Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Tuesday

Steerpike

Watch: Tory vice chair resigns live on air

You know it's bad when the Old Etonians are turning on you. After the Cabinet departures of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid and, er, whatever the hell Andrew Murrison was trying to do with his blurry letter of resignation, Bim Afolami has become the fourth Tory MP to quit the official payroll tonight. Afolami opted to do it on TalkTV, the newly-launched broadcasting channel which has struggled to retain its viewers. As one wag quipped to Mr S: 'He actually resigned three hours ago but no one noticed.' Pressed by host Tom Newton Dunn, Afolami said that while he had not sent a formal note of his intent to the Prime Minister, he felt he could no longer serve under Johnson as 'you have to resign'. He added 'it has become clear' that 'the time has come for him to stand down.

Isabel Hardman

Sunak and Javid resign. Now what?

11 min listen

Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid have resigned from government. In letters to the Prime Minister this evening, Sunak said the government 'cannot continue like this', while Javid told the PM that 'the situation will not change under your leadership.' Will more ministers now resign? And is this the end of Boris Johnson's premiership?Isabel Hardman speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.

Isabel Hardman

Boris remains ‘bullish’ as his cabinet implodes

Shortly after he received the resignations of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid, Boris Johnson addressed around 70 Tory MPs who are still sort-of loyal to him. I’m told by one loyal colleague – who sounded rather bewildered by the whole thing – that Johnson was ‘remarkably bullish’, claiming he is going to appoint a new Chancellor and Health Secretary tonight, and that now there might be a chance of delivering some tax cuts.  ‘No one has survived this kind of thing before,’ says one Tory MP That last comment was him lashing out at Sunak for repeatedly blocking what Tory MPs have been calling for as a means of getting the economy going.

Fraser Nelson

A double cabinet resignation is a blow Boris is unlikely to survive

So it has started. The joint resignation of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid marks a cabinet coup against Boris Johnson, seeking to remove him without the need for a parliamentary revolt. 'This will be a cabinet thing, not a party thing,' one minister told me earlier: 'Someone will have to resign, then others will be faced with a choice.' That someone turned out to be Javid, who quit as Health Secretary this evening with Sunak following 20 minutes later. Johnson is in survival mode, telling Tory MPs that ‘cutting taxes now somewhat easier" now that debt-averse Sunak has gone. Within hours, Nadhim Zahawi - who has a more elastic view about borrowing limits - was named the new Chancellor.

James Forsyth

Who will join Sunak and Javid in quitting the cabinet?

The Chancellor and the Health Secretary have both resigned and at least one more cabinet minister is considering their position. This is the cabinet moving against Boris Johnson. It reflects the growing sense in cabinet that, as Sunak puts it, ‘we cannot continue like this’. This puts Boris Johnson in the gravest danger of his premiership. It is hard to see how he can continue when he is losing the confidence of so many of his cabinet who feel that the current situation is untenable for the country, the government and the Conservative party. It is remarkable for two such senior cabinet ministers to resign at the same time. It reflects their deep frustration with how the government is being run, and the consequences of that.

Katy Balls

How can Boris Johnson survive this?

This evening Boris Johnson has attempted to get a grip on the crisis engulfing his government. Only after two senior members of his cabinet resigned, it appears to be a case of too little, too late. In an interview with the BBC, the Prime Minister said that he had made a mistake in appointing Chris Pincher as deputy chief whip – following allegations over his inappropriate behaviour. It's a clear change in tack from Downing Street's initial response to the allegations whereby senior members of the No. 10 team implied that Pincher, too, was a victim. Johnson also did not deny that he once joked 'Pincher by name, Pincher by nature'. Ultimately the Prime Minister tried to use the interview to express his regret in order to draw a line under the incident.

Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak: why I’ve quit as Chancellor

Below is Rishi Sunak’s letter to Boris Johnson, explaining why he is quitting as Chancellor. Dear Prime Minister, It is with deep sadness that I am writing to you to resign from the Government. It has been an enormous privilege to serve our country as Chancellor of the Exchequer and I will always be proud of how during the pandemic we protected people's jobs and businesses through actions such as furlough. To leave ministerial office is a serious matter at any time. For me to step down as Chancellor while the world is suffering the economic consequences of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and other serious challenges is a decision that I have not taken lightly. However, the public rightly expects government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously.

