Boris Johnson says victory in censorship vote is “decisive” despite massive Conservative rebellion
Boris Johnson was branded the prime minister of a “lame duck” when he confronted MPs for the first time since suffering a disastrous result in Monday night’s vote of confidence in his leadership.
SNP leader Ian Blackford launched a violent attack on Mr Johnson’s position in the PMQ, comparing the Prime Minister to Monty Python’s Black Knight, who claimed that the fatal wounds were only flesh wounds. and said to him, “It is finished, it is done.”
The SNP MP said 41% of Conservative MPs had agreed to his repeated calls for the prime minister to resign.
But Johnson fired the rebels, saying he had “picked up political opponents everywhere” because his government had “done very big and very remarkable things that they didn’t necessarily approve of.”
With the promise of new measures on home ownership and the defense of the NHS waiting times from the attacks of Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister insisted that he would fight to stay in power and joked that the his political career “had just begun.”
Key points
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The government accused of “sitting on the fence” about the climate impact of eating meat
The government has been accused of being “on the fence” when it comes to recognizing the harmful impacts meat consumption is having on the environment, reports our correspondent Harry Cockburn.
During a meeting with the Lords’ Environment and Climate Change Committee, Environment Secretary George Eustice advocated raising and feeding livestock and questioned the science that shows the scale of the damaging impact the livestock on the planet.
Asked by Baroness Rosie Boycott about the lack of government messages on reducing meat consumption, which she said were among the “most important things we can do as individuals,” Mr Eustice said the government ” would not launch an advertising campaign “. on the subject.
Baroness Boycott said that despite the importance of reducing meat consumption, there is “government ambivalence about the way they handle meat,” wondering, “Will the government stay out of this?”
Eustice described the issue as “complex” and suggested that the science surrounding calls for meat reduction “is in dispute”, saying: “It has to do with the proper appreciation of the more holistic role of meat. livestock in the landscape and the environment of the farm. ”
“It’s pretty depressing when people say‘ cattle are bad, so eat less meat, ’” he added. “Ultimately, we are omnivores: in our natural state we will have meat and animal products and protein as part of our diet … This is the natural state of us as a species.”
Andy Gregory June 8, 2022 6:59 PM
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Legal action on the Rwandan government’s asylum plans
Activists have formally launched their judicial candidacy to stop the government’s plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The Union of Public and Commercial Services (PCS), Care4Calais and Detention Action have issued judicial review proceedings in the High Court, challenging what they describe as an “illegal policy” by Priti Patel.
The first flight from the UK is expected to take place next Tuesday, but lawyers for more than 90 of its notified passengers have already filed legal appeals asking them to stay in the UK, and Home Office officials are preparing for the rest follow suit this week.
The UK editor of ITV News reports that the Home Office is “increasingly concerned” that the flight “will be stopped by a court order”, but suggests that the legal action is “of some “It’s a struggle that the government is very willing to have.”
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Andy Gregory June 8, 2022 6:34 PM
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The DUP leader attacks the “deaf” comments of the Irish Taoiseach
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has accused Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin of being “deaf” to unionist concerns over the Northern Ireland Protocol in today’s “deeply disappointing” comments.
Martin had warned that the Boris Johnson government’s proposed legislation to deal with the protocol would be “for the benefit of no one”, accusing London of not committing to the EU to reach a negotiated agreement.
But speaking to the Lords subcommittee on protocol, Sir Jeffrey said: “I listened to Michael Martin’s comments and found them deeply disappointing. They are deaf to the concerns of the unionists.
“They don’t understand it and if they do, they ignore it,” Sir Jeffrey added. “The concern is that we cannot trade freely in our country and we are subject to laws of which we have no voice. We were told that Brexit would give us back control and in Northern Ireland we have laws of which we have no voice and are subject to tax rules that the Treasury cannot control.
“As a unionist, I find it wrong. I am being treated as a second-class citizen in my own country, and that undermines the spirit and constitutional reality at the heart of the Belfast agreement. Unionists have a right to be respected. “
He added: “There are some who argue that the main aim is to reorient the Northern Ireland economy away from the British economy and to develop an economy of all the islands, an economy that does not exist, and that would link the economy of Northern Ireland, closer to the economy of the Republic.
“I have asked Irish government ministers about this and they are giving vague answers. There is a difference between cross-border trade and the economy of all the islands.”
Andy Gregory June 8, 2022 6:14 PM
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Nuclear test veterans call for recognition at first meeting with prime minister
People affected by British atomic experiments have called for formal recognition for nuclear test veterans at their first official meeting with a Prime Minister, and Boris Johnson has reportedly been “very scared to hear the death stories premature, illness, government coverage … ups, dead children ”.
During the 40-minute meeting, a group that includes a veteran of nuclear bomb testing, a widow, and four descendants told Mr. Johnson his experiences with the tests and the debilitating health problems they suffered as a result.
Alan Owen, founder of Labrats International for Atomic Test Survivors, told PA News Agency: “We met with him and he looked us in the eye and told him why these men deserve a We are the only country in the world that has not given formal recognition … It is only 70 years of denial by the Ministry of Defense. [Ministry of Defence] not acknowledging what happened; it is not taught in schools, there is no education ”.
Mr. Owen’s own father was on Christmas Island during nuclear tests in 1962 and died of heart disease at the age of 52. Her sister was born blind with one eye, her older brother died at the age of 31, and Mr. Owen recently suffered a cardiac arrest.
Andy Gregory June 8, 2022 5:45 p.m.
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Sir Keir Starmer will announce new policies, Labor says, following Lord Mandelson’s warning
Sir Keir Starmer will announce a series of new policies in the coming months, his allies have said, after Labor leader Lord Mandelson urged the party to “look up” and warn that its leader has “about a year” to change. the things. around.
“By next year … we will have to see more powerful brushstrokes, put on this canvas,” the former cabinet minister told Times Radio.
In a speech in Durham, the couple said that Sir Keir should “accelerate” policy development and “change the intellectual course” instead of just hoping to benefit from Boris Johnson’s problems, and called for to the party that focuses on the need to invest in digital. , artificial intelligence and carbon transition technologies.
In response to the speech, a Labor spokesman said: “Peter Mandelson continues to focus on the industrial policy he had in government and this is an approach shared by Keir Starmer.”
The spokesman insisted that voters were already returning to the party across the country and said more policies would be put in place in preparation for the party’s autumn conference in Liverpool in September, adding: “We will continue to focus on the issues that matter to the public, what the cost of living crisis is and how we grow the economy. “
Andy Gregory June 8, 2022 5:20 p.m.
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Foreign Ministry adviser resigns after saying “responsibility” Boris Johnson should be fired
A Foreign Ministry adviser has resigned after telling LBC Radio that Boris Johnson should leave the number 10 and that it is “a responsibility” that he is “in the wrong job,” reports our deputy political editor Rob Merrick.
Helena Morrisey, a Conservative couple, also argued that the prime minister had shown “contrition” over the Partygate scandal, saying he had to show “facts and not words”.
She has now resigned as director of the Commonwealth Office for Development and Foreign Affairs, a paid role to provide “strategic leadership” and “performance and delivery advice”. It is understood that he agreed to leave after Liz Truss, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, told him that his position was untenable.
The resignation is the first since the censure vote on Monday, despite expectations that some ministers could leave, to try to foment a revolt against the prime minister.
Andy Gregory June 8, 2022 5:01 PM
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Telegraph readers give a condemned verdict on Boris Johnson’s leadership
Today’s Daily Telegraph’s letter section is likely to be an awkward read for Boris Johnson, with many of the dozens of contributors offering a doomed verdict on his leadership.
In a headline article, “A Leadership Contest is the Conservatives’ Best Hope,” columnist Madeline Grant suggests that the Prime Minister “turned out to be less of a Churchillian figure than a leader in Anthony Eden’s mold.” “. – vain, ambitious, coveting the traps of power more than the …