Boris Johnson ‘calling off the dogs’ from attacking privileges committee report

Published

2 years ago

June 17, 2023

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Boris Johnson has dramatically made a double retreat from all-out verbal war with Rishi Sunak over the damning report which concluded he lied to MPs over partygate.

First, he has ordered his closest allies in the Commons not to vote against the privileges committee report that proposed a 90-day suspension if he had still been an MP.

In a major U-turn, the former prime minister has told his supporters “it’s time to come together and move on” and “turn down the temperature and calm down”.

Partygate report: The key findings of privileges committee that sealed Boris Johnson’s fate

Secondly, Mr Johnson appears to have steered clear of political controversy in his new Daily Mail column by writing – bizarrely – about his battle to lose weight and trying a slimming “wonder drug”.

With MPs braced for another blistering attack on the privileges committee, Mr Johnson has chosen instead to write about using injections to stifle his cravings for cheddar and chorizo.

Mr Johnson does, however, write that when middle-aged MPs lose weight they may be about or launch a leadership bid, a bid close allies have told Sky News he may launch after the next election.

His decision to “call off the dogs” – as MPs are calling it – and avoid a bruising confrontation in a Commons debate on Monday was revealed to Sky News by his close ally Sir James Duddridge MP.

“Boris’s view has changed,” said Sir James. “I spoke to him and he said the vote is not going to make any difference and it’s time to come together and move on.

“We want to turn down the temperature and calm down. I don’t think there’s going to be a vote. Very few people are going to turn up because it’s only a one-line whip.”

But another close ally told Sky News: “Don’t rule out Boris going for leader of the Opposition after the next election. He’s going to go submarine for now. For now, he wants to regain the reputation as the columnist everybody loves.”

Mr Johnson’s Daily Mail column, which the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments complained it was not told about until 30 minutes before the paper announced it, in a “clear breach” of the ministerial code, is rumoured to be worth a big six-figure sum.

The column began: “I first thought that something was up when I saw that a certain member of the cabinet had miraculously changed his appearance. He had acquired a new jawline. His neck emerged without effort from his collar.

“When he rose from his chair at the cabinet table, that chair no longer tried to cling longingly about his hips. I got it! He had lost weight, stones and stones of belly…”

Beth Rigby analysis:
Johnson verdict a blow to Sunak’s hopes of maintaining peace in the Tory civil war

Though the ex-prime minister did not name the cabinet minister, it is understood to be Nadhim Zahawi, who was education secretary and then briefly became chancellor under Mr Johnson after Mr Sunak resigned.

But in what could have been a jibe at the slender Mr Sunak, who the ex-prime minister’s allies accuse of stabbing Mr Johnson in the back when he quit, he said he thought of Julius Caesar and wrote: “Let me have men about me that are fat,’ said the Roman dictator, shortly before his assassination. ‘Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look’.”

Mr Johnson added: “If an otherwise healthy middle-aged man displays sudden weight loss, I reasoned, there are only two possible explanations. Either he has fallen hopelessly in love, or else he is about to mount a Tory leadership bid.

“Then one of those colleagues came up and whispered the truth – that there was an entirely separate explanation. He had access, he said, to a wonder drug. ‘It stops you wanting to eat,’ he said.

The second colleague is understood to be Mr Johnson’s close ally and former Cabinet Office fixer ally Nigel Adams, who he attempted to send to the House of Lords and who, like the former prime minister, has resigned as an MP, forcing a by-election in his Selby and Ainsty constituency.

Mr Johnson wrote: “I consulted the doctor, and he told me that I was an ideal candidate for these appetite-suppressing drugs.

“It’s a cinch, said the doctor. All you need to do is inject a tiny dose of clear Ozempic fluid into your abdomen, once a week, and hey presto – no more raiding the fridge at 11.30pm for the cheddar and chorizo washed down with half a bottle of wine.

“He wrote out the prescription, I zoomed to the chemist’s; and though I was frankly a bit taken aback by the cost, what the hell, I said to myself, think of the benefits to health.

“So for weeks I jabbed my stomach, and for weeks it worked. I must have been losing four or five pounds a week – maybe more – when all at once it started to go wrong.

“I don’t know why, exactly. Maybe it was something to do with constantly flying around the world, and changing time zones, but I started to dread the injections, because they were making me feel ill.”

