Early evening summary
- Johnson has used a press conference at Cop26 to urge world leaders to “pull out all the stops” to make the summit a success. After a brief visit where he met negotiators, he held a press conference where he said:
So this is the time for everyone to come together and show the determination needed to power on through the blockages.
To look at the science with dispassionate eyes and think about how we can compromise, how we can be flexible to meet the needs of the planet.
And for world leaders who are back in their capitals to pick up the phone to their teams here and give them the negotiating margin, give them the space they need in which to manoeuvre so we can get this done.
Here in Glasgow, the world is closer than it has ever been to signalling the beginning of the end of anthropogenic climate change.
It’s the greatest gift we can possibly bestow on our children and grandchildren and generations unborn.
It’s now within reach, at COP26 in these final days, we just need to reach out together and grasp it.
When asked what tangible difference his presence at the summit had made, Johnson said that was for others to comment on. But he said he had tried to listen, particularly to NGOs, and to talk to the negotiators, and to encourage them to keep going and to make progress.
Updated
Johnson refuses to say anything in support of Geoffrey Cox
Last week’s No 10 U-turn after the Owen Paterson vote was one of the swiftest and most absolute performed by a government in recent times. It is hard to imagine how it could be surpassed, but somehow Boris Johnson managed it today, with a performance in which he implied that the one thing he cares about above all, in relation to MPs standards, is that MPs who break the rules should be punished.
This is the same Boris Johnson who only a week ago ordered his MPs to take the unprecedented step of voting to ensure that the exact opposite happened in the case of Owen Paterson. It was a remarkable act of re-invention, utterly disingenuous of course, but indicative of an elasticity that is probably unique in British politics at the moment.
Here are the key points.
- Johnson claimed that “the most important thing” in relation to MPs’ standards was that MPs who break the rules should be punished. In response to the first question on this, he said:
On the issue of MPs and second jobs and all that, I just want to say that the most important thing is that those who break the rules must be investigated and should be punished.
He made the same point two more times.
- He said he was in favour of MPs being allowed to have second jobs, as long as they put being an MP first, and did not use their position for lobbying. He said:
On second jobs, I would say that for hundreds of years MPs have gone to Parliament and also done work as doctors, lawyers or soldiers or firefighters or writers, or all sorts of other trades and callings.
And on the whole, the UK population has understood that that has actually strengthened our democracy, because people basically feel that parliamentarians do need to have some experience of the world.
But, if that system is going to continue today, then it is crucial that MPs follow the rules.
And the rules say two crucial things: you must put your job as an MP first and you must devote yourself primarily and above all to your constituents and the people who send you to Westminster, to parliament.
And they also say that you should not use your position as an MP to lobby or otherwise intervene on behalf of any outside commercial interest. And it is not only that you have to register those interests - you can’t lobby or make representation while an MP on behalf of those interests.
Those are the rules and they must be enforced and those who don’t obey them should of course face sanctions.
This is arguably hypocritical, because when Johnson was re-elected to parliament as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in 2015, he was still mayor of London and for the next year being mayor continued to be his main job.
(Government ministers also put their ministerial jobs first, and Johnson devotes much more time to being PM than to serving the people of Uxbridge, but this is function of the way the parliamentary system works, and voters have accepted it for years.)
- Johnson again refused to apologise for his handling of the Paterson vote last week. He was asked if he would apologise twice, and refused both times.
- Johnson refused to say anything in support of Geoffrey Cox. When asked about Cox, he said he did not want to comment on invidual cases. But he did not say anything in his favour, and he used that moment to again make the point about the importance of MPs being punished if they break the rules. And later he made a comment that appeared to pre-judge the Cox case. He said:
I think what you’ve got is cases where, sadly, MPs have broken the rules in the past, may be guilty of breaking the rules today - what I want to see is them facing appropriate sanctions.
- He declined to say that everything he has done as an MP and as a minister is “above reproach”. Asked if he was confident that his actions as an MP and as a minister were “entirely above reproach and would pass muster in any standards investigation that might come up”, Johnson replied:
All my declarations are in conformity with the rules, and you can certainly study them, and that will remain the case.
He did not address the wider point about his behaviour. But he may have mentioned declarations because of the threat of an investigation into the financing of the Downing Street flat, which focuses to a large extent on whether a donation was properly registered.
- He insisted Britain is not corrupt. He said:
I genuinely believe that the UK is not remotely a corrupt country, nor do I believe that our institutions are corrupt.
We have a very, very tough system of parliamentary democracy and scrutiny, not least by the media.
I think what you have got is cases where, sadly, MPs have broken the rules in the past, may be guilty of breaking the rules today. What I want to see is them facing appropriate sanctions.
This sounded like a response to Labour claims that he has enabled corruption.
Photograph: Robert Perry/EPA
Updated
Q: Are you confident that your conduct as an MP would always pass muster?
Johnson says he is confident all his declarations are correct.
Q: Will you stay here if necessary?
Johnson says he has been trying to encourage the negotiators, and to get them to focus on the three issues that matter. Finance is the key isssue, he says.
And that’s it. His presss conference is over.
I will post a summary soon.
Johnson refuses again to apologise for his handling of Paterson vote
Q: Will you say sorry for what happened last week?
Johnson says, since he is speaking in an international context, he wants to say the UK is not remotely corrupt.
Today we have seen MPs maybe breaking the rules, he says. He says MPs who do break the rules should face punishment.
Updated
Q: Do you think Geoffrey Cox has been putting his constituents first?
Johnson says he does not want to comment on individual cases.
But people who break the rules should face punishment, he says.
Johnson says Cop26 will not fix climate change in one go.
But, if things go well, he says it is possible to come away from this “with the first genuine roadmap to a solution to angthropogenic climate change”.
He says they must keep holding governments and business to account.
Q: Will you apologise for the vote last weeek?
Johnson says he said last week that people who break the rules should be punished.
But he also wanted reform.
He says those issues should have been kept separate.
Johnson says MPs who break the rules 'should be punished'
Q: Is the negotiating paper published this morning the goal?
Johnson says the risk of sliding back would be a disaster.
In the final furlong, that is the moment when horses change.
He says there are three pillars: adaptation, mitigation and finance.
Q: Have you get an reassurance for the public on sleaze?
Johnson says “the most important thing is those who break the rules must be investigated and should be punished”.
He says there is a good reason for allowing second jobs for MPs. That has happened for years.
But if that is going to continue, MPs must follow the rules. They should work primarily for their constituents. And they should not engage in lobbying.
[Reminder: last week Johnson ordered his MPs to back an unprecedented motion to stop Owen Paterson from being punished for breaking the rules.]
Johnson says the vulnerable nations have demanded action now.
If other countries applauded the speeches from these nations, they should act.
The world will find it “absolutely incomprehensible” if Cop26 fails to deliver. He says the leaders will deserve the world’s opprobrium if they fail to deliver.
They must now plough on.
He urges world leaders to pick up the phone to their negotiators, and to give them the negotiating margin, the space they need to get this done.
This could be the Cop that ends anthropogenic climate change, he says.
Boris Johnson's press conference
Boris Johnson starts by saying last week he warned about the danger of false optimism.
He says, having spoken to people here today, it is clear that after game-changing announcements last week, they are now in the “hard yards”. The negotiations are getting tough.
They have moved the ball down the pitch. But they are stuck in a rolling maul.
They need to be more ambitious if they are going to keep the dream of restricting temperature rises to 1.5C alive.
Updated
The Boris Johnson conference is starting in about 10 minutes, Sky says.
Miliband urges Johnson to have 'big, public fight' to make Cop26 succeed
Boris Johnson is about to hold his press conference at Cop26.
I’ll be covering it here, but mostly focusing non-Cop26 issues. We’ll be covering the Cop26 aspects more on our Cop26 live blog.
As Heather Stewart reports there, Ed Miliband, Labour’s shadow business secretary, said the prime minister should remain in Glasgow until the end of the summit, and call out countries that are not doing enough. Miliband said:
You’re going to have to have a big, public fight about this. Don’t go back home after a few hours: stay!
The latest edition of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast is out. As the Conservative party remains split on how to respond to allegations of sleaze, Rowena Mason and Heather Stewart bring us up to date on what is happening. Plus, Nesrine Malik and Daniel Bruce of Transparency International look at how political systems may become corrupt over time.
Mark Spencer, the chief whip, has defended the advice he gave to Sir Geoffrey Cox about it being acceptable for him to vote remotely from the Caribbean, the Times’s Steven Swinford reports.
Chief Whip spox confirms Geoffrey Cox's proxy vote was sanctioned - but says MPs were expected to continue 'primary task' of serving constituents
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) November 10, 2021
'All MPs expected to follow proceedings & participate virtually. They were expected to continue primary task of serving constituents'
Senior Democratic congressmen warn UK that triggering article 16 would be 'dangerous path'
On Brexit, it is worth flagging up this statement issued yesterday by four senior Democratic congressmen in Washington on the Northern Ireland protocol.
It is from Gregory W Meeks, chair of the house foreign affairs committee; William R. Keating, chair of the Europe, energy, the environment and cyber subcommittee; Earl Blumenauer, chair of the ways and means subcommittee on trade; and Brendan Boyle, chair of the European Union caucus.
They say:
In threatening to invoke article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol, the United Kingdom threatens to not only destabilize trade relations, but also that hard earned peace. We call on the UK to abandon this dangerous path, and to commit to implementing the Northern Ireland protocol in full.
Katya Adler, the BBC’s Europe editor, has a good Twitter thread on the latest thinking in Brussels about how the EU would respond if the UK did trigger article 16. It starts here.
EU diplomat on today‘s Brexit discussion amongst representatives of EU 27+EU Commission:
— Katya Adler (@BBCkatyaadler) November 10, 2021
„The EU is preparing for the triggering of Article 16 by the UK. There is consensus among EU that such an arbitrary and unjustified move by the UK will be met with a clear European response.”
Updated
Labour says NI's community and business leaders should be involved in talks with EU on protocol
Labour has said the government should include Northern Ireland’s political, community and business leaders in the talks with the EU on revising the Northern Ireland protocol. In a statement responding to what Lord Frost told the Lords earlier (see 12.08pm), Jenny Chapman, the shadow Brexit minister, said:
Once again, Lord Frost has come to parliament just to tell us why none of the problems with the deal that he personally negotiated are his fault – it’s like trying to deal with a spoilt teenager. He should start taking responsibility for his actions and buckle down to the serious work of resolving differences that are damaging the UK’s reputation.
The government is making a serious mistake in not bringing together political, community and business leaders to resolve the problems of Northern Ireland. Lord Frost should be bringing those leaders into crucial discussions with the EU.
The Daily Record’s Torcuil Crichton has footage of Boris Johnson arriving at Cop26.
PM @BorisJohnson on the march at @COP26 pic.twitter.com/1cxl4I4Rj8
— Torcuil Crichton (@Torcuil) November 10, 2021
For full coverage of the events today at Cop26, do read our separate live blog.
On Radio 4’s The World at One Prof Sir John Curtice, the psephologist and polling expert, said the recent controversy about Tory sleaze had clearly cost the party some support. He told the programme:
We’ve now had four opinion polls done by companies where all the fieldwork was done after this story first broke this time last week, and in each case the company had also polled the previous week.
Three of those four polls shows support for the Conservatives down by three points. The other suggests it’s down by two, and three of the four polls suggest that Labour are marginally up a bit.
Of course, any one of those individual polls, I would immediately say to you, if that’s all the evidence you’ve got, that just could be the random variation of polls.
But when we’ve got four polls, all showing more or less the same movement in the same direction, it’s very difficult to avoid the conclusion that this indeed, for the time being at least, has cost the Conservatives some support.
And because support for the Conservatives has been falling in recent weeks anyway, partly because of the various shortages, partly because of an adverse reaction to the government’s tax increases, that does mean that the polls now suggests that Conservative lead is down to no more than a point or so, which puts them now in about as weak position as they have been for the last 12 months or so.
Updated
And this is from Louise Haigh, the shadow Northern Ireland secretary, on Lord Frost’s statement today on relations with the EU. (See 12.08pm.)
Hard to believe that @DavidGHFrost just urged colleagues with a straight face not to take the 'road of confrontation... for the sake of everyone in Northern Ireland'.
— Louise Haigh (@LouHaigh) November 10, 2021
He has repeatedly and deliberately stoked tension and confrontation causing instability in Northern Ireland.
Cop26 conference.
Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA
Here are some Twitter comments on the significance of Lord Frost’s statement on relations with the EU in the House of Lords earlier. (See 12.08pm.)
From the BBC’s Jessica Parker
#Brexit: Lord Frost statement...
— Jessica Parker (@MarkerJParker) November 10, 2021
* Basically tells Brussels to calm down (make of that what you will!)
* UK not about to trigger A16 or "give up" on talks - "We are certainly not there yet"
* But suggests only a "short number of weeks" remain to find common ground
From my colleague Lisa O’Carroll
Summary out from Frost appearance in Lords
— lisa o'carroll (@lisaocarroll) November 10, 2021
- we will give talks more time
- EU needs to retreat from trade war threats
- its claims of reducing customs checks by 50% not quite as them seem
- still looking for move on ECJ
- A16 still "legitimate" tool
From Mujtaba Rahman, the Brexit specialist at the Eurasia Group consultancy
Frost sounds softer. Is he spooked & is EU pressure working?
— Mujtaba Rahman (@Mij_Europe) November 10, 2021
From the Daily Mirror’s Pippa Crerar
Frost getting cold feet? 🥶 https://t.co/cqtVgLdPkJ
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) November 10, 2021
Updated
While travelling to Glasgow, Boris Johnson spoke to Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, No 10 said. In its read-out of the call, Downing Street said:
[The prime minister] welcomed Saudi Arabia’s commitment to reach net zero by 2060 and their efforts to transition away from fossil fuels.
They discussed the importance of making progress in negotiations in the final days of Cop26, including on finalising the outstanding elements of the Paris rulebook.
The prime minister said all countries needed to come to the table with increased ambition if we are to keep the target of limiting global warming to 1.5C alive.
Tens of thousands of care home residents face losing vital support as unvaccinated carers clock off for the last time before double jabs become mandatory, my colleague Robert Booth reports.
Frost says triggering article 16 'not inevitable', but gaps between UK and EU still 'extremely wide'
Back in the House of Lords, in response to Jenny Chapman and other peers who responded to his statement, Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, says it is “not inevitable” that the UK will trigger article 16.
He says it is not true to say that the UK and the EU are growing further apart in the talks on the Northern Ireland protocol. “We have inched a little bit closer,” he says - but just not quickly enough. He says the gap between the two sides is still “extremely wide”.
As an example, he says the EU proposals to reform the protocol do not eliminate customs declarations for any goods going from Britain to Northern Ireland. The much-quoted figure about a 50% reduction refers to the number of fields to fill in on customs forms, not the number of goods subject to these forms, he says.
He also says that threats from the EU side about triggering article 16 leading to a trade war have not been helpful.
Updated
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, has responded to Sir Geoffrey Cox’s statement. (See 11.47am.) She claims it is clear that he did break the rules.
Geoffrey Cox says he didn't break the rules by using his taxpayer-funded office in Parliament to do his job as a barrister working for a tax haven being investigated for corruption.
— Angela Rayner (@AngelaRayner) November 10, 2021
The rules could not be clearer. That is why the Commissioner must now investigate this scandal. pic.twitter.com/3JL2LA4GBA
Here are tweets from two journalists on Sir Geoffrey Cox’s statement. (See 11.47am.)
From the Atlantic’s Helen Lewis
Helen Lewis takes the view that using the third person was a mistake, because it makes Sir Geoffrey Cox sound unbearably pompous. Helen Lewis is very content with this view. pic.twitter.com/08FGMadeMZ
— Helen Lewis (@helenlewis) November 10, 2021
From Politico’s Alex Wickham
I’m no QC but not sure “the whips said I could do it” is the best defence given, I don’t know, the last 50 years of British politics
— Alex Wickham (@alexwickham) November 10, 2021
Updated
Jenny Chapman, the shadow Brexit minister, is responding in the Lords on behalf of Labour. She suggests the government is again talking up its threat to trigger article 16 to distract attention from the sleaze allegations surrounding the government.
Frost implies talks with EU over Northern Ireland protocol could continue for few more weeks
Frost turns to the Northern Ireland protocol. This is not working, he says, and he say talks with the EU to reach a solution have not succeeded.
If the talks do not reach a satisfactory conclusion, the government would have no option by to trigger article 16, suspending parts of the protocol, he says.
He says the UK would set out its case for doing this.
But the EU is arguing that triggering article 16 would not be justified. And it is threatening “massive and disproportionate” retaliation, he says.
He says he would urge the EU to stay calm.
He says if the EU retaliated disproportionately, that would destabilise Northern Ireland.
He says in the “short number of weeks” ahead they can find a sustainable solution.
I do hope in the short number of weeks before us the commission and the EU member states will look at what we have in common, will look at our collective strategic interests as Western countries and help us find a stable and sustainable solution so that we can all move on.
He says there is still a chance to turn away from confrontation.
And that’s it.
Although there was nothing in Frost’s statement that suggests the UK is backing away from its threat to trigger article 16, it does imply that the UK government will wait a little longer. There has been speculation that article 16 could be triggered as soon as Cop26 is over, and at the Conservative party conference Frost was setting a deadline of around now for the end of talks on the protocol.
Updated
Frost says under the trade deal the UK is supposed to be participating in the Horizon science programme, and related programmes, at a cost of £15bn over seven years.
But the EU has not allowed that yet, he says. He says if the EU does not intend to allow this, it would be in breach of the trade and cooperation agreement.
He says he hopes the EU will allow UK participation as a matter of urgency.
Updated
Lord Frost's statement to peers about relations with EU
Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, is making a statement in the House of Lords about relations with Europe.
He says the trade and cooperation agreement, the free trade deal, is generally working well.
But there are two problem areas: fisheries, and participation in EU programmes.
On fisheries, he says the UK has granted 98% of applications to fish in UK waters.
Licences for Jersey and Guernsey are decided by their governments, he says. But he says the UK supports the approach they have taken.
He says the government wants to keep working with the French, who have objected to some licences being granted, to find a fair solution.
Cox says Tory chief whip told him voting by proxy from Caribbean 'appropriate'
Sir Geoffrey Cox has put a lengthy statement on his website addreessing the various criticisms that have been made of his work as a lawyer for the British Virgin Islands. (See 9.50am.) Here are the main points.
- Cox says Mark Spencer, the government chief whip, told him that it would be acceptable for him to vote by proxy in the Commons from the British Virgin Islands. The statement says:
Prior to his visit to the BVI, [Cox] consulted the chief chip specifically on this issue and was advised that it was appropriate.
- He admits using his Commons office to participate remotely in a British Virgin Islands commission of inquiry hearing - but says he thought that was within the rules. The statement says:
As for the allegation that [Cox] breached the parliamentary code of conduct on one occasion, on 14 September 2021, by being in his office while participating in an online hearing in the public inquiry and voting in the House of Commons, he understands that the matter has been referred to the parliamentary commissioner and he will fully cooperate with her investigation. He does not believe that he breached the rules but will of course accept the judgment of the parliamentary commissioner or of the committee on the matter.
- He says his legal work - and even his work in the Caribbean - did not interfere with his work as an MP. The statement says:
Sir Geoffrey regularly works 70-hour weeks and always ensures that his casework on behalf of his constituents is given primary importance and fully carried out. Throughout this period, he continued to have online meetings with organisations, businesses and individuals within the constituency and it made no difference where he was for that purpose since it was not practicable or desirable at that time to meet face to face.
And the statement says voters in his constituencies have, at previous elections, shown that they do not object to the extent his outside interests.
Sir Geoffrey’s view is that it is up to the electors of Torridge and West Devon whether or not they vote for someone who is a senior and distinguished professional in his field and who still practices that profession. That has been the consistent view of the local Conservative association and although at every election his political opponents have sought to make a prominent issue of his professional practice, it has so far been the consistent view of the voters of Torridge and West Devon. Sir Geoffrey is very content to abide by their decision.
- He says it is wrong to say that, in working for the British Virgin Islands, he was defending a tax haven. This has been one of Labour’ claims. But the statement says:
[Cox] was asked to advise the attorney general and the elected government of BVI, a British Overseas Territory, in a public inquiry into whether corruption, abuse of office or other serious dishonesty may have taken place in recent years in the Virgin Islands and to carry out a review of its systems of government in preparation for that Inquiry. Prior to accepting the role, he sought and obtained the approval of the Office of the Attorney General of England and Wales that there would be no conflict of interest with his former role as attorney general.
This is not to “defend” a tax haven or, as has been inaccurately reported, to defend any wrongdoing but to assist the public inquiry in getting to the truth. No evidence of tax evasion or personal corruption has been adduced before the Inquiry and if it had been, that person would have been required to seek their own representation.
Updated
Edwin Poots, agriculture minister in the Northern Ireland executive and DUP leader briefly earlier this year, said today that, if the EU starts a trade war with the UK, in response to the likely triggering of article 16 by the UK to suspend parts of the Northern Ireland protocol, that would be a political bid to weaken Ulster’s place in the UK.
He told BBC Radio Ulster that the EU should address the problems with the protocol by eliminating checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain if they are not destined for Ireland. He went on:
What causes me real concern is that we have a solution to this and the European Union are not applying it currently.
So, we can provide solutions to ensure the integrity of the single market, allegedly that was what it was about.
And if the European Union won’t accept those solutions and choose to go down a route of a trade war then that demonstrates that there was some political influence being used to damage Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom.
Later this morning Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, is due to be making a statement on relations with the EU in the House of Lords.
Gordon Brown, the former Labour prime minister, told the Today programme this morning that unless Boris Johnson takes action, this parliament will be remembered for sleaze. He told the programme:
I think, where there’s a conflict of interest using a public office for private gain, it should be banned outright and I’ve always said this.
I think there are three issues that have now got to be dealt with. One is these conflicts of interest - we’ve got to have tighter rules.
Secondly, we’re now dealing with dubious appointments, for example, to the House of Lords - we’ve got to do something about this - and, thirdly, I think there’s a bigger issue emerging about foreign money entering British politics ...
I do believe that, unless the prime minister takes a grip of this issue, this parliament will be remembered for the extent to which sleaze has [been] allowed to become a feature of British politics again.
Chris Bryant, the Labour chair of the Commons standards committee, was also giving interviews this morning. He declined to comment directly on the latest Cox allegations, because if the parliamentary commissioner for standards does investigate, ultimately his committee will have to adjudicate. But, like Sajid Javid (see 10.35am), he implied that what Cox was doing was hard to justify. He told BBC Breakfast:
You might end up occasionally meeting other people in your office but you’re not meant to run a commercial operation out of your taxpayer-funded office either in Parliament or in your constituency - it’s a really important, I’d have thought, kind of basic rule.
Tory party vice-chair Andrew Bowie resigns in protest over sleaze
The Conservative MP Andrew Bowie has announced he will resign as a vice-chair of the party in the wake of the sleaze scandal engulfing Boris Johnson, Aubrey Allegretti reports.
Javid refuses to back Cox over claims former attorney general misused parliamentary facilities
Sajid Javid, the health secretary, was up for the government on the broadcast media this morning, and he refused to back Sir Geoffrey Cox over the latest allegations he is facing. (See 9.50am.) He said Cox had been an “outstanding” attorney general. But, while trying not to comment on the Cox story directly, he implied that he thought using a Commons office as a virtual courtroom for outside legal work was problematic.
Here are the main points he made in his interviews on sleaze-related issues.
- Javid refused to back Cox in the light of claims that Cox misused parliamentary facilities. He said he did not want to comment on the case directly, but he also told the Today programme:
Look, as a general rule, no-one should be using things that are funded by the taxpayer, whether that’s your parliamentary office or whatever else for your personal gain in any way, as a general rule.
I’m not talking about any particular case. Now, obviously someone might take a phone call or might use their own phone for a video meeting or something like that, wherever they are, but I think as a general rule that should not be happening.
Javid made the same point in other interviews, including one in which he said:
If you’re asking, can you be in your Commons office or walking in the corridors of parliament and your phone rings, and the person on the other side is talking to you about something that’s got nothing to do with your parliamentary affairs, then of course that can happen, and of course you might take a phone call.
What Cox was doing seemed to go beyond holding a video meeting on a phone, or taking a calling in the corridor.
- Javid said he personally regretted voting for the Owen Paterson motion last week. He said:
Look, I voted for that motion, I do regret it, because I think it was wrong for me to conflate the Owen Paterson case with the right of an appeal.
I do think it’s important for parliamentarians on a cross-party basis to think about how they might always be able to improve a system, but it was wrong to conflate it with Owen Paterson.
Other ministers have said it was a mistake for the government to conflate the Paterson case with the general issue of reform of the standards committee. (The government ordered its MPs to vote for a motion linking the two.) But they have not accepted making a personal mistake, in the way Javid does here.
- He defended his decision to take a well-paid second job with the US bank JP Morgan while he was a backbencher, claiming it was good to get outside experience. This is from Tom Newton Dunn from Times Radio.
Sajid Javid tells @TimesRadio he took a £150,000 a year advisory 2nd job with JP Morgan before returning to the Cabinet because "it's good to have experience that is not all about politics". Added: "It's for my constituents to judge, and I'm happy with that".
— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) November 10, 2021
But when asked about the same job on the Today programme, and how this work benefitted his constituents in Bromsgrove, Javid struggled to to give a clear answer. He just said it was good for MPs to have outside experience, and that this had not taken up a lot of his time.
- He said that if the Commons does ban MPs from working as political consultants, as Labour and others are proposing, some MPs would leave the Commons. He said:
I wouldn’t leave. Do I think others would leave? Look, I can’t speak for them, perhaps there will be some.
Updated
Labour demands inquiry into what it argues is 'brazen' breach of Commons rules by Cox
The front page of the Times this morning is dominated by a picture from a video grab of Sir Geoffrey Cox participating virtually in the British Virgin Islands commission of inquiry. As the Daily Mail revealed yesterday, he has been representing the BVI at this commission, earning considerable sums alongside his work as an MP.
Wednesday's Times: "'Brazen' Cox accused of flouting Commons rules" #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday https://t.co/7FuHsAa3Vz pic.twitter.com/LaMiZDG1Ka
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) November 9, 2021
Yesterday the Mail focused on the fact that Cox was doing some of this work from the Caribbean, and used the remote voting rules introduced by the Commons during the pandemic to ensure that he could still take part in divisions.
