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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Rachel Hall (now) and Andrew Sparrow (earlier)

Tory MP claims No 10 ‘blackmailing’ rebels as Wakeford says funding was threatened before he defected – as it happened

Boris Johnson William Wragg No 10 Christian Wakeford Tory Britain Nicola Sturgeon United Kingdom Rachel Reeves Tony Blair

Summary of the day

It’s been another busy day in Westminster. Here’s a summary of what happened:

  • Sajid Javid said the partygate scandal had been “damaging to our democracy”, and defended the lifting of mask rules in schools since it is “harder to teach children” if they wear them.
  • The Conservative MP William Wragg accused the government of trying to “blackmail” MPs pushing for a confidence vote in Boris Johnson. No 10 swiftly responded and, without outright refuting Wragg’s claims, said it was “not aware of any evidence” to support them. The stance was repeated soon after by Johnson.
  • The Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, accused Johnson of acting “like a mafia boss”, and Labour called for an investigation into the blackmail claims, which was echoed by the Scottish Tories. The former Brexit minister Steve Baker suggested that “it does look like checkmate” for Johnson, while the Treasury chief secretary, Simon Clark, said it would be “absolutely wrong” for government whips to threaten to withdraw constituency funding.
  • Wragg’s claims were followed by allegations from Christian Wakeford, the Bury South MP who defected to Labour, that he had been threatened with a loss of funding for his constituency if he rebelled as a Tory MP.
  • Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, called for an investigation into bullying and blackmail, which she called “gravely serious allegations”. She also cast her doubts on the decision to lift Plan B restrictions. “There are still significant uncertainties ahead,” she said.
  • The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, accused the Conservatives of no longer being the party of business given that they had presided over a “lost decade” of low growth.

Both I and the blog are signing off for the evening. For coronavirus news from around the world, you can follow our global Covid blog:

Updated

The Guardian’s home affairs editor Rajeev Syal has done some research and found that there is a precedent for parliamentary authorities investigating threats to withhold funds from MPs if they vote certain ways.

He writes:

The Labour peer and QC Dale Campbell-Savours points out that the parliamentary authorities have previously investigated threats to withhold funds from an MP.

In 1981, when he was the MP for Workington, Campbell-Savours complained to the privileges committee – and had his complaint upheld – after being threatened by Iain MacGregor, the then head of British Steel.

He claimed that MacGregor had verbally threatened to withhold money from a steelworks in his Workington constituency.

In this excerpt from Hansard in January 1981, Campbell-Savours recalled the meeting with MacGregor, who had taken issue with his criticisms in parliament of British Steel.

“After further conversation about my general approach in the House concerning the steel industry, he said that if this was the way that I intended to conduct my case in parliament, and if I persisted in making such statements and attacks on the corporation, further investment in Workington would be ended. He made reference, in passing, to a particular investment project,” he said.

Campbell-Savours says the privileges committee ruled in his favour. MacGregor went on to become the head of the National Coal Board during the miners’ strike. He died in 1988.

Updated

The Treasury chief secretary, Simon Clarke, has said it would “absolutely be wrong” for government whips to threaten to withdraw constituency funding if MPs did not support the prime minister.

Clarke told Times Radio he had not “seen any evidence of” blackmail or intimidation by the whips, but said:

Anyone with any substantive evidence to substantiate that kind of allegation should go to the relevant authorities.

“It would absolutely be wrong and, look, the reality is that my experience as a minister is, of course, that that is not a tactic that I’ve ever seen or heard of being deployed and the wider reality, of course, is that we also have a civil service, we have our officials who are, of course, precisely in place to make sure that in all funding allocations there is due process and proper rigour.


On the wider whipping system he said there was “obviously a legitimate difference between trying to persuade people to support key policy and doing something which obviously would involve misuse of public funds in that way”.

On specific allegations made by the former Tory MP Christian Wakeford, he said:

It’s either something he can substantiate, or it isn’t. I think that’s the point. And I simply need to see any evidence that that has in fact occurred. I think we have to accept objectively here that Mr Wakeford is not entirely a neutral source on these matters, having made the decision that he has.

Updated

No new analysis here, but the Green MP Caroline Lucas deserves a mention for this pithy tweet:

Updated

Polling from Survation in December – just as the partygate scandal was emerging - suggested that voters in the north west did not rate highly the government’s adherence to the core ethical standards that underpin public life the lowest out of any England region.