And perhaps revealing too much information, he added: “One minute I would be fine, and the next minute I would be talking to Ralph on the big white phone; and I am afraid that I decided that I couldn’t go on.

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“For now I am back to exercise and willpower, but I look at my colleagues – leaner but not hungrier – and I hope that if science can do it for them, maybe one day it can help me, and everyone else.”

Mr Johnson’s column will reinforce the view of many Conservative MPs that he aims to return to the Commons at the next election – and indeed mount a new leadership bid, whether he is leaner and fitter or not.

World

Moldova’s ruling pro-EU party takes lead in parliamentary elections against Russia-leaning rivals

Published

9 hours ago

September 29, 2025

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Moldova's ruling pro-EU party takes lead in parliamentary elections against Russia-leaning rivals

Moldova’s pro-EU party seems to have secured a strong win against its Russia-leaning rival in what has been described as the most consequential election since the country’s independence.

With more than 99% of votes counted, Moldova’s ruling party, the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), had a share of 49.99%, versus 24.28% for the Patriotic Bloc, which opposes closer ties with Brussels.

Holding a majority in the 101-seat chamber would allow PAS to keep pushing for its goal of joining the EU.

If it falls short, it will have to try to form a coalition with smaller parties.

The Patriotic Bloc aims to win power and steer the nation – a former Soviet republic – away from closer ties with Brussels and the EU.

Moldova’s pro-Western president Maia Sandu, who wants the country to join the EU by 2030, reiterated long-held claims that Russia has interfered with elections.

After casting her ballot, she said: “Russia poses a danger to our democracies. Our democracy is young and fragile, but that does not mean that states with longer democracies are not in danger.

“We want to live in a democracy.”

In the build up to the election, Prime Minister Dorin Recean warned that Russia was spending “hundreds of millions” of euros as part of an alleged hybrid war to try to seize power, which he described as “the final battle for our country’s future”.

PAS leaders, including the party’s leader Igor Grosu, have called vote the most consequential in Moldova since independence.

Moscow has always denied meddling and says the government is spreading anti-Russian hysteria to win votes.

Election day itself was marked by a string of incidents, ranging from bomb threats at multiple polling stations abroad to cyber attacks on electoral and government infrastructure.

Police also detained three people suspected of plotting to cause unrest after the vote.

French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the apparent results of the elections as he said on X: “Despite attempts at interference and pressure, the choice of Moldovan citizens has been strongly affirmed.

“France stands alongside Moldova in its European project and its drive for freedom and sovereignty.”

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “Moldova, you’ve done it again.”

Why would Russia want to interfere?

Moldova is landlocked between Ukraine and Romania.

The country of about 2.5 million people has spent recent years on a Westward path and gained candidate status to the EU in 2022, shortly after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

If Moldova becomes a permanent EU member, it would mean a distancing from Moscow, as the EU has offered support to Ukraine and has put various sanctions in place against Russia.

However, candidate status does not guarantee a country membership to the EU.

In order for a country to become a full member, candidates must adopt democratic norms and undertake reforms to meet EU rules, regulations and standards.

All EU governments then have to agree before that country can be admitted as an EU member.

World

Russia’s clear warning that it can easily chip away at Europe’s defences

Published

22 hours ago

September 28, 2025

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Russia's clear warning that it can easily chip away at Europe's defences

The brutality of Russia’s drone assaults on Ukraine’s towns and cities shows no let up.

“Savage strikes, a deliberate targeted terror” is how the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the latest overnight bombardment.

Some 595 attack drones and 48 missiles were involved and even if only a small fraction made it through Ukrainian air defences, the destruction – in Sumy and Odessa, Zaporizhia and Kyiv – is significant.

Also overnight, Denmark reported yet more drone sightings.

It has not named Russia directly but after a week in which unidentified drones have resulted in the temporary shutdown of military and civilian airports, it is banning all civil drone flights and describing the threat as a hybrid attack.

Germany is also raising the alarm over unexplained drone activity along its border with Denmark.

Germany’s interior minister said on Saturday: “We are witnessing an arms race, an arms race between drone threats and drone defences. It is a race we cannot afford to lose.”

NATO is having to deploy extra assets to beef up its Baltic Sea defences and its Eastern flank.

European nations are working to establish a drone wall along their borders with Russia and Ukraine.

Germany is setting up a drone defence centre to make sure it has what it needs to protect itself.

The Kremlin is forcing NATO to divert assets to protect its airspace and sub-sea infrastructure at a time when Europe is trying to work out how best to support and finance Ukraine.

With drones an inexpensive element of its hybrid warfare arsenal, Russia is sending a clear warning that it can relatively easily chip away at Europe’s defences and that Europe had better focus on protecting itself.

“If NATO begins to look too rattled, that actually is encouragement for Putin precisely to step up the pressure,” says Mark Galeotti, a specialist in Russian security. “So really we need to be holding our nerve.

“Yes, reserving the right to shoot things down that look like direct threats, but otherwise actually talking down, not talking up, the nature of the threat while of course we arm so that we are even more prepared.”

Last week, Estonia said its fighter jets had escorted three Russian MIG fighter jets out of their airspace after a 12-minute incursion, which Russia denies ever took place.

On Saturday, Estonia pledged €10m (£8.7m) to NATO’s “Prioritised Ukraine Requirement List” or PURL programme, which sees US-produced weapons, paid for by NATO’s European partners, fast-tracked to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy posted on Sunday after speaking with the NATO secretary general that PURL is moving forward well. And that is just what Russia is trying to prevent.

World

Contact with two hostages ‘lost’ during Israeli operations in Gaza, Hamas’s armed group says

Published

1 day ago

September 28, 2025

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Contact with two hostages 'lost' during Israeli operations in Gaza, Hamas's armed group says

Hamas’s armed group has claimed it has lost contact with two hostages as a result of Israel’s operations in Gaza – after it called on air deployments to be stopped for 24 hours.

In a statement, Hamas’s armed al-Qassam Brigades said it had demanded that Israel halt air sorties for 24 hours, starting at 6pm, in part of Gaza City, to remove the hostages from danger.

It comes a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to meet US President Donald Trump and as the number of those killed in Gaza surpasses the 66,000 mark, according to the enclave’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Its figure does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

A total of 48 hostages are still being held captive by Hamas, the militant group which rules Gaza, with about 20 believed by Israel to still be alive. A total of 251 hostages were taken on 7 October 2023, when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel which killed 1,200 people.

Situation on the ground

In Gaza, a war-torn enclave where famine has been declared in some areas and where Israel has been accused of committing acts of genocide – which it has repeatedly denied – the almost two-year war raged on.

On Sunday, the number of those killed rose to at least 21 as five people were killed in an airstrike in the Al Naser area, local health authorities said, while medics reported 16 more deaths in strikes on houses in central Gaza.

The Civil Emergency Service in Gaza said late on Saturday that Israel had denied 73 requests, sent via international
organisations, to rescue injured Palestinians in Gaza City.

Israeli authorities had no immediate comment. The military earlier said forces were expanding operations in the city and
that five militants firing an anti-tank missile towards Israeli troops had been killed by the Israeli air force.

‘We will get it done’

In Monday’s White House meeting, President Trump is expected to share a new 21-point proposal for an immediate ceasefire.

His proposal would include the release of all hostages within 48 hours and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian enclave, according to three Arab officials briefed on the plan, the PA news agency reports.

A Hamas official said the group was briefed on the plan but has yet to receive an official offer from Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Hamas has said it is ready to “study any proposals positively and responsibly”.

Mr Trump, who has been one of Israel’s greatest allies, said on Sunday there is “a real chance for greatness in the Middle East”.

It is unclear, however, what Mr Trump was specifically referring to.

He said in a Truth Social post: “We have a real chance for Greatness in the Middle East. All are on board for something special, first time ever. We will get it done.”

On Friday – the same day a video of diplomats walking out on Mr Netanyahu during his address to the United Nations went viral – Mr Trump said he believed the US had reached a deal on easing fighting in Gaza, saying it “will get the hostages back” and “end the war”.

“I think we maybe have a deal on Gaza, very close to a deal on Gaza,” the US president told reporters on the White House lawn as he was leaving to attend the Ryder Cup.

Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed an agreement to end the war was imminent, only for nothing to materialise.

Weeks ago, he said: “I think we’re going to have a deal on Gaza very soon.”