four elements.
First, there will be a focus on increasing capacity. The NHS already has more doctors and nurses then ever before, he says.
Second, the NHS will prioritise the longest waiting lists. He says by March 2024 the government expects the waiting list to be reducing.
By April 2023 waits lasting longer than 18 months should be eliminated, and by March 2024 waits lasting longer than 65 weeks should also be gone, he says.
Javid also restates the targets announced yesterday.
UDPATE: Javid said:
Assuming half of the missing demand from the pandemic returns over the next three years, the NHS expect waiting lists to be reducing by March 2024.
Addressing long waits is critical to the recovery of elective care and we will be actively offering longer waiting patients greater choice about their care to help bring these numbers down.
The plan sets the ambition of eliminating waits of longer than a year, waits in elective care, by March 2025.
With this no one will wait longer than two years by July this year and the NHS aims to eliminate the waits of over 18 months by April 2023 and over 65 weeks by March 2024.
Updated
Javid says 10m people stayed away from NHS during pandemic, contributing to backlog now
Sajid Javid, the health secretary, is making a statement to MP on the elective recovery plan - the plan to tackle the NHS waiting list backlog generated by the pandemic.
He says that before the pandemic there were 4.4 million people on a waiting list. He says that total is now up to 6 million, but that the NHS estimates it could rise to 10 million.
UDPATE: Javid said:
1,600 people have waited longer than a year for care before the pandemic. The latest data shows that this figure is now over 300,000.
On top of this, the number of people waiting for elective care in England now stands at six million - that is up from 4.4 million before the pandemic.
Sadly, this number will continue rising before it falls. A lot of people understandably stayed away from the NHS during the heights of the pandemic, and the most up-to-date estimate from the NHS is that that number is around 10 million people.
I want these people to know that the NHS is open. I want them to come forward for the care they need.
Updated
Downing Street confirms mini-reshuffle coming this afternoon
At the No 10 lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesman confirmed that a mini-reshuffle is coming this afternoon. He said “a small number of changes” would be announced at ministerial level.
Steven Swinford from the Times has summarised some of the moves we’re expecting.
Mini reshuffle confirmed for today
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) February 8, 2022
Here’s what we expect as per this morning’s Times:
Mark Spencer —> Leader of Commons
Rees-Mogg —> Retains Cab role, possibly minister for Brexit opportunities
Adams, Pincher & Heaton-Harris poss chief whipshttps://t.co/tjIpmryvIy
Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP who represents the seat once held by her murdered sister, Jo Cox, told Radio 4’s Women’s Hour that Boris Johnson’s failure to apologise for his Keir Starmer smear was “absolutely the wrong thing to do”. Johnson was only interested in saving his own skin, she said.
I don’t think Boris Johnson is interested in listening to me. He didn’t welcome me to parliament when I got the job.
I’ve had very little to do with him. He did eventually write a note to me.
But I don’t think Boris Johnson wants to listen to people like me.
I think he wants to save his skin and he wants to make sure that he is still prime minister and, at the moment, it feels like that’s pretty much all he cares about. And I find that really sad.
Updated
This is from Dan Hodges, the Mail on Sunday columnist, on Boris Johnson’s Jimmy Savile smear.
I think people are missing the point this morning. It's not that the crazy extremists heard what Boris was saying, then decided to copy him. It's that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom heard what the crazy extremists were saying, and decided to copy them.
— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) February 8, 2022
Commons Speaker urges PM to avoid inflammatory comments in light of mob hounding of Starmer
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, has joined opposition MPs, and some Tories, in suggesting there was a link between what Boris Johnson said about Keir Starmer last week and Starmer being hounded by a mob yesterday. In a statement to MPs he said he had asked for an update from the police about the incident. He said:
I deplore the fact that members of this house were subjected to intimidating and threatening behaviour while simply doing their jobs.
I know the whole house will join me in saying that we stand with our colleagues in condemning the behaviour they and the police experienced.
While I do not comment in detail on security matters on the floor of the chamber, steps must be in place to keep passholders secure as they enter and leave the parliamentary estate.
I have requested a situation report from the Metropolitan police via our security team on how this incident occurred.
