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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Tom Ambrose (now) and Andrew Sparrow (earlier)

Third Tory MP calls for no confidence vote in PM – as it happened

Boris Johnson Paul Johnson Sir Keir Starmer Michael Gove United Kingdom Tory Jimmy Savile London PPE Vladimir Putin
Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street ahead of PMQs earlier today.
Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street ahead of PMQs earlier today. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Summary

Well, it’s been another busy day in Westminster, with more letters of no confidence going in to the 1922 Committee chair Sir Graham Brady and Boris Johnson finally getting around to that call with Vladimir Putin.

Here is a brief round-up of what’s been going on throughout Wednesday:

  • Boris Johnson has now held his delayed phone call with the Russian president Vladimir Putin as the situation on the Ukrainian border continues to escalate. It is understood the prime minister expressed his “deep concern” about Russian aggression to Putin this afternoon and warned that a further incursion into Ukraine would be a “tragic miscalculation”.
  • A third Tory MP has become the latest to go public today in calling for a vote of no confidence in the prime minister. Gary Streeter, the Conservative MP for South West Devon has posted on his Facebook account that he “cannot reconcile the pain and sacrifice of the vast majority of the British public during lockdown with the attitude and activities of those working in Downing Street” and has submitted a letter of no confidence.
  • Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling-up secretary, has criticised Michael Gove’s long-awaited white paper, claiming it is evidence of “a government in freefall: out of ideas, out of energy”.
  • Keir Starmer accused Boris Johnson of “parroting the conspiracy theories of violent fascists” for political gain after the prime minister doubled down on false claims about the Labour leader’s blame for the failure to prosecute Jimmy Savile.
  • Lord Goldsmith, a Foreign Office and environment minister, has told peers that a “misunderstanding” was to blame for an official in his office writing an email saying Boris Johnson had authorised the evacuation of animals from Kabul last summer.

That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the UK politics blog for today. We will be back, as ever, in the morning. Thanks for following along. Goodnight.

Boris Johnson has just tweeted about his call with the Russian president Vladimir Putin about the Ukraine crisis.

He wrote: “I spoke to President Putin this afternoon to express my deep concern about Russia’s hostile activity on the Ukrainian border.

“Any further incursion into Ukrainian territory would be a tragic miscalculation.

“Dialogue and diplomacy is the only way forward.”

There was a popular Lee and Herring sketch in the 1990s which saw the pair shout “you want the moon on a stick, you do”. Prime ministers, likewise, are used to being asked for more than they can possibly deliver. But usually they cherry-pick their priorities.

David Cameron, or more accurately his chancellor, George Osborne, decided to focus on the north of England, with the “northern powerhouse”.

With the 332-page “levelling up” white paper, Boris Johnson goes full moon-on-stick, with 12 missions which promise to address some of the most intractable problems in society – from increasing life expectancy to eliminating illiteracy and innumeracy – all by 2030.

Only the most churlish of critics could argue against halving the number of poor quality rented homes, or decreasing crime, but they may well ask: how are you going to pay for it? The white paper does not have the answer.

My colleague Andrew Gregory has been getting some reaction from health experts and health groups to the government’s levelling up white paper today.

The deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery, said she was “disappointed” to see the announcements on health were limited to individual behaviour and healthy lifestyles. She added:

This fails to recognise the deeply entrenched and complex factors influencing poor health and obesity. There is little mention of how the NHS, far from simply being a treatment service, has a key role to play in contributing to better socioeconomic outcomes in all regions of the country.

The paper rightly points out the importance of tackling inequalities faced by deprived and marginalised populations but fails to make the connection with the forthcoming health disparities white paper, despite the clear link between socioeconomic and health inequality.

Cordery also said that although the target to close the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest areas was “ambitious”, it was “unclear” how the initiatives in the paper would achieve this.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot, director of UCL’s Institute of Health Equity, said the funding promised for levelling up was “tiny” given the “scale of the problem”. He commented:

Mr Gove’s reliance that the money he is putting in will ‘trickle down’ to those who will benefit is, simply, inappropriate by an order of magnitude. What is needed is a scale of social and financial investment that would take the evidence and put it into practice and target the right areas, not those that need it less.

In the decade before the pandemic, life expectancy fell in the poorest areas of the country outside London. The pandemic made worse these regional and social inequalities in health. At the heart of the dramatic and avoidable falls in life expectancy has been the government’s agenda since 2010 to cut public services.

This comes on top of the mass de-industrialisation of the 1980s and contributed to stripping the heart out of those communities the levelling up agenda is intending to reinvigorate.

Dr Séamus O’Neill, chief executive of the Northern Health Science Alliance, said he welcomed the government’s promise “to break the cycle of underinvestment in the North”, but added that although the white paper was “a positive step” in the right direction, “more needs to be done”. He said:

The north suffers the worst health inequalities in the country – primarily due to the long-term effects of economic disadvantage at population level. If the government is truly committed to levelling up R&D funding in the north, we need to see investment at scale and to join up activity across all areas of excellence in the region where we have a critical mass of research expertise and companies that can create the jobs that are needed.

There are no easy answers or quick solutions, but we must act now to break the cycle of under-investment and give the people of the north an even break. The levelling up white paper is a positive move forward, but we need more clarity and sufficient funding.

Only a long-term improvement in the economy of the north and by extension, the wider determinants of health, can improve life chances and address the unfairness and injustice experienced by too many people for far too long.

Updated

Boris Johnson expresses 'deep concern' in phone call with Vladimir Putin

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has now held his delayed phone call with the Russian president Vladimir Putin as the situation on the Ukrainian border continues to escalate.

It is understood the prime minister expressed his “deep concern” about Russian aggression to Putin this afternoon and warned that a further incursion into Ukraine would be a “tragic miscalculation”.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said:

The prime minister expressed his deep concern about Russia’s current hostile activity on the Ukrainian border. He emphasised the need to find a way forward which respects both Ukraine’s territorial integrity and right to self-defence.

The prime minister stressed that any further Russian incursion into Ukrainian territory would be a tragic miscalculation.

The prime minister underscored that, under Nato’s open door policy, all European democracies have a right to aspire to Nato membership. This right fully applies to Ukraine. He also reiterated that Nato is a defensive alliance.

The leaders agreed that aggravation was in no-one’s interest. The prime minister stressed the importance of dialogue and diplomacy, and the need to include Ukraine in talks.

Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street ahead of PMQs.
Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street ahead of PMQs. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Putin told Johnson the Nato bloc was not ready to adequately react to Russian concerns, according to the statement on the Kremlin website.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russia mocked Johnson as “utterly confused” and ridiculed British politicians for their “stupidity and ignorance”, hurling more scorn at the West after Putin accused Washington of trying to provoke war.

Updated

Good evening. I’m Tom Ambrose and will be bringing you all the latest news and reaction from Westminster as the pressure continues to ramp up on Boris Johnson.

However, one of the prime minister’s fiercest defenders, the culture secretary Nadine Dorries, has once again leapt to his defence this evening.

Following the news that the Tory MP Anthony Mangnall is one of three to have submitted a letter of no confidence in Johnson today, Dorries quote-tweeted him and accused him of being “selfish” and “doing Labour’s work”.

She also bemoaned the fact that her colleagues were pulling support for the prime minister “on the very day” it set out its plans to “level up” the UK.

She wrote:

The defining mission of the PM & this government is to level up the whole of the UK.

On the very day we are setting out steps to make this happen, a handful of egos want to make it all about them.

It’s selfish, doing Labours [sic] work and it’s really not helping their constituents.

Of course, if the prime minister didn’t want his key policy announcement to be overshadowed, it may have been prudent to avoid using Downing Street and, allegedly, its private flat as a hub for parties and social gatherings throughout lockdown. But maybe I’m just old fashioned like that.

Meanwhile, the Mirror’s Mikey Smith has set out the background of who Gary Streeter is.

Gary Streeter becomes latest Tory MP to call for no confidence vote in PM

A third Tory MP has become the latest to go public today in calling for a vote of no confidence in the prime minister. Gary Streeter, the Conservative MP for South West Devon has posted on his Facebook account that he “cannot reconcile the pain and sacrifice of the vast majority of the British Public during lockdown with the attitude and activities of those working in Downing Street” and has submitted a letter of no confidence.

Statement on Boris Johnson and the Sue Gray Report.

I previously made it clear in response to the many e-mails I have received about the parties in Downing Street that appeared to break Lockdown rules, that the wise thing to do was to await the report from Sue Gray. This has now been received (albeit in truncated form) and I have made my decision.

I cannot reconcile the pain and sacrifice of the vast majority of the British Public during lockdown with the attitude and activities of those working in Downing Street.

Accordingly, I have now submitted a letter seeking a motion of no confidence in the Prime Minister.

I have not come to this decision lightly. It is not my intention to say any more about this matter.

I will focus on serving the residents of South West Devon.

Afternoon summary

  • Lord Goldsmith, a Foreign Office and environment minister, has told peers that a “misunderstanding” was to blame for an official in his office writing an email saying Boris Johnson had authorised the evacuation of animals from Kabul last summer. These are from my colleague Dan Sabbagh.

What a focus group said about PMQs

Earlier I said Savanta ComRes has started inviting focus groups to watch PMQs and sending out the findings to journalists. Today their focus group comprised six people who all voted Tory in 2019 but who all say they will or might for another party at the next election (ie, floating voters - the people who decide elections).

Here is an extract from the write-up from Chris Hopkins from Savanta ComRes.

This dichotomy between the leaders was illustrated by asking the group who ‘won’ the session. Some felt as though Boris Johnson, with his punchier responses, highlighting his government’s record, cut way above [Keir] Starmer, while others found Starmer’s approach more palatable and Johnson’s deflection of the questions problematic. Praise was, once again, reserved for Ian Blackford, who the group seemed to appreciate for his directness in questioning and not letting the issue of partygate slide ...

However, it was in the meat of PMQs that came the most fascinating responses. Having led on Conservative tax rises despite claiming to be a low tax party, the group did not necessarily agree with Starmer’s questioning. Instead, the group tended to empathise more with the government, appreciating that tax rises may be necessary in order to pay back the cost of things such as furlough and business support, which the government were roundly praised for. The difficult decisions ahead for the government, including things such as the National Insurance rise, may not be the vote-loser some backbench Conservatives think it is, based on the evidence of this group, providing that the government can continue to hammer home its pandemic record.

What thinktanks are saying about the levelling up white paper

Here is some reaction to the levelling up white paper from thinktanks.

From Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies

This white paper recognises the scale of the levelling up challenge. That lack of quick fixes, the long term perspective, and clarity about objectives are all very welcome, as is the recognition that real progress will require a change in governance in Whitehall and beyond.

This is all just a very first step though. The targets are largely in the right areas, but many look extremely ambitious - that is to say highly unlikely to be met, even with the best policies and much resource. There is little detail on how most of them will be met, and less detail on available funding. There is something for everyone, and hence little sense of prioritisation: ambition and resource will be spread very thin.

From Jonathan Carr-West, chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit

In the end, perhaps inevitably, the long-awaited levelling up white paper doesn’t quite rise to its own challenge.

It sets out an analysis of the causes and impacts of regional economic disparities and proposes 12 missions to address these challenges. These give some clarity to what levelling up means, contain social as well as economic dimensions and have measurable metrics for success.

It’s far less clear how these missions will be accomplished. The structural reforms to local government and the specific policy measures announced feel piecemeal and, in the main, familiar.

