🗺️ Will flights finally take off for Rwanda?
🎙️ Alain Tolhurst and Caitlin Doherty talk to Robert Buckland and Dr Ruth Fox on where the Rwanda Bill leaves Rishi Sunak’s pledge to ‘stop the boats’
🎧 Listen now:
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has said the party will seek to remove Boris Johnson from Downing Street next week, claiming it is “unacceptable” for the Prime Minister to stay in post.
"You cannot coordinate an international response from the beach."
Keir Starmer criticised Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab for going on holiday as the situation in Afghanistan deteriorated
🇺🇦 Aleksandr, a 19-year-old student, fled to Poland from Ukraine following the Russian invasion
📲 Through texts and voice messages, he kept in touch with
@kate_m_proctor
on his journey
🧵 This is his story...
View the full conversation:
"I don't think another word suffices the levels of corruption."
Labour MP
@zarahsultana
was reprimanded by Deputy Commons Speaker Eleanor Laing for refusing to "moderate her language" after she referred to government ministers as "dodgy" in the Commons
Ed Miliband: "He can't blame [Theresa May]. He can't blame John Major. He can't blame the judges... There's only one person responsible for it and that's him. This is his deal. It's his mess. It's his failure."
"I find it totally unacceptable that once again we see Downing Street running roughshod over MPs"
Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said he is considering "other avenues" to force ministers to make statements to the Commons before they're made to the media
Keir Starmer hit back at Boris Johnson over his “pre-prepared gags on flip flops“, saying the former columnist "wrote two versions of every article ever published"
"Fewer girls will be educated, more girls and boys will become slaves, more children will go hungry, and more of poorest people in world will die.”
Former PM
@theresa_may
has said she will vote against the government on foreign aid cuts
"I can hear all those who spoke up against this intervention, not because they support the Taliban... but because they were serious about a long term peace in the world."
@jeremycorbyn
said it was "beyond disappointing" that ministers had ruled out a new inquiry into Afghanistan
"I would literally give anything not to be standing here today in her place."
Batley and Spen MP Kim Leadbeater gave her maiden speech during a special debate paying tribute to her late sister Jo Cox, who was murdered in the constituency in 2016
EXCLUSIVE 🚨
Campaigners and carers are demanding the government publish its long-awaited review into “barbaric” benefits rules forcing terminally ill people to attend work assessments
The full story from PoliticsHome 🧵/1
🗓 Thursday February 24
In a town 25km south of Kyiv, Aleksandr and his mother wake up late at night to find there's no electricity
His brother and his wife-to-be arrive at the family home, having driven from the capital on log-jammed motorways full of people fleeing the city
"Sit down Prime Minister. I'm not going to be challenged. You may be Prime Minister of this country but in this House I'm in charge."
Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle took a strong tone with Boris Johnson during
#PMQs
after repeatedly reprimanding him for not following the rules
"If those rules were broken, then there will be disciplinary action for all those involved."
Boris Johnson said on 8 Dec that he'd been "repeatedly assured" that "no Covid rules were broken"
No 10 confirmed on Monday that the PM had been fined by the Met Police over the events
"Killed women are not vanishingly rare. Killed women are common."
Speaking during a debate to mark
#InternationalWomensDay
, shadow minister
@jessphillips
read out the names of every UK woman killed by a man in the previous 12 months (1/3)
"Can't the Prime Minister see why the British public think he's lying through his teeth?"
Keir Starmer highlighted Boris Johnson's past claims that he hadn't attended alleged parties at Downing Street following his apology for attending a gathering in May 2020
#PMQs
"I've watched good men go into the earth, taking with them a part of me, a part of all of us."
@TomTugendhat
— who served in Afghanistan — said he'd had assurances from the health secretary that more would be done to support veteran mental health
‘History teaches us that we cannot stay silent in the face of what is happening to China’s Uighur community’ — the Holocaust Educational Trust’s
@KarenPollock100
writes for
@TheHouseLive
:
"I've never heard such farcical answers to a series of questions."
@AndyMcDonaldMP
accused P&O Ferries chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite of "[choosing] to break the law" by not consulting unions over the sackings of 800 staff
🗯️ Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner responded to the introduction of a bill enforcing minimum service levels during strikes
"My constituent died waiting for an ambulance and that was not on a strike day"
"Are you in this mess because you don’t know what you’re doing, or are you just a shameless criminal?"
@CommonsBEIS
chair
@darrenpjones
quizzed P&O Ferries chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite on why he did not consult unions before sacking 800 workers
🗓 Thursday March 3
Encirclement of key cities continues, including around Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, and residents of the port city of Mariupol say they are being shelled continuously
Thankfully, Aleksandr and his girlfriend make it to Poland
👀 The mood at No 10 is reportedly low following multiple reports of lockdown-breaking parties
🤷♂️ PoliticsHome understands staff in more junior roles feel dejected by how their superiors have responded
🧵/1
Coronavirus testing chief Dido Harding is being asked by MPs to provide the evidence behind the new 10pm pub curfew and the decision to only allow table service.
😬 "There is no precedent for a Prime Minister having been found to have deliberately misled the House. He misled the House on an issue of the greatest importance to the House and to the public, and did so repeatedly."
"We're the party of business, the party of growth, the party of jobs."
Shadow home secretary
@YvetteCooperMP
told PoliticsHome that "the Labour party is ready for government" and was a strong alternative to the "chaos" of the Conservatives
#LAB22
There were shouts of "shame" and "what have you done to this place" from MPs as the Commons voted to overturn Tory MP Owen Paterson’s suspension for breaking lobbying rules
The motion to overturn the ruling passed by 250 votes to 232, a majority of 18
🗓 Friday 25 February
People in Kyiv wake up from a night in bomb shelters after direct rocket strikes on the capital
Aleksandr is joined by his 17-year-old girlfriend, and the family begin driving to Vinnytsia, 280km to the south of Kyiv
😳 "I know the justice secretary has been busy trying to save his own job rather than actually doing it..."
Keir Starmer made a dig at Dominic Raab at
#PMQs
🎶 Post-Brexit red tape and extra costs could be killing off the next generation of UK musical talent, Blur drummer
@DaveRowntree
has warned
He told PoliticsHome’s
@AdamPayne26
that ministers need to do more to support British artists touring in the EU
Dominic Raab paid tribute to "Paul Grayson" before being corrected...
The deputy PM then said: "We need to avoid the wokery and the limitations on comedy"
#PMQs
"You should learn the lessons, if you keep cheating the public it catches up with you in the end."
Angela Rayner — standing in for Keir Starmer at
#PMQs
— suggested that Boris Johnson could face the same fate as former US president Donald Trump if he didn't "play by the rules"
🗓 Sunday February 27
Putin says he is putting his nuclear deterrence on high alert, and satellite images show a 40 mile-long convoy of military hardware entering Ukraine
Meanwhile, Aleksandr, his girlfriend, and his family arrive in Lviv
His father has remained behind
🗓 Saturday 26 February
It is estimated that 150,000 Ukrainian refugees have crossed into neighbouring countries
Aleksandr and his family make it to Ternopil after their road journey to Vinnytsia becomes too dangerous
"Ant and Dec are ahead of the Prime Minister on this."
Keir Starmer said Boris Johnson had been "caught red handed" after the PM promised to investigate reports that a Christmas party was held at Downing Street during lockdown
#PMQs
😬 A senior MP in the Northern Ireland Office has withdrawn his call for the government to cut ties with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) after it was pointed out that the Good Friday peace deal requires the UK's participation
"He also said we must not return to the squabbling of last autumn, and I could see Theresa May looking angry. People could definitely see the irony of that."
🚨 Exclusive — Penny Mordaunt is the overwhelming favourite among young Tories, polling of
@YoungConNetwork
members shows
📊 Mordaunt was the first choice among 31%, while Rishi Sunak came in join second with Kemi Badenoch with 17%
Full story:
"The entire process seems geared to punish innocent people. How am I meant to answer whether my wife can prepare a meal for herself?
"On good days, maybe yes. On bad days she might wander off and set the pan on fire, or leave the gas on without knowing it," Mick adds /4
😬 A former special advisor said that when the first party story broke, ex-colleagues still working there told them they had "never felt such a bad atmosphere”
🤷♂️ Downing Street staff said they felt there hadn't been "any leadership" from senior officials to support them /2
🤯 "They like to pretend it was all just one week of madness last autumn, but the truth is it's been 13 years of failure."
Keir Starmer asked the prime minister how he thinks "his low-growth, high-tax economy is working for working people?"
#PMQs
Tory MP: "Frankly, the Met refused to investigate. Somebody else has done all the work. Then they said, we will take it from here and, by the way you can't publish it. It's a complete joke."
🇬🇧👋🇪🇺 Five years on from the historic vote to leave the European Union, have any of the big campaign claims from Leave and Remain come true?
PoliticsHome’s
@johnjohnstonmi
takes us through some of the most memorable moments 🧵
Unpredictable illnesses like motor-neuron disease (MND) and dementia don’t fall into this category meaning suffers must apply as normal
"The prospect of a 3 year review for someone with dementia is simply inhumane,” Mick, whose wife suffers from the disease, told PoliticsHome /3
Chris Bryant: "It seems that you very rarely correct the record. Why is that?"
The PM defends his infamous £350m claim during the Brexit campaign, and asks if that was what Bryant was referring to.
"No, I was thinking of: did you sack Matt Hancock?"
"The reports of which I'm aware would seem to constitute blackmail."
Tory MP William Wragg has accused No 10 officials of "intimidation" for threatening to withdraw funding from MPs opposing the PM, and has called for the police to get involved
😡 Staff are also unhappy at senior figures aiming to blame the party reports on their junior colleagues
"People in No 10 were basically completely dejected and to be honest, almost more frustrated by what now seems to be a Johnson trait of ignore, ignore, ignore," one said /4
Corbyn, who has represented Islington North in the House of Commons since 1983, will now sit as an independent MP while an internal inquiry takes place.
Theresa May: “Either my right honourable friend had not read the rules, or didn’t understand what they meant and others around him, or didn’t think they applied to Number 10. Which was it?”
🗓 Wednesday March 2
The death toll mounts as bombardment of key cities continues, along with Kharkiv’s Freedom Square government buildings and opera house
Kate hasn't heard from Aleksandr since Sunday
"They've decided to replace levelling up with trickle down."
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said there was nothing about the government's plan for growth, and claimed it was based on an "outdated ideology"
🗯 One aide described a chronically dysfunctional workplace at No 10
🗣 “It points to that strange environment of politics where the traditional hierarchies and leadership requirements of a big place of work are just missing,” they said /3
"Under the shadow of China's increasingly heavy influence...the global aspect of Hong Kong’s historic identity is being lost".
@LordPhilofBrum
and
@GwynneMP
call on the UK to protect and support brave Hongkongers