Survation’s polling also suggests that this had already translated into gains for Labour: in December, Labour was leading the Conservatives in the north west by 22 points, a six point increase for Labour relative to the 2019 general election and an 8-point decrease for the Conservatives.

The Survation chief executive, Damian Lyons Lowe, said his data showed that in his defection to Labour, Christian Wakeford “doesn’t need to win the hearts and minds of his former voters”, since Labour are currently “way ahead” in Bury South.

Updated

Study finding bridge or tunnel to Northern Ireland is not feasible cost £900,000 of taxpayer money, DfT says

Nearly £900,000 of taxpayers’ money was spent on a study commissioned by Boris Johnson which found it would be too expensive to build a bridge or tunnel between Scotland and Northern Ireland.

PA Media reports:

The Department for Transport (DfT) said the research into the feasibility of a fixed link cost £896,681.

Network Rail chair Sir Peter Hendy led the investigation, which found that a bridge would cost £335 billion, while a tunnel would require a budget of around £209 billion.

His report concluded that the project “would be impossible to justify” as “the benefits could not possibly outweigh the costs”. In addition to the huge expense, the inquiry also noted that the necessary work would be incredibly challenging.

Johnson previously talked up the creation of a fixed link but accepted the conclusion of the report.

Updated

Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader and shadow first secretary of state, has tweeted the response from the paymaster general to her letter sent to all ministers on the subject of the Downing Street parties.

She said the letter, which emphasises the need to wait for the outcome of the ongoing investigation by civil servant Sue Gray, is “an insult to the public’s intelligence”.

She wrote:

A whole cabinet of people that need a civil servant to tell them if they attended parties or not! They are all a total joke, propping up Boris Johnson when he is quite so unfit to lead.

Updated

Watch the MP for Bury South, Christian Wakeford, tell the BBC that he was threatened with the loss of funding for a school in his constituency if he did not vote with the government on a particular issue.

Updated

A culture of survival in Number 10 is undermining the governance of the country, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Pat McFadden said.

Mr McFadden told LBC:

“What do you want your government doing? Do you want your government and your Prime Minister being solely concerned with their own survival? Or do you want them addressing your issues? The issues of your listeners.

“If you look at what happened last weekend, we were told there’s this ‘operation red meat’ where we’ll launch an attack on the BBC licence fee, or put the military into the middle of the Channel. These things are being done to take attention away from the troubles.

“They’re part of a negotiation between the Prime Minister and the right-wing faction in his party. They’re not actually about the governance of the country.

“The governance of the country is now being undermined by the culture in Number 10.”

Culture secretary Nadine Dorries has dismissed as “nonsense” claims by William Wragg of a No 10 campaign of intimidation against Tory MPs seeking to oust Boris Johnson.

Dorries told BBC News:

That is nonsense because that is not how government works. The whips have no say over what happens in individual constituencies. It is just attention-seeking behaviour from William Wragg who has been a constant critic of the prime minister, who delivered us the greatest majority since Margaret Thatcher.

Updated

More from Michael Fabricant, a backbencher known for his loyalty to Boris Johnson. He has been active in the prime minister’s defence on Twitter today, with some strident criticisms of William Wragg. In his latest, he argues Wragg has “abused his position to continue with his long-standing vendetta against Boris and Brexit”.

He’s referring to a thread we posted about here.

His comments echo an earlier tweet, in which he accused Wragg of acting “improper[ly]”.

Updated

Northern Ireland to ease hospitality restrictions

Limits on socialising and hospitality in Northern Ireland will be lifted tomorrow, the BBC reports.

A tweet from political correspondent Jayne McCormack said ministers in Stormont had agreed to lift the rule of six and a requirement to provide table service. From 26 January, nightclubs can reopen, although vaccine passports will still be required. All other hospitality businesses will be exempt.

Conservatives no longer the party of business, says shadow chancellor

The Conservatives as the party of business is a “distant memory”, the shadow chancellor has claimed, arguing that Labour’s plan for the country is “proudly pro-worker and proudly pro-business”.

Speaking at an event in Bury, Rachel Reeves, the MP for Leeds West said:

Under Keir Starmer’s leadership, Labour has changed, but so too have the Conservatives. The Conservatives once called themselves the party of business. That’s a distant memory.

When the prime minister said, ‘F business’, I thought it was a throwaway remark. Little did I know it would be the central organising principle of his government.

Reeves accused the Conservatives of being “the party of high taxation because they are the party of low growth”.

Setting out Labour’s plan for the economy, she said:

Now is the wrong time to raise taxes on ordinary working people. Labour would keep bills down by cutting VAT on energy and expanding the Warm Homes Discount (Scheme), taking at least 200 off the typical bill - with up to 400 in additional support for low and middle earners and pensioners - paid for by a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas profits.

Reeves said Labour would support high streets by “abolishing business rates and replacing them with a fair system that levels the playing field between online multinationals and high street businesses”.

She added:

Labour would start now with our plan to create apprenticeship opportunities for young people, which could have seen 100,000 extra apprenticeships created this year, to drive our economic recovery.


She emphasised Labour’s climate investment pledge of 28 billion for each year of the decade “to ensure the industries and jobs of the future are found all across Britain”.

A Labour future, she said, would entail “gigafactories to build batteries for electric vehicles, a thriving hydrogen industry, offshore wind with turbines made in Britain, planting trees and building flood defences, getting energy bills down and guaranteeing Britain’s energy security, and allowing our economy to adapt as we drive down our carbon emissions”.

Reeves went on to say Labour would “champion British businesses at home and abroad”.

She said:

The first step is to make Brexit work for the British people - addressing the flaws in the Tories’ deal that are hitting our food and drinks manufacturers, creative industries, and professionals.

“We will build on the UK-EU trade deal in the interests of British businesses to cut red tape and make life easier for our exporters.


Reeves started her speech saying it was “particularly fitting to welcome” Christian Wakeford, the Tory MP for Bury South who defected to Labour on Wednesday. She said: “Christian, like so many others, sees that our country needs Keir Starmer’s leadership and a Labour government now more than ever.”

Updated

The fact that MP Christian Wakeford gave his evidence to the BBC and not in the House of Commons means that police will be able to use the disclosures in a possible blackmail inquiry since it means they do not have to worry about parliamentary privilege, according to Jo Maugham, director of the Good Law Project.

The doctrine of parliamentary privilege grants certain legal immunities for members of the House of Commons to enable them to speak freely without worrying about outside interference or how it might be used in court. This means that police might not be able to use William Wragg’s disclosures, which were made in the House of Commons, as evidence, but they can use Wakeford’s.

Updated

Plaid Cymru MS Delyth Jewell is calling for an inquiry into the revelation that the government threatened to withhold funds for a school unless MP Christian Wakeford voted a certain way.

Jewell said she has uncovered evidence that Tory constituencies were prioritised over less affluent Welsh areas for receiving funds through the community renewal fund, and that this, alongside other publicly known examples, constitutes enough evidence to warrant an inquiry.

Jewell, Plaid Cymru member of the Senedd for south Wales east, said:

“Christopher Wakeford has confirmed what we suspected all along: that this Tory UK Government has been misusing public funds in order to achieve its own selfish, internal aims.

“There is ample evidence to suggest that the UK Government used the Levelling Up Fund, Community Renewal Fund, Town Fund and school funding in a manner that may have been unlawful, using opaque metrics in order to be able to funnel funds into the constituencies of Tory MPs loyal to Boris Johnson.

“And only last week, the High Court ruled that the government’s use of a VIP lane to award PPE contracts to the friends of Tory MPs and Ministers was unlawful.

“I believe that the UK government’s practices amount to wholesale corruption and that a public inquiry needs to be held to explore these funding decisions in detail, since what we know about is likely to be only the tip of the iceberg and the fear shared among many is that billions of pounds may have been misappropriated.”

Rachel Hall here taking over from Andrew Sparrow for the rest of the afternoon. I’ll be focussing on the fallout of the Wragg revelations, while also keeping you updated with the other key developments in Westminster, including any important updates on coronavirus. If there’s anything I’ve missed, do send it over to rachel.hall@theguardian.com.

Updated

Reeves says UK has had 'lost decade' of low growth under Tories

In her speech this morning in Bury, where she was introduced by Christian Wakeford, who defected to Labour from the Tories yesterday, Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said Britain has had a “lost decade” under the Tories.

“The Conservatives have become the party of high taxation because they are the party of low growth,” she said. And explaining what she meant by “lost decade”, she said:

The question is: why is a country with such rich resources not seeing that potential realised? Why are so many working people here in Bury and all across the country not feeling the benefits?

And how have we become trapped in this cycle of low growth, low pay, and high taxes?

The answer is simple. It comes down to a decade of Conservative failure.

Their failure to plan ahead.

Their failure to work together with business and industry.

And their failure to put the national interest above the interests of their friends and donors, utterly removed from the lives of working people.

