Former Prime Minister Theresa May has launched a scathing intervention on the partygate scandal, saying “no one is above the law” as the Sue Gray report continues to await.
Speaking to the Maidenhead Advertiser, Ms May said she was “angry” to hear reports that Downing Street staff had held parties during the lockdown.
“I have said before that it is vital that those who set the rules follow them,” he said.
“No one is above the law. This is important to ensure the necessary degree of trust between the public and the government.
“Like so many, I was angry to hear stories of those at Number 10, who are responsible for setting the coronavirus rules, not following them properly.”
Mrs May said she would “expect full accountability” after the release of Sue Gray’s report, which has yet to be delivered to Downing Street despite claims it will be published earlier this week.
The Met Police confirmed on Friday that it had asked for “minimal reference” to be made in the Gray report to the alleged incidents that the force is currently investigating. Scotland Yard said it did not want to “harm” its investigation.
live updates
Starmer: The government has been ‘crippled’ by the Sue Gray investigation
Sir Keir Starmer said the government had been “frozen” by the Sue Gray investigation and the subsequent police investigation into partygate.
The Labor leader told broadcasters he wanted “to see Sue Gray’s report in full and for the investigation to be over as quickly as possible, because we are in this situation where the whole government is at a standstill because the police are looking at what the Prime Minister”. Even Downing Street.”
Sir Keir added: “We have a criminal investigation into the Prime Minister’s behavior and what happened in Downing Street. There are likely to be process issues down the road, but this is caused by one thing, and that is the behavior of the Prime Minister.”
Asked if, with his legal background, he saw any bias issues, Sir Keir said: “Any bias issues need to be resolved, but all this mess, all this political gridlock, is being caused by the Prime Minister and his evil.”
Nadine Dorries tweet sparks anger among 2019 Conservatives
A tweet from culture secretary Nadine Dorries sparked anger among Conservative MPs in 2019.
Mrs. Dorries tweeted last night: “Dinner on a long drive home after a very cold day in the NE.
“Pork pies are only really good for one thing.”
The tweet appears to refer to the “pig coup”, a rebellion against Boris Johnson led by Conservative MPs elected in 2019.
The name is derived from the town represented by Alicia Kearns, MP for Melton Mowbray, a town famous for its pork pies.
One MP told the Telegraph’s Tony Diver that Ms Dorries’ derisive tweet had prompted three MPs to send letters of censure.
They said: “The best thing Nadine Dorries could do right now is to log out of Twitter and not log back in.
“She has completely undermined the prime minister.”
Ofcom launches investigation into Channel 4
Ofcom will investigate Channel 4 after a prolonged interruption last year of its subtitle services.
A statement from the media watchdog said: “We found that Channel 4 managed to meet the legal requirement to caption 90% of its program hours during 2021 on most programmes. It also met their audio description and signature requirements.
“However, Channel 4 fell short of its captioning quota on Freesat, a satellite TV platform used by around two million UK households.”
The station has experienced a series of major outages since September, caused by problems at the broadcast center that handles its streaming services.
Liberal Democrats warn against ‘establishment seam’ over Gray report
Liberal Democrats have warned against giving the appearance of an “establishment seam” between Scotland Yard and the Sue Gray investigation, as the report’s publication plan fell apart.
The party’s internal affairs spokesman, Alistair Carmichael, said: “So first the police were waiting for Sue Grey, now Sue Gray has to wait for the police?
“Any appearance of an establishment union between the Met Commissioner and the Government is deeply damaging. Police officers need the public’s trust to do their jobs and keep our communities safe.
“Sue Gray’s report must be released in its entirety, including all photos, text messages and other evidence. If redacted now, a full, unedited version should be published as soon as the police investigation is complete.”
Ian Blackford: ‘The Gray report must be published in full as soon as possible’
The SNP leader in Westminster has called on the government to publish Sue Gray’s report “in full” as soon as possible.
He said: “Sue Gray’s report should be published in its entirety and unchanged without further delay. This charade of the UK government has gone on long enough.
“People are understandably concerned that this is looking more and more like a cover-up.
“It is a fact that Boris Johnson broke the rules, lied about it and misled Parliament. This is an extremely serious resignation matter, and he must be held accountable.
