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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

UK politics: Starmer challenges Tory MPs to oust PM, saying he’s ‘not fit for office’ – as it happened

Boris Johnson is continuing to face scrutiny over reports of functions being held at Downing Street during Covid lockdown
Boris Johnson is continuing to face scrutiny over reports of functions being held at Downing Street during Covid lockdown. Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/Rex/Shutterstock

Afternoon summary

  • The UK has recorded 58,194 new coronavirus cases, the UK Health Security Agency has announced. That is the highest daily total since 9 January, when 59,937 new cases were recorded.

Here is the latest risk assessment for Omicron.

Omicron risk assessment
Omicron risk assessment Photograph: UKHSA

Updated

Lawyers write to PM challenging him to confirm start date for Covid inquiry

In September Boris Johnson told the Covid-19 Bereaved Familes for Justice group that he would appoint the chair of the Covid inquiry before Christmas. The inquiry is due to start work in the spring.

Christmas is two weeks tomorrow, and the chair has still not been appointed.

Today 10 law firms, representing family and professional groups likely to be granted core participant status in the inquiry, have written to Johnson challenging him to delay no longer.

In particular, they are demanding: a date to be set for the start of the inquiry no later than April 2022; an urgent public consultation on its terms of reference; the panel be appointed in an open and transparent manner; and the panel to be diverse, in particular reflecting groups most affected by Covid.

In their letter, coordinated by Bindmans, the lawyers tell Johnson:

In your statement to parliament, you stated that you expected the inquiry would begin in spring 2022. The institution day under the Inquiries Act only triggers the process and is not the beginning of evidence hearings. In the circumstances there has already been an inordinate delay in announcing the initiation of the inquiry.

An announcement now of a ‘setting-up’ date no later than 4 April 2022 will concentrate minds on the task at hand and reduce the very real risk that memories will fade or be reformulated, documents will be lost, and it will help those who have lost most to start to feel that there will be an explanation coming for that loss.

YouGov has released some new polling showing Boris Johnson’s popularity as prime minister at a new low.

Last night YouGov published a poll giving Labour a four-point lead over the Conservatives (Lab 37%, +4; Con 33%, -3).

And Survation published a poll giving Labour a six-point lead (Lab 40%, +1; Con 34%, -2).

Keir Starmer during a visit to Hadston House youth and community projects in Hadston, Northumberland today.
Keir Starmer during a visit to Hadston House youth and community projects in Hadston, Northumberland today. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

Information Commissioner's Office to consider complaint about No 10's handling of flat refurbishment FoI request

Compared with other potential standards inquiries that Downing Street is facing, this is relatively low-key. But it is still worth noting that the Information Commissioner’s Office has now joined the list of organisations looking into complaints about Boris Johnson.

In particular, the ICO is looking at an allegation that the Cabinet Office did not respond properly to a Freedom of Information request relating to Johnson’s WhatsApp messages relating to the Downing Street flat refurbishment.

These are from the Times’ George Grylls.

Johnson will be gone from No 10 within a year, Cummings claims

In his Q&A on his subscription-only Substack account Dominic Cummings, who was the PM’s chief adviser in No 10 until he left and became one of his chief critics, predicted that Boris Johnson would be out of office by this time next year. Here are the key points.

  • Cummings predicted that Johnson will be gone within a year, probably by next summer. Asked to explain how, he said:

The polls will lead it, plus his inevitable continued flat spin, plus officials kicking him off the ice, plus rivals strategically intervening

This tweet explains the ice reference.

The trolley figure refers to Boris Johnson. Cummings calls him a trolley because he says Johnson veers all over the place on policy.

  • Cummings praised Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, as a better politician than anyone in cabinet. Asked for his view on Case, he said:

He’s much better at politics than anybody in the cabinet but he’s now in an impossible job: all he can do is quietly help shove the trolley off the ice and cut a deal with the replacement.

  • Cummings claims SNP figures have privately told the government they do not want an independence referendum before 2024. Asked how the government should deal with Nicola Sturgeon and her call for a second independence referendum, he replied:

Ignore it. She doesn’t even want it now she just wants to be boss up there and whinge. Her network have made quietly clear to Whitehall they are happy without a referendum pre-2024.

She only wants it when confident she’ll win.

Dominic Cummings
Dominic Cummings Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Commenting on the four-nations meeeting of the Cobra emergency committee taking place this afternoon, Paul Givan, Northern Ireland’s first minister, said:

The prime minister has called a meeting of the Cobra committee that will take place later this afternoon. It is to share information in terms of the current data analysis that is taking place. Also what kind of policy responses would be considered and to have a greater joined up approach across the United Kingdom. I am sure there will be an update from the UK government later this evening.

Updated

Keir Starmer and Northumbria’s police and crime commissioner, Kim McGuinness, packing Christmas food hampers during a visit to Hadston House youth and community project today to meet people affected by Storm Arwen.
Keir Starmer and Northumbria’s police and crime commissioner, Kim McGuinness, packing Christmas food hampers during a visit to Hadston House youth and community project today to meet people affected by Storm Arwen. Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

Updated

The University and College Union has called for universities to move the term’s final week of teaching online to slow the spread of the Omicron variant, after outbreaks have been reported at several institutions.

UCU said: “A clear direction to suspend in-person activities for the final week won’t disrupt education and will prevent needless spread of omicron among university communities. It will also allow essential activities such as lab-based research and medical teaching to continue on campus.”

Imperial College London has already moved its teaching online after widespread outbreaks of the Omicron variant have been detected.

The union also wants the government to mandate the wearing of masks in classes and seminars in England when students return in the new year.

Jo Grady, the UCU general secretary, said:

Last year, ministers moved too slowly, effectively denying there was a need to suspend in-person activities while new variants developed, leading to mass outbreaks. We can avoid that situation by moving the final week online.

Updated

No 10 not telling people to cancel Christmas parties - but has cancelled its own

And here is a full summary of the Downing Street lobby briefing.

  • No 10 said Michael Gove will chair a Cobra meeting on Covid with the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland governments this afternoon. (See 12.45pm.)
  • No 10 is not telling people to cancel Christmas parties - but it confirmed that it has cancelled its own one. Asked if the government is advising people to cancel parties (as the Scottish government is advising - see 12.53pm), the PM’s spokesman said:

We do not think there is a need to cancel people coming together in hospitality venues like that.

But explaining why No 10 will not be having its own party, the spokesman said:

I think we’ve made clear since the latest situation with Omicron, obviously that’s taking up great deal of time at the moment. There’s no plans for that in No 10.

Asked when the decision was taken, the spokesman said: “Following the decision on plan B and the latest data that we’ve got.”

  • The spokesman said Boris Johnson has full confidence in Jack Doyle, his communciations director.
  • The spokesman hinted that No 10 is trying to persuade Christopher Geidt, the PM’s independent adviser on ministerial standards, that he was not misled during his investigation into the refurbishment of Johnson’s flat. (See 1.22pm.)
  • The spokesman stressed that the plan being introduced is for Covid passports for some venues, not vaccine passports. He said the distintinction was important, because it means people will be able to get access to venues not just by showing they are fully vaccinated, but also, as an alternative, by showing evidence of a negative lateral flow test. In his interview this morning with BBC Radio Notttingham, Mark Spencer, the chief whip, made the same point. He said this might help persuade Tory MPs to vote with the government.
  • The spokesman said there were “no plans” for the government to introduce even more new Covid restriction (plan C). “No plans”, of course, does not mean it will not happen. There are several reports in papers today saying the government is preparing to implement “plan C”. The Daily Mail says this could include “having to ‘check in’ with the NHS Covid app again to go to a pub or restaurant, using face masks in all indoor spaces, and having to show a vaccine passport at even more venues”.
  • The spokesman said no final decisions have been taken on whether further restrictions would be needed in care homes in England. He said:

We haven’t taken any final decisions on whether further measures in care homes are necessary, I think as you’d expect given the additional vulnerability, we’re keeping a very close eye on what may be required there. We have a responsibility to protect residents.

The guidance as it stands makes clear that visits should be supported and we recognise that visits are a vital part for residents to maintain health, wellbeing and quality of life.

In Wales regulations on care homes are being tightened. (See 1.29pm.)

10 Downing Street.
10 Downing Street. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

Starmer challenges Tory MPs to oust PM, saying he's 'not fit for office'

Keir Starmer has said Boris Johnson is “not fit for office”. Speaking on a visit to Northumberland, he said:

[Johnson is] not fit for office and because he’s not fit for office, he won’t resign and the question really is for Tory members of the cabinet, Tory MPs, to ask themselves are they prepared to put up with this?

He’s not fit for office. He’s not going to be fit for office.

Are they prepared to go through the degrading of themselves and their party, to go out to the media, have to defend the indefensible for months to come?

Or are they going to actually have the courage now to challenge him and say you’re not fit for office?

Starmer also suggested that Jack Doyle should resign as the PM’s director of communications. He said:

If the information that’s coming out at the moment about [Doyle] attending the party is accurate, then it seems to be pretty obvious that he’s got to consider his position ...

Many people didn’t see loved ones over Christmas. Some people didn’t see their loved ones ever again.

And for them to learn that whilst they were going through that, there were parties going on in Downing Street is contentious and insulting to them.

Keir Starmer in Hadston, Northumberland, today.
Keir Starmer in Hadston, Northumberland, today. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

Updated

Drakeford claims leak saying he favours new lockdown was distortion intended to help UK government

The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, has said details of a conversation he had with the minister for intergovernmental relations, Michael Gove, on the prospect of a lockdown were leaked to distract from the UK government’s troubles.

There have been reports that Drakeford called for the a complete lockdown between Christmas and new year during a phone call with Gove and representatives of the devolved nations.

At a press conference in Cardiff, Drakeford said the accounts were “distorted” and a “gross violation” of the terms of such meetings.

He said the motive of the leak “was to cause a distraction from the many, many difficulties the UK government has experienced this week”.

On the likelihood of a lockdown, Drakeford added:

Do I urge the UK government to plan ahead? Do I urge the UK government to take the actions that are necessary in order to meet the challenge of coronavirus? I’ve done that time after time and am very happy to repeat it.

Asked whether sporting venues had been told to prepare for restrictions next month, he said:

It’s time to plan for what might be coming our way. While you have the chance you should be thinking and preparing.

Updated

Wales faces new restrictions on visiting people in care homes and hospitals, Drakeford says

New restrictions on visiting people in care homes and hospitals may have to be introduced to counter the impact of Omicron, the Welsh government has said.

Speaking at a press conference in Cardiff, the first minister, Mark Drakeford, said:

We will be issuing new guidance for visiting in care homes and hospitals. We want to do all we can to support visiting where it is safe to do so but, if we see a new wave of cases, some strengthened measures to protect patients and residents may be needed.

Drakeford also called for students preparing to leave college and university for Christmas to test before travel.

No new restrictions are being introduced but the Welsh government is to start reviewing measures weekly from now rather than every three weeks as it has been doing.

Drakeford said Wales was a week behind what was happening in England and Scotland but he expected cases of Omicron to rise “quickly and steeply”.

He said he was planning to speak to the UK government today to make it clear that if hospitality venues have to close because of the variant, the UK Treasury would have to step in to help.

Mark Drakeford at his press conference in Cardiff today.
Mark Drakeford at his press conference in Cardiff today. Photograph: Polly Thomas/Getty Images

Updated

No 10 hints it is having to persuade standards adviser Lord Geidt he wasn't misled

At the Downing Street lobby briefing, Boris Johnson’s spokesperson hinted that No 10 was trying to persuade Christopher Geidt, the PM’s independent adviser on ministerial standards, that he was not misled during his investigation into the refurbishment of Johnson’s flat.

Yesterday a report from the Electoral Commission implied Johnson might have lied to Lord Geidt about what happened. No 10 denies this, and Geidt is reportedly seeking reassurance that he was not misled. (See 9.39am.)

Today the spokesperson confirmed Geidt had not resigned. And he implied No 10 was supplying him with new information. He said:

We are liaising with Lord Geidt to answer any further questions he may have.

But the spokesperson would not confirm that, if Geidt wanted to reopen his inquiry, he would be allowed to do so. He could only formally launch an inquiry with the prime minister’s permission.

The spokesperson claimed Geidt had access to all the information he wanted to see when he conducted his original investigation, but he could not explain why Geidt did not appear to have seen WhatsApp messages found by the Electoral Commission.

The spokesperson also refused to say whether or not Johnson had spoken to Geidt last night and asked him not to resign.

Lord Geidt.
Lord Geidt. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Updated

Sturgeon backs call for Scots not to hold Christmas parties

While emphasising that it is crucial to following existing guidelines on regular testing, face masks and ventilation, Nicola Sturgeon backed the advice put out yesterday by Public Health Scotland saying that people should think about deferring work Christmas parties and avoid crowded places. (See 9.59am.) She said:

There is a serious risk with Omicron, and we are already seeing the reality of this with parties and events with lots of people. We should all think about unnecessary contact in crowded places.

Changing self-isolation rules, Sturgeon said any household contact of a positive case should self-isolate for 10 days even if they receive a negative PCR test, while non-household contacts can leave isolation once they receive a negative PCR result.

Sturgeon said the guidance was focusing on work events “because we knew they are resulting in the rapid spread of infection”. She pointed out that there were 60 train cancellations on ScotRail today due to Covid absences, while 40 accident and emergency staff were isolating because of an Omicron cluster.

The bigger the event, the more those risks are very real. My advice would be to consider deferring work Christmas events.

The clinical director Jason Leitch pointed out the attack rate of Omicron was that if 100 people were in the room and there was a single case, at least 50 people would get it.

Updated

Gove to chair Cobra meeting on Covid with Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish first ministers

The Downing Street lobby briefing has just finished, and No 10 announced that Michael Gove, in his capacity as minister for intergovernmental relations, will chair a meeting of the government’s emergency Cobra meeting today to discuss Covid. The first ministers and deputy first ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will participate.

I will post more from the lobby soon.

Michael Gove outside No 10.
Michael Gove outside No 10. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Updated

Sturgeon warns that Scotland facing 'potential tsunami of infections'

Nicola Sturgeon has just started her televised update on Omicron in Scotland with some sobering words and numbers: she says the country is facing “a potential tsunami of infections”, explaining that the new variant is showing “the fastest exponential growth we have seen in this pandemic so far”.

There were 5,018 positive cases in Scotland yesterday, a sharp rise on the average of 2,800 daily cases that health officials have been reporting recently. There was a total of 110 Omicron cases in Scotland yesterday, which has risen from just nine when it was first detected here on 30 November.

The Scottish government has just published an evidence paper on Omicron, which suggests Omicron is “rising exponentially” - officials believe the doubling time is closer to two than three days, and that Omicron is going to very quickly overtake Delta as the dominant strain, maybe as early as next week.

Updated

The Office for National Statistics has published its latest weekly Covid infection survey. This is seen as one of the most accurate indicators of the prevalence of coronavirus, because it is based on a survey. Here are the figures. They cover the week ending Wednesday 1 December (except for Scotland, where they cover the week ending Thursday 2 December.

Covid levels are going down in Scotland, the ONS says, but elsewhere the trend is stable, or unclear.

Commuters at Paddington station in west London.
Commuters at Paddington station in west London. Covid levels in England have increased over the past fortnight, the ONS says. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

England

Covid levels: one person in 60 infected, equivalent to 891,500 people.

Trend: Increasing over the past fortnight, but “uncertain” for the last week. Last week it was also one in 60.

Wales

Covid levels: one person in 50 infected, equivalent to 60,300 people.

Trend: “Stable” over the past three weeks. Last week it was one in 45.

Northern Ireland

Covid levels: one person in 45 infected, equivalent to 39,300 people.

Trend: “Uncertain” in the past week. Last week the figure was

Scotland

Covid levels: one person in 80 infected, equivalent to 65,200 people

Trends: Decreasing. Last week the figure was one in 65.

Updated

The Independent has a good scoop on the levelling-up white paper, which is now not being published until the new year. Levelling up is normally thought to be about spreading opportunity, but in their story Anna Isaac and Ashley Cowburn suggest it is now also largely about local government reorganisation. They say:

The government plans to radically alter local government in England, replacing it with a single-tier mayoral-style system, according to a draft of the government’s levelling up white paper seen by the Independent.

The document – marked “official sensitive” – states the government is setting out a “new devolution framework for England” based on a model of a directly elected leader “over a well-defined economic geography”.

The ambition is to strip back layers of local government and replace them with a single-tier system, as in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

According to the report, the white paper will also set targets by which the success of levelling up will be measured. But they are targets for 2030, it says.

The document lays out 13 missions with which to “anchor” the agenda, which the prime minister has described as the central purpose of his administration, and all come with a 2030 deadline ...

The missions include targets from narrowing gaps in life expectancy to an undefined target to reduce the numbers of people renting “non-decent homes”.

Updated

Dominic Cummings, the PM’s former chief adviser, thinks Boris Johnson will want to keep Jack Doyle in post as communications director until the Simon Case report into the Downing Street parties comes out, so that at that point Doyle can take the blame.

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the treasurer of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, told LBC this morning that Boris Johnson will be in trouble with his party if he continues to have “issues of judgment” problems.

Asked about the government’s multiple difficulties, Clifton-Brown said:

[Johnson has] got to come clean on a lot of the issues that you mentioned in your opening news.

We’re all about to go for a Christmas break. If he comes back in the new year refreshed, able to differentiate between his private life and public life, and clarify all the issues and then start to do the really big issues that this country needs – restoring the NHS, dealing with carbon emissions and Cop26, how we deal with the economy, helping businesses – we can really get on to that agenda away from these other, sort of, personal issues, then I think he’s fine.

But if we go on having these – what I call personal issues, issues of judgment by the prime minister – then I think that’s a very different scenario.

In an article for the influential Conservative Home website yesterday, Paul Goodman, the former Tory MP who edits the site, said it was “more likely than not that another Conservative MP will lead [Johnson’s] party into the next election”. Explaining why, Goodman said:

Very simply, because while Tory MPs will tolerate a leader who is not “on your side”, at least for a while, their patience with one who isn’t on theirs, as they see it, is very limited indeed ...

What will worry them most is a growing view that N 10 can’t stick to anything and doesn’t tell the truth, not so much to voters – which I’m afraid they will take more or less for granted – but to them, whether the matter to hand is Downing Street wallpaper, parties, Afghan dogs, Paterson, “buyer’s remorse” or the football Super League.

A different kind of prime minister might be able to offer the usual sort of evasion tactics: reshuffle the cabinet, change the No 10 team, relaunch the government. But Johnson isn’t that kind of conventional politician. His problem isn’t Dan Rosenfield. Or Simon Case. Or Ben Gascoigne. Or others who most voters have never heard of.

Or the cabinet, come to that. No, Boris Johnson’s problem is Boris Johnson.

Updated

PM might not have known about No 10 parties because it's such a big building, claims chief whip

Mark Spencer, the government chief whip, like all whips in parliament, tends not to give media interviews. But this morning he was on BBC Radio Nottingham (he is MP for Sherwood), where he got the prime 8.10 slot.

No member of the government has managed to emerge from a media grilling about the Downing Street Christmas party last year with any credit, but Spencer deployed some novel arguments that civil servants might describe as “brave”. Here are the main points.

  • Spencer said Boris Johnson might not have known about parties in No 10 because it was such a large building. When asked how Johnson could not have known what was happening, Spencer replied:

Let’s be absolutely clear about this. When you describe it as a house, it is a department of government. This is a huge, huge building, literally with hundreds and hundreds of offices and rooms. No single person could account for what is happening in those buildings. They are huge buildings.

Spencer is right about the Downing Street complex being larger than people might think looking at it from outside, but “hundreds and hundreds of office” is an exaggeration. Spencer also insisted that he was not aware of any parties taking place last Christmas, and he said he had been assured everyone followed the rules. He said:

I am assured that everybody in that building played by the rules, and that’s why the prime minister has asked the cabinet secretary to do a thorough investigation to find out and establish the facts and that’s what I expected him to do.

  • He argued that what was described as a party on 18 December was probably just a “meeting” and he claimed that the leaked footage of Allegra Stratton joking about the party was not evidence that a party took place. Asked by the presenter, Sarah Julian, why No 10 staff needed to have a mock press conference “to work out how they were going to lie to us about it”, he replied:

Somebody made a joke about whether there was or wasn’t a party. And, actually, when you listen to what Allegra Stratton said, she actually said the imaginary party.

Julian said that at the mock briefing Stratton was asked if the PM condoned holding a Christmas party, and she said if there was no party, Stratton should have been able to say no. Instead Stratton said, What’s the answer?” Spencer replied:

Because there was no party, that’s where the joke was ... That’s my interpretation of what happened. Someone made a joke about a meeting that had taken place the night before, or a couple of days before, where they clearly were in the office discussing issues surrounding dealing with coronavirus, and some wag had said, ‘You were all in the office together, were you having a party?’

“C’mon Mark,” said Julian in response, making it clear she thought this was was implausible.

  • Spencer said Johnson had a “miserable Christmas dealing with all of this [Covid]”. He was responding to Julian’s point about people being furious because they had a miserable time last Christmas.
  • He claimed No 10 staff were not drinking alcohol in Downing Street. He said people in No 10 were working “day and night” trying to solve the problems the country was facing. And he went on:

I am told that they were not, you know, drinking alcohol and having parties while that was going on.

This is significant because, although some insiders have argued that what happened on 18 December was not a party, they have not challenged reports that some staff did have a drink in the office at the end of the day on some occasions during that period.

Mark Spencer.
Mark Spencer. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters

Updated

Labour will put public health ahead of defeating government, says Streeting

With Paul Scully not appearing (see 10.27am), Wes Streeting, the new shadow health secretary, got the 8.10 slot on the Today programme. He used the interview to confirm that Labour would vote with the government on the new Covid regulations next week.

He dismissed the idea that, given the potential size of the Tory rebellion, it would be better to vote against because that might lead to a defeat that would weaken Boris Johnson. He explained:

Public health has always come first for the Labour party during the pandemic. Despite the trouble the government find themselves in, public health will still come before party politics ...

It is more important for all of us to get ahead of this deadly pandemic and the variant, which is sweeping rapidly through our country and which threatens to overwhelm the NHS, and tempting though it might be to inflict a parliamentary defeat on the government, that would not be the right thing to do.

He also said although Labour did not trust Boris Johnson, it did trust Prof Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, and Prof Patrick Vallance, its chief scientific adviser, both of whom want the new rules in place.

Updated

Party implies balloons, says minister, explaining why he referred to No 10 Christmas 'gathering'

Paul Scully, the business minister, drew the short straw this morning and was doing an interview round on behalf of the government. Jack Doyle, the communications director, is normally the person who decides who gets put up by No 10 on the morning programmes, but when Scully was asked on BBC Breakfast whether Doyle should still be in his job, in light of reports that he gave a speech at a party at No 10 on 18 December last year, he would not comment on this.

On LBC Scully got drawn into an argument about the definition of a party. When it was pointed out that he kept talking about a “gathering”, not a party, Scully implied that the absence of balloons could be a mitigating factor. He said:

Look, ‘party’ suggests, and you see some of the graphics that go around with some of the coverage here, with balloons and poppers and these kind of things. It suggests that there’s big invitations going out and lots of people coming in from elsewhere and those kind of things, so I think it’s right to be proportionate until we know the detail.

But Scully refused to appear on the Today programme. Justin Webb, the presenter, said that was because Scully was “was not prepared to come on the programme and face the kind of interview we might have conducted”, and Nick Robinson, Webb’s co-presenter, told listeners they had missed out on Scully saying, on another programme, that it had been a “difficult” week for the government and that he was “very comfortable about the prime minister’s integrity”.

Robinson later posted these on Twitter.

Updated

UK growth virtually stalled in October, even before Omicron

Britain’s economic recovery had almost come to a halt even before the onset of the new Omicron variant of Covid-19, official figures have shown. My colleague Larry Elliott has the story here.

Public Health Scotland triggers anger after advising people to cancel Christmas parties

The advice to cancel or postpone Christmas parties, which was released from Public Health Scotland late yesterday afternoon, has been met with confusion and anger overnight.

Scotland’s national public health body said it was “strongly urging” people to cancel Christmas parties after a number of Omicron outbreaks linked to festive get-togethers. This advice has no legal standing, of course, and does not constitute government guidance.

There was immediate confusion because the press release came out just after the national clinical director, Jason Leitch, told Radio Clyde that people could still have parties if they were “careful”.

Hospitality groups said they had no prior notification of the announcement and it was met with shock from the industry. UK Hospitality Scotland said the announcement had come “like a bolt out of the blue” with cancelled bookings flooding in overnight.

