Afternoon summary
- Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, has denied threatening to cut the BBC’s funding because she thought the Today presenter Nick Robinson did not show Boris Johnson sufficient respect in an interview. (See 3.10pm.) During wide-ranging, and at times confrontational, exchanges with the committee, Dorries defended herself over past, offensive tweets about the LBC journalist James O’Brien (see 4.20pm and 4.42pm), retracted a comment she made at the Tory conference about how the BBC might not survive another 10 years (see 4.01pm) and criticised the Brit Awards for their decision to get rid of gendered categories. (See 3.39pm.) She also denied claims that her department had altered the Ofcom chairmanship job description to make it easier for Paul Dacre, the former Daily Mail editor, to get selected if he applied a second time. (Last week he announced he was withdrawing anyway.) Referring to the new job description, Dorries said: “It was actually not altered as such but it was made to be more diverse and broader so that we could attract a range of broader and more diverse candidates.”
- The hospitality sector in Scotland has welcomed the Scottish government’s decision not to extend the vaccine passport scheme. Instead the current scheme will be marginally relaxed, in that from 6 December people will be able to access nightclubs or large events not just by showing evidence of vaccination (as now), but by alternatively showing evidence of a recent negative lateral flow test. (See 2.42pm.) Paul Togneri of the Scottish Beer and Pub Association said his members were pleased the scheme was not being extended to cover all hospitality. He said:
Scotland’s pubs and bars have breathed a great sigh of relief with the first minister’s statement today. We have been in close dialogue with ministers, officials and public health discussing the potential economic impact and the operational practicalities extending the scheme would have entailed. We are thankful to them for listening to us and in doing so, may have averted an economic disaster for many businesses this Christmas.
- The Northern Ireland executive has strenghtened its work from home guidance in response to rising Covid transmission rates.
- Sajid Javid, the health secretary, has claimed that it is “highly unlikely” that poorer people could lose as much as £86,000 (the theoretical maximum) under the plans for a cap on social care costs approved by MPs last night. In a letter to the Commons Treasury committee, Javid said it was “highly unlikely that anybody within the means test would deplete their assets to anywhere near that maximum level”. He said that was because of the amount of time people normally need to spend in a care home. On average, 45% of people live for less than a year after moving into a care home, and more than 70% of people survive for less than three years, according to DHSC analysis.
Updated
The LBC presenter James O’Brien has described Nadine Dorries’s claim that he tweeted aggressively and obsessively about her as “ludicrous”.
Thankfully, Twitter’s search functions allow this ludicrous assertion to be checked with ease… https://t.co/sxMdFb2Yn4
— James Oh Brien (@mrjamesob) November 23, 2021
Dorries suggests criticism of Peloton-riding DCMS permanent secretary is sexist
In his letter to the Times (paywall) last week announcing that he had withdrawn from the contest to be the next Ofcom chair, Paul Dacre, the former Daily Mail editor, included a dig at the permanent secretary in the culture department, Sarah Healey. Referring to Healey admitting she likes working from home because it allows more time for exercising on her Peloton bike, he said:
After my infelicitous dalliance with the Blob, I’m taking up an exciting new job in the private sector that, in a climate that is increasingly hostile to business, struggles to create the wealth to pay for all those senior civil servants working from home so they can spend more time exercising on their Peloton bikes and polishing their political correctness, safe in the knowledge that it is they, not elected politicians, who really run this country.
Healey, who is giving evidence alongside Dorries, was asked to respond to this comment. She did not reply directly, but she said:
The only thing that I would say in response to a question is that I’m really proud of what everybody in DCMS does to support ministers. I think they’re an incredibly professional department. I think they work exceptionally hard. They’re very, very committed to what they do. I know that that’s how the secretary of state feels and how the former secretary of state felt about the support that they received.
Dorries said she had 100% support for Healey. She said Healey’s comment about her Peloton was the subject of many jokes in the department. She went on:
There are many male permanent secretaries who went for their jog each morning, or for their cycle ride, or walked their dog. Nobody had anything to say about that.
