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Throughout his life and political career, Boris Johnson has believed the rules don’t apply to him. And as he marks his second anniversary as prime minister this weekend, it seems nothing’s changed.

It was a claim first made by one of his masters at Eton. And the view was reinforced as recently as last Sunday when he tried to dodge self-isolating after coming into contact with COVID-positive Sajid Javid.

Forced into a humiliating U-turn, Mr Johnson is spending his second anniversary as PM isolating at Chequers. So no chums, political cronies or family members to celebrate with him. Or so we’re told.

Britain's Prime Minister and Conservative party leader Boris Johnson drives a Union flag-themed JCB, with the words "Get Brexit Done" inside the digger bucket, through a fake wall emblazoned with the word "GRIDLOCK", during a general election campaign event at JCB construction company in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, on December 10, 2019. - Britain will go to the polls on December 12, 2019 to vote in a pre-Christmas general election. (Photo by Ben STANSALL / POOL / AFP)
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Boris Johnson won the 2019 election with a pledge to ‘get Brexit done’

But, hey, there are worse places to self-isolate than the PM’s 16th century grace and favour mansion house in the Chilterns, a 1,500-acre hideaway with a tennis court and swimming pool.

Plenty of time for the PM to reflect on a tumultuous two years even by the standards of his rollercoaster life: a second divorce, a third marriage, another child and – of course – narrowly escaping death from COVID.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is greeted by staff as he arrives back at 10 Downing Street, London, after meeting Queen Elizabeth II and accepting her invitation to form a new government after the Conservative Party was returned to power in the General Election with an increased majority. PA Photo. Picture date: Friday December 13, 2019. See PA story POLITICS Election. Photo credit should read: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
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Boris Johnson was greeted by staff in Downing Street as he returned after winning the 2019 general election with a landslide majority of 80

As well as all that, he’s imposed three national lockdowns – so far – in England, held 57 coronavirus news conferences in Downing Street and introduced countless draconian rules and restrictions that have put him on collision course with Tory MPs and triggered several big backbench rebellions.

That’s after a Brexit war of attrition in his first year in which he shut down parliament illegally, kicked out 21 rebel Conservative MPs, won the Tories’ biggest election victory since Margaret Thatcher in 1987 and fulfilled his pledge to “get Brexit done”.

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President Donald Trump meets with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) .
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Boris Johnson met then US President Donald Trump in September 2019

It’s been two years in which he has hired – and fired – Dominic Cummings, broken a Tory manifesto pledge on overseas aid and been accused of breaking an international treaty on trade and ripping up his own Brexit deal on the Northern Ireland protocol.

After his brush with death, he’s become a fitness obsessive, declaring in a speech last year “My friends, I was too fat” and embarking on a punishing exercise regime involving early morning runs through London parks with his Jack Russell cross Dilyn.

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The prime minister posted a message on social media in April 2020 to say he had contracted COVID-19 – he was later hospitalised with the virus

He even – temporarily, perhaps – became a football fan during the Euros, wearing his England jersey over his shirt and tie at Wembley in a display that was denounced as a crime against fashion.

Is it really only two years ago that Mr Johnson entered 10 Downing Street on 24 July 2019 and vowed to prove the “doubters, doomsters and gloomsters” wrong over Brexit? Oh, and he also promised to “fix the crisis in social care once and for all”.

Still from No 10 clip
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Boris Johnson announced the first national lockdown on 23 March 2020

Two years on, we’re still waiting on social care, with the PM squabbling with his chancellor, Rishi Sunak, about how it should be paid for and a blueprint promised earlier this week now postponed until the autumn.

With no Commons majority to speak of in the summer of 2019, Mr Johnson dragged the Queen into the Brexit row by proroguing parliament, a move later ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court.

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In February 2020 a family court judge approved a financial settlement between Boris Johnson and his ex-wife Marina Wheeler

He then suspended 21 pro-European Tory MPs, including two former Chancellors of the Exchequer – Ken Clarke and Philip Hammond – and his hero Winston Churchill’s grandson, Sir Nicholas Soames.

