Early evening summary
Boris Johnson has formally stepped down as an MP, parliamentary authorities have announced, bringing down the curtain on a tumultuous second stint in the Commons. The news came towards the end of a day during which Johnson and Rishi Sunak engaged in an extraordinary war of words over the former prime minister’s failed attempts to elevate several close allies to the House of Lords.
The SNP has claimed that new regulations giving the police new powers to stop protesters (see 5.44pm) are a move in the direction of fascism. Opening the debate, Suella Braverman, the home secretary, said the police did need more powers to deal with disruptive protests. She said:
People have a right to get to work on time free from obstruction, a right to enjoy sporting events without interruption and a right to get to hospital. The roads belong to the British people, not a selfish minority who treat them like their personal property.
The impact of these disruptors is huge. Over the last six weeks alone, Just Stop Oil (JSO) carried out 156 slow marches around London. This has required over 13,770 police officer shifts, that’s over 13,000 police shifts that could have been stopping robbery, violent crime or anti-social behaviour, and the cost to the taxpayer is an outrage – £4.5 million in just six weeks on top of the £14 million spent last year.
But Alison Thewliss, the SNP’s home affairs spokesperson, said the new law took the government in the direction of fascism. My colleague Ben Quinn has the quote.
The F word gets a mention in parliament as MPs debate the Public Order Act.
— Ben Quinn (@BenQuinn75) June 12, 2023
"The only slow walking that we should be concerned about in this place is the slow walking this government is taking .. towards a state of lack of democracy and of fascism" - SNP MP Alison Thewliss
Braverman defends regulations extending definition of what protests police can treat as serious disruption
In the Commons MPs are debating the Public Order Act 1986 (serious disruption to the life of the community) regulations 2023. These are new rules that lower the threshold for what counts as serious disruption when the police have to judge whether they have the powers to intervene to stop a protest.
They also allow the police to consider the cumulative effect of a protest when deciding whether campaigners are causing serious disruption. This measure is particular designed to stop slow-walking protests organised by groups like Just Stop Oil.
These measures are particularly controversial because they were originally meant to be primary legislation – part of the text of the Public Order Act – but they were voted down by peers. Because the amendments were introduced when the bill was in the Lords, not the Commons, they could not be reintroduced when the bill went back to MPs.
The Lords secondary legislation scrutiny committee raised concerns about this in a report published last month. Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, a member of the committee, said: “As far as we can ascertain, this is the first time a government has sought to make changes to the law by making those changes through secondary legislation even though those same changes had been rejected by parliament when introduced a short while before in primary legislation.”
Secondary legislation receives less scrutiny than primary legislation, it cannot be amended, and it is almost impossible to block.
Opening the debate in the Commons, Suella Braverman, the home secretary, said the government supported the right to protest, but that she was responding to police requests for greater powers.
Boris Johnson and Nigel Adams have quit as MPs, Treasury confirms
The Treasury has released two statements confirming that Boris Johnson and Nigel Adams are now longer MP.
Here they are:
The chancellor of the exchequer has this day appointed Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson to be steward and bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern.
The chancellor of the exchequer has this day appointed Nigel Adams to be steward and bailiff of the Manor of Northstead.
Both press releases consisted of just a single sentence, and neither of them explained what this process actually means. See 11.56am for an explanation.
Updated
Penny Mordaunt says Tories should be 'calling out people attacking institutions', in jibe at Johnson and his allies
People who attack institutions including parliament need to be “called out,” Penny Mordaunt has told a conference in London, where she also railed against those waging “culture wars.”
Without specifically naming Boris Johnson or allies who have criticised the privileges committee investigation and its findings against the former prime minister, Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, said that politics was a team game but “quite often some people forget they are part of a team”.
Speaking at an even organised by the Centre for Policy Studies, she said that she would be going to the House of Commons where there would be a debate on standards “and all sorts of things that have been in the news,” adding:
We have to be really strong about calling out people out who are attacking institutions. People who are attacking the house for carrying out its work.
This included those who were attacking the media, she said, adding:
I never thought I would be defending the BBC. We have to stand up for these things because the price of not doing so is going to be very grave indeed.
Later, in a discussion which touched on Donald Trump and populism elsewhere, she said that she wanted to say something “which applies to my colleagues in the Conservative Party today”. She went on:
We have to have the strength not to be pulled in particular directions by particular media groups or pander to particular constituencies. We have to have a real sense with what we are about.
Mordaunt, who has been seen as a potential standard-bearer for the centrist wing of the Conservative party in a future leadership battle, also said she was “amazed” at the continuation of a “failed model of leadership at the top” revolving around one figure rather than “the team”.
I said to the PM: ‘Your team is the nation.’ That is why the culture wars and all that doesn’t help. We are here for everyone.