For the best part of a decade, I worked as an economist at the Bank of England.

My first job there was to analyse the Japanese economy. Japan had just reached the end of what was often called its ‘Lost Decade’. We now talk about Japan’s ‘Lost Decades’ - 30 years of stagnant growth.

I saw the perils of an economy becoming trapped in a cycle where demand is sucked out of the economy and growth suppressed.

Britain has been through its own lost decade.

That is all from me for today. I need to wrap up early. My colleague Rachel Hall is taking over now.

Rachel Reeves giving a speech in Bury this morning.
Rachel Reeves giving a speech in Bury this morning. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Updated

These are from Mark Jenkinson, another Conservative MP saying he has never experienced tactics of the kind described William Wragg.

Robert Buckland, the Conservative former justice secretary, told Times Radio that MPs should be able to resist even the fiercest threats from whips. He said:

I think any allegations about threats etc are extremely unpleasant. MPs should be able to vote according to their free will. And you would hope you’d have a collection of people here in Westminster who had been through the electoral process and media scrutiny and should be strong enough to resist even the most forcible requests, or dare I say blandishments, of the whips.

Updated

Blair says using constituency funding threat to intimidate MP would be 'completely wrong'

In an interview with Radio 4’s the World at One Tony Blair, the former Labour prime minister, said the Wragg allegations would be “very serious” if they were true. He went on:

No doubt this is something that the Speaker will look into. I should imagine this will be something that both members of parliament and Downing Street itself will want to investigate.

He said that withdrawing funding from a constituency because of the way an MP voted would be “grossly improper” and “completely wrong”.

But asked what he would say to people who thought this happened under all governments, Blair gave an interesting answer. “I certainly would never have authorised such a thing,” he said. Asked if he ever heard of this happening when he was PM, he said he did not. But then he added:

You know, politics at a certain level, there are all sorts of different people doing different things, and what’s authorised, not authorised and so on – all of that is extremely difficult.

That sounded like an admission that his own administration was capable of underhand tactics on occasion (which it was). He put this even more memorably in his final PMQs as prime minister, when he said politics “may sometimes be a place of low skullduggery but it is more often a place for more noble causes”.

Tony Blair giving his speech on the future of Britain today.
Tony Blair giving his speech on the future of Britain today. Photograph: Owen Billcliffe/Institute of Global Health Innovation/PA

Updated

Sturgeon says Wragg allegations, if true, would amount to corruption

Nicola Sturgeon posted this on Twitter after her interview with ITV Border. (See 1.50pm.) She says, if No 10 has threatened to withhold money from constituencies in an attempt to buy the support of MPs, that would amount to corruption.

Updated

Sturgeon calls for independent investigation into claims Tory MPs have been bullied and blackmailed by No 10

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has called for an independent inquiry into the Wragg allegations. Speaking to ITV Border ahead of FMQs, she said:

These are gravely serious allegations - intimidation, blackmail and using public money to do it. I would suggest that these accusations need to be fully and, crucially, independently investigated.

With every day right now, Boris Johnson is tarnishing the office of prime minister and I think if he has concerns for the interests of the country, he will go.

Asked if the allegations surprised her, Strugeon replied: “They shock me.”

Updated

Johnson says he has seen 'no evidence' to support Wragg's 'blackmail' claims

This is what Boris Johnson said about the William Wragg allegations in his pooled TV interview at lunchtime during a visit to Rutherford Diagnostic Centre in Taunton. (See 10.19am)

I’ve seen no evidence to support any of those allegations. What I am focused on is what we’re doing to deal with, the No 1 priority of the British people, which is coming through Covid.

Asked if he would look for evidence to support allegations, Johnson replied: “Of course.”

Updated

Andrew Brigden is one of the few Conservative MPs who has called for Boris Johnson to resign. Radio 4’s the World at One says it approached Tory MPs critical of Johnson to find out if they had suffered the sort of intimidatory tactics described by William Wragg (see 10.19am), and Bridgen told the programme he had been smeared on Monday in the Times by a story that wasn’t true. He is presumably referring to this.

Updated

Christian Wakeford says he was threatened with loss of funding for constituency if he rebelled as Tory MP

No 10 says there is no need to investigate the Wragg allegations because there is no evidence to back them up. That line may not last for long because some evidence is now starting to come in. Christian Wakeford, the MP who defected from the Conservatives to Labour yesterday, has told the BBC that he was threatened with the loss of funding for his constituency if he voted the wrong way on an issue. He said:

I was threatened that I would not get a school for Radcliffe if I didn’t vote one particular way. This is a town that’s not had a high school for the best part of 10 years. How would you feel holding back the rejuvenation of a town for a vote? It didn’t sit comfortably, and that was really [me] starting to question my place where I was, and ultimately to where I am now.

