Rowena Mason
@rowenamason
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Whitehall editor at The Guardian. Email me at rowena.mason @theguardian .com
London
Joined February 2009
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Boris Johnson pledge for 50,000 more nurses not quite what it seems - 12k from abroad, 14k new undergrad students, 5k degree apprenticeships. Which leaves 19k nurses “retained” who would otherwise have left... so not “new” nurses at all
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Emily Thornberry, shadow AG, says using the doctrine of necessity to justify NI protocol bill is "complete and utter nonsense". "The doctrine of necessity relies on grave and immediate peril. Boris Johnson's career may be in peril but it doesn't seem to apply otherwise"
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No business under 500 people will be subject to business regulation, says Treasury minister Chris Philp. What none at all?!
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Exclusive - Boris Johnson has been pictured with wine and cheese alongside his wife and up to 17 staff in the Downing Street garden during lockdown - with
@GuardianHeather
and
@peterwalker99
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No 10 confirms the PM headed off on holiday to the West Country on Sat - the day before Kabul fell to the Taliban - while Dominic Raab, foreign secretary, was also on hols abroad in Cyprus. Downing Street insists he was in charge throughout, nobody deputising in Westminster.
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Andy Burnham setting out a real alternative vision here:1) universal basic income 2) homes for all as a human right 3) social care service free at point of use like NHS funded by 10% levy on estates after death 4) buses in public ownership...and lots more policy
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The Andrew Sabisky row just got a whole lot worse. PM’s deputy official spox won’t say if Boris Johnson agrees with eugenics or whether black people less intelligent than white people. Only that “his views are well documented” - and won’t comment on the controversial appointment
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Lots of Tory MPs now tweeting near identical messages asking constituents to "rest assured" they are passing on concerns about Cummings to the "relevant colleagues" > orchestrated attempt to dampen public anger doesn't seem like enough
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Boris Johnson really did just say Sirte in Libya will be a great tourist destination once they've "cleared the dead bodies" - v v bad taste
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Almost half of the personal tax cuts confirmed today will go to richest 5% of population, the Resolution Foundation says.
And there's the reason that the Treasury didn't want to publish a distributional analysis.
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One of the 21 MPs on chief whip offer: “One of the most self-unaware letters I’ve received...The party is now led by a narrow sect who wouldn’t be out of place in a muppet version of the Handmaiden’s tale. It’s like being asked by captain if you want to get back on the Titanic.”
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New: Rishi Sunak is believed to have met Frank Hester in the afternoon on the day after the autumn statement in Nov when Hester paid £16k for Sunak to fly to Leeds by helicopter. Downing St declined to “get into the details” of whether they met.
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Exclusive: Clive Lewis to stand for Labour leader with a pledge to go further than Jeremy Corbyn in giving members a say on policy and a more decisive break with Blair/Brown era
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Starmer on the catalogue of government failings: "Slow into lockdown, slow on testing, slow on PPE, and now slow on taking up offers on protective equipment"
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Huge welcome to
@PippaCrerar
in her first day as Guardian political editor today
I'll be moving to a new lobby role as Whitehall editor some time in autumn once a new deputy appointed...
Very excited to be part of the amazing team w/
@jessicaelgot
@peterwalker99
@breeallegretti
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Ex Labour MPs in the Ind Group grimacing as Anna Soubry praises the coalition government and George Osborne
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Theresa May speaks to Tory supporters at Bristol social club - its secretary says the people who usually socialise there not invited
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No 10 u-turn on EU buying scheme for ventilators - spokesman says UK didn't take part as there was a mix-up with emails + they missed deadline. But UK will consider taking part in future rounds
Insists no ideology involved after being accused of putting "Brexit over breathing"
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Time to revive my story about the time the Foreign Office was left to mop up after Boris Johnson's trip to Iraq
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Boris Johnson went to see Macbeth last night - and audience members say he didn't follow the theatre's requests to wear a mask for the benefit of others
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Bizarre and unrepentant speech will not have helped Theresa May's chances of staying for long. Wrong tone, no humility, no reaching out
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Truss took 4 questions from journalists before fleeing the podium - she was reading pre-picked names from a list prepared by her spinners
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So David Davis won't be found in contempt... 10 Tory MPs and one DUP voted that he had complied with resolution on releasing Brexit impact assessments. Rest of Brexit committee (8 opposition MPs) said he hadn't.
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Is this personal for Boris Johnson? Stone has investigated him 3 times and is about to decide whether to launch a 4th into Downing St flat refurb - after the Electoral Commission reports back on the wallpaper saga
Extraordinary… Cabinet minister Kwasi Kwarteng suggests parliamentary commissioner for standards should quit
“I think it’s difficult to see what the future of the commissioner is,” he tells
@KayBurley
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More on Labour MP Karl Turner confronting Dominic Cummings in Portcullis house just now.
Turner said the PM's language was unacceptable and whipping up hatred, causing MPs to get more death threats overnight (including himself).
Cummings response? "Well vote for a deal then."
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Khan says climate crisis more important than party politics after Ulez victory
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Matt Hancock says tells
@Laura_K_Hughes
she's wrong to say he's missed deadline of 25k tests by mid-April, as deadline was actually the end of April (and then increased to 100k)
But his press release on March 18 said capacity for 25k tests "ready within 4 weeks"
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Tory position in south has worsened considerably during the day: Labour take Crawley, Worthing and Southampton, Lib Dems take Somerset and Woking, Tories lose control and/or biggest party status in W Oxfordshire, Tunbridge Wells, Maidstone, Huntingdon, Wokingham, Castle Point
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8-year-old boy tells Farage "Thank you for trying to take our country back" as he's out canvassing in Thanet
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Leaked emails and WhatsApps from inside BBC shows editors asked journalists asked to avoid using ‘lockdown’ at start of pandemic and turn up criticism of Labour after No 10 pressure
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No 10 lobby briefing this morning a weird alternative universe setting out Boris Johnson’s plans for the week with his spokesman also insisting he gets a “positive” response when he travels round the country meeting voters
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Boris Johnson now confronted with news that Zahawi, Shapps, Hart et al will be waiting for him in Downing Street telling him to go. “So you say,” he retorts. This is excruciating.
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UK experts call for coronavirus inquiry to fix problems in response before "probable" deadly second wave
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Ministers telling gig economy workers advised to quarantine with no sick pay that they can just claim universal credit/ESA instead.... so you’re in bed with Coronavirus and have to fill out a UC application, then typically wait 5 weeks for cash
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Not a good look - Boris Johnson chuckling and guffawing at being asked about Prince Andrew and completely ignoring 2 serious questions about what he thinks, saying he won’t “get dragged into commentary”
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Theresa May doesn't really have an answer to why this is the time for a general election but now is not the time for a Scottish referendum
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Perhaps unwisely Boris Johnson now in front of a “Simply Nuts” sign
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The PM has really got quite personal at insulting Keir Starmer. Calling him an array of different names from Captain Hindsight to Starmer Chameleon. Not very grown up politics
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Almost every single person Boris has met in Cromer (part of Lib Dem seat of Norman Lamb) enthusiastically for leave
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Hilary Benn skewers David Davis on his wildly optimistic projections for trade deals being done and dusted within 12 to 24 months of Brexit vote. Davis laughs off his pre ministerial pronouncements: “That was then, this is now.”
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Commons chamber currently full of school children and other tourists - no MPs staging a sit-in yet. Though Labour MP Kevin Brennan is just outside and quite up for staging a vigil...
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Nonsensical argument from Tory minister Michael Ellis - he's fighting against revealing security advice on Lebedev peerage but claims it is "common to ignore" a Labour motion, so MPs can abstain.
The real reason is a Tory revolt - showing PM does not have control of his party
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Matt Hancock says 18,000 contact tracers will be hired as part of a "test, track and trace" policy - this is such a major u-turn from a few weeks ago when govt was insisting that was not relevant after "containment" phase had been abandoned
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Simon Case claims he joined the all-male Garrick because he believed "profoundly" in reform of the "antediluvian" bar on women from within - when quizzed by Liam Byrne at liaison sub committee.
Rather a niche way to show profound devotion to the cause of equality....
