Sir Keir Starmer says Boris Johnson should be banned from parliament after damning partygate report

Published

2 years ago

June 20, 2023

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Sir Keir Starmer has said Boris Johnson should be banned from parliament over the partygate scandal, as he urged the prime minister not to “hide away” from a debate on the issue later today.

The Labour leader said it’s “important to know” where Rishi Sunak stands after the Commons’ Privileges Committee concluded Mr Johnson lied to MPs about the boozy events held in Downing Street during the COVID lockdown.

Boris Johnson vote – latest: Sunak refuses to say if he’ll attend Johnson debate

Asked if the former prime minister – who quit as an MP in light of the findings – should be banned from parliament, Sir Keir told Sky News: “The privileges committee is absolutely clear in its findings, they should be supported.

“I will support the committee, and I want the prime minister to support the committee, because it’s very important we know where the prime minister stands on this.”

In a damning verdict issued last week, the cross-party panel said Mr Johnson should have faced a 90-day suspension for misleading the House over partygate and being complicit in a campaign of intimidation against them – if he were still an MP.

Mr Johnson dramatically quit as an MP earlier this month after receiving the committee’s draft findings.

MPs will debate the report’s recommendations later today, which also include banning Mr Johnson from receiving a former member’s pass granting access to parliament which is usually available to ex-politicians.

It is not clear whether there ultimately will be a vote on the conclusions of the report, which could go through on the nod unless there are objections from Mr Johnson’s supporters.

Speaking at a conference in Dublin, former prime minister Liz Truss said the report’s judgement was “overly harsh”, but many other Tories support it – with senior MP Tobias Ellwood vowing to change his plans so he can vote against Mr Johnson.

In a challenge to Mr Sunak, Sir Keir said: “Is he going to come into parliament and vote today and show leadership, or is he going to sit on his hands and hide away?

“I think that is now becoming the crucial issue that will define how things go today in parliament on this.”

Earlier this morning, Mr Sunak refused to say if he will attend the debate amid speculation he is planning to skip it.

He would not give his view on the proceedings against his predecessor, saying the vote is “a matter for the House rather than for government”.

Johnson honours ‘hard to stomach’

The debate comes amid reignited anger over the Downing Street parties scandal following a newly published video showing Conservative Party workers at a Christmas bash during lockdown in 2020.

The footage, which is being “considered” by Scotland Yard, has renewed accusations from opposition parties that the prime minister is “weak” for not intervening over Mr Johnson’s resignation honours.

Sir Keir said it was “hard to stomach” that two of the people who attended the gathering – former London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey and Tory aide Ben Mallet – were rewarded in Mr Johnson’s list.

He said he is unaware of any precedent to remove their new titles, and Mr Sunak should have waited until the outcome of the privileges investigation before approving the nominations from the former prime minister.

“The idea now that two of the people dancing and partying in that video, are going to get honours because the prime minister was too weak to do anything about it, I think is yet another thing that’s very, very hard for people to stomach,” Sir Keir said.

The prime minister has argued he was following precedent in waving through Mr Johnson’s honours.

But speaking to Times Radio, the Labour leader said if he wins the next election he would block some of Mr Sunak’s honours nominees if he didn’t think they were right, and that when he leaves Downing Street, he will not put forward his own resignation honours list.

“Tony Blair didn’t have a resignation list. It is very hard to justify,” he said.

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At least 85 Palestinians killed in Gaza strikes, local health authorities say

Published

8 hours ago

March 20, 2025

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At least 85 Palestinians killed in Gaza strikes, local health authorities say

Israeli strikes killed at least 85 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Thursday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Five UN staff members have also been killed, according to the head of the UNRWA.

It comes as fighting in the enclave has restarted in recent days.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the United Nations Palestinian relief agency, said on Thursday: “In the past few days, another five UNRWA staff have been confirmed killed, bringing the death toll to 284.

“They were teachers, doctors and nurses: serving the most vulnerable.”

He added he feared “the worst is yet to come”.

“Under our daily watch, people in Gaza are again and again going through their worst nightmare,” he said in a statement.

“An endless unleashing of the most inhumane ordeals.”

Speaking in Parliament, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the UK government opposed the resumption of Israel’s hostilities and added that a British national was among the wounded when a UN compound was struck on Wednesday.

Israel has previously said it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in densely populated areas.

It denied previous reports it had targeted a UN compound.

Israel resumes strikes

On Tuesday, Israel resumed heavy airstrikes on the enclave killing more than 400 people, bringing to a halt the ceasefire that had paused fighting in the 17-month war.

A day later, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) relaunched ground operations, seizing part of a key corridor that divides the north and south of Gaza – the Netzarim corridor.

On Thursday, the IDF said it had begun a ground operation in northern Gaza.

Meanwhile, Hamas fired three rockets at Israel without causing casualties.

It was the first such attack since the resumption of the IDF’s strikes.

Hospitals across Gaza said the strikes hit houses in Khan Younis and Rafah in southern Gaza and the northern town of Beit Lahiya.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.

The European Hospital in Rafah said 26 people, mostly women and children, had been killed in strikes on two family homes overnight.

A father and his seven children were killed in one of the attacks, it added.

The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis received the bodies of seven people killed overnight in an attack on a home, it said.

Meanwhile, Hamas said talks with mediators were ongoing.

Fragile ceasefire

Hamas and Israel disagreed over how to proceed with the ceasefire after phase one came to an end.

The militant group wanted to move onto phase two to negotiate Israel’s permanent withdrawal from Gaza, the release of hostages in exchange for more prisoners and an eventual end to the war.

Israel wanted to temporarily extend phase one and for more hostages to be released.

It cut off all supplies to Gaza to try and pressure the group into doing so before restarting its military campaign.