Sajid Javid

Sajid Javid: why I quit as Health Secretary

Below is Sajid Javid’s letter to Boris Johnson, explaining why he is quitting as Health Secretary. Prime Minister, it was a privilege to have been asked to come back into government to serve as Secretary of State for Health & Social Care at such a critical time for our country. The tone you set as a leader, and the values you represent, reflect on your colleagues, your party and ultimately the country I have given every ounce of energy to this task, and am incredibly proud of what we have achieved. The UK has led the world in learning to live with Covid. Thanks to the amazing rollout of our booster programme, investment in treatments, and innovations in the way we deliver healthcare, the British people have enjoyed months more freedom than other comparable countries.

Steerpike

Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid quit the cabinet

Rishi Sunak has joined Sajid Javid in resigning from the cabinet in a major blow to Boris Johnson's hopes of clinging on to power. The Chancellor said in his letter to the PM: 'I recognise this may be my last ministerial job, but I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning.' He added that 'in preparation for our proposed joint speech on the economy next week, it has become clear to me that our approaches are fundamentally too different.' His decision to quit came moments after the health secretary also announced he was resigning from the government. Javid tweeted out that he had tendered his resignation, sharing his letter on Twitter.

Isabel Hardman

Boris’s desperate tearoom tour

This afternoon, a text message went out to certain Tory MPs telling them that the Prime Minister was going to be in the tearoom from 4 p.m. with the plea ‘please come to support’. This tells us so many things about the mood in the Conservative party at the moment.  The first is that Johnson feels under sufficiently imminent threat to bother going over to the Commons tearoom this afternoon. And he’s right to do so: everyone I have spoken to today, including those who have been Boris loyalists all the way and have been working extremely hard to try to help him recover, say the mood of the party – and their own – has changed significantly in the past 24 hours.

Steerpike

Watch: Cabinet minister laughs at Boris’s excuse

Boris Johnson has more lives than a cat but is the reign of the 'world king' finally coming to an end? Speak to Tories in Westminster and it's difficult to find any who have a good word to say about the Prime Minister. The Cabinet is unhappy, the backbenches are uneasy. For three days straight, the Downing Street 'line' has changed within hours of ministers doing media rounds and there's no sign of difficulties going away anytime soon. It was left to Paymaster General Michael Ellis to go in to bat for the PM in the Commons today. Ellis has acquired the reputation of being the Prometheus of modern British politics: sentenced to go into parliament every day to have his liver pecked out by MPs.

Isabel Hardman

Boris ‘forgot’ about Pincher allegations, claims minister

The government's line yesterday on what Boris Johnson knew about Chris Pincher's behaviour kept changing. Today, it's quite hard to find anything that could reasonably be described as a 'line'. More of a messy scribble. After Simon McDonald's explosive intervention this morning, the 'line' had to change from Boris Johnson not being informed of any specific complaints, because now there was a report of an official complaint which McDonald alleges the Prime Minister was indeed briefed on. So what did it change to? As ever in these circumstances, Michael Ellis, the minister for defending the indefensible and holding lines even as they change, made his way into the chamber to answer an urgent question on the matter.

Kate Andrews

There’s little to celebrate on the NHS’s birthday

Birthday celebrations for the NHS this year are relatively quiet. In recent years the health service has received multi-billion pound top-ups from the taxpayer, not to mention high praise from politicians across the political spectrum. This may be in part because the government has already seen to the big NHS pledges, including the 2.5 per cent National Insurance hike, split between workers and employers, which is bringing in roughly £6 billion to pay for Covid catch-up. But no doubt this year’s notable silence is also linked to just how bad that catch-up is going.

Max Jeffery

Have Tory MPs reached breaking point?

10 min listen

Boris Johnson was briefed 'in person' on a formal Whitehall complaint into Chris Pincher, a former Foreign Office official said today, despite No. 10 saying yesterday that the Prime Minister was unaware of specific allegations against the MP. With the government having to explain itself once again, how much more will Tory MPs take?Max Jeffery speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.Subscribe to Isabel Hardman's Evening Blend newsletter at spectator.