From Torsten Bell, head of the Resolution Foundation

From Sarah Longlands, chief executive of Centre for Local Economic Strategies in Manchester

Even with 332 pages to fill out the detail, and after two years of hype, the levelling up white paper lacks the focus and finance to get to the root of the problem: an economic system which fails to give people a stake in their local place through, for example, decent work, housing and transport. This inequality, made worse by the pandemic, is what is driving down living standards and life expectancy rather than helping people to live good lives. The levelling up white paper doesn’t offer a coherent roadmap for economic change but a scattering of special projects which together will do little to alleviate the challenges faced by those who have not only been left behind but kept behind for decades.

From Miatta Fahnbulleh, head of the New Economics Foundation

From Jo Bibby, director of health at the Health Foundation

The target set to be set to be outlined in today’s white paper to close the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest areas over the next decade, while welcome, is extremely ambitious. It appears the government has failed to grasp the enormity of the challenge.

A healthier and fairer society needs secure jobs, good pay, decent housing and high-quality education. While there is some recognition of this in today’s announcements, insufficient funding means that, as it stands, the levelling up agenda is unlikely to lead to significant improvements in any of these areas.

Updated

Full Fact, the fact-checking organisation, also points out that when Boris Johnson claimed at PMQs that there are “more people in work now than before the pandemic began”, he was wrong. It points out that yesterday the Office for Statistics Regulation wrote to No 10 asking Johnson to stop making this claim (which he has been repeating for a while). Once you take the self-employed into account, the number of people in work now is not higher than it was before the pandemic, the latest figures suggest.

Some readers have been asking about the truth or otherwise of Boris Johnson’s claim that the fastest growth in the G7. On one measure it is certainly true, but his claim does not tell the whole story, for two reasons.

1) On a year-on-year basis, the most recent growth figures, for the third quarter of 2021, do show the UK economy growing faster than other G7 economies, as this briefing by Full Fact explains. But if you compare growth between the second quarter last year and the third quarter last year, other G7 economies are doing better.

2) The UK economy has been growing fast relative to other economies (on some measures) partly because it did worse than other economies at the start of the pandemic. The further you fall, the easier it is to bounce back. The Treasury used to argue that the UK figures were particularly bad in 2020 because of the way public sector output is calculated in this country, but now that this accounting quirk works in the government’s favour, that explanation is heard less often.

These are from my colleague Peter Walker on the levelling up white paper.

And this is from my colleague Heather Stewart.

An anti-Johnson protester at Westminster today.
An anti-Johnson protester at Westminster today. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP

The SNP has said the notion that the Conservatives support devolution is “laughable”. In response to the levelling up white paper, Tommy Sheppard, the SNP’s constitution spokesperson at Westminster, said:

We’ve seen this all before from this Westminster government - great promises of new powers and funding for projects, only to be hit with powergrabs and cuts instead. It’s no wonder more and more people in Scotland want independence.

There has been a series of attacks on devolution in Scotland and a raft of broken promises of new powers after Brexit - this should serve as an indication of how far the proposals to strengthen devolution in England will really go. The idea that the Tory government is now the great defender of devolution would, quite frankly, be laughable if it weren’t so serious.

Any proposals aimed at ‘Levelling Up’ the country should instead start by addressing the funding shortfalls created from Brexit, address rising poverty and inequality rates, and seek to create a strong recovery from the pandemic.

The Conservative-led Shropshire council has slammed the government’s levelling up white paper saying it is “very disappointed” it does not include any specific announcements for the county.

Ed Potter, the council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for economic growth, said:

Once again Shropshire has missed out and at the moment we feel overlooked, unrecognised, taken for granted and completely undervalued.

We are one of the lowest funded councils in the country and our rurality is not recognised in our funding. For example we have the same population as Nottingham but are 42 times bigger, yet they have 10% more spending power than we do. We feel there is a big urban metropolitan divide with rural areas such as Shropshire.

He said the council was unsuccessful in three bids to the levelling up fund last year, and also missed out on high street funding. “Levelling up was supposed to be different. The wealth of the UK is generated in places such as Shropshire, yet we have at least one hand, if not two, tied behind our backs,” he said.

In a shock result in December, the Conservatives lost a byelection in North Shropshire where the Lib Dems capitalised on voter dissatisfaction.

“These plans demonstrate that the government simply has not learnt their lesson about ignoring the people of North Shropshire. We are still being taken for granted,” said the Lib Dem MP Helen Morgan.

Updated

But Andy Street, the Conservative West Midlands mayor, is much more positive. He thinks the 12 targets in the paper will tackle the long-term drivers of regional inequality.

Labour mayors are generally unimpressed by the levelling up white paper.

Steve Rotheram, the mayor for the Liverpool city region, has described the levelling up white paper as “thin gruel”. He said:

If ‘levelling up’ was supposed to be the prime minister’s defining mission then I am sorry to say that it is going to be Mission Impossible with this thin gruel on offer.

Although there were a few encouraging elements, it is largely a rehashing of things we have already heard before. On the whole though, it reads like a recipe cooked up during Veganuary - something severely lacking in meat.

Jamie Driscoll, the North of Tyne mayor, said Gove’s document does not acknowledge the damage done by government cuts.

And Dan Jarvis, the Labour MP and South Yorkshire mayor, said the government has not provided the funding needed to provide transformational change.

The Office for National Statistics has published the headline results from its coronavirus infection survey, showing Covid rates in the week ending Saturday 29 January.

In England one person in 20 was estimated to be infected. In Wales it was also one in 20, in Northern Ireland one in 15, and in Scotland one in 30.

As PA Media reports, in England around one in eight children (13.1%) from age two to school year 6 are likely to have had Covid-19 last week, the highest level for any age group, the figures show. For children in school years 7 to 11 the estimate was around one in 13 (7.6%).

Here is the executive summary (pdf) of the levelling up white paper.

And here is the full document (pdf). It runs to 332 pages.

Anthony Mangnall becomes latest Tory to call for no confidence vote in PM

Another Conservative MP has gone public to announce he has submitted a letter calling for a vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson. It is Anthony Mangnall, who was elected MP for Totnes in 2019.