When Kevin Brennan (Lab) asked if Dorries was suggesting Dacre was misogynist, Julian Knight, the chair, told Brennan that his time for questions had run out. Dorries said “no comment”.
Updated
Dorries defends past offensive tweets about LBC journalist, saying she had to respond 'assertively' to aggressive criticism
Dorries says the tweet she addressed to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg saying a comment she reported was ridiculous was not an attack on her. She says Kuenssberg is one of the best journalists in the business.
Q: You called working for the Daily Mirror “bottom-feeding scum”.
Dorries says that was many years ago.
Nicolson asks about abusive things Dorries has tweeted about James O’Brien, the LBC presenter.
Dorries says she will not answer these questions.
Julian Knight (Con), the committee chair, says the online harms bill could give her huge power over journalists. He says he is allowing the questions on this basis.
Dorries says the tweet about the Mirror was prompted by a journalist harassing her daughter. It was the mother sending those tweets, she says.
Nicolson asks about some of the tweets Dorries has sent about O’Brien.
Dorries says, like other female politicians, she has had to put up with with men tweeting about her obsessively.
Nicolson quotes another tweet that Dorries retweeted about O’Brien, calling him a liar and a hate preacher. That’s actionable, he says.
Dorries says she is not here to answer questions about tweets she sent in the past. But female politicians criticised on Twitter need to respond “assertively”, she says.
Updated
Dorries says she is confident BBC will survive another 10 years - contrary to what she told Tory conference fringe
John Nicolson (SNP) goes next.
Q: You said you did not know if the BBC will be going in 10 years’ time? That’s extraordinary.
Dorries says she was asked about the licence fee.
Nicolson reads back the quote to her. She said she did not know if the BBC would still be there in 10 years’ time.
Well, I don’t, says Dorries. And neither do you.
Q: The Times reported that you said the Nick Robinson interview with the PM would cost the BBC a lot of money.
Dorries says she did not hear the interview, and she did not say that.
She says she is “very sure the BBC will be here in 10 years’ time”. The point she was making was that you cannot predict the future, she says.
Q: You said BBC broadcasting was like what you would see in a Soviet country. Have you ever visited a Soviet country?
Dorries says she will not comment on tweets she posted 12 years ago.
Nicolson says it was not 12 years ago. It was in the Daily Mail last month.
Updated
Dorries says only around 20% of people working at the BBC come from a working-class background. She says thinks it was easier for people from working-class backgrounds to get careers in the arts, and in journalism, in the 1960s than it is now.
Updated
Dorries says she would like to see a revival of local journalism. She describes the days when local journalists used to cover council meeting regularly and she says those were “the good old days ... of honest reporting” when journalism wasn’t “overlaid with a filter of opinion”.
Updated
Dorries tells the culture committee that she is concerned about the loss of local news. She claims that 30% of journalism posts have gone in the last 10 years. Journalism is important to democracy, she says.
Dorries says Brit awards decision to avoid gendered categories could disadvantage women
Q: What do you think of the decision of the Brit awards to avoid gendered categories?
Dorries claims this is the first time she has heard about it. She says it sounds like a sad decision. But she says she would be concerned about women not being properly represented.
I have to say it’s the first [time] I’m aware of it. I think it sounds quite a sad decision. I would like to see how they would work in terms of fair gender representation.
Brine says the decision was taken so as not to exclude non-binary artists. Dorries repeats her claim not to have heard of this before. She goes on:
If you look at who used to win awards for novels, and many things in the past, men always dominated, and my concern would be that women weren’t fairly represented moving forward. So I would just be concerned on the gender balance issue.
Whereas we know we’re going to get best female artist, best female producer, best female whatever, I’d be concerned that in the future women weren’t fairly represented in those awards.
Updated
Steve Brine (Con) is asking the question.
Q: Do you think Channel 4 privatisation is more or less likely since you took over as culture secretary?
Dorries says she cannot answer that question. She says she does not know what her predecessor thought.
Brine says Channel 4 news is the equivalent of the Guardian on TV. He says that may have clouded the debate on privatisation.
Q: When were you last on Channel 4 News?
Dorries says she has been asked many times to appear on Channel 4 News, but she says no. That is her choice, she says. She says she avoids appearing on news programmes unless she has to.
Updated
Dorries insists there would be no point having a consultation on privatising Channel 4 if she was not prepared to listen to what people say.
She says she wants to look at all the evidence, read the culture committee’s report, see a commercial evaluation of Channel 4 and consider the future of public service broadcasting before deciding whether or not to go ahead with the proposed privatisation.
Dorries denies threatening to cut BBC's funding because of Nick Robinson's confrontational interview with PM
Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, is giving evidence to the Commons culture committee. It is her first appearance before the committee in his post. There is a live feed here.
As my colleague Jim Waterson reports, Dorries cited her own children as examples of snowflake lefties, or Islington lefties (types she has regularly criticised in the past on Twitter).
"What is a snowflake lefty?" asks Labour MP Clive Efford at the DCMS select committee.
— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) November 23, 2021
"Probably my kids," says Nadine Dorries.
"What is an Islington lefty?" asks Efford.
"Well again, one of my kids," says Dorries.
Dorries also denied a report saying she had criticised Nick Robinson, the BBC Radio 4 Today programme presenter, for his interview with Boris Johnson at the Conservative party conference. After the interview, which saw Robinson telling Johnson to “stop talking” because Robinson thought he was playing for time and question-dodging, a Sunday Times report (paywall) claimed Dorries was furious with the presenter’s attitude. “Nick Robinson has cost the BBC a lot of money,” the paper quoted her as telling allies.
Dorries told the committee:
I’ve never criticised Nick Robinson. I didn’t hear the interview that I was supposed to have criticised, and I never made the comments ...
It was attributed to me, but nobody can actually say that I said it.
Updated
Hospitality venues in Scotland are likely to welcome the Scotttish government’s decision not to extend the scope of vaccine passports in Scotland. (See 2.42pm.) They feared the scheme could have been expanded to cover pubs and restaurants.
Here are some quotes from the Sturgeon statement, from the SNP’s Twitter feed.
FM: "Firstly, for at least a further three week period, we will retain vaccine certification for the venues and events currently covered by it - that is late night licensed premises with a designated area for dancing..."
— The SNP (@theSNP) November 23, 2021
FM: "...unseated indoor events of 500 people or more, unseated outdoor events of 4,000 people or more, and any event with 10,000 people or more."
— The SNP (@theSNP) November 23, 2021
FM: "Given the current state of the pandemic, it would not be appropriate at this stage to remove this protection against transmission."
— The SNP (@theSNP) November 23, 2021
FM: "Secondly, however, we have decided that from 6 December it will be possible to access venues or events covered by the scheme by showing either proof of vaccination, as now, or a recent negative lateral flow test result."
— The SNP (@theSNP) November 23, 2021
FM: "When we first launched the scheme, one of its primary objectives was to help drive up vaccination rates.
— The SNP (@theSNP) November 23, 2021
This is still important, obviously, but actual and projected uptake rates mean we judge it possible now to include testing."
FM: "Doing so will also ensure that the scheme remains proportionate, and help our wider efforts to stem transmission through greater use of LFD tests more generally."
— The SNP (@theSNP) November 23, 2021
Scottish government decides against extending Covid vaccine passport scheme, and allows negative lateral flow tests to count too
Sturgeon is now giving an update on Scotland’s Covid certification scheme.
The current scheme - which covers nightclubs and large events - will apply for at least the next three weeks, she says.
From 6 December people will be able to access places or events covered by the scheme either by showing proof of vaccination, as now, or by showing proof of a recent negative lateral flow test (which is not accepted now).
And she says the cabinet has decided not to extend the scope of the scheme. The decision was ”finely balanced”, she says. But she says they decided that at this stage extending the scheme would not be proportionate.
Updated
Sturgeon asks Scots to take a lateral flow test before they socialise over Christmas
Sturgeon says the government is asking people over the Christmas period to take a lateral flow test before any occasion when they are socialising with others. That could be going out for drinks, going to someone’s home, or even just going out shopping, she says.
