Boris Johnson says no-confidence vote win ‘decisive’ despite mass Tory rebellion
The number of rebel MPs voting to oust the prime minister on Monday night shows the government must accept a policy change is needed, Lord David Frost has said.
The former Cabinet minister told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme: “The vote last night, when nearly 150 of your own MPs vote against you, that is a sign of a big problem and I think the big problem is that we are delivering an economic policy that is not going to deliver prosperity and wealth.
“If we can change that, then he can get on to a different path and change the premiership and the government.”
It comes after former minister Philip Dunne, MP for Ludlow, told BBC Radio Shropshire that he believed the effort to remove the PM from office was “not over.”
“It’s not going to happen for now, but we’ll have to see what happens in the coming weeks and months,” he said.
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UK government in court over ‘unlawful’ and ‘irresponsible’ net zero climate strategy
Climate campaigners are to begin a high court battle with the government over the UK’s net zero strategy, which they say is both “irresponsible” and “unlawful”.
Three environmental and legal groups claim the government’s plans are in breach of climate law as they omit vital details and “completely fail” to show how targets would be met.
Our climate correspondent Saphora Smith has more:
Emily Atkinson7 June 2022 16:40
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Johnson’s Partygate remarks ‘slightly foolish’, says MP
Boris Johnson’s remark that he would repeat the behavior documented in Sue Gray’s report was “slightly foolish”, a rebel Tory MP has said.
When asked about Mr Johnson’s Partygate comments to MPs ahead of last night’s vote, in which he inisted he would “do it again”, Giles Watling MP said: “I think that’s slightly foolish.
“I mean, we all made sacrifices during lockdown. I, for instance, I mean, it’s not a big issue nationally, but sadly I lost one of my sisters during that and I wasn’t able to see her as much as I’d liked because of lockdown.
“Now, I understand the feelings of people out there who went through quite some privation. And it looks like – it’s all to do with perception – that there were parties being held in No 10.”
Emily Atkinson7 June 2022 16:30
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Rebel MP to support PM after voting ‘with conscience’ against him
A rebel Tory MP has said “voted with his conscience” to oust the prime minister in last night’s vote but would continue to support him in government in the wake of Boris Johnson’s marginal victory.
Conservative MP Giles Watling, who did not hand in a letter to the 1922 Committee, said that his decision to vote against Mr Johnson was fueled by his confidence being “seriously knocked by this Partygate issue.”
The MP for Clacton told the PA news agency: “Well, it was not a vote I wanted. I didn’t write a letter to the chairman of the 1922 Committee because I felt that we shouldn’t at this time have a leadership campaign, given that we’re dealing with war in Ukraine, cost of living, fuel crisis, all of that, and we needed some sort of stability.
“However, the vote was forced upon us by those who wrote in and I have to vote with my conscience. My confidence in the prime minister has been seriously knocked by this partygate issue, which will come up again and again, because it’s the opposition’s duty to bring it up and batter him with it, and it keeps coming up and it will continue to keep going up
“However, the vote went the way it went. We lost on my side of the fence. And now the prime minister is there for another year and I will support him in government.”
He continued: “I went to see him in the 1922 Committee meeting that happened at four o’clock yesterday and listened to him speak. He came up with a lot of the stuff I expected him to come up with, with the policies, what he was going to do in the future and all of that.
“As Boris is Boris, he was very robust and wanted to get on with it and he did it with good humour. However, when push comes to shove, and you go into the voting booth, and you look at that thing with hand on heart, you have to vote honestly with your conscience.”
Emily Atkinson7 June 2022 16:20
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Tory Revolt ‘not over’, says MP
Former minister Philip Dunne, MP for Ludlow, told BBC Radio Shropshire he had voted for “a new vision for the party and a new degree of competence at the heart of government”.
“It’s not going to happen for now, but we’ll have to see what happens in the coming weeks and months. This isn’t over.”