Mangnall’s intervention takes the number of Tory MPs publicly demanding a no confidence vote up to 13. Other letters may have been submitted to the chairman of the Conservative 1922 Committee in private, but 54 letters are needed (15% of MPs) for a no confidence vote to go ahead.

Nandy says Gove's levelling up target are admissions of failure

Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling up secretary, says this was supposed to be at the centre of Boris Johnson’s mission. But Johnson himself is not here to announce this, she says. And she says Gove reportedly thinks it is not good too.

She is referring to this report by Richard Vaughan and Paul Waugh in the i. It says:

According to government sources, even those behind the white paper believe it falls short of what had been promised when the prime minister vowed to “level up the country” when he entered Downing Street.

“Everyone, including the Secretary of State [Mr Gove], thinks it’s s**t”, a government insider told i. The white paper is understood to contain an essay penned by former Bank of England economist Andy Haldane, who heads up the government’s Levelling Up Taskforce, which was described as “interesting – but it’s just an essay”.

Nandy says the 12 targets are admissions of failure. As an example, she cites education. She says Gove is concerned about the number of pupils leaving primary school without basic skills, but Gove was education secretary himself for four years, she says.

Updated

Here is the news release from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities summarising what’s in the 350-page white paper.

(This is the one that Jennifer Williams was complaining about on the grounds it was too rambling. See 11.50am.)

Gove is rattling through some of these measures now.

Gove says spreading economic opportunity is at the heart of levelling up.

But the programme is also about boosting pride in communities too, he says.

Gove is summarising some of the targets in the white paper. My colleague Peter Walker has the full list here.

Michael Gove's Commons statement on levelling up white paper

Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, is making his statement on the levelling up white paper.

He says he wants to shift wealth and power decisively to working people and their families.

This is not about holding back any part of the UK, he says. It is about turbo-charging the whole of the country.

He says if the government can boost productivity in every region to the levels in the best performing ones, that will increase the size of the economy by tens of billions of pounds.

Sturgeon says PM's Savile smear about Starmer 'Trumpian' and 'utterly despicable'

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has described Boris Johnson’s suggestion that Keir Starmer was to blame for the CPS’s failure to prosecure Jimmy Savile as “utterly despicable” and “Trumpian”. She said:

I’m of a different political party to Keir Starmer, but the Jimmy Savile comments about Keir Starmer were utterly despicable.

[It is] appalling that the holder of the office of prime minister is behaving in that fake news, Trumpian manner.

This is about the integrity of our democracy.

We’ve all got to ask ourselves... as citizens, are we content to have someone with no integrity and no shame occupying Number 10, and I think the answer to that question for the vast majority of people across the UK is no.

But the people who can make the decision about whether Boris Johnson stays there or not are Tory MPs and the longer they allow him to stay there, the longer they will become tarnished and tainted and complicit in his conduct.

Updated

MPs pay tribute to Jack Dromey

In the Commons MPs spent more than an hour and a half after PMQs paying tribute to the late Jack Dromey. Here are some of the comments.

From Boris Johnson

Although Jack and I may have come from different political traditions, I knew him as a man of great warmth and energy and compassion ...

One day Jack was driving in Greece when he saw a family of British tourists, footsore, bedraggled, sunburnt with the children on the verge of mutiny against their father ... he stopped the car and invited them all in even though there was barely any room, and I will always be grateful for his kindness because that father was me and he drove us quite a long way.

From Keir Starmer

Since the sudden passing of our friend Jack, tributes from every walk of life have captured the essence of the man we knew and loved. Larger than life, bursting with enthusiasm and ideas, and tireless in the pursuit of justice and fairness.

Jack channelled all those attributes into representing the people of Erdington, a lifetime of campaigning for working people and his greatest love, his family.

From John Cryer, the Labour MP

He was one of the most successful trade union officers industrially that we have seen in the past 50 to 60 years, often in very difficult conditions. There was one overriding aim that Jack had and that was to improve the conditions and lives of the people that he and we represented. In that, I think he was successful and, in that, I think he left the world better than he found it.

From Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary

Most of all Jack was an optimist, he loved life and he loved people, and he made lives better because he believed things could be better.

Here is the Guardian’s obituary of Dromey, by Julia Langdon.

The Northern Research Group, which represents Conservative MPs from the north of England, has welcomed, the levelling up white paper. In a statement it said:

We are happy that not only has the government set out a bold timescale in which to deliver levelling up by 2030, but that the government has also embraced many of the ideas set out by the Northern Research Group, including attracting foreign direct investment devolution and driving up educational skills and standards.

This demonstrates that the best ideas to drive the future economy of the north are derived from the north.

Priti Patel says Macron ‘absolutely wrong’ over Channel crossings

Priti Patel, the home secretary, has said Emmanuel Macron is wrong to say the UK’s immigration policy is encouraging people to risk their lives crossing the Channel from France, my colleague Rajeev Syal reports.

Giving evidence to the Commons transport committeee this morning, Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, said the integrated rail plan announced by the government in November could leave the north of England with train services that are “second-best for 200 years”. He said:

These are once-in-200-years decisions for the country and particularly for the north of England. If we get second-best then the north of England will have second-best for 200 years or more. The importance of this can’t be overstated.

Kremlin calls Boris Johnson’s Ukraine diplomacy efforts ‘utterly confused’

The Kremlin moved to belittle Boris Johnson on Wednesday, describing him as “utterly confused” and calling British diplomacy a waste of time, my colleague Patrick Wintour reports.

Starmer accuses Johnson of gaslighting Britons with 'absurd' claim he's cutting taxes

Here is the PA Media story about the Johnson/Starmer exchanges at PMQs.

Keir Starmer accused Boris Johnson of trying to “gaslight” Britons by making “absurd” claims he is cutting taxes when they are about to increase.

The Labour leader pressed the prime minister over cost of living concerns as Tory backbenchers continue to voice opposition to the forthcoming national insurance hike.