And if you test positive, you should not go, she says.
Updated
Sturgeon stresses the importance of pregnant women getting vaccinated too.
Sturgeon says delivering the booster programme is the top priority.
She says 1.4m people have already had a booster. That is just over 30% of the population over the age of 12.
She says people who are not as vaccinated as they could be could be putting the lives of their loved ones in danger. People who have not had a first or second dose now should get one.
And she says getting the booster is “not just a small top up”. It is every bit as important as the first or second dose, she says. She says booster reduce the chance of symptomatic infection by more than 80%.
Updated
Sturgeon says the situation is “more positive” than it might have been, but that it is still “precarious”.
She says that is why the cabinet decided to retain all the protections already in place in Scotland.
Updated
Nicola Sturgeon's statement to MSPs about Covid
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, is making a statement to MSPs about Covid.
She says the situation is “deteriorating” across Europe.
And she says cases have also been rising in the UK, with Christmas approaching.
Even though cases in Scotland have been relatively stable, she says it is important to take care. Cases are higher than the government would like, she says.
Updated
Tory councillor pays damages to Corbyn for defamatory tweet
A Conservative councillor has agreed to pay “substantial” damages and legal costs to Jeremy Corbyn for a tweet containing a fake photograph of the former Labour leader at the scene of the Liverpool terrorist attack.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Paul Nickerson, a councillor on East Riding of Yorkshire council, has apologised and taken “full responsibility” for the doctored tweet, which showed Corbyn laying a poppy wreath at the burning taxi outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital, and was captioned with the word “unsurprisingly”, PA Media reports.
On 15 November 2021 a false defamatory statement, for which I accept full responsibility, was published on my Twitter account about Jeremy Corbyn MP. My apology is attached. I have agreed to pay substantial damages and legal costs to Mr Corbyn. Please retweet. pic.twitter.com/K61Vtx4cEo
— Cllr Paul Nickerson (@CouncillorPaul_) November 23, 2021
In a statement on Facebook, Corbyn said that the bomb attack in Liverpool was a “horrific crime’ and that Nickerson’s tweet “failed to understand the seriousness of the threat and did a disservice to all those affected by the attack and their loved ones”.
Corbyn said he would be using the damages payment “to support charities that are close to my heart: including one in Liverpool and one in my constituency”.
Home Office tells councils to take unaccompanied migrant children
Councils across England will be forced to care for unaccompanied children who have arrived on small boats under new rules put forward by the Home Office, my colleagues Rajeev Syal and Libby Brooks report.
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, has thanked the UK government for proscribing Hamas as a terrorist organisation. At a meeting with Boris Johnson in Downing Street Herzog said:
Thank you very much for your resolution on proscribing Hamas. It’s a very important message to tell organisations and those who are inclined to radical ... and undermine the situation in the Middle East.
In response Johnson said:
On Hamas, I think we took the right decision. It was a difficult and a controversial decision.
And by the way I think it was a decision that was almost immediately vindicated by the appalling incident we saw in Israel. Absolutely, terrible thing.
As PA Media reports, two days after the proscription was announced, a Hamas militant killed one Israeli and injured four others after opening fire in the Old City on Sunday.
People are being urged to take a rapid Covid-19 test before mixing with others in “crowded indoor spaces”, PA Media reports. PA says:
Previously the public was advised to use lateral flow tests twice-weekly.
But government and NHS guidance on when to take a test has changed and it now urges people to take a test before mixing with people in crowded indoor places or before visiting a person who is at higher risk of getting seriously ill from Covid-19.
Post-Brexit scheme to lure Nobel winners to UK fails to attract single applicant
A post-Brexit scheme to draw the world’s most celebrated academics and other leading figures to the UK has failed to attract a single applicant in the six months since it opened, it has been reported. My colleague Kevin Rawlinson has the story here.
Prominent Liverpool councillor condemns Starmer as she quits Labour
Liverpool councillor Anna Rothery, who was dropped from Labour’s all-female mayoral shortlist earlier this year, has resigned from the Labour party with a stinging attack on Keir Starmer’s leadership.
In a letter sent to the party’s general secretary, David Evans, this morning, Rothery writes that, “as a socialist” who joined the party as a teenager, the Labour party “no longer represents my values” and its leadership is “failing in its duty to effectively oppose the government’s attacks on our people”. She goes on:
The leadership is more interested [in] carrying out internal party vendettas than standing up for our people, our black community and our LGBTQIA community.
Rothery, whose mayoral bid was endorsed by former leader Jeremy Corbyn and the Unite union, slams Starmer’s decision to write an opinion article for the Sun in October. She describes the decision “to actively engage and seek support from the Murdoch press despite the feelings of the whole of Merseyside” as “unforgivable”. The move was criticised by Merseyside Labour MPs and others who observe a boycott of the Sun over its role in smearing victims of the Hillsborough disaster.
Referring to the chaotic mayoral shortlisting process in February prompted by the arrest of former city mayor Joe Anderson, after which the councillor unsuccessfully attempted to sue the Labour party, Rothery writes:
I was treated with utter contempt, with my name dragged through the mud for having the temerity of offering myself as a candidate for Liverpool’s elected mayor.
Petty personality politics wastes time and provokes demoralisation and I want to spend my time supporting the people of our great city. As an independent councillor I will continue to fight passionately for my residents and the city without being held back by a timid national leadership or distracted by the internal fights in the party.
As reported in the Liverpool Echo, Rothery is the second Labour councillor to resign this week. Rothery and Sarah Morton will sit as independents, leaving 68 out of 90 seats on Liverpool city council held by Labour under mayor Joanne Anderson.
Updated
No 10 rejects claims PM losing his grip
And here is a full summary of the Downing Street lobby briefing.
- No 10 rejected claims that Boris Johnson’s performance at the CBI yesterday showed that the PM was losing his grip. Asked if Boris Johnson still had a grip on what was going on, the prime minister’s spokesman replied: “Of course.” The spokesman quoted from the CBI response to the speech, saying business would have been “heartened” by what he said. The spokesman also played down the significance of Johnson losing his place half way through. He said:
The prime minister briefly lost his place in a speech. He has given hundreds of speeches. I don’t think it’s unusual for people on rare occasions to lose their place in a speech.
Asked if the PM was feeling okay (there was speculation yesterday that he might be unwell), the spokesman replied: “The prime minister is very much focused on delivering for the public.”
- Johnson has conceded that some people may still have to sell their homes to pay for social care under his reform plans, despite the Conservative manifesto ruling this out, the spokesman revealed. (See 12.27pm.)
- Cabinet was told that supply-chain problems are likely to persist over the winter, the spokesman said. He said Stephen Barclay, the Cabinet Office minister, gave a presentation at cabinet on the issue. Barclay assured colleagues that Britons would still be able to buy turkeys, but he suggested wider problems would persist. The spokesman said:
[Barclay] said we face the dual challenge of managing the regular pressures the colder and wetter months can bring alongside the additional challenge of an ongoing global pandemic and the knock on effects this is having including on global supply chains and energy supply. He gave an overview of the ongoing work he is leading to ensure the government is best placed to meet the expected challenges, including on food supply, noting that government action had alleviated concerns over potential turkey shortages in the run up to Christmas.
- The spokesman indicated that Johnson agreed with what Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, said in a speech to a Centre for Policy Studies conference yesterday. The spokesman said Frost’s speech echoed what the PM, and the chancellor, have said about the importance of having lower taxation and less regulation. Frost did call for low taxes and “light touch and proportionate regulation”. But in the speech he went further, suggesting that Brexit would fail unless these were delivered. He said:
We can’t carry on as we were before and if after Brexit all we do is import the European social model we will not succeed.
We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the European Union from Britain with Brexit, only to import that European model after all this time.
So we need to reform fast, and those reforms are going to involve doing things differently from the EU. If we stick to EU models, but behind our own tariff wall and with a smaller market, we obviously won’t succeed.