Updated

Steve Baker says 'it does look like checkmate' for Boris Johnson

Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister, has said “it does look like checkmate” for Boris Johnson. In an interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson for Robinson’s Political Thinking podcast, Baker said:

It’s a sorry situation we’re in. I’m appalled we’ve reached this position.

We didn’t make Boris Johnson prime minister for his meticulous grasp of tedious rules but this is appalling and the public are rightly furious.

At the moment I’m afraid it does look like checkmate but whether he can save himself, we’ll see.

Steve Baker.
Steve Baker. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

Boris Johnson said he had seen “no evidence to support any of those allegations” when asked about the William Wragg blackmail claims. (See 10.19am.) The PM delivered the response in a pooled TV interview.

I will post more when I’ve seen the full clip.

Updated

Asked about the UK government’s decision to freeze the licence fee at FMQs, Nicola Sturgeon said she was “deeply concerned”, that the BBC was “an important part of our broadcasting framework”, and asked MSPs to “all defend the principle of public service at broadcasting”. She added:

I think there is some evidence that these were an attempt to divert attention from the prime minister’s troubles but nevertheless, all of us have to stand up for these principles and guard against this government and the damage it seems willing to do to key institutions often just to try to save its own skin.

Sturgeon raises doubts about PM's decision to lift all plan B restrictions in England

Nicola Sturgeon has raised doubts about Boris Johnson’s decision to scrap all plan B Covid rules in England, as Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has attacked her at FMQs for imposing “unnecessary restrictions” on the Scottish public over the festive period.

“There are still significant uncertainties ahead,” she told Ross at first minister’s questions, “which is why I think doctors, nurses, NHS managers, trade unions, all expressed some concern at the prime minister’s announcement yesterday to lift all restrictions at this stage, including the requirement to wear face coverings”.

She said her government – in line with the Welsh and Northern Irish administrations – would continue to take a “proportionate and balanced” approach.

But Ross said Omicron restrictions – including closure of nightclubs, social distancing in hospitality venues and guidance of a three household mixing limit indoors – had a significant impact on mental health and businesses, which were still struggling to get support. He said:

We can now see they weren’t needed. It was the Scottish public’s actions, not the SNP government’s restrictions, that got this [reduction in infections]. The first minister has tried to build a reputation for caution during this pandemic, but she was far too gung ho in imposing extra restrictions last month.

The Conservative MP Anthony Mangnall says he has never experienced the kind of threats described by William Wragg. (See 10.19am.)

Updated

Sue Gray, the senior civil servant investigating partygate, has found the email from a very senior civil servant to Martin Reynolds, Boris Johnson’s principal private secretary, saying the party on 20 May 2020 should be cancelled because it broke the rules, ITV’s Robert Peston reports. The existence of this email was revealed by Dominic Cummings in a blog on Monday.

As Peston says, this would amount to written proof undermining Johnson’s claim that he was not told the party would be against the rules.

In his interview on Tuesday Johnson said: “Nobody told me that what we were doing was against the rules.” In Johnson’s thinking, the word me may be doing an awful lot of work in that sentence (as they like to say). According to Cummings’ account, Reynolds was told by at least two people on 20 May – the very senior official, in an email, and Cummings himself in person – that the party was against the rules. Reynolds then apparently discussed the matter with Johnson, who apparently agreed that the party should go ahead. Johnson’s defence only holds up if Reynolds failed to explain to him that colleagues said the event would be against the rules. This seems unlikely – and of course Johnson should have realised the event was clearly against the rules anyway.

In his blog Cummings also says that he also raised concerns with Johnson about the party personally on 20 May, but he does not record specifically telling Johnson the party would be against the rules. But Cummings did imply that, his account suggests. Cummings says: “I said to the PM something like: Martin’s invited the building to a drinks party, this is what I’m talking about, you’ve got to grip this madhouse.”

Updated

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross says Wragg allegations should be investigated

Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, has told ITV Border that the Wragg allegations should be investigated. “They are serious allegations and I’m sure they will be investigated,” he said. He said anyone in the Conservative party would be “disappointed” by the claims, which was why an inquiry would be proper.

