Former prime minister Boris Johnson pictured yesterday in Texas. Photograph: Jay Janner/AP
Former prime minister Boris Johnson pictured yesterday in Texas. Photograph: Jay Janner/APMinisters not involved in referring Boris Johnson to police over fresh lockdown breach allegations, justice secretary saysGood morning. Partygate is back in the news and, even though Rishi Sunak has tried hard to disassociate himself from Boris Johnson, the latest revelations (summarised here) still create a severe problem for the current prime minister, for two reasons.
First, and most obviously, whenever Partygate is in the news, it reminds voters why they turned against this government. Some 80% of people think the country needs a fresh team of leaders. Sunak would like people to think a fresh team is in charge, but this is just a reminder that Johnson has not gone away, and his supporters are on the government benches.
Second, in a bizarre development, some Tories seem to have decided that the person to blame for all of this is not Johnson himself, but Sunak. Johnson himself helped to get this theory off the ground when he released a statement suggesting that he was a victim. A spokesperson for him said:
For whatever political purpose, it is plain that a last-ditch attempt is being made to lengthen the privileges committee investigation as it was coming to a conclusion and to undermine Mr Johnson.
This has fuelled claims that he is the victim of a stitch-up, which are being reported sympathetically in the Tory papers this morning.
In the past rightwing, Brexiter Tories have argued that Partygate, and stories like the speed awareness course revelation about Suella Braverman, are evidence that some shadowy, remainer, establishment “blob” is waging a vendetta against Johnson. But now, according to some of the journalists who follow the Conservative party most closely, some Tories have decided that Sunak is to blame for allowing these to happen.
These are from the Telegraph’s Christopher Hope last night.
🔥
Senior Tory source tells me: “There is now an open witch hunt against right wingers in the Conservative Party.
“The leadership of the party must shut this down immediately.
“Active conversations are underway among MPs about how to respond to this and nothing is off the table.”
— Christopher Hope📝 (@christopherhope) May 23, 2023NEW💥
One former Tory Cabinet minister texts me tonight: “I didn’t really believe in the ‘blob’ till now.
“But the events of the last few days – the repeated briefing against Suella and now tonight’s action against Boris – are beginning to make me think again. 1/2
— Christopher Hope📝 (@christopherhope) May 23, 2023Former Cabinet minister [continued]: “If the PM’s team is somehow encouraging all this they need to back off fast, and if they are not they need to take some some tough action for once against civil servants who are leaking against ministers.” 2/2
— Christopher Hope📝 (@christopherhope) May 23, 2023And these are from the Times Steven Swinford this morning.
BREAKING
Boris Johnson allies up the ante and warn they will obstruct Rishi Sunak’s government unless he intervened to stop what they see as a ‘witch hunt’
They say it’s the ‘final straw’ for Johnson and warn that MPs and members supportive of former PM will begin organising
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) May 24, 2023Boris ally:
‘Boris has been supporting govt but this act is final straw
‘There are a growing number of MPs who want party leadership to act to stop these witch hunts and a group of MPs will meet today to consider options. Meanwhile members across country are being organised’
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) May 24, 2023Boris Johnson’s allies claim that the decision to refer him to the police was signed off by senior ministers
They said the ministers had direct knowledge of what was happening
This is denied by cabinet office and Govt, which say there was no ministerial involvement at all
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) May 24, 2023Whoever is making these claims has ventured deep into unhinged, conspiracy theory territory (Sunak has no possible motive for wanting to smear Johnson – his political credibility has shrunk over the last six months, and almost no one seriously thinks he is a credible leadership challenger any more). But the very fact that people in the governing party are saying these things is extraordinary.
This morning Alex Chalk, the newish justice secretary, has been doing a media round, and he tried to shoot down at least one of the theories being aired by Johnson’s supporters – that ministers were involved in a decision to pass the new information suggesting Johnson broke lockdown laws at Chequers to the police. This is what Chalk told LBC about what happened:
There is a Covid inquiry taking place. In the course of that documentation has to be scrubbed or reviewed by lawyers to ensure it can be disclosed in the normal way. Material came to light which was passed to the civil service.