Starmer compared Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak to fictional outlaws Thelma and Louise - saying they are about to “drive the country off the cliff and into the abyss of low growth and high tax”.

Johnson suggested Starmer and Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, were Wacky Races cartoon duo Dick Dastardly and Muttley, and defended his government’s economic record.

The 1.25 percentage point national insurance increase from April is expected to raise £12bn a year for health and social care services but breaks Johnson’s 2019 election manifesto pledge not to raise taxes.

After Johnson batted away earlier questions about the introduction of “stealth taxes” on working people, Starmer - in a nod to Downing Street party allegations - told the House of Commons: “The prime minister might want to sharpen how he answers questions under interview - he’s going to need it in the next few weeks.”

Starmer said working people are “always asked to pay more” as he noted the prime minister ordered Tory MPs to oppose a proposed windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas producers, adding: “As a result, the country is missing out on over £1bn he could have used to cut taxes on energy bills for working people.”

He asked: “Why are the chancellor and the prime minister protecting oil companies and bank profits while putting taxes up on working people?”

Johnson replied: “This is all about dealing with the consequences of the biggest pandemic this country has seen, with an unprecedented economic crisis in which the state had to come forward and look after the people of this country to the tune of £408bn. Everyone can see the fiscal impacts of that.”

Starmer countered: “The truth is the Conservative party is the party of high taxes because they’re the party of low growth. They’re the party of high taxes because they’re the party of eye-watering waste.

“We know this prime minister has no respect for decency or honesty. I can take it when it’s aimed at me but I won’t accept it when he gaslights the British public - writing absurd articles about cutting taxes at a time when he is squeezing working people to the pips.

Updated

The Commons home affairs committee was told this morning that the government is spending around £1.2m every day on housing asylum seekers in hotels. Around 25,000 asylum seekers are in hotels, the MPs were told.

Priti Patel, the home secretary, said the government was “absolutely struggling with local authorities finding housing accommodation” for this group.

PMQs - snap verdict

Today’s exchanges were notably calmer and more restrained than the last confrontation in the Commons between Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer, two days ago on the Sue Gray report. It was not a particularly memorable PMQs, and it was relatively even-handed too (much more so than Monday, when Johnson got the tone wrong). What was most interesting was the subject matter.

Politicians study VI (voter intention) polling closely (how would you vote if there were a general election tomorrow), but two other polling questions are deemed as good or better guides to which party is most likely to win next time and they are ‘best leader’ and ‘best party on the economy’. Under Starmer, Labour has overtaken the Conservatives on leadership in a lot of polling (although it depends how the question is phrased). It has taken longer for the party to get level on economic competence, but Stamer’s team were particularly excited by a recent poll giving Starmer and Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, a six-point lead over Johnson and Rishi Sunak on this metric. (Labour was ahead on VI and leadership too.) Starmer’s decision to focus on the economy today was a sign of his confidence on this terrain.

And his criticisms were well founded. After reprimanding Johnson for giving credence to a “fascist” conspiracy theory (about Starmer and Jimmy Savile), Starmer mocked the “absurd” claim by Johnson to be a low-tax Conservative when his government is putting taxes up. He stressed that growth was higher under the last Labour government than it has been since 2010, claimed that explained why taxes were going up (an argument Reeves has been making for weeks), highlighted waste on procurement and fraud and returned in his final question to the point about the hollowness of Johnson’s low-tax rhetoric.

We know this prime minister has no respect for decency or honesty. I can take it when it’s aimed at me, but I won’t accept it when he gaslights the British public - writing absurd articles about cutting taxes at a time when he is squeezing working people to the pips.

Isn’t it the case that he and his chancellor are the Tory Thelma and Louise, hand in hand as they drive the country off the cliff and into the abyss of low growth and high tax?

There were also two sharp, well-aimed jokes about Johnson facing a possible police interview soon.

On fiscal analysis, Starmer won hands-down. But in terms of political messaging, it was much more evenly matched. Partly that was because the pandemic, and the £400bn Covid rescue spending by the government, gives Johnson an entirely plausible excuse of his taxation record. (Savanta ComRes, a polling company, has started sending out focus group responses on the day to what gets said at PMQs; I would be surprised if participants weren’t nodding along with agreement when Johnson was making this point.) Johnson also boosted his case with half-true claims about post-pandemic growth and employment that are hard to rebut at PMQs, and sound impressive superficially.

A final problem for Starmer was that talking about growth is just too abstract. To many viewers, it just won’t mean very much, and he might have done better raising specific cases. (One of the best questions at a recent lobby briefing came from a journalist who asked why his heating bill had doubled at the weekend, and what the government was going to do about it.) Starmer also concluded with an image that did not quite work; Thelma and Louise did drive over the cliff, but we admired them as they did, didn’t we?

Angela Eagle asks why Johnson is a fit and proper person to have his hand on the nuclear deterrent if he needs the police to tell him whether he attended a party.

Johnson says Eagle campaigned for a Labour leader (Jeremy Corbyn) who was opposed to the nuclear deterrent.

(In fact, Eagle briefly put herself up as a candidate against Corbyn.)

Johnson says the government is committed to improving menopause care. A UK-wide taskforce will be set up, he says.

Henry Smith (Con) asks if the PM will appoint a minister responsible for exploiting the benefits of Brexit.

Johnson claims Labour still want to reverse Brexit. But thanks to Brexit the UK had the fastest vaccine rollout in Europe, he claims (falsely). He says without anticipating any changes he might make, a minister for Brexit would be a good idea.

Gareth Thomas (Lab) asks why the government has not passed an economic crime act to stop dirty Russian money flowing into the UK.

Johnson claims the government has addressed this. It is using unexplained wealthy orders, and it has introduced sanctions. The economic crime bill will be voted on in the next session of parliament.

Sir Desmond Swayne (Con) asks for briefing on the PM’s visit to Ukraine.

Johnson says he went there to show solidarity with Ukraine. He says the west is threatening sanctions to deter Russia from what would be a disastrous invasion.

Rachael Maskell (Lab) says a distracted PM makes the wrong choices. York is now one of the top 10 place in the country for a cost of living crisis. When will the PM stop protecting himself, and start protecting his constituents?

Johnson says the government has looked after people on low incomes. He says there is a strong jobs-led recovery. That will drive up jobs, productivity and growth.

Asked if he will tell the Commons, and resign, if made to pay a fine for No 10 parties, Johnson says he will of course obey the law.

James Grundy (Con) says the clean air scheme proposed for Greater Manchester is unworkable. Lorry drivers could be asked to pay £60 a day, he says.

Johnson says he knows from experience, when you are trying to clean up air, you should not penalise business. He agrees the Manchester plan is unworkable. He says the environment secretary will says more shortly.

Chris Loder (Con) asks for direct rail services to be restored between west Dorset and London.

Johnson says the timetable is expected to improve in February.

Virginia Crosbie (Con) asks if the government will fund a new nuclear plant in her Ynys Mons constituency.

Johnson says he knows her enthusiasm for the project.

Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, who was told to leave the Commons on Monday for calling the PM a liar, says he has a duty to represent people who feel deep anger about Johnson. But he says he wants to put on record his respect for the Speaker and his office.

He says the PM told MPs there was no party in his flat in November 2020. But today the Telegraph reports that Johnson attended that party. If Johnson is fined, he should go. Will the PM say where he was on 13 November 2020.

Johnson says Blackford asked the same question on Monday. In Downing Street they have been delivering the fastest vaccine rollout in Europe, and bringing the west together to resist Russia.

Blackford says Johnson should read the room; he has lost the support of colleagues. He says Johnson cannot even tell us where he was. He is a “dangerous distraction at home and a running joke on the international stage”. The chair of the defence committee has submitted a letter of no confidence.

Johnson says he is getting on with his Covid recovery plan.

Updated

Caroline Dinenage (Con) asks for better training for GPs to identify cancer in children.

Johnson says the government is investing more in research. And Nice guidance on this has been updated.

Starmer says the Tories are the party of high taxes because they are the party of low growth. They are the party of high waste, he says. He says the PM does not have a reputation for honesty and decency. He says he can take it, but the PM is gaslighting the country by claiming to support low taxes. He and the chancellor are like Thelma and Louise, driving the country off the cliff.

Johnson says Labour’s team are Dastardly and Muttley. He says the government has a wonderful vision for levelling up. He repeats the claim about the UK’s growth record. Labour would have kept the country in lockdown, he claims.

Updated

Starmer says Johnson will need to sharpen the way he answers questions when interviewed. He says yesterday Tory MPs voted against Labour plans for windfall tax on energy companies.

Johnson says this is about dealing with the consequences of the biggest pandemic the country has seen. The government spent £400bn helping people through it. He says the government is funding more doctors, more nurses and more scans. But the party of Nye Bevan voted against that investment for the NHS, he says.

Updated

Starmer says the government has written off £8bn on PPE, and £4bn on fraud. That would pay for the national insurance hike. Why did the government stop the National Crime Agency from investigating money lost to fraud.

Johnson says he despises fraud. But he says he is proud the government acquired PPE. He quotes from a letter sent by the then shadow chancellor in April 2020 to the government suggesting a football agent could supply ventilators to the government. No wonder so much was lost to fraud under Labour.

Starmer says Johnson gave him a lot of bluster, but no answers. That won’t work with the police, he says.

He says taxes are having to go up because growth is so low. He says growth was faster under Labour.

Johnson says he has had deal with the pandemic. The UK now has the fastest growth in the G7, he claims.

Starmer asks again why taxes are going up.

Johnson claims there are more people in work now than when the pandemic began

Starmer accuses Johnson of 'parroting conspiracy theories of violent fascists'

Keir Starmer starts by addressing Tory MPs. He says the party of Winston Churchill should not supporting a leader who repeats the conspirary theories of “violent fascists to try and score cheap political points”. He is referring to the Jimmy Savile smear.

I just want to say to the members opposite: theirs is the party of Winston Churchill. Our parties stood together as we defeated fascism in Europe.

Now their leader stands in the House of Commons parroting the conspiracy theories of violent fascists to try and score cheap political points. He knows exactly what he is doing. It’s time to restore some dignity.

He asks why the PM claims he supports low taxes when taxes have gone up.

Johnson starts by saying Starmer apologised for what the CPS did over Savile when he was DPP.

He claim taxes have gone down for those on universal credit (because of the change to the taper rate).

Updated

Esther McVey (Con) asks if care workers who lost their jobs for not getting vaccinated will be compensated in the light of the U-turn announced on Monday.

Johnson says, subject to a consultation, the government will revoke the compulsory vaccination rule.

He does not address the compensation point.

Boris Johnson starts by saying the Queen will be the first monarch to celebrate a plantinum jubilee on Sunday.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, starts by making a statement about rules relating to calling another MP a liar.

He says parties can bring allegations of lying to the Commons by tabling a motion.

But MPs cannot just call each other a liar. He says Erskine May is clear about this; this is to stop debates descending into claim and counter claim.

But context is a factor, he says. And tone matters too. But in general accusations of lying and deliberately misleading the house will not be tolerated.

He says that has been the longstanding practice.

If the house wants a different approach, it should change the rules. The procedure committee could look at this.

He says there are other ways MPs can express strong views without placing the Speaker in an “invidious position” (because he has to suspend MPs who break this rule).

PMQs

PMQs is starting shortly.

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

PMQs
PMQs Photograph: HoC

Sexist, racist and homophobic messages exchanged by a group of Metropolitan police officers showed a “failure of leadership” and exposed problems with the culture in policing, Priti Patel told the home affairs committee this morning. The home secretary said:

There are problems with the culture, and some aspects of the culture, within the Metropolitan police. I do think there are some very, very serious and significant matters that need, not just following up, but further investigation.

