A senior MP has accused the Tories of conducting a “witch hunt” against him after his appeal to have the party whip restored was turned down.
Julian Knight said he should be welcomed back into the Conservative fold after being cleared by police of a sexual assault allegation.
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But government chief whip Simon Hart rejected his appeal after “further complaints” were made against him.
“These complaints, if appropriate, will be referred to the relevant police force, or appropriate bodies,” Hart said.
Knight, who has been MP for Solihull since 2015, hit back: “This statement from the chief whip smacks of [a] desperate attempt to cover up the identities and motives of those in parliament who colluded for many months to bring the false allegation against me to the police.
“The police have confirmed today that there is no evidence to support that allegation and closed their investigation. They did not even need to interview me to do so.
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“Yet the whips office now seems intent on continuing a witch hunt against me in an attempt to prevent my naming names.”
Knight, who is chairman of the Commons digital, culture, media and sport committee, recused himself from parliament last December.
Earlier this afternoon he hit out at the Tory whips for publicly naming him when the first allegation against him was made.
He said: “Their actions meant my name was dragged through the mud and my good reputation immeasurably damaged.
“The conduct of one person in the whips office, and the language used towards me, was particularly egregious.”
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Knight also took aim at the police for the way they handled their investigation into him.
“Had the police taken the simple step at outset of interviewing me under caution, they would have seen that the allegation was false and scandalous,” he said.
“Instead, they waited four months, without ever talking to me, before deciding there was nothing for them to investigate.
“I have been left effectively to prove my innocence through my public statements and letters to the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and the chief whip. That cannot be right.
“It is now my intention to use every legal route available to pursue those inside and outside parliament involved in having this allegation brought against me.”
Jeremy Corbyn has dropped a major hint that he will stand against Labour at the next general election.
The former party leader said he had “no intention of stopping” being the MP for Islington North, the seat he has represented for 40 years.
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He spoke out after Labour’s ruling NEC backed Keir Starmer’s bid to stop him being a candidate for the party next year.
Corbyn has been sitting as an independent since losing the Labour whip in 2020 after claiming anti-semitism in the party while he was leader had been “overstated” by his political opponents.
Officials voted 22-12 in favour of a motion in Starmer’s name which said Labour’s election chances would be “significantly diminished” if Corbyn is allowed to run again.
Corbyn, who led Labour from 2015 until 2020, said the move was “a shameful attack on party democracy, party members and natural justice”.
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In a statement, he said: “Today’s disgraceful move shows contempt for the millions of people who voted for our party in 2017 and 2019, and will demotivate those who still believe in the importance of a transformative Labour government.
“Keir Starmer has instead launched an assault on the rights of his own Labour members, breaking his pledge to build a united and democratic party that advances social, economic and climate justice.
“I will not be intimidated into silence. I have spent my life fighting for a fairer society on behalf of the people of Islington North, and I have no intention of stopping now.”
Corbyn supporters have also condemned the decision to block his candidacy.
John McDonnell, who was shadow chancellor when Corbyn was leader, told Times Radio: “We’ve got a general election in 18 months time. We need to mobilise the whole of the party: left, right and centre. And this is so divisive, and it’ll demoralised quite a few people.
“And actually I think it might, in many ways, cost us votes in a number of constituencies. So I think it’s a really bad mistake.”
Kate Forbes has quit the Scottish government after new first minister Humza Yousaf tried to demote her.
The former finance secretary, who was narrowly defeated by Yousaf in the race to succeed Nicola Sturgeon, was offered the rural affairs brief in his new cabinet.
A source close to Forbes said she “told him where to stick it” and resigned instead.
The move is a major setback for Yousaf as he tries to unite the SNP after being elected party leader yesterday.
Yousaf defeated Forbes by 52% to 48% following a bitter five-week leadership contest, during which she criticised his record as a minister.
However, he had signalled he intended to heal the divisions by taking a “Team SNP” approach to forming his new government.
He said: “Where there are divisions to heal, we must do so quickly.”
Forbes will now return to the backbenches.
A senior SNP figure told HuffPost UK: “It’s a very poor start by Humza. He’s essentially ignoring the wishes of nearly half the party members.”
Humza Yousaf had better not be a superstitious man.
In a quirk of fate, his winning margin of victory over Kate Forbes in the SNP leadership contest was 52% to 48% – exactly the same result which saw Leave defeat Remain in the 2016 Brexit referendum.