The civil service considered that in accordance with their code, and with no ministerial intervention, I want to make that absolutely clear, that was then passed to the police. From the civil service’s point of view, if they sat on it and suppressed it, people would have criticised them. If they passed it on, that will raise questions as well. Ultimately, whether it was the right judgment to do it turns on what’s in those documents.
And I’ve not seen those documents. So it’s very difficult to make a judgement so I’m afraid this has just got to take its course in the normal way.
I will post more from his interviews shortly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.45am: Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, speaks at the WSJ CEO summit in London.
Noon: Rishi Sunak faces Keir Starmer at PMQs.
Noon: Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, takes questions from Holyrood committee convenors.
After 12.30pm: MPs debate Lords amendments to the retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill.
2pm (UK time): Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, gives a speech in Washington.
If you want to contact me, do try the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a PC or a laptop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line, privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate), or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.
NEW💥
One former Tory Cabinet minister texts me tonight: “I didn’t really believe in the ‘blob’ till now.
“But the events of the last few days – the repeated briefing against Suella and now tonight’s action against Boris – are beginning to make me think again. 1/2
— Christopher Hope📝 (@christopherhope) May 23, 2023Former Cabinet minister [continued]: “If the PM’s team is somehow encouraging all this they need to back off fast, and if they are not they need to take some some tough action for once against civil servants who are leaking against ministers.” 2/2
— Christopher Hope📝 (@christopherhope) May 23, 2023And these are from the Times Steven Swinford this morning.
BREAKING
Boris Johnson allies up the ante and warn they will obstruct Rishi Sunak’s government unless he intervened to stop what they see as a ‘witch hunt’
They say it’s the ‘final straw’ for Johnson and warn that MPs and members supportive of former PM will begin organising
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) May 24, 2023Boris ally:
‘Boris has been supporting govt but this act is final straw
‘There are a growing number of MPs who want party leadership to act to stop these witch hunts and a group of MPs will meet today to consider options. Meanwhile members across country are being organised’
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) May 24, 2023Boris Johnson’s allies claim that the decision to refer him to the police was signed off by senior ministers
They said the ministers had direct knowledge of what was happening
This is denied by cabinet office and Govt, which say there was no ministerial involvement at all
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) May 24, 2023Whoever is making these claims has ventured deep into unhinged, conspiracy theory territory (Sunak has no possible motive for wanting to smear Johnson – his political credibility has shrunk over the last six months, and almost no one seriously thinks he is a credible leadership challenger any more). But the very fact that people in the governing party are saying these things is extraordinary.
This morning Alex Chalk, the newish justice secretary, has been doing a media round, and he tried to shoot down at least one of the theories being aired by Johnson’s supporters – that ministers were involved in a decision to pass the new information suggesting Johnson broke lockdown laws at Chequers to the police. This is what Chalk told LBC about what happened:
There is a Covid inquiry taking place. In the course of that documentation has to be scrubbed or reviewed by lawyers to ensure it can be disclosed in the normal way. Material came to light which was passed to the civil service.
The civil service considered that in accordance with their code, and with no ministerial intervention, I want to make that absolutely clear, that was then passed to the police. From the civil service’s point of view, if they sat on it and suppressed it, people would have criticised them. If they passed it on, that will raise questions as well. Ultimately, whether it was the right judgment to do it turns on what’s in those documents.
And I’ve not seen those documents. So it’s very difficult to make a judgement so I’m afraid this has just got to take its course in the normal way.
I will post more from his interviews shortly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.45am: Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, speaks at the WSJ CEO summit in London.
Noon: Rishi Sunak faces Keir Starmer at PMQs.
Noon: Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, takes questions from Holyrood committee convenors.
After 12.30pm: MPs debate Lords amendments to the retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill.
2pm (UK time): Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, gives a speech in Washington.
If you want to contact me, do try the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a PC or a laptop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line, privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate), or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.