We’re not seeing one-off incidences. I think we should just be quite clear about that. We are not seeing one-off incidences, this is not isolated. We have seen now too, too many times, too many instances where, in policing, we just see the most appalling behaviours, the most appalling conduct. I also think it shows a failure of leadership in some quarters.

So you’ve asked me the question about institutional misogyny within policing. There are cultural issues there. What we saw in the IOPC [Independent Office for Police Conduct] report absolutely points to, I’m not even going to say just misogynistic behaviours, I think it’s cultural and attitudinal.

Updated

Keir Starmer has tweeted this about the levelling up white paper.

These are from Liam Thorp, political editor of the Liverpool Echo, on the levelling up white paper.

And Jennifer Williams, politics and investigations editor at the Manchester Evening News, has also been tweeting about the (very, very long) overnight embargoed press release about the plans. The whole thread is worth reading, but here are three of her posts.

Here are three political journalists on the state of play in the Conservative party this morning.

From the Spectator’s James Forsyth

From my colleague Jessica Elgot

From the FT’s Sebastian Payne

White paper should not lead to 'levelling down London', says Sadiq Khan

Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, has welcomed the publication of a white paper on levelling up. “When London succeeds our whole country benefits – and vice-versa,” he said in a statement. But he also said that “levelling up the UK must not be about levelling down London” and he urged the government to fund Transport for London properly, and to give City Hall more financial freedom. He said:

London has less control over the tax we generate than any other global city. If ministers truly wanted to level up it would give cities such as ours greater control over revenues to deliver economic growth and lasting social change for the benefit of the whole country.

The London Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the government’s plans would disadvantage the capital. In a statement its chief executive, Richard Burge, said:

The white paper’s recommended steps to devolve power to regions and cities, establish new mayors, improve transparency and performance management of local government, are all well-founded and will have significant impact.

However, we are disappointed that the core of the white paper’s proposals amount to levelling down London. By forcing investment in areas like R&D, education spending, and cultural grants away from London, as this white paper recommends, the government is choosing to cut London out of productive investment for the sake of optics and for political gain.

Tory select committee chairs call ahead of PMQs for Johnson to withdraw Savile smear about Starmer

Simon Hoare, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons Northern Ireland affairs committee, has also urged Boris Johnson to withdraw his comment implying Keir Starmer was to blame for the CPS’s failure to prosecute Jimmy Savile.

Along with Tobias Ellwood (see 9.47am) and Sir Bob Neill (see 10.12am), Hoare is the third Tory select committee chair to speak out on this. Other senior Conservatives have criticised Johnson over this too, as has the Commons Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle.

Johnson will be in the Commons within an hour for PMQs. MPs like Hoare would like to see him withdraw his remark then, although, as the Sun reports, yesterday Johnson defended his comment, saying it was “fairly accurate”.

Johnson first made his accusation in the Commons on Monday, when he said Starmer was “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”.

The comment is widely seen as a smear because Starmer was not involved in decisions not to prosecute Savile. Claims that he was involved have been promoted by online conspiracy theorists.

Updated

Nandy describes levelling up white paper as 'recycled money and repackaged announcements'

Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling up secretary, also dismissed the levelling up white paper as a rehash of old ideas in an interview with Good Morning Britain this morning. She said:

We’ve had two and a half years of big promises and big talk from the government, and what we’ve just been handed this morning seems to boil down to a bunch of recycled money and repackaged announcements, which are so old they were actually first announced when Labour was in government by Gordon Brown.

I think for most people around the country this is deeply, deeply disappointing. No new money, no new powers. The government says it will initiate a process of dialogue with northern mayors, but nothing more than that.

Lisa Nandy.
Lisa Nandy. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Jonathan Portes, a former government economist and now a professor at Kings College London, agrees with Darren Jones (see 9.21am) about the targets in the levelling up white paper being a rehash of old ideas - although he compares them to the targets set under the previous Labour government.

Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, was once very close to Dominic Cummings, who worked for him as an adviser at the Department for Education. In his Today interview Gove was asked about his opinion of Cummings, who is now waging a media campaign to drive Boris Johnson out of office. Gove replied:

I enjoyed working with him and have a deep reservoir of affection for him. But I think that the criticisms that he’s been making of the prime minister recently are wrong.

In a Q&A with subscribers on his Substack blog last night Cummings said there were photographs of Johnson at some of the parties in No 10 being investigated by the police. “I’ve spoken to people who say they’ve seen photos of parties in the flat,” he wrote.

He also said the police should be able to uncover evidence of a party being held in Johnson’s flat at Downing Street on 13 November 2020, held to celebrated Cummings’ departure. Cummings said:

I’ve talked to people who were in No 10 on 13/11 who could hear the party in No 10 after I’d left - the press office is below the flat. If cops talk to people there that night, there’ll be witnesses who say ‘we could all hear a party with Abba playing’.

In another answer, Cummings claimed people underestimated the extent to which Johnson lies. He said:

People also underestimate the extent to which [Johnson] lies to literally everybody literally all day - including to Carrie and about Carrie. ‘Lies’ isn’t even a useful word with him - he lives inside a fog of invention and ‘believes’ whatever he has to in the moment. Eg he both knows he’s lying about the parties AND thinks he did nothing wrong. This doesn’t make ‘sense’ unless you’ve watched him carefully or similar sociopaths ...

(I’ve tidied up the spelling in the quotes to make them easier to read. As it was a Q&A, Cummings was abbreviating some words.)

Updated

Gove says levelling up plan addresses concerns highlighted by vote for Brexit

Michael Gove was mostly speaking about his levelling up white paper during his broadcast interview round this morning. Here are the main points he made.

  • Gove said the levelling up strategy was a response to the concerns highlighted by the vote for Brexit. He said:

The Brexit referendum was a wake-up call. As well as a clear commandment to leave the European Union it was also a way of saying to people in SW1, people like me, ‘look, it’s vital that you change the economic model of this country. It’s all very well if people are in London and the south-east in financial services and others do well, we don’t begrudge that. But you’ve got to listen to us’.

