The government has until 4pm today (June 1) to hand over Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages to the Covid inquiry or face a court battle.
Head of the inquiry Baroness Hallett, a former judge, has warned of legal action if all of the documents – including Johnson’s WhatsApp messages, notebooks and official diaries are not provided.
Downing Street has so far...
Spies to tackle fraud and text scammers; voters reminded about photo...
The UK’s intelligence agencies will form a key part of a new crackdown on text scammers and fraud to be announced by the government.
Technology used for mass texting of phones will be restricted and a clampdown on cold calls...
Whitehall
‘Contemptuous’ Treasury mocks Hancock’s leaked WhatsApps to promote Budget
A video released by the Treasury on Twitter to promote the Budget by mocking Matt Hancock’s leaked WhatsApp messages has been labelled “contemptuous”, “shameful” and “cringe”. Jeremy Hunt’s first full...
Whitehall
Labour exposes ‘scandalous waste’ of taxpayers’ money by Tory government
Labour has condemned the “lavish spending” culture at the heart of government exposed by its investigation into government procurement cards (GPCs) – credit cards for ministers and officials backed...
Whitehall
Formal complaints against Dominic Raab triple to at least 24
Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab is the subject of formal complaints from “at least 24 civil servants”, raising a huge question mark over his future and piling further pressure...
Braverman back as home secretary six days after breaking ministerial code
Suella Braverman has been reappointed home secretary less than a week after plunging Liz Truss’s government into a death spiral.
The successor Rishi Sunak started his first hours as prime minister with a reshuffle of...
Barristers escalate strike action; govt gives law firms £85m before Covid Inquiry
Criminal barristers in England and Wales have voted to go on an all-out strike and victims’ advocates said the historic action is “entirely the government’s fault”.
Already log-jammed courts will face even further stress when...
‘Impossible and odious’ to be Johnson’s ethics adviser
Boris Johnson’s ethics adviser Lord Christopher Geidt has resigned because the prime minister put him in an “impossible and odious position”.
Geidt’s resignation letter states Johnson proposed violating the ministerial code and that he had...
Boris Johnson rewrites ministerial code to ‘save his own skin,’ says Rayner
Boris Johnson has re-written the ministerial code of conduct whilst he is being investigated by MPs over whether he has breached it by lying to the House of Commons.
Labour said Johnson is “debasing the...
Queen’s speech shows government’s ‘time has passed,’ says Starmer
The Queen’s speech, outlining the government’s legislative programme, has been attacked by Labour for lacking any strategy, detail or ideas to deal with the cost of living crisis.
While Boris Johnson effused about the need...