Boris Johnson latest news: Ministerial code at risk of ‘ridicule’ over Partygate, warns PM’s ethics chief

The deputy prime minister has said he believes the number of letters which have been submitted to Sir Graham Brady is “pretty far off” the required amount needed to trigger a confidence vote.

Dominic Raab told Times Radio: “First of all, you said that there were 30 MPs who have been public [in their criticism of the prime minister]. There’s of course well over 350-odd Conservative MPs.”

Presenter Aasmah Mir responded: “Well you need to get to 54, so it’s not that far off, is it?”

Mr Raab said: “Well, if you’re at 30, which is what you’ve just said, I think you’re pretty far off, but my point is even then, in terms of the support for the PM, the overwhelming majority have not been public about these kind of criticisms.

“Although in fairness, I want to say I understand the frustrations and the concerns.”

MPs being publicly vocal in their criticism of Boris Johnson does not mean they have submitted a letter.

Dominic Raab has said he does not believe former Cabinet minister Dame Andrea Leadsom has submitted a letter to the 1922 Committee.

Outlining his thoughts on her letter to her constituents shared on social media, which criticised prime minister Boris Johnson following the Sue Gray report, the deputy PM told Times Radio: “I’ve known Andrea a long time, we came in as MPs, I hold her in high esteem.

“I think it’s clear that she’s expressing her frustration, she hasn’t put a letter in as far as I understand, she hasn’t said that.

“The most important thing is the fact that the Prime Minister has addressed all of these points [and] overhauled the No 10 operation.”

Dominic Raab has said he was “not privy to the conversation” following reports that Lord Geidt was about to resign.

“He’s made clear a number of concerns but the prime minister has addressed them in his response and in particular made clear the explanation that he didn’t believe he’d broken the ministerial code,” he told Times Radio.

“In relation to the single fixed penalty notice, it had been an unintentional breach of the law and inadvertent in the sense that he turned up to the gathering without having realised it would be in breach of the relevant regulations.

“Of course, more broadly… No 10 have been working with Lord Geidt over a number of months now to strengthen and reinforce the independent office and I’m glad that those changes have been agreed. It’s an important role.”

A government minister on Tuesday struggled to convert from metric measures into what Downing Street has called “universally understood” imperial units.

Appearing on Sky News, the arts minister was first asked how many ounces are in a pound – to which he incorrectly said 14.
Host Kay Burley continued: “If you are ordering a pound of sausages, approximately how many grams of sausages are you getting? 250, 350, 450, or 550?”

Cambridge University-educated Lord Parkinson hesitantly chose the first answer – again, incorrect.

The moment came amid reports that the UK may switch back to imperial units, reports Zaina Alibhai:

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner have both received police questionnaires about the so-called “Beergate” event at a party office in Durham last year.

The party confirmed that both senior figures had been asked by Durham Constabulary to explain their attendance at the 30 April gathering, at which beer and curry was consumed.

The Durham force announced earlier this month that it would investigate potential breaches of Covid laws by Starmer and his staff, despite initially deciding against action when images of the meeting first appeared.

My colleague Adam Forrest reporting the detail:

Brexit could lead to a significant shortage of potatoes for Irish consumers by 2023, experts have warned.

Prior to the UK’s departure from the EU, the majority of potato seed used by Irish farmers for varieties such as Kerr Pinks, Golden Wonders and British Queens had been imported from Scotland.

But under post-Brexit rules and following the UK’s departure from the single market, exports of seed potatoes – those not consumed but used to plant other potatoes – from Scotland to Ireland are no longer allowed.

The road haulage sector should be given a two-year deadline to improve conditions for lorry drivers and recruit more workers or face a new tax, demanded a cross-party group of MPs.

They have also called for the logistics industry to “get its house in order”, including better overnight facilities for drivers and new training routes to recruit more hauliers, as the sector faces labour shortages.

But the Commons Transport Select Committee said that if the changes are not made within two years, then the most profitable parts of the sector should face a new tax.

Huw Merriman, the Conservative chairman of the committee, said: “We urge government to be brave and force the sector to get its house in order. A Supply Chain Levy has worked previously to incentivise reform.

The committee’s report, Road Freight Supply Chain is calling for minimum standards of facilities including security, clean showers and toilets, healthy food options, and services for female drivers.

The report highlights testimony from drivers who “criticised poor washing facilities” at overnight stay areas for heavy goods vehicle drivers, including dirty and “vandalised” showers.

A team of researchers set out to examine the national policies for handling complaints likened the NHS complaints procedure to “asking hospitals to grade their own homework”

Complaints are a “critical source” to help drive improvements, with most patients and families contributing to the system to prevent harm from occurring to others, yet they “often” feel dissatisfied with the system, said a team of academics, led by experts from Imperial College London.

Tasked with examining national policies guiding NHS hospitals, the researchers said the “complex, bureaucratic nature” of the complaints system is often cited as an “obstacle to effective complaint handling”.

Their paper, published in the Journal Of The Royal Society Of Medicine, identified a number of national policies which “undermine a patient-centric and improvement-focused approach to complaints”

Boris Johnson is under pressure to extend the free school meals programme before the summer holidays amid warnings more than a million children face going hungry because of the cost of living crisis.

Former education secretaries from both Labour and the Conservatives, as well as the mayor of London, unions and charities have urged the government to act as it did during the Covid pandemic.

As inflation surges the cost of some foods has already soared, while the governor of the Bank of England has warned of “apocalyptic” prices ahead.

Justine Greening, the Conservative former education secretary, said: “The government has a chance to avoid the mess on free school meals that happened last year and get ahead of the next phase of the cost of living crisis for families.”

Read the details in this exclusive by Kate Devlin and Zoe Tidman:

Jacob Rees-Mogg received more than 2,000 replies after he asked for suggestions on how to make Brexit even better than we know it is.

But Sean O’ Grady, the associate editor at The Independent writes the ideas considered worthy of further exploration by the minister aren’t that politically attractive and not necessarily the Brexit people voted for.

Find out why he feels this way in Politics Explained: