Leadership 1) Brine and Morris send in letters
“Two more Tory MPs have revealed they have submitted letters of no confidence in Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Former health minister Steve Brine and Newton Abbot MP Anne Marie Morris join the six backbenchers who have publicly called on him to quit as party leader. The news comes in the wake of senior civil servant Sue Gray’s inquiry into lockdown parties in Downing Street. The BBC is aware that about 20 Tory MPs have submitted letters – short of the 54 needed to force a vote on the PM.” – BBC
- A dozen more “are poised to submit letters” – The Sun on Sunday
- Gove “absolutely confident” Johnson will fight the next elections as PM – Sunday Express
- Labour would win a Tory civil war – Leader, Mail on Sunday
>Today: ToryDiary: Two in five of our Party members’ panel thinks that Johnson should resign – and half don’t.
Leadership 2) PM is in “yellow card territory” declares Mordaunt
“Rule-breaking and abuse of security staff exposed by a report into the partygate scandal is “shameful”, a senior minister has said, as another warned that Boris Johnson was now in “yellow card territory”. Penny Mordaunt, the trade minister, who is considered a potential future leadership contender, said she was “angry” at those in Downing Street who were ignoring Covid rules while blocking “reasonable requests to relax restrictions” during the pandemic.” – Sunday Telegraph
Leadership 3) Tax increases have left the Tories with an “identity problem”, warns IDS
“Boris Johnson has plunged the Conservative party into an acute identity crisis as a result of Partygate and U-turns over tax policy, senior Tories warned last night, as more MPs called for him to resign as prime minister. Former Tory leader Iain Duncan-Smith told the Observer his party had been left with an “enormous identity problem” because it had raised taxes instead of cutting them under Johnson and the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, undermining a core Tory message that had helped win it successive general elections.” – The Observer
- What do the Tories stand for now? – Leader, The Observer
- Crown Estate staff get guide to LGBTQIAPK gender and sexual identity acronym – Mail on Sunday
- The Tory party hasn’t had an idea since 2005 – Charlotte Ivers, Sunday Times
Leadership 4) Hunt supporters “plotting” at Surprise Pub in Chelsea
“Boris Johnson’s Cabinet allies have accused supporters of former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt of mounting a secret pub plot to oust the Prime Minister. They suspect MPs who attended a dinner at an upmarket bar in West London called The Surprise last week were scheming to trigger a Tory leadership challenge. The event, held the night before Sue Gray’s report into Partygate was published, was hosted by Devon MP Mel Stride, a former campaign chief for Michael Gove who is seen by the Johnson camp as a rebel ringleader. Also in attendance was long-serving Ludlow MP Philip Dunne, a key ally of Mr Hunt…Chris Loder, one of the 2019 intake of Tory MPs who was accused of being one of the architects of the so-called ‘pork pie plot’ to topple Mr Johnson earlier this year was also at the meal.” – Mail on Sunday
Leadership 5) Hodges: Tory MPs should put up or shut up
“Precisely how many more traps are Conservative MPs planning to set? And how many more times are they going to watch Boris wander blithely through them before they realise enough is enough? Just what is it that his ministers and backbenchers are hoping to learn about our Prime Minister from Ms Harman and her committee that they don’t know already? The police investigation was shambolic. The Sue Gray report a classic exercise in Civil Service obfuscation and doublespeak. But all the relevant facts have emerged…Which is why it’s now time for the members of the nation’s governing party to put up or shut up.” – Dan Hodges, Mail on Sunday
Civil servants “sought removal of names” from Gray report
“Sources, both political and civil service, say Gray was lobbied on Tuesday evening to make changes by three senior civil servants: Samantha Jones, Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, and Alex Chisholm, the permanent secretary in the Cabinet Office. They urged her not to publish the names of some of those who had attended the 12 law-breaking parties…Gray told them to “instruct” her to make the changes — a move that would have required a senior minister to sign off amendments, signalling publicly that the revisions had been made against her will…A senior figure in Downing Street revealed that Barclay, Gray’s political boss in the Cabinet Office, was approached and, after discussions with Harri, refused to issue the instruction…In the end only 15 people were named in the final report. Those who did not want to be named used a variety of excuses and some employed lawyers or union officials to plead their case.” – Sunday Times
Johnson to “name and shame” petrol stations that fail to pass on fuel duty cut
“Boris Johnson is declaring war on petrol stations that fail to pass on the Government’s fuel duty cut, pledging to name and shame those that refuse to drop their prices. Three government sources said the Prime Minister had expressed fury that the 5p-a-litre cut to fuel duty announced in March was failing to materialise at many pumps.” – Sunday Telegraph
Jubilee Celebrations 1) Return to pounds and ounces in ‘common sense’ move