That is why I am unapologetic about talking about building more and taxing less and not talking about culture wars, because it doesn’t move the country forward.
Updated
Here is a question from a reader, prompted by the earlier post about the mechanism whereby MPs resign.
If there are only two posts MPs can apply for if they want to resign, does that mean you can’t have three MPs resigning at the same time?
No. There is no minimum time period under which people can serve as crown steward and bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, or crown steward and bailiff of the Manor of Northstead, and as soon as a new one is appointed, the old one lapses. The Treasury tends to alternate; one “post” goes to one resigning MP, and the next MP to quit gets the other one.
Eight unionists MPs got the Chiltern Hundreds job in a single day in 1985, when there were mass resignations to force byelections over the Anglo-Irish agreement. Another seven unionists got the Manor of Northstead job on the same day.
Boris Johnson formally submits his resignation as MP
Boris Johnson has now formally submitted his resignation as an MP, John Stevens from the Mirror reports. His resignation does not take effect until we get an announcement from the Treasury saying he has been appointed to an office of profit under the crown. (See 11.56am.)
Boris Johnson has now formally submitted his resignation as an MP
— John Stevens (@johnestevens) June 12, 2023
And Nigel Adams has done the same, Lucy Fisher from the FT reports.
New: Nigel Adams has formally declared intention to step down as an MP, I'm told
— Lucy Fisher (@LOS_Fisher) June 12, 2023
About to be appointed to Steward and Bailiffs of the Chiltern Hundreds or Manor of Northstead
Unclear if Johnson/Dorries have followed suit yet
Could potentially delay writ for by-elections...
Updated
Downing Street has chosen not to escalate its war of words with Boris Johnson. After Johnson said this afternoon Rishi Sunak was talking “rubbish”, after Sunak said this morning Johnson tried to get him to do something improper with his resignation honours, the PM’s spokesperson was asked at the afternoon lobby briefing if he had a response.
The spokesperson defended Sunak, summarising what he said earlier, but did not criticise Johnson directly. He said:
You’ve got the words from the PM this morning.
I’m not going to get into more detail. He was very clear he was not prepared to deviate from established convention or do anything unprecedented, which is why, in line with a long-standing custom, he forwarded the list unaltered.
The line that Sunak was acting in line with “established convention” does rather undermine the claim he made this morning, when talking about this topic, that he wanted “to do things differently” because he wanted “to change politics”. (See 9.53am.) Sunak probably just meant he wanted to do things differently from Johnson.
Updated
Why Johnson admired Silvio Berlusconi
For anyone who likes their political history neatly arranged, it is fitting that Boris Johnson may be ending his parliamentary life (although his resignation has not been confirmed yet) on the day of Silvio Berlusconi’s death. The former Italian PM was a prototype for the populist, norm-trouncing, egotistical, performance politics now represented by Donald Trump and Johnson.
Berlusconi was probably at his most powerful in the early years of the noughties, when Johnson was editor of the Spectator. Johnson went to interview him in 2003, with Nicholas Farrell. At the time received opinion in London was that Berlusconi was too corrupt to be a respectable European political leader. But Johnson recognised a kindred spirit, and filed a glowing tribute. Here’s an extract.
It is hard not to be charmed by a man who takes such an interest in cacti and who will crack jokes at important EU gatherings, not only about Nazi camp commandants but also about whether or not his wife is running off with someone else. There is something heroic about his style, something hilariously imperial – from the huge swimming pool he has created by flooding a basin in the Sardinian hills, to the four thalassotherapy pools he has sunk for Veronica, powered by computers more advanced than those used on the moon shots …
Suddenly, after decades in which Italian politics was in thrall to a procession of gloomy, portentous, jargon-laden partitocrats, there appeared this influorescence of American gung-hoery. Yes, he may have been involved in questionable business practices; he may even yet be found out and pay the price. For the time being, though, it seems reasonable to let him get on with his programme. He may fail. But then, of course — and this is the point that someone should write in block capitals, fold up and stuff in the mouth of Anna Lindh, Swedish foreign minister — he can be rejected by the Italian people.
She may not like it but he was democratically elected and can be removed by the very people Anna Lindh insults. If we are obliged to compare Silvio Berlusconi with Anna Lindh, and other bossy, high-taxing European politicians. I agree with Farrell: as the narrator says of Jay Gatsby, a man Berlusconi to some extent resembles, he is ‘better than the whole damn lot of them’.
UPDATE: Anna Lindh was stabbed to death very soon after the Johnson/Farrell article was published by a man who claimed to be hearing voices in his head.
Updated
Former Tory chair Jake Berry says Johnson forced out by establishment - but declines to say he wants him back
Sir Jake Berry, Conservative party chair when Liz Truss was PM and one of Boris Johnson’s main supporters early in his leadership, posted a message on Twitter at the weekend saying Johnson had been forced out by the establishment “blob”.
You voted for Brexit - the establishment blocked it.
— Jake Berry MP (@JakeBerry) June 10, 2023
You voted for @BorisJohnson - the establishment has forced him out.
Who is in charge here… The voters or the blob?#Blobonomics #BorisJohnson
Asked today to defend his claim, Berry said people could look at the facts themselves. He told broadcasters:
The establishment tried to block [Brexit]. I stand by that. That was definitely my experience working in Theresa May’s government. And the establishment has seen Boris out of the door. I think if people look at the facts, they either will or won’t agree with me.
"The establishment has seen Boris out the door."
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 12, 2023
Sir Jake Berry MP comments on what Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said about the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson's controversial honour list and his resignation.https://t.co/MN45tfGyF1
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/B05aZGc7OJ
But Berry would not go as far as calling for Johnson to return as an MP. Asked if he would like to see him back in the Commons, Berry replied:
Boris Johnson is a fantastic Conservative, a brilliant parliamentarian and appeals to the great British public in a way that I’ve never really seen any other politician do. I think there is just something special about him. He is an extraordinary character.
But, that said, I absolutely know and believe that under the leadership of Rishi Sunak, by pursuing bold, Conservative values, we can secure that general election.
Updated
Would-be insurgent parties of the right, Reform UK and Reclaim, have announced a pact for the upcoming byelections in which they will allow each other a free one in the contests.
Reclaim’s leader and founder, Laurence Fox, will stand in Boris Johnson’s seat of Uxbridge while Dave Holland, managing director of an IT marketing company, will stand in Mid Bedfordshire, which is being vacated by Nadine Dorries.
Richard Tice, the leader of Reform UK, said:
This cooperation enables us to have extra focus on specific byelections.
Many people feel totally let down by the two main parties that are both variants of socialism: high tax, nanny state, low growth and open borders. We stand for low tax, high growth and net zero immigration.
Updated
My colleague Pippa Crerar says the Boris Johnson camp seem to have changed their story a bit over the past few days.
It does feel like Boris Johnson has changed his story a few times on this...🤷♀️
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) June 12, 2023
1/ Rishi Sunak edited the list from Holac
2/ PM edited the list before it went to Holac
3/ It wasn't Sunak who edited the list but James Forsyth
4/ We only asked them to re-vet Nadine Dorries & co
Two resignation honours lists? What Johnson was hoping to get from Sunak
Boris Johnson’s comment today (see 2.48am) about his resignation honours, and his dispute with Rishi Sunak, suggests that what he actually wanted was two resignation honours lists. Given his cakeist philosophy on life (“my policy on cake is pro having it and pro eating it”), this would be characteristic.
What seems likely to have happened is that Nadine Dorries, Nigel Adams, Alok Sharma and probably Alister Jack, were on the list of names that went to the House of Lords appointments commission (Holac) – but that they were not approved because they would not agree to resign as MPs when their peerages were announced. If so, they would account for four of the eight names that were refused.
Johnson is now implying that at some point in the future their names should have been resubmitted to Holac, not for a new reappraisal from scratch, but for revetting just on the resigning from the Commons issue. At that point the appointments might have gone through. Asking for a rethink was how Johnson got the Evgeny Lebedev peerage approved.
The implication is that we might have had two Johnson honours list – the version out on Friday, and a second edition, or series two, much closer to the election, when the peerages might not have triggered byelections.
Alternatively, Johnson was hoping that Sunak would promise to include his names on a subsequent honours list. A PM can announce peerages whenever they want, and there is normally a dissolution honours list at the end of the parliament. These names would have been in effect “Johnson honours part 2”, although perhaps not badged as such.
Johnson accuses Sunak of 'talking rubbish' about his resignation honours list
Boris Johnson has accused Rishi Sunak of talking “rubbish” about his resignation honours list. In a statement he said:
Rishi Sunak is talking rubbish. To honour these peerages it was not necessary to overrule Holac – but simply to ask them to renew their vetting, which was a mere formality.
Updated
Margaret Thatcher would never have approved of Trussonomics, education secretary Gillian Keegan suggests
Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, has told the audience at a Margaret Thatcher-themed conference that the Conservatives are “not tribal” on a day when Rishi Sunak hit back at Boris Johnson over the former prime minister’s resignation honours list.
In speech that was seen by some as setting out future leadership credentials, Keegan likened herself to the grocer’s daughter Thatcher while growing up as “a young working class girl” in Knowsley. She learned the value of “common sense” while working in a shop and saw “militant” trade unions “wreck” the Liverpool in which she grew up, said Keegan.
But the minister, regarded as being part of the one nation tradition of Tory MPs, also took a thinly veiled swipe at the economics of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, stressing the need to deal with inflation before cutting taxes.
Addressing the Centre for Policy Studies’ Margaret Thatcher Conference, she said:
Whilst lower taxes are at the heart of Conservative economic thinking, Margaret Thatcher never thought that the way to achieve a low-tax economy was by dramatically increasing public sector debt and borrowing.
She knew that you had to deal with inflation first otherwise every tax cut or spending pledge would be eaten by inflation.
That focus, that grip, that is what this government is channelling. You can see it in the chancellor’s focus on restoring economic stability, and in the prime minister’s focus on driving areas where we can leverage a real competitive advantage.
Speaking about her upbringing in Liverpool, where she left school at 16, she said she became disillusioned with politics while an apprentice at a car factory. “Militant trade unions downed tools at the drop of a hat,” she said. She voted for Thatcher at the age of 19.
When she did initially stand as a Tory candidate – describing herself as an outlier – Keegan said she had changed her name to her husband’s “to protect the innocent”.
Updated
Johnson ally Lord Marland revives claim Sunak to blame for blocking some of former PM's resignation honours peerages
Lord Marland, a Tory peer, former Conservative party chair and a supporter of Boris Johnson, has restated the Johnsonite claim that Rishi Sunak was to blame for blocking some of the former PM’s resignation honours peerages.
No 10 denies this. In a statement the PM’s press secretary said:
As is convention, the prime minister forwarded the former prime minister’s peerage list to Holac [the House of Lords appointments commission] unaltered. Holac then passed back their approved list. The prime minister then accepted Holac’s approved list and forwarded it unamended to the sovereign for their approval. He had no involvement or input into the approved list. It is a point of fact that it is made public by the commission if a prime minister overrules the commission’s advice.
But, in an interview on the World at One, Marland said there were “eight people who Rishi decided not to support” for peerages.
When it was put to him that Holac has said it removed the names, Marland replied:
No, they didn’t. They had the names removed on the suggestion of elements of the civil service, the Cabinet Office or the Inland Revenue [as is] often the case, and then Holac don’t have to adjudicate.
Marland also said Sunak could have ensured that Nadine Dorries, Nigel Adams and Alok Sharma, three of Johnson’s nominees, got peerages if he wanted to. He said:
It is in the remit of the prime minister that, if he really wants someone to become a peer, he can push hard for Holac to do it, as various prime ministers have done in the past.
Marland is right to say that in the past prime ministers have got people into the House of Lords in the face of opposition from Holac. But the best example of a PM doing this is Johnson himself, and these appointments caused huge controversy. He put Peter Cruddas in the Lords despite Holac saying the appointment was unsuitable. (Cruddas is now leading a Tory group that in effect is pushing for Johnson to return as leader.) Johnson also successfully urged Holac to think again after it initially raised concerns about his plan to give a peerage to Evgeny Lebedev, the newspaper owner and son of a former KGB officer.
Holac has not named the eight people who were not approved for peerages on Johnson’s list and it says it won’t discuss individuals.
Updated
Humza Yousaf says he will not suspend Nicola Sturgeon from SNP because she has not been charged
Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, has said he will not suspend his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon from the SNP following her arrest yesterday as part of an investigation into financial misconduct by the party. She was released without charge.
Yousaf said Sturgeon’s arrest was “personally painful”. He said:
I’ll not suspend Nicola’s membership. I’ll treat her in the same way I’ve treated, for example, Colin Beattie. Those that have been released without charge, I see no reason to suspend their membership.
Earlier Ash Regan, who came third in the recent SNP leadership contest, Sturgeon should voluntarily give up her SNP membership while the investigation into the party’s finances, and her role, continues. If Sturgeon did not do that, Yousaf should suspend her, Regan suggested. Severin Carrell and Libby Brooks have the story.
Updated
A reader asks:
When will The Tory Chief Whip be requesting a writ for the three by elections? What is the earliest date they can take place - middle of next month - assuming the motion is passed asap.? When is the likeliest date they will be taking place ?
The party whose seat is vacant gets to move the writ for the byelection. Parties at risk of losing normally hold them as quickly as possible, to prevent having lots of time to campaign, or delay for as long as possible. But if the government delays, the byelections will happen in the autumn, when they could be more disruptive. So they are likely to hold them as soon as they can.
First, though, the three MPs have to formally resign. (See 11.56am.) That has not happened yet, but could happen later today.
The chief whip for the party defending the seat has to move the writ for a byelection in the Commons. Once that happens, a byelection should take place between 21 and 27 days later.
In her London Playbook briefing for Politico, Rosa Prince says Thursday 13 July could end up as the date for the three byelections.
Updated
Downing Street has defended the Commons privileges committee after it was described as a “kangaroo court” by Boris Johnson in his resignation statement on Friday. Echoing what Michael Gove said in interviews this morning (see 9.19am), the PM’s spokesperson said:
This is a properly set-up committee that the house has voted to carry out their work. The government will in no way traduce or criticise the work of the committee who are doing exactly what parliament has asked them to do.
