Steerpike

Ding, ding, ding! In the red corner, it's the menacing goons of Moscow's Red Square. And in the blue corner, it's Boris Johnson, the garrulous, gung-ho, onetime Tory premier. Johnson has done an interview for a BBC documentary being released tonight, in which he reveals that Putin threatened to kill him over the UK’s support for Ukraine. The pair spoke ahead of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, during Moscow's build up of troops on Kyiv's eastern front. During a 'jolly' chat between the two of them 'on the blower', the Russian leader warned Boris in his half-menacing, half-joking way that he could easily take him out.

Rishi Sunak intended the firing of Nadhim Zahawi to draw a line under the affair. Yet there are already questions being asked in Tory circles about whether the report rushed out this morning exaggerated the case against him. In his resignation letter, Mr S notices that Zahawi makes no confession of guilt. It suggests that Zahawi could yet comment on its findings. So, why the silence over its contents? Perhaps Zahawi thinks he did notify the right people in the right way at the right time – and cannot see how this constitutes what the PM calls a 'very serious breach' of the ministerial code. Perhaps things are precisely as the report by Laurie Magnus, the PM's independent adviser on ministers’ interests, says. Why the silence over its contents?

Another week and another Sunday Times story about Boris Johnson's finances. The paper has got hold of a leaked Cabinet Office memo which it says shows that Johnson was told to stop asking Richard Sharp for 'advice' about his 'personal financial matters' days before the latter was announced as the next BBC chairman. The memo, written by Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, was drawn up after Johnson and Sharp sought advice in early December on accepting a loan of up to £800,000 guaranteed by the PM's distant cousin Sam Blyth. According to the Sunday Times, the advice issued by Case stated that: given the imminent announcement of Richard Sharp as the new BBC chair, it is important that you no longer ask his advice about your personal financial matters.

The Nadhim Zahawi saga shows no sign of concluding. Every time the story looks like burning out, a new disclosure gives it legs. Tonight, it's the revelation by the Financial Times that a second senior Tory MP was being investigated by HMRC last summer around the same time as Zahawi. It's a curious tale, based on a freedom of information request by tax expert Dan Neidle – a man who ought to earn some sort of gong for services to the Labour party. In response to Neidle's request for information, HMRC admitted on 15 June that an unnamed minister was under investigation. Eight days later though, as the FT was about to publish a story on 23 June, HMRC claimed that no ministers were in fact being scrutinised, prompting the paper to pull the planned article.

A most undiplomatic row has engulfed one of Westminster’s most prestigious groups. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association boasts 180 branches around the world, with the late Queen Elizabeth among its former patrons, with former Cabinet minister Maria Miller now serving as its chair. But among those upcoming speakers due to address it in London include two controversial Hong Kong legislators in March. Whether one can call the current assembly of apparatchiks a ‘parliament’ is of course debatable. But one of the pair in question is Dominic Lee Tsz-king, who is especially objectionable, even by the standards of Hong King’s debased assembly.

If Sadiq Khan has his way, drivers of old cars will soon be stumping up £12.50 every time they get behind the wheel in London. Much to the outrage of Londoners, the Labour mayor has grand plans to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone across the whole city in several months’ time. But for plumbers and window cleaners worried about how the daily charge will affect them, David Lammy has some advice: they should hop on the train. https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1618190134612049920 Lammy was challenged by Nick Ferrari on LBC yesterday as to how tradesmen and women could travel around London once the Ulez prices them out of using their vans. Lammy answered: ‘One thing we have got is a fantastic transport system across London.

All rise! Just over three years after quitting parliament, Jared O’Mara now finds himself in court rather than the Commons. The former Labour MP for Sheffield Hallam stands accused of making fake expense claims during his time in Westminster to fund a ‘significant cocaine habit’. On the first day of his trial at Leeds crown court, the jury heard how O’Mara is accused of trying to swindle £30,000 of taxpayers’ money to fund his ‘heavy addiction’.  According to the prosecution, O’Mara tried to pass off the claims as payments related to a fictional charity called ‘Confident About Autism South Yorkshire’.

As the Conservatives face another round of allegations of Tory sleaze, Labour is doing what it does best: having an internal row about trans rights. After Labour MP Rosie Duffield found herself heckled by her own side for speaking out on her concerns over the SNP"s Scottish gender recognition bill, she penned an article likening being in the Labour Party to an abusive relationship and criticising Keir Starmer over his 'silence' following the incident. Those claims do not appear to have landed well in the Leader's Office. Rather than entering a period of reflection, the Mail on Sunday reports that a senior aide to Keir Starmer said 'it would be nice' if Duffield 'spent a bit more time' in her constituency of Canterbury rather than 'hanging out with JK Rowling'.