Commenting on the link between the abuse levelled at Starmer and Johnson’s comment last week, Hoyle said he had already described Johnson’s language last week as inappropriate. He said:
I know it has been reported that some abuse was directed at the leader of the opposition yesterday related to claims made by the prime minister in this chamber.
But regardless of yesterday’s incident, I made it clear last week that while the prime minister’s words were not disorderly they were inappropriate.
As I said then, these sorts of comments only inflame opinions and generate disregard for the house and it is not acceptable.
Our words have consequences and we should always be mindful of the fact.
The Scottish Conservatives are set to publish a policy paper today, with one of the main recommendations to wind down Scotland’s test and protect scheme, PA Media reports. PA says:
The “Back to Normality” document will call for the end of contact tracing in the coming months, with funds instead re-directed towards bolstering the NHS.
The Scottish Tories also said the performance of test and protect has declined in recent months, adding that the requirement for confirmatory PCR tests after a positive lateral flow test being dropped has made the scheme “less useful”.
Updated
Peers are attempting to block plans which could prevent women who are fleeing rape, forced marriage, trafficking or female genital mutilation from securing refugee status – a move that critics say was sneaked into the nationality and borders bill. My colleague Diane Taylor has the story here.
This is from Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP whose sister Jo Cox was murdered by a rightwing terrorist, suggesting that Boris Johnson’s Savile smear was linked to what happened to Keir Starmer yesterday.
I’m incredibly angry & upset by the scenes we saw yesterday. I keep thinking about Keir & David’s families & friends. But these things don’t just happen. Words have consequences, leaders have a duty to behave responsibly & politics is not a game. Our country deserves far better. pic.twitter.com/UE7PgQElRd
— Kim Leadbeater MP (@kimleadbeater) February 8, 2022
Brendan Cox, Jo’s widower, told the Today programme this morning that he also believed there was a connection. He said:
I think that it’s very hard to draw a direct link and to say that in some ways, the prime minister is directly responsible for what happened. I think the people that are directly responsible for what happened yesterday were the people that did it.
However, it’s also true that if you inject poison into politics, that has a whole set of unintended consequences that people will react to in different ways and at times that can lead over into intimidation, it can lead over to violence, it can lead over into extremism.
Updated
Boris Johnson has been accused of making a “tactical, calculated” decision to say nothing on the Northern Ireland crisis triggered by continued opposition by unionist parties to his Brexit protocol.
DUP MP Ian Paisley challenged the Northern Ireland minister Conor Burns to “account for the silence of the prime minister” on the events of last week in Northern Ireland.
“This is a calculated tactical decision of the prime minister to keep quiet,” Paisley said at a Northern Ireland affairs committee hearing. Paisley said Johnson has said “absolutely nothing publicly” since last week when the DUP first minister resigned and the DUP agriculture minister ordered a halt to Brexit checks at ports and airports.
Burns insisted Johnson was interested and said he had spoken to him on Friday.
He also hinted that legislation proposing a statute of limitation prosecutions of those involved in historic killings in Northern Ireland was being watered down. While he said the law was still being planned, the government had listened to local victims groups who were opposed to the laws. He said:
If we rushed this; if we reopened all wounds and it’s incredibly painful for many people who have suffered to talk about this … if we were to reopen all of that, and then find out that what we propose didn’t work, that would be unforgivable.
Updated
Sajid Javid, the health secretary, will make a statement to MPs at 12.30 about the elective recovery plan. This is the announcement that we were expecting yesterday, but that was delayed. It is billed as an “update”, and so it is not clear how much more we will be getting.
I am sorry we have not been able to open comments today. The lawyers are nervous about prejudicial comments given that arrests have been made in connection with the Starmer incident yesterday.
How No 10's attempt to defend Johnson's Starmer smear is inaccurate and misleading
This morning Chris Philp, the digital minister (see 9.46am), and Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary (see 10.27am), have become the latest ministers to defend what Boris Johnson said about Keir Starmer and Jimmy Savile in the Commons on Monday. It is an argument that Johnson has used himself (in a TV interview on Thursday), although its first public outing came in an interview earlier that day given by James Cleverly, the Foreign Office minister.