But after Labour dropped its opposition to a general election, he called a poll for 12 December. And after a typically flamboyant Johnson campaign involving a bulldozer and a pledge of an “oven-ready” deal on Brexit, he won an 80-seat majority.

Boris Johnson and his now wife Carrie Johnson
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The prime minister’s now wife Carrie Johnson moved into Number 10 with him when he took up the role

Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party was crushed as the Conservatives won seats in a so-called “Red Wall” in the north of England and the midlands that had been held by Labour for generations. British politics had been turned upside down.

On 31 January 2020, the UK finally left the European Union. But even now the battles between London and Brussels over the small print of the deal are still raging, with the Northern Ireland protocol disagreement no closer to being resolved.

Boris Johnson, his wife Carrie Johnson and their baby Wilfred
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Boris Johnson and Carrie Johnson announced the birth of their son Wilfred on April 29 2020

In February last year it was all change for the PM: Sajid Javid quit as chancellor after Mr Cummings told him to sack his advisers, Mr Johnson was divorced from his long-suffering wife Marina Wheeler and 11 days later he announced that he and his girlfriend Carrie Symonds were engaged and expecting a baby.

What could possibly go wrong? Well, nearly everything, as it turned out.

Boris Johnson and his dog Dilyn
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The couple adopted Dilyn the Jack Russell cross in 2019

In March COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation, Mr Johnson was forced to announce the first lockdown in England, in a grim TV address to the nation, and then he tested positive.

But the drama was only just beginning. The day after Sir Keir Starmer was elected Labour leader, the PM was admitted to hospital for a week, including three nights in intensive care. Two weeks after he left hospital, Carrie gave birth to a son, Wilfred.

The Queen held her audience with the PM for the first time since the pandemic began
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The prime minister met the Queen in person for the first time in over a year in June

Lockdown measures were eased in May, but the PM’s whole COVID strategy was undermined by Mr Cummings making a lockdown-busting trip to Durham, including a drive to nearby Barnard Castle, he claimed, to test his eyesight.

Although it was the beginning of the end for the maverick Mr Cummings, the PM should have fired him there and then. Instead, the soap opera reached a climax – or nadir – with an excruciating news conference by Mr Cummings in the Downing Street garden.

Dominic Cummings has claimed the government originally planned to try and build 'herd immunity'
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The PM’s former senior aide Dominic Cummings left Downing Street in November 2020 and the pair have since been engaged in a war of words

It was November, after a second lockdown in England, before Mr Cummings left Number 10, carrying a cardboard box containing his belongings. Also ousted was the PM’s spin doctor, Lee Cain, in what the pair claim to this day was a coup masterminded by the PM’s fiancée.

Meanwhile, the PM was earning a reputation for COVID U-turns by easing lockdown measures in England in December, only to cancel Christmas, bring in tough new rules and then a third national lockdown – including shutting schools – in early January as the UK death toll topped 100,000. There has been criticism, too, of COVID contracts being awarded to Tory cronies.

Allegra Stratton, the face of Downing Street's new daily televised press briefings, enters 10 Downing Street, London, the day after Lee Cain announced he is resigning as Downing Street's director of communications and will leave the post at the end of the year.
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Allegra Stratton was soon appointed as the Downing Street Press Secretary

But then came the vaccine breakthrough: the best news for the PM throughout the whole coronavirus crisis. Even his harshest critics wouldn’t begrudge him the success of the government’s rolling out of the vaccination programme.

The Tories also enjoyed what looked like a vaccine bounce in the opinion polls, although a new poll on the day of the PM’s second anniversary, in the i newspaper, suggests his vaccine bounce may now be ending, with his approval rating slipping into negative territory after a jab high three months ago and a majority now believing he is “dishonest, inconsistent and disorganised”.

And he has used this success to his considerable political advantage. “We vaccinate, he vacillates,” Mr Johnson has taunted Sir Keir several times during Prime Minister’s Questions this year. And the Tories have enjoyed what looks like a vaccine bounce in the opinion polls.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak delivers his 'Mansion House' speech at the Financial and Professional Services Address, previously known as the Bankers dinner, at Mansion House in the City of London. Picture date: Thursday July 1, 2021.
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Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced on social media that he would not be taking part in a Test and Release pilot scheme and would instead self-isolate for 10 days

But as well as criticism for coronavirus U-turns, the PM has also come under fire over his financial arrangements and who is paying for his luxury lifestyle: a holiday in the millionaires’ playground of Mustique at Christmas/New Year 2019-20 and a costly makeover for the Downing Street flat, above Number 11, where he, Carrie, Wilfred and the dog live.

On the Mustique holiday, he was criticised by the Standards Committee for failing to ascertain who paid for it. And on the flat, his own ethics adviser, Lord Geidt, found that he acted unwisely over its funding.

The Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP Secretary of State for Health and Social Care leaving No10 this morning 16/07/21
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Both Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak were identified as close contacts of Health Secretary Sajid Javid when he tested positive for coronavirus

More criticism of the PM came last month when the Health Secretary Matt Hancock was exposed by a video of what the Sun called a “steamy clinch” with his close aide, Gina Colandangelo, in his Whitehall office.

The matter was closed, the prime minister declared. Oh no it wasn’t! Barely 24 hours later, Mr Hancock was out, replaced by Mr Javid. Bad judgement by Mr Johnson once again, his critics said.

And last Sunday’s abrupt U-turn on self-isolating? Everything we know about the PM and the chancellor suggests it was prompted by Mr Sunak insisting that dodging the rules was wrong and he wanted no part of it.

Matt Hancock has delivered a speech at the Jenner Institute
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Matt Hancock resigned as health secretary after breaking COVID rules with his aide in his Department of Health and Social Care office

There’s a common theme here – a casual relationship with the truth and a disdain for the rules – throughout Boris Johnson’s two years as prime minister, although it began much earlier.

Remember, as well of the recollection by his old Eton schoolmaster, he was sacked from The Times for making up a quote and from the Tory front bench by Michael Howard for lying about an affair.

When it was revealed he had a late-night row with Carrie Symonds at her flat two years ago, photos of his battered old car revealed unpaid parking tickets piled up against the windscreen.

File photo dated 28/1/2021 of Priti Patel. The Home Office has also refused to say how much it has spent on Napier Barracks or how much money has been handed to contractors. Issue date: Tuesday July 6, 2021.
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Boris Johnson has defended Home Secretary Priti Patel as she faced bullying allegations in his first two years in office

And there’s a story of him being chased off a tennis court in a London park by an attendant because he hadn’t paid his £10 fee.

Trivial anecdotes, certainly, but revealing about the PM’s character, critics claim.

So far, however, despite Sir Keir claiming this week the “road will run out” for the PM because the public believe in “integrity, honesty and accountability” and the left-wing Labour MP Dawn Butler being thrown out of the Commons for accusing him of lying, voters don’t seem to care.

Speaker of the House of Commons Lindsay Hoyle angrily reprimands Downing Street for giving a COVID-19 press conference before addressing MPs
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Speaker of the House of Commons Lindsay Hoyle has angrily reprimanded Downing Street multiple times for giving a COVID-19 news briefings before addressing MPs

To his supporters, he’s their hero who won the Brexit referendum, who won the Tories their biggest Commons majority since the glory days of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s and who succeeded where Theresa May failed and got Brexit done, as he promised.

Two years from now, with the Fixed Term Parliaments Act repealed, Mr Johnson could be leading the Conservatives into another general election campaign. And if the voters are still forgiving or simply don’t care about all the criticisms about his dodgy boasts and ignoring the rules, he could prove his critics wrong once again.

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Ex-US top regulator warns of conflicts of interest as Senate weighs market structure

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Ex-US top regulator warns of conflicts of interest as Senate weighs market structure

Ex-US top regulator warns of conflicts of interest as Senate weighs market structure

The US Senate Banking Committee’s digital assets subcommittee will hear testimony from former CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam and lawyers at Coinbase and Multicoin Capital.

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Kemi Badenoch says Tories will support Sir Keir Starmer’s welfare cuts – on three conditions

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Kemi Badenoch says Tories will support Sir Keir Starmer's welfare cuts - on three conditions

Kemi Badenoch has offered Conservative support, in order to help the government pass its controversial welfare changes.

The Tory leader told Sky News she would be asking for three commitments from Sir Keir Starmer, if he wants to use Conservative votes to pass the reforms to disability benefits, which have triggered an unprecedented rebellion of more than 100 Labour MPs.

Ms Badenoch said: “I’m just making it very clear to Keir Starmer that if he will make commitments at the despatch box to meet our conditions which are to reduce the welfare budget, to get people into work and not to have tax rises, then we can support his bill.

“The bill is a bit of a mess. It needs some work. It looks like it’s been rushed for Rachel [Reeves] to fix other problems that they’ve got. But our welfare budget is far too high, and we really need to bring it down.”

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The prospect of the bill passing on Conservative votes would outrage Labour MPs.

An amendment they have tabled says they cannot support the bill because it would drive disabled people into poverty, and they are concerned about whether people losing benefits would find work.

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Around 119 Labour MPs have now signed the amendment, while Sadiq Khan has become the most senior Labour figure to call for a “rethink”. The mayor of London has warned that the proposed cuts would “destroy [the] financial safety net” for “too many disabled Londonders”.

Welfare Secretary Liz Kendall has tried to reassure Labour MPs about the changes. But the rebels are hoping the government will water down their proposals in order to get Labour support.

The prime minister, speaking at a NATO summit in The Hague on Tuesday, insisted the government would press ahead.

Keir Starmer told Sky News: “We’ve got to get on and make that reform because the options are: leave the system as it is, trusting people and not helping them, that’s not a Labour option. The Labour option is to reform it and make it fit for the future. So we’re going to press ahead with these reforms.”

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Sir Keir Starmer says he wants to see the ceasefire between Israel and Iran maintained.

A vote is looming next Tuesday with Labour MPs deeply concerned about the changes which will see 370,000 current PIP claimants lose benefit, and affect 3 million people in total.

The rebels hope the government will climb down.

One of them, Neil Duncan-Jordan, the MP for Poole, told Sky News that relying on Conservative votes “is not a good look for any government”.

He added: “If you can’t rely on your own party, I think you’re in a serious place.”

Responding to Ms Badenoch’s offer, a Labour spokesperson said the government was “elected to deliver change” and that it’s “prepared to take on the challenges holding the UK back”.

They added: “We’re fixing the abysmal mess the Tories left behind, and MPs can either vote to keep a broken failed welfare system that writes people off, or they can vote to start fixing it.

“Next week’s bill is a test for the leader of the opposition as to whether her party has learned anything at all by being roundly rejected by Britain.”

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Sir Keir Starmer defiant over welfare cuts despite rebellion from Labour MPs

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Sir Keir Starmer defiant over welfare cuts despite rebellion from Labour MPs

Sir Keir Starmer has reaffirmed his desire to push through controversial benefit cuts despite a mounting rebellion among his MPs.

The prime minister said there was a “clear moral case” for the reforms, which aim to slash £5bn a year from the welfare bill by 2030.

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While many Labour MPs initially indicated they backed the bill in principle, support has ebbed away over recent months amid warnings about the impact the cuts could have on the most vulnerable people in society.

Around 119 Labour MPs have now signed a reasoned amendment to oppose the government’s proposals – which, if passed, would effectively kill the legislation.