That is why I talk so often about divergence - not for the sake of it, but because it is a national necessity.
In fact, there has been little serious deregulation passed since Brexit, and the tax burden is now on course to reach its highest level since the 1950s.
- The spokesman rejected a suggestion from William Hague, the former Conservative leader, that Johnson needs an inner cabinet of senior ministers to advise him. In his Times column (paywall) today Hague says:
The first step towards that is avoiding trouble, and the best way to do that is to make cabinet government operate effectively. The prime minister could benefit from having a group of senior colleagues whom he meets every day. They ought to be discussing their whole strategy together frankly. David Cameron had such a group: I was part of it. Margaret Thatcher loved arguing with her ministers, which was frightening for them but led to well-informed decisions.
Asked about this proposal, the spokesman said Johnson had an entire cabinet to provide him with advice. “The cabinet is used for that purpose,” the spokesman said. The spokesman also refused to comment directly on what he referred to as an “anonymous source” quote reported by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg yesterday quoting a Downing Street figure saying the cabinet should be demanding serious changes to the way Johnson operates. The spokesman said Johnson wanted his ministers to speak freely and to give their views, and he implied this was already happening. “That’s what cabinet meetings are for and that’s part of the function of government,” he said.
Updated
Johnson concedes some people may still have to sell their homes to pay for social care under reform plans
The Downing Street lobby briefing has just ended, and the readout from the prime minister’s spokesman about what was said at cabinet this morning included an important concession from Boris Johnson. The PM has admitted that, under his plans to reform social care, some pensioners could still be forced to sell their homes to pay for their care needs.
Summarising what Johnson told cabinet, the spokesman said Johnson opened the meeting by welcoming last night’s Commons vote.
[Johnson] reiterated the changes the government were introducing would finally address the long-standing problem that leaves one in seven people facing catastrophic care costs, changes backed by a significant funding increase support for the social care sector.
He said the amendment meant more people would benefit with the charge for daily living costs set lower than in previous proposals and a £100,000 floor under which the government provides support, which applies both to residential and domiciliary care, recognising that half of people who receive care do something in their own homes.
He added that no one be forced to sell a home they or their spouse is living in as it will not be counted as an asset.
The qualifier about people not having to sell a home they are living in is important because it was not included in the promise Johnson originally made on social care. This is what the Conservative party said in its 2019 manifesto (pdf).
We will build a cross-party consensus to bring forward an answer that solves the problem, commands the widest possible support, and stands the test of time. That consensus will consider a range of options but one condition we do make is that nobody needing care should be forced to sell their home to pay for it.
There is nothing factually new about what Downing Street is saying. As soon as the social care plan was announced in September, critics pointed out that it would not offer as much protection as the Tory manifesto implied. But at that point Johnson refused to acknowledge that. When Keir Starmer challenged him on exactly this point at PMQs the day after the announcement was made, Johnson simply ignored the question.
This BBC graphic, being retweeted by some opposition MPs, explains clearly why some people are likely to have to sell their houses if they move into a care home under the current plans.
The Conservatives' social care cap explained:
— Preet Kaur Gill MP (@PreetKGillMP) November 23, 2021
Live in an affordable area, you could lose everything if you're unlucky enough to have care needs in old age.
Live in a wealthy area, the majority of your assets will be protected.
That's the Tory plan for #LevellingDownsocial care pic.twitter.com/UIxqiq36bM
I will post more from the briefing shortly.
Updated
A total of 1,020 deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending 12 November mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is up 3% on the previous week and is the highest number since the week to 12 March, as PA Media reports. Around one in 12 (8.5%) of all deaths registered in England and Wales in the week to 12 November mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate.
Stormont ministers have agreed a series of new measures aimed at bolstering adherence to Covid rules in Northern Ireland, PA Media reports. PA says:
Ministers met on Tuesday morning to resume discussions on a range of proposals recommended by health minister Robin Swann.
Some revisions to Swann’s original recommendations have been made.
People will be urged to work from home where possible and the Executive has tasked its Covid taskforce to examine issues around enforcement of mask wearing and also look at the potential of setting up a scores-on-the-doors type system to rate businesses on their compliance with rules and mitigations.
And this is from Paul Givan, Northern Ireland’s first minister.
The Executive has engaged constructively & agreed a number of measures that will step up our collective efforts against the spread of Covid. Whilst there is differences across society on the most effective measures, we can all make a contribution that will help make a difference.
— Paul Givan (@paulgivan) November 23, 2021
Updated
Updated
As we report in our splash today, what made Boris Johnson’s rambling, glib and poorly delivered CBI speech such a disaster yesterday was the fact that it appeared to confirm growing fears in the Conservative party that the PM is losing his grip.
Most other papers are reporting similar concerns in the Conservative party. This is from the Times’s story (paywall).
One government source said there was nervousness in Downing Street after what appeared to be “stumble after stumble”, adding: “People are sharpening their knives. The operation should be spotting those things and heading them off” ...
One minister said: “He looked dreadful today. I think it’s indicative of the chaotic way the government is drifting. It’s not fatal, but he needs to get a grip.”
One Conservative MP told the Times: “The prime minister desperately needs a big moment where everyone says, ‘boom, he’s back’. Today wasn’t that moment but he needs to find it soon.”
This is from the Financial Times’ story (paywall).
A long-term supporter of Johnson pinned the blame for recent problems on the prime minister’s advisers. “Bojo has lost his mojo,” said the Tory MP. “There’s a mixture of anger and despair but the real frustration is with the [Number 10] operation, it’s amateurish.”
Another close ally of Johnson said fears over his standing in the Conservative party were growing. “I’m starting to get concerned,” added the Tory MP. “Supporters who were hitherto reliable are getting jittery.”
However, it is always important to keep things in perspective. In The Prime Ministers We Never Had, his new and very insightful book about politicians who never quite made it to No 10, Steve Richards considers why it is that they all failed and one of his main conclusions relates to prime ministerial job security. He says:
The most striking lesson is that prime ministers are much safer than they appear to be ... Most of the time, there is considerable speculation within governing parties and the media that a prime minister is about to fall and be replaced by a mightier figure. The opposite tends to happen; the tottering prime ministers continue for much longer than assumed or anticipated.
Updated
The Conservative party held its annual fundraising winter ball last night, and as usual that saw donors paying vast sums for leisure events with cabinet ministers. The Sun’s Harry Cole has some of the details.
My spy reports dinner with Rishi Sunak just auctioned off for £35k at the Tory Winter Ball…
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) November 22, 2021
Karaoke with Liz Truss for £22k…
Cabinet themselves have rushed back to Commons to vote…
Correction: it was an hour of cricket with the Chancellor.
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) November 22, 2021
The “Get Brexit Done” sign from the PM’s 2019 Election campaign goes for £30k…
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) November 22, 2021
Gove dinner went for £25k…
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) November 23, 2021
Truss apologises for FCO's failure to alert BA about Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990
A warning that Iraqi forces had entered Kuwait was not passed on to British Airways even though it had a flight heading to the Gulf state, the Foreign Office has disclosed. PA Media reports:
Flight BA149 with 367 passengers on board landed in Kuwait in the early hours of August 2 1990, and the passengers and crew were detained by the invading Iraqi forces and held hostage for up to five months.
In a Commons written ministerial statement, Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, said files being released to the National Archives show that British ambassador Sir Michael Weston warned the Foreign Office around midnight that an Iraqi incursion was under way as the flight was en route.
“The information was passed by the resident clerk to the head of the FCO’s Middle East department and also to No 10, the Ministry of Defence, Cabinet Office and the Secret Intelligence Service [MI6], but not to British Airways,” Truss said.
“The call made by HMA Kuwait has never been publicly disclosed or acknowledged until today. These files show that the existence of the call was not revealed to parliament and the public.
“This failure was unacceptable. As the current secretary of state, I apologise to the house for this, and I express my deepest sympathy to those who were detained and mistreated.”