  • He said he would like to see the House of Lords move to Glasgow or York temporarily. He said:

We’ve got our friends in the House of Lords who will have to move out of their current building, at the moment, because of the renovation of the Palace of Westminster. I think it’d be a really good thing if the House of Lords were to meet for at least part of the time in Glasgow or in York. I think it would do us all good.

  • He said that the levelling up strategy effectively involved “new” money because it was government money being allocated for the first time. He explained:

There’s a difference between Rishi [Sunak, the chancellor] announcing that he’s going to give me money and me spending it ..

If you are in Wolverhampton or Sheffield, and you’re getting new cash to invest in your city centre, that is new money.

It may have been the case that a sharp-eyed political journalist will note that it was moved from one government account to another in October or November, but the reality is that it’s new money that makes a difference when you get it in your community.

Michael Gove being interviewed near the Houses of Parliament this morning.
Michael Gove being interviewed near the Houses of Parliament this morning. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Last night Sir Bob Neill, the Conservative chair of the Commons justice committee, also criticised Boris Johnson for his anti-Starmer Jimmy Savile slur (even though he mis-typed Starmer’s first name).

Johnson has nothing to apologise for over Savile comments, says Gove

In his Sky News interview (see 9.47am) Tobias Ellwood was particularly critical of Boris Johnson’s decision to blame Keir Starmer for the CPS’s failure to prosecute Jimmy Savile. Starmer was not involved in those decisions, and this has been widely seen as a false smear.

But, as my colleague Jamie Grierson reports, Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, defended what Johnson said in interviews this morning on the grounds that Starmer was head of the CPS at the time.

Updated

Tory MP Tobias Ellwood urges Johnson to call confidence vote himself to 'resolve' leadership crisis

Boris Johnson will be hoping to get the debate switched to levelling up today, but No 10 has been unable to keep the leadership crisis out of the news. Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative chair of the Commons defence committee, has just made the PM’s position more difficult by announcing that he is joining the list of MPs formally calling for a vote of no confidence. Ellwood told Sky News:

This is just horrible for all MPs to continuously have to defend this to the British public. The government’s acknowledged the need for fundamental change, culture, make-up, discipline, the tone of Number 10, but the strategy has been one, it seems, of survival, of rushed policy announcements like the Navy taking over the migrant Channel crossings.

And attacking this week Keir Starmer with Jimmy Savile ... I mean who advised the prime minister to say this? We’re better than this, we must seek to improve our standards and rise above where we are today ....

I don’t think the prime minister realises how worried colleagues are in every corner of the party, backbenchers and ministers alike, that this is all only going one way and will invariably slide towards a very ugly place.

I believe it’s time for the prime minister to take a grip of this; he himself should call a vote of confidence rather than waiting for the inevitable 54 letters to be eventually submitted.

It’s time to resolve this completely so the party can get back to governing, and, yes, I know the next question you will ask, I will be submitting my letter today to the 1922 Committee.

Johnson could invite his supporters to submit letters calling for a no confidence vote as Ellwood proposes. It would be a version of the “put up or shut up” strategy adopted by John Major in 1995, when he was under pressure to resign from Tory MPs. Major triggered a leadership contest which led to him beating John Redwood convincingly. The result did quash further speculation about his leadership for a period, but almost a third of his MPs voted against him, and for the last two years of his premiership he was seen as permanently weakened.

According to the Spectator’s tally, 10 other Tory MPs have already called for Johnson to quit. Ellwood’s quotes imply he wants Johnson to quit too, but calling for a no confidence vote to “resolve” the situation is not quite the same thing, but Ellwood implies that what matters most is just getting a clear decision on Johnson’s future.

Updated

Johnson's levelling up plan to 'break link between geography and destiny' dismissed as rehash of old ideas

Good morning. Boris Johnson won the election in 2019 because he was committed to getting “Brexit done” but, beyond that, a frequent criticism was that he had little idea of what he wanted to achieve for Britain. He has never been interested in the detail of public policy, and he has always been more of a slogan politician. But he did have a slogan, “levelling up”, around which an entire domestic policy agenda could be constructed, and last autumn Michael Gove was appointed levelling up secretary and given the task of fleshing out Johnson’s “vision”. Today he is publishing a 350-page white paper containing his answer.

My colleagues Heather Stewart and Josh Halliday have a good preview, based partly on a preview released by Gove’s department overnight. It’s here.

Never one to under-sell a government initiative, Johnson has described this as the most ambitious plan of its kind every seen. In a statement released last night he said:

From day one, the defining mission of this government has been to level up this country, to break the link between geography and destiny so that no matter where you live you have access to the same opportunities.

It is the most comprehensive, ambitious plan of its kind that this country has ever seen and it will ensure that the government continues to rise to the challenge and deliver for the people of the UK.

But, in truth, every government at least since the 1960s has had some sort of regional strategy, and none of them have been powerful enough to prevent Britain having a worse record for regional inequality than almost any other comparable economy. From what we know so far about the white paper, which does not come with any funding not already announced by the government, it is not obvious that Johnson and Gove’s policies will be noticeably more transformative than their predecessors.

Last night Darren Jones, the Labour chair of the Commons business committee, said that the targets set in the white paper were essentially just a rehash of those in the industrial strategy drawn up by Theresa May that Johnson abandoned.

I will be covering a lot more reaction to the white paper as the day goes on, along with all the other politics on what promises to be a busy day. Here is the agenda.

9.30am: Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, gives evidence to the Commons transport committee on the integrated transport plan.

10am: Priti Patel, the home secretary, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee.

12pm: Boris Johnson faces Keir Starmer at PMQs.

After 12.30pm: Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, gives a statement to MPs on levelling up white paper.

2pm: The ONS publishes the headline results from its weekly infection survey.

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

Updated

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