But speaking to Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby from the NATO summit at the Hague, the prime minister said the welfare system needed reform and was “not working for anyone”.

He said the vote planned for Tuesday was not a confidence vote in his leadership but on the need to reform the system.

“I think most colleagues do accept the case for reform,” he said.

“We’ve got to get on and make that reform because the options are: leave the system as it is, trusting people and not helping them, that’s not a Labour option. The Labour option is to reform it and make it fit for the future. So we’re going to press ahead with these reforms.”

Keir Starmer arrives at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport ahead of the NATO summit.
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Sir Keir Starmer made the comments on his way to a NATO summit in the Netherlands. Pic: AP


Welfare system ‘unsustainable’

Sir Keir spoke to reporters on the way to the summit about the reforms, saying there were around 1,000 people a day signing up for personal independence payment (PIP) – equivalent to the size of the population of Leicester.

“That is not a system that can be left unreformed, not least because it’s unsustainable, and therefore you won’t have a welfare system for those that need it in the future,” he added.

“So those that care about a future welfare system have to answer the question – how do you reform what you’ve got to make sure it’s sustainable for the future?'”

Introduced in March, the government’s welfare bill outlines proposals to make it harder for some disabled people to qualify for PIP while also cutting universal credit, another benefit.

What are the main changes in the welfare bill?

The most controversial elements of the government’s welfare bill are changes to PIP and Universal Credit.

PIP is money for people who have extra care needs or mobility needs as a result of a disability.

People who claim it – some of whom are in work – are awarded points depending on their ability to do certain activities, such as washing and preparing food, and this influences how much they will receive.

Under the plans, from November 2026, people will need to score a minimum of four points in at least one activity to qualify for the daily living element of PIP – instead of fewer points across a broader range of tasks the person needs help with.

Currently, the standard rate is given if people score between eight and 11 points overall, while the enhanced rate applies from 12 points.

The changes do not affect the mobility component of PIP.

And from April next year, the health element of Universal Credit will be frozen in cash terms for existing claimants at £97 per week until 2029/2030.

For new claimants, the health element of Universal Credit will be reduced to £50 per week.

However, ministers point to the fact that the Universal Credit standard allowance will increase from £92 per week in 2025-26 to £106 per week by 2029-30.

Overall, 3.2 million families are expected to lose an average of £1,720 by the end of 2030 due to the changes.

However, the government has stressed that these figures do not take into account the £1bn that is being put towards helping the long-term sick and disabled back into work.

It is these changes that have caused the most anxiety among MPs.

As one Labour MP told Sky News: “If the thrust of the policy is getting people into work, how does cutting support for people in work, work?

“The thrust of the proposals is right but cutting PIP and Universal Credit isn’t about getting people back into work, it’s about saving money.”

The reasoned amendment calls on the government to delay the proposals pending an assessment of the impact of the PIP cuts.

It also cites concern about the government’s own figures which show 250,000 people could be pushed into poverty as a result of the changes and the lack of a formal consultation with disabled people.

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One Labour rebel told Sky News there was a “broad sense of unease across all levels of the parliamentary party”.

“Almost everyone thinks there needs to be reform and there are a lot of good things in the bill, but elements need more thought and explanation if they are going to proceed,” they said.

“Unless those issues are revised, or much better explained and justified, I don’t think there is enough support for the measures. People are really worried there is a rush to do this and that we might sleepwalk into this as we have done with other issues.”

On Tuesday, Downing Street suggested the vote would still go ahead despite the concerns of some MPs – including influential chairs of parliamentary select committees.

Asked whether the government was confident it could pass the legislation, a Number 10 spokesman told reporters: “We are focused on delivering last week’s bill and engaging, talking to colleagues, as to why this reform is so important.”

Pressed on whether the vote was happening next week, they added: “I would never get ahead of parliamentary business. It’s scheduled for next week. We are committed to reforming welfare.”

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