Summary of the day …
William Wragg will keep the Conservative party whip while the party investigates his role in a sexting scandal. On Thursday, Wragg admitted to giving out the personal phone numbers of colleagues to a person he met on the Grindr dating app because he feared the person had compromising material on him. Leicestershire police have launched an investigation into reports that explicit images and flirtatious messages were sent to MPs as part of an alleged “spear-phishing” attack. The Metropolitan police are also investigating.
Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, appeared to give his support to Wragg on Friday morning, describing his apology as “courageous and fulsome”. The Conservative party declined to comment because of the active police investigation. Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said whether Wragg should resign was a matter for the Tories.
Reeves said the prime minister and his chancellor are “out of touch they are with the reality faced by ordinary British people” as they talk about the economy having turned a corner while “people are still being squeezed by the Conservatives’ cost of living crisis”. Campaigning in Blackpool, Reeves said Conservative tax changes and rising council tax would leave families £870 a year worse off.
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has become the latest senior party figure to urge an immediate ban on UK arms sales to Israel, as ministers face pressure to disclose the government’s official legal advice on the trade. Sarwar told BBC Scotland that Israel had “clearly” breached international law in Gaza and that UK arms sales should be halted immediately. Conservative MP Alicia Kearns, the chair of the UK foreign affairs committee, said the government must suspend arms sales to Israel and claimed ministers were no longer saying that Israel was complying with international humanitarian law, merely that it had the capacity to do so.
Strike action by senior NHS doctors in England has been called off after they accepted a pay offer following a year-long dispute with the government. Dr Vishal Sharma, the chair of the BMA consultants committee, said: “The last year has seen consultants take unprecedented strike action. At the heart of this dispute was our concern for patients and the future sustainability of the NHS. Without valuing doctors, we lose them. Without doctors, we have no NHS and patients suffer”. Prime minister Rishi Sunak described it as “excellent news for patients”.
Michael Gove has admitted “moral cowardice” during the Brexit campaign by not being upfront with David Cameron about his role in the leave campaign. In an interview for the Political Currency podcast with George Osborne and Ed Balls, the levelling up secretary said he was initially reluctant to take a prominent role in the campaign, but had been persuaded to by the Vote Leave campaign coordinator, Dominic Cummings.
A new deadline has been set for Johnny Mercer to argue why he should not have to hand over the names of those who told him about alleged special forces murders in Afghanistan. He now has until 4pm on 8 May to make any further submissions or evidence.
Scottish Green Party co-leader and Holyrood minister Patrick Harvie has given a passionate defence of the Hate crime and public order (Scotland) act which came into force on Monday, suggesting opponents of the bill had been indulging in “performative nonsense” which could, nevertheless, lead to real world consequence for marginalised groups.
The Telegraph has published a poll which suggests that less than half of those who voted Conservative in 42 so-called “Blue Wall” seats – affluent constituencies in the south of England where the Conservatives have traditionally won – intend to support them in the next election.
The parent company of privatised Thames Water which supplies London has told its creditors it has defaulted on its debt.
Employees at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have voted to take industrial action in a dispute over changes to the way they have been allowed to work flexibly from home.
Sunak has used the opening day of the county cricket season as an opportunity to announce £35m funding for grassroots cricket. He visited the Oval in London where he faced bowling from some of the England men’s cricket team.
PA Media reports that new deadline has been set for Johnny Mercer to argue why he should not have to hand over the names of those who told him about alleged special forces murders in Afghanistan.
Sir Charles Haddon-Cave, chairman of the Afghanistan Inquiry, gave Mercer until 4pm on 5 April to provide a witness statement containing the names or face a potential prison sentence.
But the deadline was extended while the chairman considers Mercer’s application to challenge the order.
The veterans’ minister has until 4pm on 8 May to make any further submissions or evidence, Sir Charles has ordered.
During Mercer’s evidence to the inquiry last month, the chairman said his decision to “refuse to answer legitimate questions … at a public inquiry” were “disappointing … surprising … and completely unacceptable”.