The war started after Hamas militants attacked Israeli communities in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages.

More than 49,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ensuing conflict, according to Gaza’s health authorities,

World

Trump just wants a Ukraine-Russia deal – will Putin or Zelenskyy blink first?

Published

14 hours ago

March 20, 2025

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Trump just wants a Ukraine-Russia deal - will Putin or Zelenskyy blink first?

The tone has changed totally. It’s a remarkable turnaround from the Oval Office meltdown to the perfect phone call.

President Trump is wholly transactional. His desire for give and take far outweighs any ideological instincts. He has no particular alignment to Ukraine or, for that matter, to Russia.

He just wants a deal. Peace would stop the killing as he has said repeatedly. It would also allow for deals which can benefit America: recouping the taxpayer money spent on Ukraine and reconnecting the American economy with Russia.

But trumping all that is his legacy and his image. He wants to be seen as the peacemaker president.

Since the Oval Office moment, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy seems now to have recognised all that.

Ukraine’s approach towards Trump has changed. Zelenskyy is now playing his game: transactionalism.

The minerals deal hasn’t dissolved. The indications I am getting is that it’s essentially been upgraded and broadened to a wider scope: fuller economic cooperation.

Zelenskyy needs to encourage America deep into his country economically. Has he bought into the idea that a US economic footprint amounts to a key part of a security guarantee?

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The old adage is: “If you are not at the table, you are on the menu.” That’s too true with President Trump.

Zelenskyy now feels like he’s at the table and I am told he doesn’t feel coerced.

The challenges remain huge though: he doesn’t trust Putin. That’s what he tried to tell President Trump in the Oval Office. The performance that day proved to him that Trump is inclined to trust Putin.

Zelenskyy must use transactionalism to draw an impatient Trump in.

President Trump is in a hurry for a deal. He’s inclined to accept wholly disingenuous commitments from Russia, or as one source put it to me: “Trump has a high tolerance for bullshit…”

That’s the jeopardy for Zelenskyy.

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Donald Trump has ‘very good’ call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which he discusses US ownership of Ukrainian energy plants

Published

23 hours ago

March 20, 2025

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Donald Trump has 'very good' call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which he discusses US ownership of Ukrainian energy plants

US President Donald Trump has had a “very good” call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the White House says, during which US ownership of Ukraine’s energy network was discussed to help protect it.

Mr Trump also agreed to “help locate” additional air defence support in Europe after a request from the Ukrainian leader, a statement about the one-hour phone call said.

Further talks will take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in the coming days, and the US will continue intelligence sharing with Ukraine, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

Mr Trump also agreed to work to ensure missing Ukrainian children are returned home and both parties agreed to a temporary 30-day ceasefire involving attacks against energy facilities, with the US president saying the US “could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise”, Ms Leavitt said.

Secretary of state Marco Rubio also issued a statement about the call saying that “President Trump also discussed Ukraine’s electrical supply and nuclear power plants.

“He said that the United States could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise. American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure.”

The White House statement added that Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy also reviewed the situation in Kursk and agreed to share information closely.

The presidents instructed their teams to move ahead with the details of implementing a partial ceasefire, with discussions to include expanding any ceasefire to the Black Sea.

Could US nuclear power takeover replace the minerals deal?

By David Blevins, Sky correspondent, in Washington DC

The readout of the call from President Zelenskyy was conciliatory, repeatedly thanking Donald Trump for military support and for his peace efforts.

In agreeing to a partial ceasefire, he held out the prospect of US investment in Ukrainian power – perhaps deeming that more of a security guarantee than the minerals deal.

“American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure,” the Marco Rubio and Mike Waltz readout of Trump-Zelenskyy call said.

Trump agreed to continue sharing intelligence but when Zelenskyy asked for additional air defence, he said he’d see what was available in Europe.

That’s a vague response from the US president as he seeks to keep both Ukraine and Putin on board.

Those ambiguous words and the change in tone are both indicative of the sensitive point they’ve reached days before fresh negotiations in Saudi Arabia.

“We have never been closer to peace,” Ms Leavitt added.

In comments later on Wednesday, Mr Zelenskyy said that Mr Trump understands that Ukraine will not recognise occupied land as Russian, and that he would like the US president to visit Ukraine – adding that “it would be helpful for Trump in his peace efforts”.

In an earlier statement, President Zelenskyy said the two leaders had “a positive, very substantive and frank conversation”.

Mr Zelenskyy echoed much of Mr Trump’s statement about what was decided, and said later that he “felt no pressure” from the US president.

“We agreed that Ukraine and the United States should continue working together to achieve a real end to the war and lasting peace. We believe that together with America, with President Trump, and under American leadership, lasting peace can be achieved this year,” Mr Zelenskyy said

He added that Ukraine would “continue working to make this happen”.

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“I stressed that Ukrainians want peace, which is why Ukraine accepted the proposal for an unconditional ceasefire,” he said. “I highlighted the importance of President Trump’s concept of peace through strength. We agreed to maintain constant contact, including at the highest level and through our teams.”

In an earlier post on Truth Social, Mr Trump said the “very good” phone call lasted around one hour.

“Much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs,” Mr Trump said.

“We are very much on track,” he added.

The call marks the first time Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy have spoken since the disastrous confrontation in the White House last month.

Mr Zelenskyy travelled to Washington expecting to sign a critical minerals deal but left early after he and Trump clashed in front of the world’s cameras.

On Tuesday, Mr Trump and Vladimir Putin held a phone call lasting about an hour and a half in which the Russian leader rejected a full 30-day ceasefire.

He agreed to not attack Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for 30 days. The two countries also swapped 175 prisoners each earlier this morning.