The argument contains an element of truth, but in part it is wholly false, and in substance it is misleading.
On Monday, in response to a speech from Starmer attacking him in particularly withering and damning terms, Johnson said:
The report does absolutely nothing to substantiate the tissue of nonsense that [Starmer] has just spoken - absolutely nothing. Instead, this leader of the opposition, a former director of public prosecutions -although he spent most of his time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile, as far as I can make out - chose to use this moment continually to prejudge a police inquiry.
This was obvious contentious because it implies that Starmer was involved in decisions not to prosecute Savile when he wasn’t. It has been argued that Johnson does not care anyway because even though news outlets carry reports saying this claim is wrong, for many casual listeners the mud will stick.
The No 10 clarification/justification argument contains two strands. One is false, and another is largely misleading.
1) ‘Johnson was misunderstood’
Johnson claimed last week that he was talking not about what Starmer did personally, but about “his responsibility for the organisation as a whole”. Philp this morning said that Johnson’s original comment was “capable of being misconstrued”.
But the original comment was not ambiguous. The people who understood Johnson to be implying that Starmer was personally responsible for not prosecuting Savile were not misconstruing him, but hearing him correctly. Johnson at no point said he was talking about Starmer having to apologise on behalf of an organisation he led for something for which he was not personally culpable.
If Johnson and others had argued that what he meant to say in the Commons was that the PM and Starmer were alike in having to apologise on behalf others, that might have been plausible. But, as it stands, Johnson and his allies are just being dishonest about what was originally said.
2) ‘Leaders sometimes have to apologise for mistakes by their staff for which they are not personally to blame’
This is the part of the Johnson argument that is true. Starmer did apologise for the CPS’s failings in relation to Savile, even though he was not involved, and Johnson feels that his partygate apologies come into the same category.
And it is probable that Johnson had no knowledge of some of the partygate allegations being investigated by the police.
But the Savile/partygate analogy fails on two counts.
First, Johnson is personally implicated. He seems to have attended six of the 12 events being investigated by the police on the grounds that they broke Covid regulations. He still has not admitted that he broke the rules, but he has admitted it is hard to defend at least one of the parties.
Second, even if Johnson did not attend many of the No 10 lockdown-busting parties, many people believe that he was partly responsible because he set the tone for what was allowed in the building. Staff took liberties because they were working for a boss who was cavalier with the rules. But there is no evidence that the mistakes made by the CPS in relation to Savile were in any way linked to the management culture shaped by Starmer.
Updated
Brandon Lewis claims PM's original comment about Starmer and Savile fair and reasonable
Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, has become the latest minister to argue that Boris Johnson did not smear Keir Starmer in the Commons last week because what he said was misunderstood. Lewis told ITV News:
What the prime minister was setting out - I think his clarification was clear, I was in the chamber when he made it [the original comment, not the clarification, which came it a subsequent TV interview] - I think he was very clear around the fact that ... somebody at the top of an organisation has responsibility for what happens in it. That’s the point the prime minister was making. I think that is a fair, reasonable point.
This is a specious argument. I’ll explain why in a separate post shortly.
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In his London Playbook briefing Alex Wickham quotes an unnamed government source giving a particularly aggressive version of the argument that there was no link between Boris Johnson’s Jimmy Savile smear and what happened to Keir Starmer yesterday. The source told Wickham:
This was a bunch of vile anti-vaxxers and anti-government loons. Their awful actions should be condemned. They were shouting a multitude of slurs and accusations at Starmer including things about Julian Assange. It is plainly wrong, and without evidence, to suggest that the PM’s comments in any way increased the likelihood that these loons would be on the street trying to cause trouble. The fact that some are trying to turn this into another day’s row about Savile feels like opportunism that is a distraction from where our condemnation should be directed.
The Conservative MP Caroline Nokes has also implied a link between what Boris Johnson said in the Commons last week and what happened to Keir Starmer yesterday.
Reminded of @MichaelPDeacon sketch from September 2019, language has consequences. Yesterday’s hideous scenes outside Parliament serving as an urgent reminder that what is said inside the building reverberates outside. pic.twitter.com/wvKiIIYR7w
— Caroline Nokes MP (@carolinenokes) February 8, 2022
In a Twitter thread my colleague Jesssica Elgot is keeping a tally of Tories who have criticised Boris Johnson in relation to this.
Seven Tory MPs have publicly criticised the PM over the Starmer incident and his Savile jibe. Four have put letters in.
— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) February 7, 2022
Julian Smith, Roger Gale, Tobias Ellwood, Stephen Hammond, Anthony Mangnall, Aaron Bell and Rob Largan.
The Conservative MP Steve Brine has posted a tweet this morning predicting that Boris Johnson will eventually apologise for his Jimmy Savile smear about Keir Starmer. He says MPs should always used “measured and moderate” language.
Still this. Familiar drumbeat to this which will inevitably end with an apology. May as well do it before PMQs. Every time we engage politically – online, in an email or in the House - we must be measured and moderate. https://t.co/ffTHBEH3dl
— Steve Brine MP (@BrineMP) February 8, 2022
No 10 refuses to accept link between mob hounding Starmer and PM’s Savile smear
Good morning. One of Boris Johnson’s more unique and reprehensible traits is that, after at least 20 years in public life where his conduct has frequently caused offence, he still retains the capacity to shock, by seemingly going further than before. It is one characteristic he shares with Donald Trump, and the Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood was just one of the people who made the link last night after Keir Starmer was intimidated by an aggressive mob, some of whom were were repeating the Jimmy Savile smear aired by Johnson in the Commons a week ago.
PM - Apologise please.
— Tobias Ellwood MP (@Tobias_Ellwood) February 7, 2022
We claim to be the Mother of all Parliaments.
Let’s stop this drift towards a Trumpian style of politics from becoming the norm.
We are better than this. https://t.co/Fn3O87DJQ0
Here is our overnight story about the incident, which led to calls for Johnson to apologise for his Savile comments from Conservative MPs as well as Labour ones.
This morning Chris Philp, the digital minister on the morning broadcast round, has said Johnson will not be apologising. He has also refused to accept there is a link between what Johnson said in the Commons and what happened yesterday. He told BBC Breakfast:
The first comments in the house on the previous Monday were capable of being misconstrued and that is why it is important and right that a couple of days later that Boris Johnson, the prime minister, did clarify that he was not suggesting at any time that Keir Starmer had personal responsibility for the case. But he obviously did have responsibility for the conduct of the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service].
I don’t think there is any way you can reasonably suggest that the comments on Keir Starmer’s overall responsibility for the CPS in any way provoked the very unseemly and totally unacceptable harassment we saw last night.
Philp, of course, was giving a false account of what Johnson actually said in the Commons last week, although in doing so he was only parroting a line that has been widely used by other ministers since Thursday.
As the BBC’s Chris Mason reports, Philp was simply using the line set by No 10.
Downing Street has no intention of apologising for the Prime Minister's remarks about the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Jimmy Savile.
— Chris Mason (@ChrisMasonBBC) February 8, 2022
"He has got other stuff to get on with today," I'm told.https://t.co/5N2KZFMMK0
No10 is determined to stick to the argument that if the Prime Minister can be on "the receiving end for weeks" of allegations about parties he wasn't at, then "applying the same logic" it should be legitimate to ask about the failures of the CPS when it was led by Keir Starmer.
— Chris Mason (@ChrisMasonBBC) February 8, 2022
This row is likely to continue as the day goes on.
But the “other stuff” mentioned by No 10 is expected to included a mini-reshuffle taking place as part of the Downing Street shake-up being implemented following the publication of the Sue Gray report. We are expected to get the appointment of a new chief whip, and a small number of other ministerial changes.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Boris Johnson chairs cabinet.
9.30am: Conor Burns, a Northern Ireland minister, gives evidence to the Northern Ireland affairs committee.
10.30am: Jonathan Brearley, the Ofgem chief executive, gives evidence to the Commons business committee.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: The NFU and other farming organisations give evidence to the Commons environment committee about the free trade deal with Australia.
I 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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