Updated
Kitty Donaldson from Bloomberg says multiple Tories are telling her that, if Boris Johnson spends the next year attacking Rishi Sunak, the party will partly blame him if it loses the next election.
Multiple Tory MPs told me that if Johnson spends the next year or so lobbing grenades at Rishi Sunak there would be a reckoning after any defeat he contributes to
— Kitty Donaldson (@kitty_donaldson) June 12, 2023
Other Tories say Johnson sees himself as a Churchill or de Gaulle figure who will be brought back at some point in the future, thrust again into high office by a grateful nation. Others, unprompted, said dismissively his behaviour is straight from the Donald Trump playbook.
— Kitty Donaldson (@kitty_donaldson) June 12, 2023
No 10 rejects claim Sunak went back on deal with Boris Johnson over resignation honours
At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson was asked about the claim from the Boris Johnson camp this morning (see 11.01am) that Rishi Sunak went back on a deal with Johnson over his resignation honours list. Asked if this was correct, the spokesperson said no. He also said Sunak had commented on this this morning. (See 9.53am.)
The spokesperson also said the House of Lords appointments commission had issued a statement saying that eight of Johnson’s nominees were turned down. The spokesperson also said that, once Holac produced its list of approved nominations, the PM submitted that to the king without making any changes. He said:
It is entirely untrue to say anyone from No 10 attempted to remove or change or alter Holac’s list.
The spokesperson refused to comment on what Sunak and Johnson said when they met earlier this month to discuss the honours list. He said that he did not comment on private conversations, and that Sunak had commented on this this morning.
Updated
616 people crossed Channel in small boats on Sunday, record daily number for 2023 so far, says Home Office
More than 600 people crossed the English Channel in small boats on Sunday in the highest number on a single day so far this year, new figures show.
Home Office data released on Monday shows that 616 people, the vast majority of whom will claim asylum, were detected passing this year’s previous high of 497 on Saturday 22 April.
It means the number of crossings in 2023 now stands at a provisional total of 8,380, down from around 10,000 at the same point last year.
The jump in numbers on Sunday follows a 21% per cent drop between January and May this year.
Six days ago, Rishi Sunak claimed that government policies including threatening to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda and paying more money to the French authorities had “started to work”. Others claimed that the Channel had seen unusually windy weather during the Spring months.
Despite the decline in numbers at the start of 2023, the biggest increase in the numbers arriving by small boats in 2022 happened during the summer months. This is typically when the weather is best for crossing the Channel.
In total, the number who made the crossing last year reached a record 45,755, prompting Sunak to make tackling small boat crossings a priority for his Government this year.
Twelve boats were detected crossing the Channel on Sunday, which suggests an average of around 51 people per boat.
Updated
Boris Johnson, Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams have all said that they are resigning as MPs. But, as Steven Swinford from the Times reports, they have yet to formally submit their resignations.
Exclusive:
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) June 12, 2023
Boris Johnson, Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams have yet to formally resign
Resigning MPs have to apply to Treasury to become Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds or Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead
Means writ for the three by-elections won't be moved today
It also raises the question of whether Boris Johnson will still technically be an MP when the Privileges Committee delivers its verdict, which is expected tomorrow
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) June 12, 2023
Unlike normal employees, MPs cannot resign just by writing a letter saying they are resigning. In theory they are not allowed to resign, and so if they want to leave parliament, they have to accept an “office of profit under the crown”. That means they have to get appointed either as crown steward and bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, or crown steward and bailiff of the Manor of Northstead. These used to be offices of profit, but now they involve no pay – and no other obligations either.
The Treasury announces when these appointments have been made. Normally the chancellor signs it off as an MP writes to say they want to quit. A resignation only becomes operative once that appointment has been announced.
Updated
I have corrected the post at 10.30am to take out a line wrongly saying the House of Lords appointments commission (Holac) had approved Nadine Dorries, Nigel Adams and Alok Sharma for peerages. It hadn’t.
Updated
EU-UK free trade deal not likely to be reviewed until 2026, EU's Brexit chief says
The EU has dashed UK hopes of an early review of the Brexit trade deal saying is unlikely to re-open talks until 2026.
European commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič, who leads for the EU on Brexit matters, said the deal was only in force for two years and it would be pointless re-opening it until its full potential was realised.
The trade and cooperation agreement (the official title of the EU-UK free trade deal) says its implication can be reviewed from 2025, which had led to speculation a review might happen soon after the next general election.
Šefčovič’s remarks come just weeks after Keir Starmer said Labour would seek an “improved” trade deal after Vauxhall’s parent company warned it might have to quit the UK unless part of the pact was tweaked.
The House of Lords urged the UK government to start working with EU capitals to remove Brexit barriers that block musicians, young people and professionals working easily in Europe.
“We have received quite a lot of questions and I’ve seen that there is increased interest in the TCA review. As far as our calendar goes, I think that it’s more for 2026,” Šefčovič told the EU-UK forum.
And he warned that wholesale stripping out of decades of EU law risks putting the trade deal in “the shredder” creating more obstacles to cross-Channel trade not fewer. He said:
If the decision is just to simply go for more divergence … some of the fundamentals of the withdrawal agreement and the TCA would be thrown into the shredder.
Updated
An ally of Boris Johnson has accused Rishi Sunak of having “secretly” blocked peerages for Johnson’s allies, PA Media reports. Responding to Sunak’s comments this morning (see 9.53am), the ally told PA:
Rishi secretly blocked the peerages for Nadine and others. He refused to ask for them to undergo basic checks that could have taken only a few weeks or even days. That is how he kept them off the list – without telling Boris Johnson.
And here is some comment from journalists on Rishi Sunak’s condemnation of Boris Johnson.
From Sky’s Rob Powell
PM comes out swinging saying he promised to do things differently and “if people don’t like that, tough”.
— Rob Powell (@robpowellnews) June 12, 2023
Alongside other spikey responses from cabinet ministers, the calculation in No10 must be that the risk posed by angering Johnson allies is not that substantial anymore.
Or at least the risk posed by inflaming the situation is smaller than the risk posed by not trying to divorce his premiership from that of his predecessor. The danger is obviously that this breathes new life into the Johnson related psychodrama & keeps it hanging around.
— Rob Powell (@robpowellnews) June 12, 2023
Either way, this is a markedly different approach from No10 that could water down Labour attacks that PM is not standing up to BJ. It will 100% be welcomed by some … there’s still risk in getting firmly in the ring for a slugging match with a bruiser like Boris Johnson though.
— Rob Powell (@robpowellnews) June 12, 2023
From the former Times political editor Philip Webster
Rishi Sunak has come out fighting against Boris Johnson, saying that he rejected pleas from his predecessor to bend the rules on his resignation honours list- Times. Makes total sense now but he should have said this Fri
— Philip Webster (@Pwebstertimes) June 12, 2023
From Sky’s Tamara Cohen
Some despairing Tories I’ve spoken to over the weekend have said they told whips they wanted the PM to take the fight to Boris Johnson.
— Tamara Cohen (@tamcohen) June 12, 2023
Keiran Pedley from Ipsos says Rishi Sunak is in a strong position to slap down Boris Johnson, because even people who voted Tory in 2019 think he would be a better PM than Johnson.
Sunak probably wise to take this all head on. Our latest @IpsosUK Political Pulse shows even 2019 Cons prefer him as PM to Johnson.
— Keiran Pedley (@keiranpedley) June 12, 2023
That said, he'll want to draw a line under it all quickly. Divided parties lose elections and all that. But can he? https://t.co/7x4yzXeHa3 pic.twitter.com/PI7mf4ggar
Sunak attacks Johnson over resignation honours list - snap analysis
In his morning interview round, speaking on behalf of the government, Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, adopted a relatively non-confrontational approach when discussing Boris Johnson. While suggesting it was now time for the Conservative party to move on from Johnson, he avoided multiple opportunities to criticise him directly. (See 9.19am.)
In his London Tech Week Q&A, Rishi Sunak went much further, accusing Johnson of trying to do something improper with the honours list. By the standard of what some people say about Johnson, the words may seem almost anodyne. (See 9.53am.) But for Sunak, this was strong stuff. Until now, he has been reluctant to say anything very critical of Johnson in public, conscious that for a significant minority of Tory party members (but a much smaller cohort of Tory MPs), Johnson remains an idol, and a potential saviour.
Sunak’s comment also provides the first on-the-record confirmation as to what the Sunak/Johnson rift over the honours list was all about. Johnson wanted to offer peerages to three MPs particularly close to him: Nadine Dorries, the former culture secretary and his most loyal public defender; Nigel Adams, the former minister who was Johnson’s key backroom fixer; and Alok Sharma, who worked as a junior minister for Johnson when Johnson was foreign secretary and who then chaired the Cop26 conference. (A fourth MP, Alister Jack, the Scottish secretary and a close friend of Johnson’s, was originally on the list too, but ruled himself out.)
But it would not have been possible for the MPs to be named as peers on the resignation honours list but delay taking their seats in the Lords until around time time of the elections, to avoid byelections that would be damaging for the party. A minister confirmed this in the House of Lords in November last year.