Powerful men keep joining the Garrick
Simon Case, head of the civil service, joined in 2019, Oliver Dowden, dep prime minister, also in 2019, Richard Moore, chief of MI6, in 2016
All after the vote in 2015 blocked women from becoming members
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Former Tory chief whip Chris Heaton Harris not sounding totally convincing when he says Boris Johnson "does have the numbers - just so you know" on
@SophyRidgeSky
"We definitely have enough numbers. We've got the numbers... I'm pretty good at numbers."
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John McDonnell on the Brexit talks with Theresa May's government: "It's like trying to enter into a contract with a company going into administration"
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Truss says: “This is difficult but we will get through this storm.” No apology or acknowledgement of her own role
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Cross-party rebel meeting led by Jeremy Corbyn to discuss strengthening of Benn bill - happening shortly.
Lib Dems want PM to be forced to request extension sooner than Oct 19 - SNP and Lab likely to support too.
Will they use time next week and disrupt Tory party conference?
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NEW Labour’s leaders in the House of Lords have written to Jeremy Corbyn offering peers to investigate antisemitism in the party and advise on a new complaints system, warning him that without decisive leadership it is a “cancer that will continue to grow” > story soon
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Keir Starmer calls for a general election whether Liz Truss stays or goes, saying the government is "completely at the end of the road", clapped out, exhausted and in denial about the damage it has caused the country
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Damian Green, leader of the One Nation caucus of MPs, says Boris Johnson told him at meeting:
- he will not go into election promising no deal Brexit
- he will not make a pact with Nigel Farage.
"We looked each other in the eye. I accept and believe the reassurances," says Green
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People’s Vote MPs pulling back from having any second ref vote on Saturday - say it’s now not the time, better to wait (they don’t have numbers among former Tory MPs)
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Outside the Commons, David Davis says: “it’s not what I expect from a leader. Up until now I had been supporting him.. but it’s not leadership.”
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Political journalists boycott No 10 briefing after PM's aide tries to ban selected reporters - live news
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Rachael Maskell has resigned from the frontbench to vote against article 50, after a meeting with Jeremy Corbyn
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Huge crowd of Labour activists and members of public for Corbyn in Worcester, talking about mental health and social care
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Ukip has managed to spell Sleaford and North Hykeham wrong - Nigel Farage currently being interviewed on Sky in front of botched banner
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No acknowledgement there from May that she has gone backwards - astoundingly defiant, like she thinks no one will notice what happened
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Groups opposed to hard Brexit join forces under Chuka Umunna
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Wow Boris Johnson won't let Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty give their opinions on the Dominic Cummings affair
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Labour's new income tax proposal - 45p above £80k and 50p above £123k. Raises £6.4bn
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More DD: “Yesterday’s interview was an attempt to escape responsibility not to shoulder it. And that is a test of leadership.”
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Backlash against Dominic Cummings from spadocracy: “The level of terror is greater than Priti Patel would like to exert on the criminal classes. It is far, far scarier than under Nick Timothy. He is two Fionas plus a Nick rolled into one.”
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One Tory MP and former minister texts re Priti Patel as home secretary: "Appalling."
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PR call to Guardian politics desk: "Hi, I was wondering if you were going to be covering any more on Brexit this week?"
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Biggest Tory donor said looking at Diane Abbott makes you ‘want to hate all black women’
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Kwarteng scrapping 45p rate of tax - this is not a mini budget, full blown budget with no independent forecasts to back up effect on public finances
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SNP tabling an amendment to Boris Johnson's Brexit deal demanding an extension to the end of January for the purposes of calling an election
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Big disruption at Jeremy Corbyn event from his own brother Piers Corbyn who is shouting at the stage after a man took exception the chair asking for questions from women and people of colour
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PM's numbers v tight. Individual MPs have massive decisions
- Vote of his brother, Jo Johnson, could be crucial (voted against May's deal x3)
- Dennis Skinner abstained - wd he again?
- If EVERYBODY voted like last time, except 28 Spartans, PM would need 4 extra Lab votes
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Final tally 8 women out of 23 in cabinet including the PM (34%) - slightly higher than Cameron's 7/ 22 (but not really a march of the women)
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CCHQ really really don't want an election right now >> 'Desperate mood' in No 10 as insiders consider going to the polls
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Jeremy Corbyn using David Cameron and Michael Wilshaw's words opposing grammars against Theresa May - pretty effective attack
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Ben Gummer was tipped for a cabinet job as a reward for writing that Tory manifesto.... now he's lost his seat
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'Inconsistencies' in Dominic Cummings' story and no doubt he "took risks", says Cabinet Office minister Penny Mordaunt
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Stage at Tory conference is TINY this year - looks like a minor fringe event h/t
@JohnJCrace
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Dozens of duplicate names in the Tory small biz letter to the Telegraph, including one man who signed it 4 times
http://t.co/ctvTKSV1kW
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It turns out Piers Corbyn was disrupting his brother’s climate emergency event deliberately with leaflets claiming “man made climate change does not exist”. He said he didn’t care whether Jeremy was annoyed by it (JC looked on impassively throughout)
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Climate adviser Lord Deben also says foreign aid cuts have been a "fundamental problem" for the UK's COP26 leadership - making it “very much more difficult” for Alok Sharma in his negotiations with developing countries
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What a scoop from
@PippaCrerar
in her first week at the Guardian
EXCL: Tory leadership frontrunner Liz Truss suggested British workers lack the “graft” of their foreign rivals, leaked recording reveals.
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Corbyn chats to student nurses - the last cohort to get bursaries unless Labour get to reverse the policy
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Brilliant scoop by
@PaulBrandITV
. What I want to know is who the “we” refers to when Martin Reynolds says “we thought it would be nice to make the most of this lovely weather”. In the screenshot but not the article text...if the screenshot is correct.
EXCL: Email obtained by
@itvnews
proves over 100 staff were invited to drinks party in No 10 garden at height of lockdown to “make the most of the lovely weather”.
We’re told PM and his wife attended, with staff invited to “bring your own booze!”
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Tom Watson points at heckler- "Jeremy I don't think she got the unity memo". Urges Labour not to trash its record:"We need to win elections"
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Conservative MP Heidi Allen calling for Boris J to be sacked for saying Sirte could be a tourist destination if dead bodies cleared away
100% unacceptable from anyone, let alone foreign sec. Boris must be sacked for this. He does not represent my party.
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Raab says he "spoke to the PM over the weekend" - so seemingly not today. That sounds odd that Johnson is running the country but has not spoken to his de facto deputy who chaired his government's coronavirus meeting this morning.
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Jeremy Corbyn tackled at shadow cabinet over why Ian Lavery and Jon Trickett still in their frontbench jobs despite defying whip on second referendum indicative votes- answer came there none, according to shadow cabinet sources
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Fair to say Tory activists in Bradford crammed down one end of large room...
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Leadsom says she's never said she was a fund manager. Nov 2010 in HoC: "I have been in investment banking and funds management for 23 years"
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Dominic Cummings - top Boris Johnson adviser said Tory MPs do not care about poor people or NHS
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Another former Conservative MP comes out for a second referendum - adding to Oliver Letwin. Several others are moving in that direction.
Why I am writing to my constituents to say why I now support a
#peoplesvote
@peoplesvotefor1
@peoplesvote_hq
#Yellowhammer
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Source at Labour HQ says there is a stunned silence and grim mood at scale of Sadiq Khan mayoral win -suggests Corbyn victory sealed.
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Lots of media bashing from PM in speech - at least 3 references to campaign against him driven by press… ie a refusal to acknowledge his own behaviour and leadership has led him here
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May has now visited 3 Labour held marginal seats since last night- Bradford South, Lancaster + Fleetwood, S Clwyd and now off to a fourth
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Jeremy Corbyn: 'I am favour of decriminalising the sex industry'
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PM faces questions over £150m deal involving firm that employed his new comms chief Guto Harri
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The standards commissioner due to rule soon whether Boris Johnson should face an inquiry over the funding of No 11 flat. She said she would decide after Electoral Commission inquiry - EC has now completed a first draft and shared this with CCHQ
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Senior Labour officers have agreed no trigger ballots for MPs after talks this afternoon
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It appears Johnson said this accidentally... some sort of panic going on among No 10 advisers that he has blown news of the big Tory tax giveaway
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Theresa May walks stonily into count to cries of "are you going to resign prime minister?" as Corbyn claims victory for anti austerity
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