Petronella Wyatt

What Boris does to women

On Sunday, Diane Abbott made the startling claim on a BBC radio programme that Boris Johnson liked 'assaulting women'. It would be absurd, of course, to argue that Mr Johnson is a faultless animal of unimpeachable probity. We have seldom in the past century had a Prime Minister whose faults have been so numerous and glaring. But if other politicians were alive today, how would the whole camorra of professional liberals and puritans treat them? Take George Washington. He was the richest man in the United States, a land grabber and an exploiter. He knew more profanity than scripture, despised the common people and took no interest in morality. Lord Melbourne said 'damn politics' and enjoyed spanking women. Pitt the Younger had questionable sexual tastes and was a drunken spendthrift.

Steerpike

Watch: Johnson’s awkward cabinet meeting

So, what did the Prime Minister know about Chris Pincher's behaviour and when did he know it? That's the question the whole of Westminster is asking today after the intervention of Lord McDonald, the former head of the Foreign Office. Given Dominic Raab's embarrassment this morning, it's hardly surprising that special advisers are now briefing that they won't send their ministers out on hostile media rounds to bat for an unsustainable government 'line'. It was with exquisite timing therefore that, just hours after McDonald's intervention, Boris Johnson's top team gathered around for its weekly cabinet meeting.

James Forsyth

Have Tory MPs reached breaking point?

Another day, another scandal. The Simon McDonald letter, which John Connolly writes about here, has escalated the Pincher story. It challenges the entire No. 10 account of what Boris Johnson knew about previous Pincher allegations and when. The reaction of Tory MPs to this latest development is a combination of exhaustion and despair. One influential Tory MP who voted for Johnson in the no confidence ballot said to me this morning: ‘Please God, make it stop’. There is deep frustration that once again sleaze is dominating the news and that, again, No. 10 is having to keep correcting and changing its story. This MP laments that Boris Johnson’s ‘back catalogue means he can’t have a reset’.

Gareth Roberts

Angela Rayner’s working-class myth

In a speech last night to the Institute of Public Policy Research, Angela Rayner revealed that, ‘the reporters for Hansard have a bit of a nightmare sometimes transcribing the way I speak in parliament into their house style. But I don’t compromise on it, because it’s who I am.’ It is, admittedly, refreshing to hear a Labour voice in parliament not adopt the condescending, explaining-very-slowly-to-the-back-of-the-class tone exemplified by Emily Thornberry, or the sorrowful, never-been-so-appalled-by-sheer-Tory-heartlessness-in-all-my-life bleat most notably employed by Ed Miliband. And Rayner has certainly conducted herself with considerably more aplomb at the dispatch box than her party leader, who has the voice of an expiring corncrake.

Steerpike

Starmer’s Brexit bid fails (again)

Is that it? After two years of studiously ignoring the issue, Sir Keir Starmer finally delivered his big Brexit speech yesterday to, er, a somewhat underwhelmed audience. Facing accusations of being part of the Remainiac elite, Starmer's team naturally decided the best course of action was to brief his speech to the Financial Times (backed Remain), deliver it under the auspices of the Centre for European Reform (staunchly pro-EU) and hold it at the Irish Embassy (of course). The speech itself largely centred on five fairly uncontroversial ideas like a new veterinary deal and making it easier for UK musicians to tour around Europe.

John Connolly

Is Boris Johnson’s Chris Pincher story falling apart?

What did Boris Johnson know about Chris Pincher before appointing him as deputy chief whip? That question has been haunting No. 10 ever since it emerged that Pincher allegedly groped two men at the Carlton Club last week – with previous allegations about Pincher’s behaviour coming to light in recent days. So far the government line has been shaky to say the least. On Friday a government spokesperson said that the Prime Minister had been unaware of any specific allegations against Pincher before appointing him. That position shifted early this week, with the government then saying that Boris Johnson had been aware of media reports about Pincher, but they were ‘allegations that were either resolved or did not progress to a formal complaint.