“The Prime Minister cannot be allowed to get off the hook by using the Metropolitan Police investigation as an excuse to further delay or manipulate the report.
“This cannot be another Whitewall whitewash. There must be maximum transparency.
“Any attempt to cover this up or delay the inevitable would be completely unacceptable and would erode the last remnants of public confidence in the Westminster Government.”
Theresa May says ‘no one is above the law’ in scathing partygate intervention
Former Prime Minister Theresa May has launched a scathing intervention on the partygate scandal, saying “no one is above the law”.
Speaking to the Maidenhead Advertiser, Ms May said she was “angry” to hear reports that Downing Street staff had held parties during the lockdown.
“I have said before that it is vital that those who set the rules follow them,” he said.
“No one is above the law.
“This is important to ensure the necessary degree of trust between the public and the government.
“Like so many, I was angry to hear stories of those at Number 10, who are responsible for setting the coronavirus rules, not following them properly.”
The former cabinet minister said she would “expect full accountability” after the publication of Sue Gray’s report.
Sunak to close the tax loophole
Rishi Sunak is set to remove a tax allowing employees to claim money back if they were forced to work from home during the pandemic after it cost the Treasury £500m. writes Bill McLoughlin.
Since 2020 Britons have been able to claim £6 a week in tax relief, but HM Revenue and Customs is now reviewing the rule due to a rise in claims.
At the start of the pandemic, the rate rose from £4 a week to £6 with eligible workers if they had been told to work from home at any time during the year.
Claims could also be retroactive, meaning anyone who has worked from home due to Covid but hasn’t made a claim for the relief could be entitled to a two-year payment of up to £250.
The tax relief had cost the Treasury £2m a year before the pandemic but has since increased.
Our full story here.
Chris Bryant: “We are not being guided, it is chaos”
Labor MP Chris Bryant has said the country is “not being run” and accused Boris Johnson of creating “chaos”.
He told BBC Breakfast that the problem with the prime minister denying claims that he helped approve the Nowzad animal charity’s evacuation from Afghanistan last year “is that there is black and white evidence pointing in the other direction.” ”.
“An email has come to light from a senior official in Lord Goldsmith’s office saying the Prime Minister authorized this particular evacuation, and the airlines have now published emails suggesting the Prime Minister’s assistant Trudy Harrison , I was asking them for support for Nowzad. and she could get the prime minister to speed it up,” she said.
“There is a letter where she is trying to fix all this, and now there are other emails from Foreign and Commonwealth officials referring to the Foreign Secretary getting clearance from the Prime Minister.
“All I want to know is who made the decision.
“This goes to the heart of how we are governed in the UK at the moment, and if you can’t even come to a clear understanding of what happened in something nine months ago, the worry is that there is too much chaos. We’re not being led, it’s just chaos.”
Delay in Gray’s report due to ‘discussions with lawyers and police’
Technology minister Chris Philp, when asked why the delivery of the Gray report had been delayed, told LBC: “You’ll have to ask Sue Gray that, because the timing of the report is up to her.
“You will have seen, as I have seen, the press speculation because she is discussing with the lawyers and the police exactly what can and cannot enter.
“But the bottom line is that I don’t know because it’s a report that he’s compiling independently and I don’t have visibility into what it may or may not contain, or what his thought process is.”
Philp said he wouldn’t “speculate” on what happened in issue #10, adding, “Like everyone else, I’ll wait until it’s published.
“I will read it very carefully when it is published and I am not going to speculate … on what the report may or may not contain and what that may or may not mean.”
Met called for a ‘minimum reference’ to be made in Sue Gray’s report
Scotland Yard has confirmed that it asked for “minimal reference” to be made in Sue Gray’s report to the alleged Downing Street incidents that the force is currently investigating.
In a statement, he said: “For the events that the Met is investigating, we request that a minimum reference be made in the Cabinet Office report.
“The Met did not request any limitations on other events in the report, or for the report to be delayed, but we have had ongoing contact with the Cabinet Office, including on the content of the report, to avoid any prejudice to our investigation. .”
Follow statements that sections of the report may need to be redacted for legal reasons.
Labor has called for the report to be published in full, although Downing Street has yet to receive it.
.