Boris Johnson has insisted fresh claims he broke lockdown rules are “total nonsense” and that elements of his ministerial diary were “cherry-picked and handed to police”.
The former prime minister was confronted by Sky News about the allegations as he made his way through the Dulles International Airport in Washington following a brief tour of the US.
Asked if he broke the rules he told Sky’s US correspondent James Matthews: “This whole thing is a load of nonsense from beginning to end.
“I think it’s ridiculous that elements in my diary should be cherry-picked and handed over to the police, to the privileges committee without even anybody having the basic common sense to ask me what these entries referred to.”
Mr Johnson was referred to the police by the Cabinet Office on Wednesday over events in Chequers and Downing Street following a review of his official diary as part of the official COVID inquiry.
Pressed on whether the entries showed him “mingling with friends”, Mr Johnson insisted “that is absolutely not what these diary entries show”.
He said: “I just think it’s totally nonsensical and bizarre that there are tens of thousands of entries in the prime minister’s diary. I’ve never seen these things before.
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“I have looked through it. None of them constitute a breach of the rules during COVID, they weren’t during lockdown.
“They were during other periods of the restrictions. None of them constitute a breach of the rules. None of them involve socialising. It is total nonsense.”
He would not be drawn on who was “stitching him up” but said: “Someone somewhere thinks it’s sensible to do this. I don’t.”
However a Labour source said: ‘If Boris Johnson is confident he has acted with proprietary, then he has nothing to fear from scrutiny.”
Mr Johnson has already been fined by the Met Police for breaking lockdown rules and is currently being investigated by the privileges committee over whether he lied to parliament over his repeated partygate denials.
On Friday night the committee confirmed it had received new evidence from the government and had written to Mr Johnson for a response.
A spokesperson said: “The committee will take this evidence and Mr Johnson’s response into account when considering its final report. The committee is making progress with its inquiry expeditiously.”
The latest developments have turned attention back again to the partygate controversy which played a major role in the former prime minister’s downfall.
He was in the US on Wednesday when the news broke and during his tour met former president Donald Trump.
Johnson met Trump to ‘talk about Ukraine’
Earlier on Friday, Mr Johnson’s spokesperson said the purpose of this was “to discuss the situation in Ukraine and the vital importance of Ukrainian victory”.
It is not clear where the meeting took place, but during his US visit Mr Johnson stopped off in both Texas and Las Vegas.
The two leaders have known each other for many years and worked together when Mr Trump was US president and Mr Johnson was in charge at Downing Street.
Mr Trump has spoken highly of Mr Johnson and earlier this month called him a “wonderful guy” and “a friend of mine”.
The two have previously been aligned on policy issues, such as Brexit, but they have also diverged in recent years, most notably on Ukraine.
Image: Trump and Johnson at a bilateral meeting during the G7 summit in 2019
Mr Johnson was still prime minister when Russia invaded its southern neighbour last February and was a leader in helping rally international support for the Ukrainian people and its military.
Meanwhile Mr Trump – who has touted his “very good relationship” with Russian President Vladimir Putin – has something of a chequered history involving Ukraine, dating back to before Moscow’s invasion last year.
That phone call led to Mr Trump’s first impeachment on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of congress – but he was not convicted after a trial in the senate.
Earlier this month, in a town hall conversation broadcast as part of his 2024 presidential campaign, Mr Trump – who is running to be the Republican candidate again – refused to say who he thinks should prevail and said he’d end the war in just 24 hours.
He said: “I want everybody to stop dying. They’re dying. Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I’ll have that done in 24 hours.”
Prince Harry has answered questions about a prank voicemail left by his brother William, a visit to a strip club, and his break-up with Chelsy Davy, in his second day giving evidence at the High Court.
Harrywas also asked if he would be “disappointed” should the court not find in his favour and decide details about his private life were not obtained by phone hacking by Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) journalists.
The Duke of Sussex said he would be “speculating”, but when pushed further he replied to say he would “feel some injustice”.
Harry told the court: “I believe that phone hacking was [done] on an industrial scale across at least three of the papers at the time… that is beyond any doubt.
“To have a decision against me and any of the other people [bringing a claim], given that Mirror Group have admitted hacking [in relation to other cases], yes it would feel like an injustice… if it wasn’t accepted.”
Andrew Green KC, representing MGN, then asked the duke: “So you want to have been phone hacked?”.
“Nobody wants to be phone hacked,” he replied.
In 2014, MGN admitted liability in four cases of phone hacking, and since then has settled dozens of claims, with stars including Hugh Grant and Sienna Miller. The publisher denies the allegations made by Harry.
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Image: Prince Harry is being questioned by MGN’s barrister Andrew Green
Harry arrived outside the court’s Rolls Building in central London in a black Range Rover shortly before 10am, wearing a dark suit and silver tie, before entering the witness box again after nearly five hours of cross-examination on Tuesday.
His witness statement has also been released, containing the full details of all his allegations against MGN, publisher of the Daily Mirror and other titles – a lawsuit that makes him the first senior royal to give evidence in a UK court in more in than 100 years.
After resuming his questioning this morning, Mr Green asked Harry about an article headlined “Chel Shocked”, published in the People in 2006, which reports how his then girlfriend Ms Davy was angry about the royal allegedly receiving a lap dance during a night out with cadet friends.
In his witness statement, Harry said he does not remember Ms Davy being mad at him. “We did speak about it over the phone, but I promised her that I hadn’t had a lap dance and stayed with the three other cadets that had girlfriends,” he wrote.
Speaking in court, Harry said parts of the article were “factually incorrect” – including a reference to a “tall statuesque blonde” who bore a “striking resemblance” to Ms Davy.
Image: Harry’s former girlfriend Chelsea Davy pictured in 2011
Mr Green put it to Harry that many MGN stories included as part of his case contained information that was already available elsewhere, including in articles by rival news outlets.
One story published by the now defunct News Of The World at the time contained details of a voicemail left by Prince William to Harry, mimicking Ms Davy’s “high-pitched” accent, the barrister told the court – saying this was an “important step” to police arresting Clive Goodman, the then royal editor at the News Of The World, and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, over royal phone hacking.
Harry said he was aware of this.
Mr Green also asked about an article headlined “Hooray Harry’s dumped” – which the duke said was “hurtful to say the least” and that “such a private moment was turned into a bit of a laugh”.
The barrister said the “Hooray” name had been used to describe the royal in previous stories and “was not celebrating the demise of your relationship.”
Pop star appears outside Harry court case
Before today’s evidence began, former East 17 star Brian Harvey turned up outside court, shouting about corruption.
He told Sky News that he too was a victim of phone hacking, and that the media is “a joke”.
Image: Brian Harvey outside court – we have blurred this image as it contains information Sky News cannot verify
During his first day in court, Harry criticised Piers Morgan, and said in his witness statement that he felt “physically sick” at the thought of the former Mirror editor and his “band of journalists” allegedly “earwigging” on his mother Princess Diana‘s messages.
Morgan later told Sky News he did not see any of Harry’s comments, but added: “I wish him luck with his privacy campaign and look forward to reading about it in his next book.”
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Piers Morgan reacts to Harry’s claims
As part of our special programmes on the case, Sky News is transcribing Harry’s evidence and recreating his court appearance with an actor.
The royal is suing MGN, attempting to prove that reporters for the Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People titles were linked to methods including phone hacking, so-called “blagging” or gaining information by deception, and use of private investigators, between 1996 and 2010.
He claims about 140 articles contained information gathered using unlawful methods, and 33 of these have been selected to be considered at the trial.
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Harry’s ‘distress’ at press coverage
MGN is contesting the claims and has either denied or not admitted each of them. The publisher also argues that some of the claimants have brought their legal action too late.
As well as Harry, there are three other representative claimants involved in the case: Coronation Street actor Michael Turner, known professionally as Michael Le Vell, who is best known for playing Kevin Webster; Hollyoaks and former Coronation Street actress Nikki Sanderson; and comedian Paul Whitehouse’s ex-wife Fiona Wightman.
