Sue Gray’s report is due to be published this week. What will it say about the Prime Minister?
“Gray is understood to have found widespread breaking of the rules, an ingrained drinking culture and, most significantly, a “mass failure” of leadership in Downing Street and at the top of the civil service that led junior members of staff to believe that they were behaving as was expected of them…“Many people at the time seemed to have a bunker mentality and thought that they were exempt from the rules because they believed they were saving the world,” a source said. Gray plans to name a number of high-profile Downing Street aides and civil servants who were either integral to the rule-breaking or because they form an “important” part of the “narrative” of her report.” – Sunday Times
- Row over who called the Johnson-Gray summit – Mail on Sunday
- Prove Number Ten was “like Ibiza on a Saturday night”, he tells her – Sunday Telegraph
- Case will be sacrificed – Observer
- “Isolated Gray” – Observer
- Will Conservative rebels move against Johnson this week…? – Sunday Express
- …No, they’ll wait until after the June by-elections – Sun on Sunday
- The Prime Minister’s critics are losing – Patrick O’Flynn, Sunday Express
> Today: ToryDiary – Johnson’s new Prime Minister’s Department is no substitute for a proper political mission
The windfall tax that Sunak wants and what Johnson thinks of it
“It can now be revealed that Sunak is attracted to a windfall tax on the energy companies, whose profits have soared thanks to the rising price of oil and gas, but one that offers them different rates of tax based on what they are prepared to invest…However, Sunak’s plan has run into a wall in the form of Johnson’s new advisers: David Canzini, Guto Harri, Steve Barclay and Andrew Griffith, who all — in principle at least — oppose the measure on the grounds that it is “unconservative”. Johnson is prepared to sanction a windfall tax, but only if the Treasury agrees to spend some of the money on massive new investment in nuclear power stations and offshore wind farms, which Sunak has so far stonewalled, and makes a more “compelling” and “conservative case” for doing so.” – Sunday Times
- Halfon wants action, Duncan Smith an end to green levies, McVey tax cuts, Cates family help, Fysh a VAT cut – Sunday Express
- Lewis, Javid reject windfall tax – Sunday Telegraph
- My 15 point plan to beat the cost of living crisis – Martin Lewis, Mail on Sunday
- Be bold and act – Iain Duncan Smith, Sun on Sunday
- Johnson must fix the crisis or lose the next election – Sun on Sunday Editorial
- Against a windfall tax – Sunday Telegraph Editorial
Transport disorder 1) Patel revives plan to muzzle Insulate Britain
“Protesters who interfere with key national infrastructure face a penalty of 12 months in prison and an unlimited fine under new laws. Home Secretary Priti Patel will tell MPs this week that the government doesn’t make “policy through mob rule” as she cracks down on demonstrators causing mayhem across the road, railways or at printing presses. The police will be given the power to proactively stop and search people to seize items such as glue and bamboo structures used for obstructing cops. The measures will better protect major transport works and fuel supply after motorways were brought to a standstill and groups tunneled under oil supplies and cut brakes on tankers. Courts will also be given new powers to make Serious Disruption Prevention Orders which would make those who have been found to repeatedly cause disruption wear an electronic tag.” – Sun on Sunday
- Almost 100 migrants have now been given notices that they will be transported to Rwanda – Mail on Sunday
Transport disorder 2) Shapps prepares for action against strikes
“The Conservatives are threatening to launch a double-pronged attack against trade unions in an effort to break their stranglehold on the public. Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, told The Telegraph that the Government was poised to draw up laws requiring minimum numbers of rail staff to work during a strike. The law would make any industrial action illegal if those levels were not met. The intervention came as a ballot of 40,000 Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) union members was due to close on Tuesday, with Mick Lynch, the body’s general secretary, having warned that a strike would “bring the country to a standstill”. The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association, which has vowed to coordinate with the RMT, has threatened the biggest disruption since the General Strike in 1926, over job cuts and pay freezes.” – Sunday Telegraph
-
Airports, hospitals and universities could be hit by walkouts – Mail on Sunday
Lewis: We must reform the Northern Ireland Protocol the save the Belfast Agreement