Today Sunak confirmed that Johnson wanted him to either over-ruled Holac on this issue, or to give a private assurance that if Dorries, Adams and Sharma were left off the list, they would get a peerage later. (A PM can nominate peers whenever they want.) That is why Dorries and Adams resigned out of pique. (Sharma has not resigned, and while it is hard to see Sunak giving peerages to Dorries or Adams, it is quite possible Sharma could get a peerage from Sunak in the dissolution honours, because his handling of Cop26 was widely admired.)
But what remains unexplained is why Dorries, and perhaps Adams too, only realised that their hopes of going to the Lords were dashed at the end of last week. On Friday morning Dorries said that she would not be resigning as an MP. When she did resign a few hours later, she said it was because “something significant happened”, implying she had only just realised that Sunak was not promising her a peerage.
Yet Sunak and Johnson met to discuss this seven days earlier. According to Tim Shipman’s account in the Sunday Times, Johnson told Dorries afterwards that her peerage was safe. Shipman says:
After the meeting with Sunak, Johnson messaged Nadine Dorries to say: “Just finished the meeting with Rishi. List being published imminently. You’re on it.” When it finally dropped on Friday, it was shorn of peerages for Dorries, Adams and Sharma, as well as gongs for two Tory donors, David Ross and Stuart Marks.
One explanation would be Sunak not being clear to Johnson at the meeting about his intentions. But in his report Shipman also says a Sunak aide took notes during the meeting, and those notes record Sunak telling Johnson: “I don’t want you to leave this room thinking I have made you a promise as that will be a problem in our relationship going forward.”
The alternative explanation would be that Johnson told Dorries something about the outcome of his meeting with Sunak that was not true, and that she only found out on Friday afternoon. If so, she would not be the first person let down by a Johnson promise.
UPDATE: I have amended the post to take out a line wrongly saying that Holac had approved Dorries, Adams and Sharma for peerages. It didn’t; they were not on the list of approved peers released by No 10 over the weekend.
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Sunak says he refused Johnson's request over resignation honours because he 'wanted to change politics'
Here is the full quote from Rishi Sunak in his Q&A on Boris Johnson and his honours list.
When it comes to honours and Boris Johnson, Boris Johnson asked me to do something that I wasn’t prepared to do, because I didn’t think it was right.
That was to either overrule the Holac [House of Lords appointments] committee or to make promises to people. Now, I wasn’t prepared to do that. As I said, I didn’t think it was right. And if people don’t like that, then tough.
At that point there was a large round of applause. Sunak went on:
When I got this job, I said I was going to do things differently because I wanted to change politics. And that’s what I’m doing.
And I’m also keen to make sure that we change how our country works. And that’s what I’m here talking about today – making sure that we can grow our economy, that we can maintain our leadership in the innovative industries of the future. Why? Because it’s going to create jobs for people, it’s going to spread opportunity around. And it has the potential, as we’ve been discussing, to transform people’s lives.
As prime minister, I want to make sure that that happens, because I want to make sure that I improve everyone’s lives in this country and do it in a way that is right and is in accordance with my values. And that’s what I’m going to keep doing.
There was another round of applause when he ended.
'Boris Johnson asked me to do something I wasn't prepared to do'
— ITV News Politics (@ITVNewsPolitics) June 12, 2023
Asked about approving the former PM's honours list, Rishi Sunak says 'if people don't like that, then tough' https://t.co/rUtU0zQP64 pic.twitter.com/h7GHBp7ud4
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Sunak says Boris Johnson asked him to do something he 'didn't think was right' with resignation honours list
At the London Tech Week event Rishi Sunak is now taking questions from journalists.
Asked about Boris Johnson, he says Johnson asked him to do something that he was not prepared to do, because he “didn’t think it was right”.
He says Johnson wanted him to either over-rule the House of Lords appointments commission, or to make promises (to the MPs offered peerages by Johnson, who wanted to delay their resignations until later, so as not to cause byelections).
This is the first on-the-record explanation we have had from Sunak about the rift with Johnson over the honours list.
There is a round of applause for Sunak when he says this. (This is highly unusual in a Q&A like this.)
UPDATE: See 9.53am for the full quote.
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Sunak is now taking questions at the London Tech Week. He is in a Q&A with Demis Hassabis from Google’s DeepMind.
He says the UK was at the forefront of inventions during the industrial revolution. Going forward, he says regulation is key; you need a balance between regulation that supports innovation but also puts appropriate protections in place.
“The UK has a track record of getting that balance right,” he says.
And he says creative industries will be an important component of tech in the future. He says that is another areas where the UK is strong.
This is from Sky’s Rob Powell.
Rishi Sunak pressing his credentials as a ‘tech-bro’ at London Tech Week saying the reason firms will choose the U.K. is because “we get it” & will show global leadership in areas like AI. pic.twitter.com/HQQPdnNz9d
— Rob Powell (@robpowellnews) June 12, 2023
Rishi Sunak is speaking at London Tech Week.