There were also demands for clarity over what a “party” constituted.

Nicola Sturgeon will give an unscheduled televised update on Omicron in Scotland at 12.15pm.

Updated

Labour encourages police to rethink decision not to investigate No 10 parties

Good morning. Boris Johnson has had a dire week and it shows no signs of getting any better. There are three stories around this morning, any one of which would be seriously difficult for No 10. Cumulatively, they confirm that there is an ongoing crisis.

First, it is being reported that Jack Doyle, the PM’s communications director, was present and gave a speech at the Christmas party on 18 December last year that seems to have breached lockdown rules. You would expect a senior member of staff to attend a staff party, but until now this has not been reported as fact. Given that Doyle has been in charge of the communications response to this story (still, broadly, “there was no party, and no rules were broken”), this does not look ideal.

Second, Christopher Geidt, the PM’s independent adviser on ministerial standards, is reported close to resigning after the Electoral Commission published a report yesterday that implied Johnson might have lied to him about what he knew about the No 10 flat refurbishment. The Telegraph (paywall) reports that Lord Geidt will “consider his position if Mr Johnson does not satisfactorily explain why he did not share vital evidence with him when he investigated the affair earlier this year”.

This morning Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s political editor, cautions that a resignation is not imminent.

And, third, Johnson is on course for a significant Tory revolt when MPs vote on the new Covid rules next week.

This morning there has been another development on partygate; Labour is encouraging the Metropolitan police to reverse their decision not to investigate the No 10 Christmas do. The police are operationally independent in this country – rightly, most people seem to think – and Sadiq Khan, who oversees the Met as mayor of London, and Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, acknowledged this in their interviews this morning. But they also delivered an implicit message that in effect contradicted this, by making it very clear what they think the Met should do.

In an interview with the Today programme, when asked if the police should be investigating the No 10 parties, Khan at first stressed the importance of police independence. He said:

I think it’s very important when you’re the police and crime commissioner that you don’t interfere with the operational independence of the police. Just imagine if I was to direct the police and try to give the impression they should be following a particular path. You’d understand if somebody charged with a criminal offence accused the police of prejudice or bias.

But then he changed tack.

That being said, I think it’s really important for the police generally speaking, to investigate crimes without fear or favour, and to go wherever the evidence points them.

Asked if he thought that was happening in this case, Khan said he thought he should not be directing the police. But he went on:

It is really important, in all cases, for the police to follow the evidence, and often find the evidence. The police do a great job finding the evidence themselves. They don’t wait to be sent an envelope with the evidence, or send a tape ... I think there is a huge amount of concern. There’s a public interest in relation to the health of individuals but also the difference it makes if rule makers appear to be rule breakers.

Khan said violent crime should be the priority for the police. But then he deployed another “that being said” (a verbal cut-off that brings to mind the famous quote about the word “but”), and argued it was bad for public confidence in the police if allegations of law-breaking were not investigated. He went on:

Just imagine if the public stop having confidence the police will investigate crime. They’ll stop reporting crime, they’ll stop being witnesses. But also the whole fabric of trust and conference, which is crucial to policing by consent, breaks down.

And later, on the same programme, when asked if he thought the police should be asking to see evidence about what happened at the Christmas party, Streeting said Johnson had already said he was willing to hand over evidence to the police, “so I assume they are waiting for it, and I assume he will be doing that very, very shortly”.

Streeting acknowledged politicians should not direct operational policing. But he went on:

All the public expects, and I speak for them, is that the Metropolitan police will act without fear or favour, because on 18 December 2020 some people in Ilford, where I’m an MP held an illegal gathering, and they were in court being prosecuted.

And people expect the same standards to apply to everyone in this country whether you are the prime minister or whether you are just an ordinary citizen.

Here is the agenda for the day.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

12pm: The Office for National Statistics publishes its weekly Covid infection survey.

12pm: Dominic Cummings, the PM’s former chief adviser, takes part in an online Q&A on Substack.

12.15pm: Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, holds a Covid briefing.

12.15pm: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, holds a Covid briefing.

Also today David Frost, the Brexit minister, holds another meeting on the Northern Irish protocol with his EU opposite number, Maroš Šefčovič.

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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