“Boris Johnson will pave the way for the return of pounds and ounces in British shops this week, in a “common sense” move heralded by Tory MPs as taking advantage of freedoms delivered by Brexit. On Friday, the Government will publish proposals to repeal EU-derived law requiring metric units to be used for all trade, with only limited exceptions. At the same time, ministers will issue guidance to firms on restoring the use of the crown symbol on pint glasses, after it was replaced by the CE marking to help the UK conform with EU rules.” – Sunday Telegraph
- Imperial measurements strike back – Leader, Sunday Telegraph
Jubilee Celebrations 2) £3m from DEFRA to fund village hall renovations in England
“Village halls in need of a facelift can apply to share a £3m fund marking the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The money will be divided between 125 halls in England to pay for renovations like wi-fi, building extensions and modernising facilities. Rural affairs minister Lord Benyon described the venues as “the centrepiece of rural life”. The aim is to build on schemes that helped commemorate Queen Victoria and King George V.” – BBC
- Thank God for the Queen – Esther McVey MP, Sunday Express
Penrose: The railways need more competition – not more central planning
“Giving customers more choices would be less bureaucratic and more nimble, because the Fat Controller would be a lot thinner. It would change with the times as our travel habits keep adjusting to a post-covid world. It would cost taxpayers miles less, because we wouldn’t be subsidising empty trains and entrepreneurial firms could attract more passengers back onto rail. It would be more resilient when things go wrong. It would be greener, because competitive, customer-focused trains will persuade passengers to swap short-haul flights for cheaper, lower-carbon trains between cities like London and Edinburgh, Glasgow or Leeds. And last but by no means least, it would be far, far more Conservative than a central planning bureaucracy that was conceived for a pre-covid world which doesn’t exist anymore.” – John Penrose, Sunday Telegraph
- Low strike ballot turnout in Govia Thameslink and South Western Railway ballots gives hope that some services will run – Sunday Telegraph
Colvile: The Chancellor spent an enormous amount of money. But living standards will still be squeezed
“Sunak is in the strange position of handing out huge amounts while warning people they will still get poorer….It’s hard to win on bread-and-butter issues in a world where the butter costs a fiver. Can the Tories pull through? One senior figure has been reading back through the memoirs of Thatcher, Lawson and Howe to find how they coped with similar periods of economic dislocation. His conclusion was that the government can survive if it keeps a united front and tells the electorate a consistent story about what is happening and why it is doing the right things. But in today’s Tory party, unity and discipline can be in short supply.” – Robert Colvile, Sunday Times
- My focus now is on economic growth – Rishi Sunak, The Sun on Sunday
Davis: Is Bank of England independence worth maintaining?
“Differences in monetary policy are a major contributory reason why countries like Switzerland and Japan manage to maintain much lower inflation rates in the face of energy and food price shocks. So there is a real question as to whether the “independence” of the Bank of England is worth maintaining. It has been in place since the early Blair years, but that has been a largely benign inflationary environment. Today its mistakes are beginning to have large consequences, and the Chancellor will shoulder the blame for its failures.” – David Davis MP, Sunday Telegraph
Hannan: The Government’s failure to follow Conservatives principles is a tragic missed opportunity
“Outside the EU, Britain could have become freer and more competitive. We had a Conservative Government with an 80-seat majority, for Heaven’s sake. We could have scrapped Brussels regulations, flattened and simplified taxes, embraced global markets, slimmed the civil service, decentralised powers and broken cartels. We could, in short, have made this the most attractive place in the world to do business. Yes, the pandemic was an unforeseeable distraction – though, even then, some reforms could have been pursued. But nearly a year has passed since the end of the restrictions in Britain, and it is now depressingly clear that there is no plan to make use of our opportunities. After all their talk of buccaneering Britain, our leaders have shied away from almost every difficult economic decision. What a waste. What a tragic, needless waste.” – Daniel Hannan, Sunday Telegraph
Ellwood: We need to do more to help Ukraine
“If we don’t help put this fire out in Ukraine it will spread to other parts of Europe.To date we are only doing enough to ensure they don’t lose – but not enough to guarantee they can win…Yet still we continue to hesitate. Europe needs leadership. It’s our duty to once again step up. All Nato countries must increase defence spending to at least three per cent. If Putin is seen to lose in Ukraine and the futility of his war is exposed then there is every chance the Russian people will eventually determine they are better off without him.” – Tobias Ellwood, The Sun on Sunday
- It’s still not clear who’s winning – Sunday Times
- France and Germany urge Putin to hold “serious negotiations” – BBC
News in brief
- Why Putin will never truly conquer Ukraine – Robert Service, The Spectator
- Privatising the NHS. The failed conspiracy theory that never dies – Kristian Niemietz, CapX
- The UK needs an investment revolution – John Redwood
- Windfall taxes? This Tory government has been blown off course – Jason Reed, The Article