Scotland’s first minister-elect (his elevation to the role will be confirmed by the Scottish Parliament tomorrow) will hope that history does not repeat itself in the aftermath of his success.
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It has taken nearly seven exhausting years of bitter political battles for the UK to finally begin to come to terms with life outside the EU, although of course many will never reconcile themselves to that reality.
Yousaf must somehow bring his party back together in a much shorter space of time before he can even begin to think about leading his country.
The challenge facing him was perfectly encapsulated by a revealing tweet by SNP MSP Karen Adam.
She told her followers she was “relieved” that Yousaf had won – and, by extension, that Forbes had lost. What’s more, her post was then re-tweeted by the SNP’s official Twitter account.
Karen Adam’s tweet – and the SNP’s re-tweeting of it – demonstrated the bitter splits in the party.
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Mike Russell – the SNP’s acting chief executive who admitted the party is in “a tremendous mess” during the leadership contest – was also refreshingly honest in the immediate aftermath of Yousaf’s victory.
Asked by Times Radio if the party could unite behind their new leader, he would only say: “The potential for unity exists.”
The fact remains, however, that despite being the SNP establishment candidate, Yousaf won by just 2,000 votes against a candidate who was roundly pilloried at the start of the campaign over her opposition to gay marriage and having children outside wedlock.
One senior SNP figure pointed out that at the start of the leadership campaign, Yousaf’s approval rating among the public was minus 16. By the end, it was minus 20.
“The more people see of him, the less they like him,” they said.
One MP told HuffPost UK that having failed to win the support of more than half of party members in the first round of voting (he got 48%), uniting the party behind him will be extraordinarily difficult.
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“It’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of Humza or the campaign he run,” the MP said.
“He’ll also not have enjoyed having to actually work for it. His sense of entitlement is off the charts.”
The fractious nature of the debate served only to highlight the deep divisions which Nicola Sturgeon had managed to keep a lid on for so long.
In his acceptance speech, Yousaf said: “The people of Scotland need independence now more than ever before, and we will be the generation that delivers independence for Scotland.”
He may find that bringing together the warring SNP tribes may be a harder task than persuading Scots that their best interests lie outside the United Kingdom.
Labour has backed the government’s proposed ban on the sale of laughing gas, saying it is a “blight” on communities.
Nitrous oxide will be banned under plans to tackle anti-social behaviour, Michael Gove announced on Sunday.
Senior Labour MP Lucy Powell agreed with the proposal and called for enforcement.
The shadow culture secretary told Sky’s Sophy Ridge: “I think we want to see it banned as well because I think it does cause a huge amount of littering, of disruption and of antisocial behaviour challenges as well.
“We do need to tackle at source these kind of crimes – well sometimes they’re not crimes – these kind of behaviours that are blights on our communities.
“It’s something when I go door knocking in my constituency in Manchester Central and I go out meeting residents – anti-social behaviour is probably the number one issue that they raise with me.”
Gove told the BBC nitrous oxide can have a “damaging effect on young brains” and its public use can lead to “greater lawlessness”.
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) recently advised against new laws to ban nitrous oxide.
Nitrous oxide, sold in metal canisters, is known as NOS and is the second most-used drug by UK 16 to 24-year-olds.
Confirming the ban on laughing gas, Gove told Sky: “I think anyone who has the opportunity to walk through our parks in our major cities will have seen these little silver canisters, which are examples of people not only spoiling public spaces but taking a drug which can have a psychological and neurological effect and one that contributes to antisocial behaviour overall.”
Their inquiry into whether he led misled parliament has the potential to end his political career.
However, Gove told Sky News Johnson is a “man of integrity” and is someone who “puts the country first”.
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He went on to tell the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme he believed the former prime minister’s evidence.
Asked if Johnson had always told the truth, Gove said: “I think that all of us will at some point have told a white lie or an untruth.
“But I think the fundamental thing here —and again the privileges committee will make up its own mind, it has looked at all the evidence — but what was Boris’ argument? He was working incredibly hard, every hour that the lord sent in order to try and do the right thing.
‘I’m here to say to you, hand on heart, I did not lie to the house.’
Boris Johnson addresses the Privileges Committee stating his actions were made in ‘good faith’ and what ‘I believed was right at the time’. pic.twitter.com/l2F7rn7rgm
“He believed that saying thank you to people who were leaving in the cramped and confined circumstances of 10 Downing Street was part of that job. Did he attend those events in a spirit of self-indulgence? No, he did so in order to show his gratitude to those who were working with him.”
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Gove said he was inclined to give Johnson “not just the benefit of the doubt” but to believe him when he “places his hand on his heart”.
Johnson swore on the King James Bible to tell the truth before accepting that he misled MPs but insisted his partygate denials were made “in good faith” based on what he “honestly” knew at the time.
Johnson said if it was so “obvious” that rule-breaking was going on in No.10, then it would also have been “obvious” to others, including Rishi Sunak.
He also argued the process had been “manifestly unfair” and said if the inquiry is accusing him of lying, then it is also levelling the same charge at civil servants, advisers and MPs.
“I took drugs on several occasions at social events more than 20 years ago,” he told the Daily Mail. “At the time I was a young journalist. It was a mistake. I look back and I think, I wish I hadn’t done that.”
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“You’ve taken drugs, you’ve admitted to taking cocaine on several occasions, are you really going to give people a criminal record for laughing gas?”
Michael Gove says “yes” because he’s learned from his experience #Ridge
The levelling up secretary said he had learned it was a “mistake” and it was “absolutely vital” to deal with the “scourge” of laughing gas.
Asked if the public might view his stance on laughing gas as “hypocritical”, he told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday: “No, I think it is because I have learned.”
Pressed on what he had learned, Gove said: “That it is a mistake — worse than a mistake — to regard drug taking as somehow acceptable.”
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Empty cannisters of laughing gas lying on the street in Birmingham.
Mike Kemp via Getty Images
Confirming the ban on laughing gas, Gove said: “I think anyone who has the opportunity to walk through our parks in our major cities will have seen these little silver canisters, which are examples of people not only spoiling public spaces but taking a drug which can have a psychological and neurological effect and one that contributes to antisocial behaviour overall.”
Laughing gas is the second most commonly used drug among 16 to 24-year-olds in England after cannabis.
The decision goes further than the recommendations of a review commissioned by the Home Office, which stopped short of recommending a ban after examining the dangers of the substance.
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Gove accepted that ministers had been advised not to ban laughing gas but said the government had taken a different view.
“Of course it is absolutely right that we uphold the law in this case,” he added.
“Yes, the advisory committee offered their advice but ultimately it is ministers who are responsible.
“And we believe collectively that it is absolutely vital that we deal with this scourge and in the same way.”
Asked if they believed Boris Johnson told the truth when he appeared before MPs this week, not a single member of the Question Time audience put their hand up.
Even more worryingly for the former prime minister, the programme was being broadcast from Newcastle-under-Lyme, part of the famous Red Wall of seats where he is still said to be popular with voters.
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It was a fitting denouement to a miserable week for a man who was still in Downing Street less than a year ago.
Johnson suffered two major blows to his hopes of a political comeback within a few hours on Wednesday afternoon.
His irascible performance in front of parliament’s privileges committee, which is investigating claims he misled the Commons over partygate, left few in any doubt that he will be found guilty.
Should the committee decide to impose a suspension of more than 10 days, and parliament votes for it, he could face a by-election in his Uxbridge seat.
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On the same day, Johnson’s hopes of leading a wide-scale Tory revolt against his arch-nemesis Rishi Sunak’s Brexit deal ended in failure when only 21 of his colleagues followed him into the No lobby.
Meanwhile, while all this was going on, Rishi Sunak enjoyed a game of cricket in the Downing Street garden with England’s T20 world cup-winning team.
Rishi Sunak enjoyed a game of cricket in the No10 garden with England’s T20 World Cup winning and children from the ACE cricket programme on Wednesday.
Simon Walker/10 Downing Street
As he surveys the political scene this weekend, Johnson will surely be contemplating the very real possibility that his ambition of a triumphant return to No.10 will be unfulfilled.
Many experienced observers of Westminster believe that the game is up for the former PM.
One senior Tory told HuffPost UK: “He’s just like that drunk uncle at the wedding who is there at the reception but you don’t really know why.”
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Others believe that even Johnson’s media cheerleaders have decided to move on and throw their weight behind Sunak as the next election draws nearer.
“I thought it was very telling there was a front page of the Telegraph was very negative about him after his committee appearance,” said one former cabinet member. “I think that’s a weathervane.
“I think it’s a cocktail of the partygate stuff and the Brexit vote. It could have gone the other way – he could have had a major triumph in the committee and there could have been a big rebellion, but in the end it was just the usual suspects who voted with him.
“A line has been drawn and people just want to move on.”
One Tory MP told HuffPost UK: “His defence at the committee was basically ‘I’m an idiot’. Some people might accept that, but I think it just reaffirmed that him coming back is just not a realistic possibility.
“Even if Rishi falls under a bus, literally or politically, it’s not going to Boris who steps in to the breach. A significant enough number of MPs just wouldn’t wear it. Most of them realise he’s not an asset to them any more.”
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Tory peer and election guru Lord Hayward told Sky News: “His support is diminishing and his impact on the party is diminishing the longer Rishi Sunak is prime minister.”
Former minister Caroline Nokes was even more forthright, declaring that Johnson is “finished”.
“I think there was a very clear message from his own ministers back in the summer that they didn’t want him to carry on,” she told ITV’s Peston show.
“He didn’t choose to stand against Rishi Sunak back in the autumn when we had the second leadership challenge.
“As far as I’m concerned, Boris Johnson is not coming back as prime minister.”
Johnson still does have his hardcore supporters who will defend him to the bitter end.
Jacob Rees-Mogg told Channel 4 News “he’s winning in the court of public opinion”, while Nadine Dorries said the privileges committee is “a kangaroo court” determined to find him guilty regardless of the evidence.
One Johnson ally said that if the partygate inquiry had been properly dealt with a year ago, he would probably still be PM.
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“It would have helped restore perspective and pedestrianise what was portrayed as sinister and dramatic at the time,” they told HuffPost UK.
“The world now knows that police looked at the legality and found the PM and Rishi at fault for one event that the public would totally understand.
“People were working hard in No.10 and were there for long and endless hours – they weren’t heading in for a party. And the bad stuff unveiled by the Sue Gray report was a shock to Boris as much as anyone.
“We all lost the plot getting obsessed with partygate when we should have been looking at things like the anaemic economic growth, high inflation, the delays to HS2 and the fact that corporation tax is too high.”
However, the ally did agree with Johnson’s detractors that there is no chance of him returning to Downing Street.
Keir Starmer earned £360,000 in the last two years and paid £118,000 in tax, it has been revealed.
The Labour leader published his returns for 2020/21 and 2021/22 a day after Rishi Sunak became the first prime minister since David Cameron to do so.
They show that in 202/21, Starmer earned £125,695 as an MP and leader of the opposition.
He also received £21,925 in book royalties and £13 in bank interest, making a total of £147,633.
In that year, he paid £51,547 in income tax.
In 2021/22, he earned £126,154 as an MP and Labour leader, £453 in royalties, £14 in bank interest and £85,466 in capital gains after his sister sold a house they had bought together for her and her children to live in.
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He paid £43,103 in income tax, plus £23,930 in capital gains tax, making a total of £67,033.
It means that over the two years he earned a total of £359,720 and paid £118,580 to the tax man. That means his tax rate was 33%.
Sunak’s returns showed that he paid HMRC just over £1 million between 2019 and 2022.
Tax returns dating back to Sunak’s time as chancellor show that between 2019/20 and 2021/22, he received £1,006,374 in income, plus £3,760,588 in capital gains – a total of £4,766,962.
On that, he paid income tax and capital gains tax totalling £1,053,060.
A Labour source said: “While Sunak was jacking up everyone else’s tax, he was paying a tax rate of about 22% on millions of pounds of income.”
Rishi Sunak earned just under £5 million over the last three years, it has been revealed.
Tax returns dating back to his time as chancellor show that between 2019/20 and 2021/22, he received £1,006,374 in income, plus £3,760,588 in capital gains.
That makes a total of £4,766,962.
On that, he paid income tax and capital gains tax totalling £1,053,060.
A Labour source said: “So while Sunak was jacking up everyone else’s tax, he was paying a tax rate of about 22% on millions of pounds of income.”
Downing Street has been promising to release the PM’s tax returns for months, but eventually chose to do so on the same day that Boris Johnson was giving evidence to the privileges committee and MPs were voting on the Windsor Framework.
That led to suggestions that Number 10 were trying to ensure that it got less media coverage that would ordinarily have been the case.