But he also said he did not have any experience himself of being intimidated by the government in the way described by Wragg. Ross, like Wragg, has also called for Johnson’s resignation last week.

Here are tweets from two political journalists who have also heard reports of disloyal Tory MPs being threatened with funding to the constituencies being cut.

From my colleague Jessica Elgot

From ITV’s Anushka Asthana

No 10 says it is not planning to investigate Wragg's 'blackmail' claims, saying it has not seen evidence to support them

At the Downing Street lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesman said he was not aware of any plans for an investigation into the William Wragg blackmail allegations. (See 10.19am.) The spokesman highlighted the earlier No 10 response (see 11.26am) saying it was not aware of any evidence to support the claims.

Asked about the Lib Dem claim that Boris Johnson has been behaving like a mafia boss (see 11.29am), the spokesman said:

We’ve been clear again that there is no evidence to support the claims put forward, but this is a matter for the whips office and not one for me to comment on.

Asked if Johnson condemned all forms of bullying and harassment, the spokesman replied: “Yes.”

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, told MPs that it would be a “contempt” to obstruct MPs in doing their duties by trying to “intimidate” them. Speaking in the chamber, he noted the “serious allegations” made by William Wragg (see 10.19am) and went on:

Those who work for them are not above the criminal law. The investigation of allegedly criminal conduct is a matter for the police and decisions about prosecution are for the CPS. It will be wrong of me to interfere with such matters.

While the whipping system is long-established, it is of course a contempt to obstruct members in the discharge of their duty or to attempt to intimidate a member in their parliamentary conduct by threats.

Lindsay Hoyle.
Lindsay Hoyle. Photograph: Jessica Taylor/AP

NHS England Covid absences fall amid signs staffing crisis is easing

NHS England staff absences due to Covid have fallen by 22% on the previous week, figures show, with signs the staffing crisis in the health service may be easing off. My colleagues Niamh McIntyre and Pamela Duncan have the story here.

Labour call for investigation into claims anti-Johnson Tory MPs have been subject to 'blackmail' by No 10

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, has also called for an investigation into the Wragg allegations. (See 10.19am.)

Michael Fabricant, a Conservative backbencher highly supportive of Boris Johnson, has posted this on Twitter in response to the Wragg allegations. Not for the first time, his intervention (which implies what’s alleged is just normal) may be judged as less than helpful.

Plaid Cymru is calling for a police investigation into the Wragg allegations. (See 10.19am.) In a statement Liz Saville Roberts, the party’s leader at Westminster, said:

When ‘levelling up’ morphs into ‘blackmail’ - this is how the Tory UK government uses threats to withhold public money to browbeat its MPs into supine obedience.

Levelling up funds to tackle inequality? Of course not, just to keep Prime Minister Johnson in Number 10.

We may have become desensitised to daily reports of Boris Johnson’s corruption. But this is an extremely serious matter that must be investigated by the police.

Johnson 'acting more like mafia boss than PM', says Lib Dem leader

In the light of the Wragg allegations, Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has accused Boris Johnson of acting like a mafia boss. In a statement he said:

It is simply remarkable that a prime minister could countenance scrapping local projects and funding if MPs refuse to back him.

All Boris Johnson cares about is saving his own skin. He’s acting more like a mafia boss than a prime minister.

These latest allegations of criminal behaviour are yet more proof that a civil servant investigation into partygate is utterly inadequate. The Metropolitan police must investigate.

No 10 is now in full scorched earth mode. Every minute the Tories allow him to stay in power damages our country.

Updated

No 10 says it is not aware of any evidence to support Wragg's 'blackmail' claims

No 10 says it is not aware of any evidence to back up William Wragg’s allegations, but that if there is evidence, it will look at it very seriously, the Mirror’s Pippa Crerar reports.

UPDATE: Here is the full quote from a No 10 spokesperson.

We are not aware of any evidence to support what are clearly serious allegations. If there is any evidence to support these claims we would look at it very carefully.

Updated

Wragg's 'blackmail' allegations – snap analysis

The allegations from William Wragg this morning about the tactics being used by No 10 to stop Tory MPs demanding a no-confidence vote in Boris Johnson (see 10.19am) are both unremarkable and incendiary.

They are unremarkable in that, throughout history, prime ministers have used underhand tactics to persuade MPs to back them on contentious issues. Wragg acknowledges this, but he argues that two sorts of threats have been deployed recently which go way beyond the normal, and accepted, “you’ll never get that promotion or knighthood” threat levelled at potential rebels.

First, Wragg claims some MPs have been told that their constituencies will lose government funding if they don’t back the PM. This would amount to using public money for political advantage, which could conceivably pass a criminal test for corruption, and would be much more serious than threatening an MP with the loss of party funding for campaigning at the next general election. There have been allegations of MPs being threatened with the loss of constituency infrastructure spending under Boris Johnson’s government before, although MPs have not gone on the record to say directly they were threatened in this way. My colleague Aubrey Allegretti wrote about MPs being threatened in this way in September last year, and similar threats were reportedly issued ahead of the Owen Paterson vote in November.

Other administrations have been accused of doing this too. In his new book about Brexit, Spartan Victory, the Tory MP Mark Francois writes that, before the third vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal in 2019, one of his European Research Group colleagues told that he had “held out for and subsequently secured in writing a promise of £7m for a major investment project in his constituency” in return for backing the government. The MP told Francois his constituency was less affluent than Francois’, and “really needed” the money.

Second, Wragg alleges that Tory MPs trying to force Johnson out have been threatened with the publication in the newspapers of stories that would embarrass them. This is entirely plausible; the pro-Johnson papers have already been running articles critical of the 2019 intake Tories calling for a no-confidence vote (like this one in the Daily Mail, about Dehenna Davison and Christian Wakeford) and it seems likely they are being briefed by government sources. This is also something that has happened in the past under previous administrations.

What is new, though, is for an MP like Wragg to publicly denounce it as “blackmail” and for him to encourage victims to go to the police or the Speaker. Even if actions of this kind did not meet a criminal threshold for blackmail, trying to improperly influence an MP does count as contempt of parliament, which means it is something that could in theory be investigated by the Commons authorities. An inquiry of this kind would be highly embarrassing for the government, although MPs may decide not to take up Wragg’s invitation to complain.

At the every least, though, his intervention will be seen as a warning shot.

Updated

Tory MP accuses No 10 of using 'blackmail' against colleagues undermining Johnson, and urges victims to go to police

William Wragg, the Conservative chair of the Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee, has accused the government of trying to “blackmail” MPs pushing for a confidence vote in Boris Johnson. He made the claim in an opening statement at the start of this morning’s committee hearing. Wragg, of course, is one of the few Conservative who has publicly called for Johnson to go.

Here is the statement in full.

In recent days a number of members of parliament have faced pressures and intimidation from members of the government because of their declared or assumed desire for a vote of confidence in the party leadership of the prime minister.

It is of course the duty of the government whip’s office to secure the government’s business in the House of Commons.

However it is not their function to breach the ministerial code in threatening to withdraw investments from members of parliament’s constituencies which are funded from the public purse.

Additionally, reports to me and others of members of staff at No 10 Downing Street, special advisers, government ministers and others encouraging the publication of stories in the press seeking to embarrass those who they suspect of lacking confidence in the prime minister is simply unacceptable.

The intimidation of a member of parliament is a serious matter. Moreover, the reports of which I’m aware would seem to constitute blackmail. As such, it would be my general advice to colleagues report these matters to the Speaker of the House of Commons and the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, and they’re also welcome to contact me at any time.

Wragg also asked Steve Barclay, the Cabinet Office minister, to ensure his concerns about this were passed on to the government. Barclay said he would.

William Wragg at the public administration committee this morning
William Wragg at the public administration committee this morning Photograph: Parliament TV

Updated

Blair says Johnson's real problem not partygate but 'absence of plan for Britain's future'

Tony Blair, the former Labour prime minister, is giving a speech on the future of Britain later this morning. On the basis of the extracts sent out in advance, he thinks the real problem with Boris Johnson’s leadership is not partygate, but that he does not have a plan for the future. Blair is expected to say:

I understand completely the rage against what happened in Downing Street during lockdown and how the country feels. Maybe Boris Johnson goes and maybe he doesn’t. But the real problem is the absence of a government plan for Britain’s future.

Blair will argue that Johnson’s “levelling up” slogan implies that the problems facing the UK are limited to only some parts of the country. He is expected to say:

I hesitate when I hear the government slogan ‘Levelling Up’. Other than a desire to give opportunity to those without it, which is obviously hard to disagree with, the slogan risks misdirecting the framing of the country’s problem. We face a national challenge – all the country, not simply the areas ‘left behind’.

Instead, Blair will argue, the country faces three challenges, which are not being addressed by the government. He is expected to say:

There is a gaping hole in the governing of Britain where new ideas should be.

We are living through three revolutionary changes simultaneously and are ill prepared for any of them. Each of them would require major changes to the way we work as a nation. All of them together pose a challenge which is unprecedented in recent history.

The changes are: Brexit; the technology revolution; and a climate ambition which foresees a unique transition to being carbon neutral in the power sector in just over a decade and the whole country in 25 years.

There will be an urgent question on Afghanistan in the Commons at 10.30am, which means Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Commons leader, will not be taking questions on next week’s business until around 11.15am.

Javid defends lifting of requirement for pupils and teachers in England to wear masks in class

In his inteviews this morning Sajid Javid, the health secretary, defended the decision to end the advice for pupils and staff to wear masks in class in England from today. This was one of several measures announced yesterday marking the end of plan B.

Javid told the BBC:

There has long been a debate about face masks, particularly in schools. The government’s job is to take a balanced and proportionate decision, in this case balanced against the best interests of children.

It is harder to teach children and it will have an impact on their education if they are required to wear face mask at all times in classrooms.

Asked if he would continue to wear a mask when shopping from next Thursday, when masks will no longer be compulsory in any setting in England (although people will still be advised to wear them “in crowded and enclosed spaces, where you may come into contact with people you do not normally meet”), Javid said:

Will I be wearing a face mask? Yeah, I think I probably would be in a week’s time.

Because prevalence is still high and there will be people there, especially if I am going to my local shop which is small and enclosed and can have quite a few people in there at one time in quite a small space, I don’t know most of those people, I think that would be sensible.

I think it will be sensible on the tube in London, for example - quite an enclosed space.

People will be asked to make their own personal judgment just as we do in fighting flu.

No 10 partygate scandal has been damaging to our democracy, says Javid

Sajid Javid, the health secretary, was doing media on behalf of the government this morning and, in an interview on the Today programme, he said that the scandal about partying at No 10 has damaged Britain’s democracy.

He was responding to questions from Mishal Husain, who asked him repeatedly if he thought the affair had damaged trust in democracy. At first he tried to sidestep the question, but when she put it to him that people think we live in a country where everyone follows the rules, and that to discover people in Downing Street were not has been damaging to democracy, he replied:

Yes it does. Of course things like this damage our democracy. From what we already know from the people who have come forward and apologised for the parties that took place, for example the one on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral, that was completely wrong. It was wrong in every single way. That is already damaging, of course it is.

What was notable about his answer was that he also admitted parties had taken place. Other ministers have tried to avoid using this word, either sticking to the original claim that they were work events, or leaving it for the Sue Gray report to determine whether they were parties.

Sajid Javid
Sajid Javid. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

Wakeford's defection has made MPs think twice about no confidence vote in Johnson, says Tory

Good morning. The best play on regicide in English literature is Macbeth, which includes the sound advice: “If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were done quickly.” Boris Johnson is a big fan of the play; Jennifer Arcuri once said they used to read it together on dates. But the Tory MPs plotting to force him out seem less familiar with the masterpiece, because the intense speculation about a vote of no confidence being triggered this week (which peaked on Tuesday night) has now faded. “If it were done, ‘twere well to wait for the Sue Gray report first” now seems to be the advice they are following.

The surprise defection of the Conservative MP Christian Wakeford to Labour has made a difference. Here is the write-through by my colleagues Jessica Elgot, Aubrey Allegretti and Rowena Mason that explains why.

And this morning the Conservative MP Andrew Percy has said this explicitly. He told the Today programme:

It’s kind of made people a bit more relaxed, it’s calmed nerves. I think people have recognised that actually this constant navel gazing and internal debating is only to the advantage of our political opponents.

The prime minister is probably thanking Christian for what he did because it’s made a lot of people think again, think twice.

This may seem like good news for Johnson, but all that has really changed is timing. As the politics professor Tim Bale argues, the fundamental situation for the prime minister remains grim.

Here is the agenda for the day.

10am: Steve Barclay, the Cabinet Office minister, gives evidence to the Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee about the work of his department.

After 10.30am: Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, takes questions from MPs on next week’s business.

11am: Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, gives a speech on Labour’s plan for growth.

11am: Tony Blair, the former Labour prime minister, gives a speech on the future of Britain.

11am: Maria Caulfield, the health minister, gives evidence to the Commons health committee about cancer services.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

12pm: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, takes questions in the Scottish parliament.

There will be some UK Covid coverage here, but for more coronavirus coverage, do read our global live blog. It’s here.

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com

Updated

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