They are representative of more than 100 claimants overall, including singer and TV star Cheryl, ex-footballer and pundit Ian Wright, and the estate of the late George Michael.
Harry In Court – watch special programme on Sky News tonight at 9pm
The gang thought to have carried out a cyber attack on companies including BA and Boots has given victims a deadline to negotiate or have the hacked information published online.
The suspected Russian group Clop, which claimed responsibility for the attack, issued the notice on the dark web to victims of the MOVEit software hack.
Personal data of more than 100,000 employees was accessed in the attack, including bank and contact details.
In a dark web blog post, Clop told victims to email and negotiate with the group by 14 June, the BBC reported.
The BBC itself was impacted by the attack, as was airline Aer Lingus.
More victims have emerged, including the University of Rochester in New York. The government of Nova Scotia in Canada also said it was subjected to the attack.
Clop has reportedly claimed it has deleted any data from government, city or police services, saying: “Do not worry, we erased your data you do not need to contact us. We have no interest to expose such information.”
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2:06
Workers hit by cyber security breach
Payroll software company Zellis – which used the MOVEit software that resulted in BA, BBC and Aer Lingus staff having their data accessed – said eight of its customers were hit but did not name them.
Other Zellis customers include Jaguar Land Rover, Harrods and Dyson.
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Potentially hundreds of companies using the popular MOVEit business software may be impacted.
A weak link in MOVEit code – a so-called zero day vulnerability – enabled hackers to access its servers and the personal and financial data of employees.
The group’s motivations are unclear so far. It claimed responsibility in an email to Reuters news agency on Monday.
A MOVEit spokesperson said: “Our customers have been, and will always be, our top priority. When we discovered the vulnerability, we promptly launched an investigation, alerted MOVEit customers about the issue and provided immediate mitigation steps.”
They added: “We are continuing to work with industry-leading cybersecurity experts to investigate the issue and ensure we take all appropriate response measures. We have engaged with federal law enforcement and other agencies with respect to the vulnerability.”
A 14-year-old boy has died following a playground incident between two pupils at a school in West Lothian, Sky News understands.
Emergency services were called to Kentigern’s Academy in Blackburn, West Lothian, on Tuesday afternoon.
The teenager, who has not yet been identified, was taken by ambulance to hospital for treatment but died a short time later.
Detectives met education authorities on Wednesday morning to discuss the pupil’s death, as other students continue to receive emotional support.
Police sources have said the incident was not part of an “online challenge” amid social media speculation within the community that it was a so-called “tap out” game.
Sky News understands there is “no criminality” involved, however Police Scotland has refused to comment as investigations continue.
Image: Officers at the school on Wednesday
A force spokesperson said: “Around 1.20pm on Tuesday 6 June 2023, officers were called to a report of concern for a 14-year-old boy at a school in the Bathgate area.
“He was taken by ambulance to hospital for treatment, but died a short time later.
“His family have been informed and enquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances of the death.”
The school, where singer Lewis Capaldi was once a pupil, previously said there was an “isolated incident” within the grounds.
Headteacher Andrew Sharkey said: “We have set up ongoing emotional support and signposting for students and staff affected by this tragic news.
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“We would like to respect the family’s privacy at this incredibly painful time.”
Mr Sharkey confirmed that the school was assisting the relevant authorities and would not be making any further comment at this time.
Local MSP Fiona Hyslop said: “My deepest condolences are with the family and friends of the pupil who has died. I hope those closest to him are given the privacy they deserve at this tragic time.
“This will be an incredibly difficult time for everyone – not least the pupils, teachers and staff at St Kentigern’s Academy.
“The support being offered at the school will be crucially important right now – and, in my capacity as their MSP, I will do everything I can to help the community through this awful situation.”
West Lothian councillors Jim Dickson and Mary Dickson said they were “devastated” along with the community over the schoolboy’s death.
They added: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends.”