In his opening remarks, he said the tech world was changing very quickly, and that the government could not afford to rest if it wanted to exploit the opportunities available.
The UK was the third country in the world for unicorns (tech start-ups worth $1bn), he said. It was third in the world behind the US and China.
Sunak also said the UK was the best country in the Europe for raising capital for tech. He went on:
What’s the single most important reason innovators like you should choose this country? The answer is leadership. Do you trust the people in charge to really get what you’re trying to do
With this government, and with me as your prime minister, you can judge us not by our words, but our actions. It’s this government that’s building the most pro-investment tax regime, that’s increasing public R&D investment to record levels, that’s making our visa system for international talent one of the most competitive in the world, but overhauling our listing rules to make it easier for companies to raise public funding and changing our pension rules to unlock new private capital.
Sunak said AI offered great opportunities. But it had to be developed in a way that was safe, he said, and he highlighted three government initiatives to achieve this.
First, he said the government was working with companies to ensure they give early access to their models, so they can be evaluated.
Second, the UK will host an international conference on AI regulation, he said.
And, third, he said the government was investing in AI to ensure that it could be used to benefit public services.
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Michael Gove defends privileges committee as it meets to finalise Boris Johnson report
Good morning. At the end of last week Boris Johnson, and two of his most loyal supporters, resigned their Commons seats, unexpectedly and without any need to do so, triggering byelections that could destabilise Rishi Sunak’s government. Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams offered no proper explanation for what they were doing, and Johnson (wrongly) claimed that he was being forced out because the privileges committee is due to publish a report saying he misled parliament. (He could have stayed in the Commons to defend himself, and only losing a recall election would have forced him out for good.) Johnson’s resignation statement attacked the privileges committee, but the three resignations were also an implicit declaration of war against Sunak by a former PM whose only hope of returning to the political frontline rests on Sunak losing the next election.
In this situation, what does Sunak do? Go on the offensive and seek to marginalise Johnson even more? Or calm things down, avoid antagonising the Johnson faction even further, and hope that mainstream party opinion will unite behind the leadership. Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, has been giving interviews on behalf of the government this morning, and he made it clear that No 10 is adopting the latter strategy. Here are some of his messages.
Gove defended the Commons privileges committee, and condemned the fact that criticism of the committee means that its members have now been offered extra security. He told the Today programme:
The people who served on that committee were asked by the House of Commons collectively to do a particular job. It’s a job that has required careful work on their part and no little effort to make a series of significant judgments.
So I have respect for the work that they have done. And I think that we need to respect again the integrity of the process, and wait until the report is published before then debating its conclusions and the consequences.
The second thing that I want to say is that I do deprecate the fact that they are now in a position where, as reported, they have to seek or have been granted additional security. As someone who’s been through that position myself in the past then I extend my sympathy to them and their families at this point.
Gove did not explain why the MPs on the committee feel they are under threat. It is because Johnson has accused it of acting like a “kangaroo court”, and suggested that it is ruling against him as part of some shadowy establishment plot to undermine Brexit, and because some Tory MPs, notably Jacob Rees-Mogg, have said much the same. The committee is meeting this morning to finalise its report into Johnson.
Gove played down the significance of the three byelections, saying the party would unite behind Sunak. He told BBC Breakfast:
Elections are part of political life. It’s also the case I think that you do best in elections when you concentrate on good government.
And we are united behind Rishi Sunak in making sure that we demonstrate that the priorities that the British public have are those which govern every waking moment that we have.
Gove declined to criticise Johnson, Dorries or Adams explicitly. Asked repeatedly on the Today programme to acknowledge Johnson’s faults, he said he preferred to remember his achievements, and in another interview he refused to criticise Dorries or Adams for standing down.
Gove dodged questions about whether he would like to see Johnson return to the Commons in the future, telling Times Radio:
I’ve offered Boris advice in the past. He hasn’t always taken it. And so therefore, I think Boris will make his own mind up.
Some Tories want Sunak to declare that Johnson cannot stand again as a candidate, while Johnson’s supporters are saying blocking him would be unacceptable. It is not surprising that No 10 currently seems to be sitting on the fence on this one.
We should hear from Sunak on the topic of Johnson soon. Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Rishi Sunak gives a speech on AI at the London Tech Week conference.
Morning: The Commons privileges committee meets in private to discuss the final version of its report on claims Boris Johnson misled MPs about Partygate.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby conference.
After 3.30pm: MPs debate Lords amendments to the retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill. Later there will be a debate on Public Order Act regulations, followed by a general debate on the principle of excluding MPs from the parliamentary estate if they are deemed a risk to staff because of accusations they face.
4pm: James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, gives evidence to the Commons foreign affairs committee on the integrated review.
Also, Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, will be campaigning today in Mid Bedfordshire, ahead of the byelection caused by the resignation of Nadine Dorries.
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