Politics

An investigation is being demanded into how Boris Johnson funded the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat following incendiary claims by his former chief adviser Dominic Cummings. In a bombshell blog post, Mr Cummings accused his former boss of plotting an “unethical, foolish, possibly illegal” plan to get Tory donors to secretly bankroll the work.

Boris Johnson did not need to pick today’s fight with his mercurial former advisor. He is at least 10 points ahead of Labour in the polls, likely to score successes in the May elections and for once there is no pressing crisis at the top of his government’s agenda. That was before the prime minister

Boris Johnson’s former aide Dominic Cummings has denied being the source of the prime minister’s leaked text communications with businessman Sir James Dyson. Several newspapers quoted unnamed Downing Street sources as claiming Mr Cummings had leaked the text messages, first reported by the BBC. In a blog post, Mr Cummings said: “I do have some

Downing Street has mounted a fightback against “sleaze” accusations by planting stories in Tory-supporting newspapers accusing Dominic Cummings of leaking Number 10 texts. The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Sun quote unnamed Downing Street sources claiming Mr Cummings leaked texts about tycoon Sir James Dyson and Saudi Arabia’s crown prince. The lead story on

David Cameron lobbied the Treasury’s top civil servant on behalf of a financial services firm that later collapsed. Sir Tom Scholar told a committee of MPs that the former prime minister called him on his work mobile and sent him text messages in March and April 2020 in a bid to get Greensill Capital involved

“Class-based bias” still exists in Westminster, according to the prime minister’s former director of communications. Lee Cain said he had “lost count of the times I was branded a ‘bruiser’, ‘thuggish’ or even an ‘oik’ for the twin crimes of having a strong northern accent and shaved hair”. “My experiences in Westminster made it easy

Tony Blair has told Sky News that issues around lobbying should be looked at “thoroughly”, but “by and large” the British system is “pretty clean”. The former prime minister said a set of rules should be established “which make sense”. Mr Blair, who was in Downing Street from 1997 to 2007, added that there has

Sir James Dyson has said it is “absurd to suggest” his company was doing anything other than trying to follow the rules, after it was reported that the prime minister personally promised him he would “fix” an issue over the tax status of his employees. The BBC reported that it had seen a series of

The government has abandoned plans to hold White House-style televised briefings – despite spending £2.6m on a new studio. Boris Johnson’s press secretary, Allegra Stratton, who had been expected to front the new media briefings, will now become spokeswoman for the COP26 climate change summit. Ms Stratton said: “I am delighted to be starting this

Former prime minister David Cameron and Chancellor Rishi Sunak are set to be hauled before MPs to answer questions over the Greensill Capital lobbying controversy. As one of seven inquiries at Westminster into the controversy, the House of Commons’ Treasury committee has announced it will seek to take oral evidence from both Mr Cameron and

Michael Gove is visiting Israel to study a COVID “green pass” smartphone app that could soon be the model for vaccine passports in the UK. The Cabinet Office minister, in charge of a Whitehall study into how coronavirus certification might work in the UK, has been a big fan of the Israeli scheme for weeks.

The prime minister’s trip to India next week has been cancelled, Downing Street has confirmed. India is experiencing a surge in cases of COVID-19, while there are fears about the emergence of a new variant of the virus in the country. Announcing the decision, the British and Indian governments said in a joint statement: “In

David Cameron did not do anything wrong when lobbying for Greensill Capital and “meticulously observed the rules”, the environment secretary has told Sky News. George Eustice also said current rules on lobbying are “pretty good”. Asked about the former prime minister’s conduct, Mr Eustice said: “Has he done anything wrong? Well, on the face of

It will take five years for some hospitals to catch up with the backlog of patient care caused by the coronavirus pandemic, NHS Providers has warned. The trusts in England worst impacted by the crisis are between three and five years away from returning to pre-COVID levels, according to the association. It also claims that

Boris Johnson should relinquish his right to decide when possible breaches of the ministerial code warrant investigation, according to the chair of the Committee for Standards in Public Life. In a letter to the prime minister, Lord Evans argued the power to launch a probe into the behaviour of members of the government should instead

The foreign secretary is set to reveal which UK projects around the world will be axed or reduced following a decision to slash foreign aid spending by almost a third, Sky News understands. A statement to parliament was scheduled for this week but had to be postponed because of the death of the Duke of