There has long been speculation that the flight was allowed to continue to Kuwait, even though other flights were being diverted, because it was being used to carry a group of Special Forces into the country.
But, in her statement, Truss said the files were consistent with a statement by ministers in 2007 that “the government at the time did not attempt in any way to exploit the flight by any means whatever”.
But Ruth Davidson, the former Scottish Conservative leader, has a very different take from Jeremy Hunt on the PM’s CBI speech. She posted this on Twitter last night.
Craig Oliver's analysis on @BBCNewsnight is right. The fundamental thing about today's speech is that it was disrespectful. British business deserves more than chaotic and unprepared boosterism. It needs to know government understands the current huge challenges and will help.
— Ruth Davidson (@RuthDavidsonPC) November 22, 2021
Davidson was once seen as a future Conservative party leader herself in the David Cameron years, but as a remainer who has now joined the House of Lords, she is definitely now out of the running.
In his Today programme interview Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative chair of the Commons health committee, and Boris Johnson’s main rival for the Tory leadership in 2019, sought to play down the seriousness of the PM’s CBI speech debacle yesterday. He told the programme:
What I would say is the last month has not been a good month for the government. But in the end the thing that will count when we next face the electorate is whether the things that we have promised to help ordinary people are actually happening.
Nick Robinson, the Today presenter, suggests Hunt was being tactful because he has not ruled out being a leadership candidate again.
Revealing that @Jeremy_Hunt - the other candidate to be Tory leader - came on to @BBCr4today to pity rather than bury @BorisJohnson. Just in case there's a vacancy one day ?
— Nick Robinson (@bbcnickrobinson) November 23, 2021
Ministers will eventually U-turn over social care costs, Jeremy Hunt predicts
Good morning. Last night Boris Johnson won the vote on how the cap on social care will be implemented. But despite currently having a working majority of 77, his majority was cut to 26. There were 19 Tories who voted against the government. Just as significantly, for the third time in less than three weeks, dozens of Conservatives effectively went on strike, refusing to vote with the government. There were 68 Tories who did not vote in the division last night; last week 74 Tories did not vote in the divison on Labour’s plan to reform the code of conduct for MPs, and earlier in the month 97 of them did not vote in the division on the motion to shelve the Owen Paterson report.
According to my colleague Jessica Elgot, only 13 Tories were paired with Labour last night, meaning most of the no-shows were probably deliberate abstentions, rather than authorised absences.
The row over the cap on social care costs is unlikely to go away. The health and social care bill has to go to the House of Lords, and peers are very likely to seek to amend this aspect of the bill. This morning Lady Finlay of Llandaff, a crossbench peer, told the Today programme:
I think when this comes to the House of Lords, we will need to scrutinise this very, very carefully ... It may be that we will say to the Commons, ‘can you think again?’, it may be that we come up with constructive amendments to improve what is on the table at the moment because, clearly, there’s a lot of disquiet.
And, on the same programme, Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative chair of the Commons health committee, said that he thought eventually the government would have to back down on the mechanism used to calculate the cap on social care costs (which has been criticised because it gives poorer people less protection than was expected). Hunt said it was “unlikely” that the government would order a U-turn soon. But eventually there would be a rethink, he claimed. He told the programme:
Certainly, in time, people will successfully make the case for the way the cap is calculated to be more generous ....
We will be helping less people protect the assets in their houses than people like me were hoping for, than in fact the legislation I took through parliament in 2014 [provided for].
I think it makes it a harder package to sell to the whole country, which is why I hope very much this is something that government will look at again before the next election.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Boris Johnson chairs cabinet.
10.30am: Johnson and Keir Starmer are among the attendees at a requiem mass for Sir David Amess at Westminster Cathedral.
11.30am: Sajid Javid, the health secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
After 1.30pm: MPs resume their debate on the health and care bill.
2.20pm: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, makes a statement on Covid in the Scottish parliament.
2.30pm: Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, gives evidence to the Commons culture committee, first on the work of her department generally and then, from 4pm, on the online safety bill.
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