Emily Atkinson7 June 2022 16:10
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Frost tells PM to ax policies to save job
The number of rebel MPs voting to oust the prime minister on Monday night shows the government must accept a policy change is needed, Lord David Frost has said.
When asked whether Mr Johnson won the confidence motion by enough votes to maintain a grip on his premiership, the former Cabinet minister told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme: “Yes.
“I think both sides need to accept the vote – the prime minister’s opponents have got to accept the fact that he won, and his supporters and the prime minister himself have got to accept that a change of policy is needed.
“The vote last night, when nearly 150 of your own MPs vote against you, that is a sign of a big problem and I think the big problem is that we are delivering an economic policy that is not going to deliver prosperity and wealth.
“If we can change that, then he can get on to a different path and change the premiership and the government.”
Emily Atkinson7 June 2022 16:00
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Ukraine’s Zelensky ‘very happy’ PM survived confidence vote
The president of war torn Ukraine has said he was “very happ”’ that prime minister Boris Johnson survived the vote of confidence on Monday night.
Speaking during an online event hosted by FT Live, Volodymyr Zelensky said: “I’m glad we haven’t lost a very important ally, this is great news.”
Emily Atkinson7 June 2022 15:45
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Opinion: ‘The Commons is in the gutter thanks to Boris Johnson – it’s time to clean house’
After last night’s no-confidence vote, Conservative MPs now face another choice, writes deputy Labor leader Angela Rayner. Will they today back a set of independent recommendations to strengthen standards in public life or instead turn their backs on them to save the skin of a doomed prime minister?
Labor will be forcing a vote in the Commons today to clean up politics. Our motion follows Boris Johnson’s much-criticised rewriting of the ministerial code as he faces investigation over whether or not he deliberately misled parliament.
In the very week Sue Gray’s report was published, the prime minister airbrushed the words integrity, honesty, accountability and transparency from his own foreword to the code. His attempt to rig the rules, however, went further. The consensus among experts and watchdogs alike is that the net effect of the prime minister’s changes was to weaken standards and concentrate power in his own hands.
Emily Atkinson7 June 2022 15:30
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PM won by a smaller margin than you think
If just 32 Conservative MPs had changed their minds and voted against Johnson, instead of for, he would have been ousted, writes Kit Yates.
Read Kit’s full piece here:
Matt Mathers7 June 2022 15:15
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Lord David Frost opposes tax rise to fund social care
Lord David Frost has said he opposes the tax rises planned by the government to help pay for social care, and believes most of the money saved will not go towards improving the system anyway.
When asked whether the government should reverse the national insurance rise, he told BBC Radio 4’s World At One: “Yes – I think that all tax rises that we brought in and the corporation tax ones that are due to come in soon ought to be reversed .
“It is not Conservative to be raising taxes, and it is undermining growth and prosperity.
Frost, a former trade negotiator and cabinet minister, quite the government last year having failed to find a solution to Brexit’s Northern Ireland protocol
(PA)
“We need to improve productivity and investment, and not weaken it.”
Lord Frost added: “I don’t think it’s a particularly good solution to the social care problem, and I don’t think much of the money will end up going to it anyway.
“I think the choice at the moment is, do we prioritize the deficit or the debt or do we prioritize growth and getting the economy going again, and I think for the time being we should be prioritizing growth.”
Matt Mathers7 June 2022 15:00
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Labor dismisses Javid’s NHS ‘Blockbuster’ comments
Labor has dismissed comments by health secretary Sajid Javid suggesting that the NHS is a “Blockbuster healthcare system in the age of Netflix”.
Asked about Javid’s comments on Tuesday, Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, told an audience at the Institute for Government: “So what?”
Mr Streeting said: “I think it’s slightly absurd that 12 years into a government we have government ministers who talk in the biggest generalities without plans to deliver anything.”
He added: “We have a government that is not governing and doesn’t have answers. It just has generalities.”
Matt Mathers7 June 2022 14:45