UK politics: Public must be told if Carrie Johnson fined for breaking lockdown rules, says Starmer – live | Politics

12:41

Public must be told if Carrie Johnson fined for breaking lockdown rules, says Starmer

People should be told if Carrie Johnson, the prime minister’s wife, is fined over illegal lockdown parties in Downing Street, Keir Starmer said.

Speaking at the launch of Labour’s local government elections campaign, Starmer said:

If Carrie Johnson gets a fixed penalty notice, then of course it should be made public.

My focus is on the prime minister because he is the one who sets the culture, he is the one who oversaw this criminality at his home and his office, he is the one that came to parliament and said all rules were complied with, which is clearly not the case.

So I do think Carrie Johnson should be named if she gets a penalty notice, but my focus is laser-like on the prime minister.

Currently No 10 is saying that it will not disclose the names of anyone who receives a fine over Partygate, apart from Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, and Simon Case, the cabinet secretary (if any of those three do get fined).

One of the events being investigated by the police is an alleged party held in the PM’s Downing Street flat on 13 November 2020 and hosted by his wife to celebrate the departure of Dominic Cummings. Cummings and Carrie Johnson were, and remain, bitter enemies.

Kier Starmer and his deputy, Angela Rayner, at the launch of Labour’s local election campaingn in Bury today.
Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

Updated at 08.44 EDT

3m ago13:34

Q: Does the tank have a future?

Williams and Radakin both give the same one-word answer: “Yes.”

And that’s it.

4m ago13:33

Q: Did the integrated security review put too much emphasis on Asia?

Williams says the review did not say Asia was as important as Europe.

The UK has been talking about a “tilt”, not a fundamental change.

Radakin says the fundamental security partnership remains rooted in the Atlantic.

He says he want to the Indo-Pacific before the UK carrier went to the South China Sea.

The UK is a permanent member of the UN security council, he says. It has obligations beyond the Atlantic. Other nations want it to get involved. It has relationships in the region, including Aukus. And the UK can do these things from within its resources.

He says by 2030 40% of the economy will be based around the Indo-Pacific. So it will be in the national interest to have defence activity there he says.

8m ago13:28

Q: Does the invasion of Ukraine show that deterrence has failed?

Radakin says deterrence failed to stop the invasion of Ukraine. But the deterrence model goes much further than that. Russia was threatened with the prospect of becoming a pariah state.

Russia miscalculated. It thought the world response would be closer to what it was in 2014, after the invasion of Crimea.

But deterrence is wider than that. It is also about maintaining the sovereigntly of Nato states. That has been successful, even against a Russian threat which has been getting gradually worse over the last 20 years.

He says he is cautious of focusing just on the Russia-Ukraine border, and concluding deterrence failed.

Nuclear has created a security stablity, he says. It has prevented worse conflicts.

David Williams, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence, says partly it is a matter of what you want to deter. We are not seeting direct attacks on Nato.

The nuclear rhetoric from Russia is worrying. But it is just rhetoric, he says. It is not stopping Nato from doing things it wants to do – strengthening the eastern flank, supporting Ukraine.

Putin’s nuclear posturing is not delivering any practical effect, he says.

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin Photograph: IfG16m ago13:21

Lawrence Freedman, the historian, asks if there is any role for the Royal Navy in the Black Sea.

Radakin says he cannot see any scope for that. If it were to happen, it would be with Nato. But that might look like escalation.

But he says you should not just look at naval operations around Ukraine. There is a lot going on in the Atlantic, he says, as part of the Nato effort to bolster its defences.

21m ago13:16

Armed forces chief says it was ‘insane’ for Putin to sent his soldiers to war without telling them

Q: How worried are you about Putin’s next moves? And will he face some sort of mutiny?

Radakin says they are “incredibly cautious” about believing Russia’s statements.

Russia’s plans to take the whole of Ukraine have fallen apart, he says.

He says there are “early indications” of less emphasis being put on Kyiv. But we will have to wait and see, he says.

As for the prospect of mutiny in the Russian ranks, he says there is disquiet in the ranks. They will have to see how substantial that is.

But he says it was “shocking” that Russian troops were sent into comabt without being told what they were doing. That seemed “an insane thing to do professionally”, he said, and “morally bankrupt”.

Updated at 09.17 EDT

26m ago13:10

At the Institute for Government Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, chief of the defence staff, and David Williams, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence, are taking part in a Q&A.

Q: What kind of support might we offer Ukraine long term?

Radakin says it is hard to answer. But he says the commitment to Ukraine will endure. He says the UK was the first country to recognise Ukrainian independence in 1991.

The UK will feature strongly in terms on ongoing support for Ukraine, and military support for Ukraine.

Q: If China were to invade Taiwan, would the globlal response to Russia provide a blueprint for how the west might react?

Williams says the response to Ukraine has shown a very high degree of unity and resolve. “That is something for China to think about.”

He says the western response involved a full range of measures. Russia did not anticipate that, he says.

36m ago13:01

Peers dig in and reject for third time plans to give police powers to impose conditions on noisy marches

Ministers have been defeated for the third time in the House of Lords on plans to give the police the power to impose conditions on protest marches judged to be too noisy.