“Asked in an interview with The Telegraph whether he was concerned that the absence of an executive in Northern Ireland could be indefinite if Brussels fails to give ground, the Northern Ireland Secretary responds plainly: “Yes.” Sitting in his office in the Northern Ireland Office’s corner of the Treasury building in Whitehall, Mr Lewis adds: “I made this point to the EU myself before the elections. My view was, it was much easier to get a deal before the elections than afterwards. The idea that it was going to be easier after the elections was a crazy one from the EU. When Stormont wasn’t there for three years, the Government had to spend three years trying to negotiate the parties with each other to agree a programme of government and also with both the Irish and the UK Government.” – Sunday Telegraph
- Truss refuses to back down over Protocol – Observer
- History will judge those who refuse to seek compromise – Liam Fox, Sunday Telegraph
Downing Street battles against gender neutral language
“Downing Street has won the latest skirmish in its ‘war on woke’ by overturning an attempt to make legislation gender neutral. The row blew up over the Ministerial And Other Maternity Allowances Bill, designed to make provision for Ministers on maternity leave, after No 10 saw that it made reference to ‘expectant people’ rather than women. However, The Mail on Sunday can reveal that before it received Royal Assent, the Bill was amended to replace gender-neutral nouns with gendered ones such as ‘mother’ – and the Government has now issued new guidance to ensure such language is not repeated in future Bills. Legislation that relates to the different needs of men and women – such as the requirement for separate toilet facilities in schools for boys and girls – will be scrutinised to ensure that gendered language is used.” – Mail on Sunday
- Ministers warn civil service trying to “erase women” with gender-neutral language – Sunday Telegraph
Gove urges councils to clear the decks for the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations
“In his letter, seen by The Mail on Sunday, Mr Gove writes that while ‘many of you are leading the way and living up to the ‘Platinum Councils’ badge by supporting over 70,000 Big Jubilee Lunches’, he asked them ‘to make one final push and take every possible action to help your communities in their preparations – from making all processes cost-free for residents, to cutting red tape, and being completely flexible when receiving further applications for road closures’. Mr Gove adds: ‘Your residents should be made aware of all the support that is available and no one should be put off by needless red tape’. He also hints at permanent cuts to suffocating bureaucracy, saying: ‘National celebrations like this mean a lot to our communities and the fabric of our society.” – Mail on Sunday
- Don’t let petty rules spoil the Jubilee – Mail on Sunday Editorial
All-women Conservative shortlist for Tiverton and Honiton
“The Conservatives have produced an all-female shortlist for next month’s Tiverton and Honiton by-election in the wake of scandals involving several male MPs. Party members in the Devon constituency will on Sunday be presented with three candidates from which they will be asked to select a prospective MP to stand in the by-election on June 23. The Telegraph understands all three of the candidates are women from the area. The move comes after Oliver Dowden, the Conservative chairman, told The Telegraph that the Conservatives were committed to equal gender representation in the Commons – saying that substantially increasing female representation would be key to tackling Westminster sleaze.” – Sunday Telegraph
Other news:
- Truss: my regret about Remain referendum vote – Sunday Express
- Legal smoking age could rise to 21 under new Javid plan – Mail on Sunday
- New NHS gagging clause cases after patient deaths rouses Hunt’s wrath – Sunday Times
- Clark and Skidmore warn of loan rate on university admissions – Observer
- Johnson wants Hogan-Howe as new head of National Crime Agency – Sunday Times
- Grenfell families enraged by plan to keep “stay put” policy – Observer
- Number Ten blocks correspondence on Saudi Newcastle United takeover – Mail on Sunday
- Johnson should keep his fingers out of policing – Sunday Times
- Lebedev’s father hit by sanctions in Canada – Mail on Sunday
- Williamson becomes a national hero in Somaliland, receives a passport and is given citizenship – Sunday Times
Rob Colvile: What business told us about why it is shunning Britain
“People didn’t start ranting to us about Brexit. They didn’t excoriate the government. They talked about Britain’s natural advantages, its strengths in all manner of sectors, the high level of investment it attracts and how it was still a much more attractive destination on many fronts than its rivals in Europe. But they also talked about the burden of tax. The safety-first culture of regulation. The planning system. The lack of certainty. How the government still hasn’t set out an irresistible narrative about post-Brexit Britain as an investment destination. How Whitehall departments never seem to talk to one another. About a hundred niggly things, from queues at Heathrow to limits on investment schemes, that we could be doing better.” – Sunday Times
- Ministers should be clear: there are limits to their largesse – Sunday Times Editorial
- Automatic release makes liars of judges – Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times
- In praise of Michaela – Daniel Hannan, Sunday Telegraph
- I don’t support Ukraine in this war – Peter Hitchens, Mail on Sunday
- We’ve run out of patience with the NHS – Liam Halligan, Sunday Telegraph
- Downing Street’s headless chickens flap – Dan Hodges, Mail on Sunday
- Work-shy Britain is in the grip of an existential crisis – Janet Daley, Sunday Telegraph
Weak Starmer, Strong Sturgeon. Labour-leader urged to head off Canzini-type attack line
“Keir Starmer’s team is being urged to refute any Conservative claims that Labour will be propped up in government by the SNP after the next general election, by drawing up early and clear “red lines” against any deals with the Scottish party. A number of senior figures from Labour’s 2015 election campaign – during which the Conservatives repeatedly claimed that Ed Miliband, the party leader at the time, would be dependent on the SNP – are urging their leadership to neutralise this tactic well before the next election. Some want the party to rule out any Scottish referendum during the next parliament, or extra funding in return for SNP support.” – Observer
- Rayner attacks Treasury focus group spend – Observer
- Labour-run Islington Council says that children as young as three months can be racially biased – Mail on Sunday
- Curtice says that Starmer would have a strong incentives to do a post-election deal with the SNP – Sun on Sunday
- Why won’t Starmer condemn the rail unions who plan to interrupt the Jubilee? – Ian Austin, Mail on Sunday
Sturgeon, isolated as she becomes Scotland’s longest-serving First Minister
“However, Sturgeon, even her admirers say, is increasingly isolated and now listens to only a handful of people. SNP figures with significant responsibilities confess to having little to no relationship with the party leader and first minister. She is said to have told confidantes they should tell her when it is time for her to step down but her coterie of advisers is chiefly limited to John Swinney, the deputy first minister, Colin McAllister, her chief of staff, and her husband Peter. There are few, if any, outside voices offering her counsel. Cabinet meetings are short to the point of abruptness and every internal SNP body that once had significant power — from the national executive committee to its annual national conference — has had its influence trimmed.” – Sunday Times
- Her delusional foreign policy is a masterpiece of contradiction – Simon Heffer, Sunday Telegraph
Scores of MPs abused, harrassed and threatened with violence and murder
“Scores of MPs have revealed harrowing stories of abuse, harassment and being threatened with death and sexual violence. MPs across the political spectrum have given highly personal interviews about the risks they face, including one MP who had to warn her children she might be killed. The interviews, to be shown tomorrow on Channel 4’s Dispatches, were conducted by the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater. Her sister and predecessor as the member for Batley & Spen, Jo Cox, was murdered outside her constituency surgery a week before the 2016 EU referendum by a far-right extremist. Leadbeater spoke to more than 60 MPs for the programme.” – Sunday Times
- Man told security staff at Jenkyns event that he was there to kill her – Sun on Sunday
Labor set to lead a government in Australia
“The 59-year-old will become Australia’s 31st Prime Minister snatching at least nine seats from the Liberal Party, but he may still need support from the Greens and independents to govern. As of 1am on Sunday Labor had 72 seats – four short of the 76 needed for a majority – but was on track to pick up five more for a narrow majority. The Coalition had 55 seats and minor parties had 13 after the ‘teal’ independents smashed the Liberals in Sydney and Melbourne. The Labor leader addressed jubilant supporters in Sydney shortly before midnight after receiving a concession call from Scott Morrison. He said: ‘I say to my fellow Australians, thank you for this extraordinary honour. ‘Tonight the Australian people have voted for change. I am humbled by this victory and I’m honoured to be given the opportunity to serve as the 31st Prime Minister of Australia.’ “ – Mail on Sunday
- Johnson must heed this lesson from Australia – Matthew Lesh, Sunday Telegraph
- The Tories risk going the way of Scott Morrison – Sunday Telegraph Editorial