Today Cox is being criticised for doing that work from Westminster. In its splash (paywall) the Times says the screengrab shows that on 14 September Cox was participating in the inquiry from what looks like a Commons office. Cox has not denied this, and this detail from Henry Zeffman’s story seems to clinch it. Zeffman writes:
On September 14, the day of the hearing in question, MPs were debating the government’s plans for a new levy to fund health and social care. Cox did not contribute to the debate.
There were six votes on the issue over the course of the day, all of which Cox took part in in person. About two hours into the BVI hearing he left his desk for 20 minutes, later telling the hearing’s chairman: “Forgive my absence during some of the morning, I’m afraid the bell went off.” This was an apparent reference to the division bell that indicates when votes in the House of Commons are taking place.
What makes this problematic is that Cox’s use of his office in this way seems hard to square with the rule in the code of conduct for MPs saying “members are personally responsible and accountable for ensuring that their use of any expenses, allowances, facilities and services provided from the public purse is ... always in support of their parliamentary duties. It should not confer any undue personal or financial benefit on themselves”.
Angela Rayner, the Labour deputy leader, has written to the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Kathryn Stone, calling for an investigation. She said:
This appears to be an egregious, brazen breach of the rules. A Conservative MP using a taxpayer funded office in parliament to work for a tax haven facing allegations of corruption is a slap in the face and an insult to British taxpayers.
The parliamentary commissioner for standards must investigate this, and the prime minister needs to explain why he has an MP in his parliamentary party that treats parliament like a co-working space allowing him to get on with all of his other jobs instead of representing his constituents.
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Labour dismisses Boris Johnson’s return to Cop26 as distraction from Tory sleaze row
Good morning. The Commons has started a mini-recess, which means Boris Johnson will not have to face what would otherwise have been a awkward PMQs, which would doubtless have been dominated by futile attempts to get him to admit what almost everyone else in government will admit - that last week’s Owen Paterson vote was a serious mistake, for which an apology is necessary.
Instead Johnson is going by train to the Cop26 conference “to meet negotiators, to get an update on progress in the talks and encourage ambitious action in the final days of the negotiations”, as No 10 put it yesterday. Johnson will hold a press conference in the afternoon.
The press conference will focus on the climate crisis, and what has been achieved at Cop26. There have been welcome developments at the summit, but overall the verdict so far is very mixed, at best, and Greenpeace International has described the draft text of the summit agreement published this morning as “not a plan to solve the climate crisis ... [but] an agreement that we’ll all cross our fingers and hope for the best”. My colleague Alan Evans has full coverage on our Cop26 live blog.
But Westminster political journalists are heading to Glasgow for the press conference too, and Johnson is bound to face some questions about the sleaze/corruption allegations that continue to dog the Tories.
Downing Street was struggling to defend Sir Geoffrey Cox yesterday, and this morning his position is looking even more perilous in the light of new allegations that he seems to have used taxpayer-funded parliamentary facilities to appear in a court hearing virtually. Other Conservatives facing fresh questions about their outside interests include Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former party leader (see here), and Daniel Kawczynski (see here).
Ed Miliband, the shadow business secretary, said this morning that Johnson’s trip to Glasgow - which had been expected later this week - looks like an attempt to distract attention from sleaze. He said:
It’s hard to avoid the suspicion that the prime minister sees a day trip to the Cop as a useful way of distracting from the sleaze surrounding the Tory party rather than a chance to get a grip and engage in the substance like a statesman.
It’s high time Boris Johnson recognised that he is not a commentator but needs to take charge of a summit that is not on track to deliver. We are miles off where we need to be in the halving of emissions required by 2030. It’s time the government faced this truth, stopped the greenwash, and put maximum pressure on all parties to step up and agree a path out of Glasgow to keep 1.5 alive.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: The ONS publishes a series of of reports, including one covering the impact of the budget on inflation, labour costs and labour income and Covid antibody levels.
4.30pm: Boris Johnson is due to hold a press conference at the Cop26 summit.
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