Peers rejected these measures when they first debated the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill. The Commons reinstated them, but peers threw them out again when the bill returned to the Lords in the first round of “ping pong” (the process whereby a bill bounces between the Commons and the Lords until one side backs down and accepts the views of the other). Those defeats were again reversed by MPs, and this afternoon the bill has been back in the Lords again, for a second round of “ping pong”, where the government again lost two votes on this issue.

The opposition won both votes with majorities of 39 and 12 respectively.

2nd Govt defeat on #PolicingBill ping-pong (round 2) follows, as Peers vote 163-151 FOR Lord Paddick’s Motion (D1) which would also remove ‘noise trigger’ for public assemblies

— LabourLordsUK (@LabourLordsUK) March 31, 2022
1h ago12:41

Public must be told if Carrie Johnson fined for breaking lockdown rules, says Starmer

People should be told if Carrie Johnson, the prime minister’s wife, is fined over illegal lockdown parties in Downing Street, Keir Starmer said.

Speaking at the launch of Labour’s local government elections campaign, Starmer said:

If Carrie Johnson gets a fixed penalty notice, then of course it should be made public.

My focus is on the prime minister because he is the one who sets the culture, he is the one who oversaw this criminality at his home and his office, he is the one that came to parliament and said all rules were complied with, which is clearly not the case.

So I do think Carrie Johnson should be named if she gets a penalty notice, but my focus is laser-like on the prime minister.

Currently No 10 is saying that it will not disclose the names of anyone who receives a fine over Partygate, apart from Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, and Simon Case, the cabinet secretary (if any of those three do get fined).

One of the events being investigated by the police is an alleged party held in the PM’s Downing Street flat on 13 November 2020 and hosted by his wife to celebrate the departure of Dominic Cummings. Cummings and Carrie Johnson were, and remain, bitter enemies.

Kier Starmer and his deputy, Angela Rayner, at the launch of Labour’s local election campaingn in Bury today.
Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

Updated at 08.44 EDT

1h ago12:12

When he moved from the Cabinet Office to the levelling up department, Michael Gove retained responsibility for the union (or “intergovernmental relations”, to use the official term. In January he published a review of intergovernmental relations and, among other things, it proposed the publication of annual reports on “intergovernmental activity”. The first one is out today.

Apart from the statistics it contains on the number of meetings that took place last year between the Westminster government and the devolved governments, the document does not contain anything new. But it avoids saying anything critical about Scottish and Welsh governments, and the Northern Ireland executive, which marks a change from much of the normal ministerial rhetoric about them. “No single government has all the good ideas,” Gove says in the foreword. “We need to work together.”

2h ago11:57

Sajid Javid, the health secretary, has been speaking to the media this morning, and he has also been asked about Partygate. He told reporters:

The police investigation … into events in Downing Street, it’s a live investigation. It’s still going on. I do know of course like everyone else that at least 20 fines have been issued so far but it is a live investigation. I think it’s never good practice for ministers to comment on it.

But Javid also refused to accept claims that there was “confusion” in government over whether or not people are now accepting that the law was broken. He said:

I don’t think there’s any confusion. I mean, if you’re asking me in general about fixed penalty notices, when those are issued of course it means the police issuing that has come to a conclusion, and that’s purely a police matter – not a ministerial matter.

2h ago11:51

Windrush: Home Office has failed to transform its culture, report says

The Home Office has failed to transform its culture or to become a more compassionate department as it promised to do after the Windrush scandal, a critical inspection report has found. My colleague Amelia Gentleman has the story here.

2h ago11:50Keir Starmer speaking in Bury at the launch of Labour’s local election campaign. Photograph: Cameron Smith/Getty Images2h ago11:48

Commons culture committee says it can’t support government’s choice for Charity Commisison chair

MPs have criticised the “slapdash and unimaginative approach” to appointing a new chairman for the Charity Commission as they rejected the government’s pick for the job, PA Media reports. PA says:

Orlando Fraser was put forward for the role after the government’s previously preferred candidate Martin Thomas withdrew from the process following four allegations of inappropriate behaviour in a previous position.

However, MPs on the digital, culture, media and sport committee (DCMS) have now rejected Mr Fraser’s appointment and accused the department of failing to learn its lessons.

Explaining the committee’s decision, Julian Knight (Con), the committee chair, said:

The fiasco of four months ago should have jolted the department into widening out its search for the very best person to oversee an organisation that is so vital in ensuring people can support charities with confidence. By failing to rerun the process and falling back on a shortlist which would seem to be so lacking in diversity, ministers have sadly squandered their second chance.

While we recognise Mr Fraser’s potential to do the job, such a slapdash and unimaginative approach to his recruitment means we cannot formally endorse his appointment.

Responding to the committee’s report, the culture deparment said:

As recently noted by the commissioner for public appointments, the appointment process for Charity Commission chair was run in line with the governance code on public appointments.

The DCMS Select Committee rightly recognises Orlando Fraser’s suitability for the role and we will now consider its report in full and respond in due course.

The committee does not have the power to veto the appointment and the final decision will be up to Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary.