Met investigating two Tory Partygate allegations - but no further action over Chequers events – as it happened

• Police are investigating alleged breaches of Covid regulations at a Christmas party at Conservative headquarters and a gathering of Tory MPs in parliament in December 2020, Scotland Yard has said. However, the Metropolitan police and Thames Valley will not be investigating alleged breaches at Downing Street and at Chequers involving Boris Johnson between June 2020 and May 2021. (See 5.22pm.)

• Rishi Sunak has angrily denied being an absentee prime minister who routinely misses Commons scrutiny and sensitive votes as he endured sometimes turbulent questioning from senior MPs.

• The private bank Coutts is understood to have shut Nigel Farage’s bank account after he fell below the prestigious lender’s wealth requirements, raising questions over the Brexiter’s claims that the bank was targeting him over his political views.

• More councils could be at risk of insolvency over the coming months as local authorities in England struggle to fill a £3bn funding black hole caused by inflationary costs and soaring demand for services, town hall leaders have said.

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The Liberal Democrats have said Rishi Sunak should stop Shaun Bailey taking his seat in the House of Lords while a party held by his London mayoral campaign team, which he attended for at least some of the evening, is being investigated by the Met. Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader, said:

Once again Conservative politicians are facing allegations they broke the rules we were all asked to follow.

Rishi Sunak needs to confirm he will call for honours to be stripped from anyone found to have broken the law. Anything less would make a complete mockery of his pledge to lead with integrity.

He should also step in to stop Shaun Bailey from taking his seat as a peer while this investigation takes place. There’s no way that Shaun Bailey should be allowed to join the House of Lords while he’s under police investigation.

Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, has paid tribute to Mhairi Black following her announcement that she will stand down as an MP at the next election. (See 3.51pm.)

He has also said her comments about the culture at Westminster highlight the need for “modernising our political system”. He said:

It is difficult to overstate the impact that Mhairi Black has had on Scottish and UK politics since her election in 2015 as the youngest MP ever, and more recently as deputy leader of the SNP at Westminster.

She has been a trailblazer – a passionate supporter of independence, equality, social justice, and simply of trying to make life better for her constituents and the wider Scottish public. She has also served as a role model for young people, especially women, with an interest or a desire to get involved in politics.

I know that Mhairi has been critical of the toxic, hostile environment of Westminster, which serves as an important wake-up call to those who are determined to safeguard our democracy. The case for modernising our political system is stark. We must make sure it works for everyone, so we don’t deter people from standing for election or speaking out for what they believe in.

In their statement about the new Partygate investigations the Metropolitan police have restated the criteria they say they use to decide whether historic allegations about breaches of Covid rules should be investigated. It says:

The Met has previously published criteria for assessing when to launch investigations into breaches of the Regulations reported retrospectively.

We will do so only when there is evidence of a serious and flagrant breach and where:

It is proportionate and there is evidence that those involved knew or ought to have known what they were doing was an offence.

Not investigating would significantly undermine the legitimacy of the law.

There is little ambiguity around the absence of a reasonable defence.

The Metropolitan police have just issued a statement about the three sets of alleged lockdown breaches involving Tories that it has been reviewing. In two cases it is opening or re-opening investigations, but in the third set of allegations – involving Boris Johnson and Chequers – it is not taking action.

Here are the main points.

• Boris Johnson faces no further action over the claims – which he strongly denied – that information from his diaries reviewed in connection with the Covid inquiry showed that lockdown rules had been broken at Chequers and No 10. The Met said in its statement:

The Met and Thames Valley police have assessed material referred by the Cabinet Office regarding potential breaches of the regulations between June 2020 and May 2021 at Downing Street and Chequers. Based on an assessment of that material and an account provided regarding the diary entries, and also having sought some further clarification, the Met and Thames Valley police have each assessed the events in their jurisdiction and concluded that they do not meet the retrospective criteria for opening an investigation.

• But the Met is reopening its investigation into claims – almost impossible to deny, given the video footage leaked to the Sunday Mirror – that lockdown rules were broken when Tories involved in Shaun Bailey’s campaign for London mayor held a party. The Met said:

Following assessment of new evidence that was not previously provided to officers, the Met is now re-opening an investigation into potential breaches of the Regulations at an event in Matthew Parker Street on 14 December 2020.

Sir Mark Rowley, the Met commissioner, said last month that the video meant the original decision not to take action would be reconsidered. “We can all see the colourful nature of the video and how much it tells a story way beyond the original photo,” he said.

• And the Met will investigate an event in the Commons office of Dame Eleanor Laing, the deputy speaker, attended by Sir Bernard Jenkin in December 2020. This came to light shortly before the publication of the privileges committee report into Boris Johnson. Jenkin is a member of the committee, and Johnson claimed the report of his attendance at an alleged drinks party when Covid restrictions were in force showed he was a hypocrite. The Met said:

Following assessment of material relating to a gathering in parliament, the Met is opening an investigation into potential breaches of the Regulations at an event on 8 December 2020.

Jenkin has not commented in detail on the event, but allies have argued that it was a work event and therefore allowed under the rules at the time.

And this is what Rishi Sunak said to the liaison committee when William Wragg, the Tory chair of the public administration and constitutional affairs committee, asked him if he recognised “alarming reports of a ‘blob’ wandering down Whitehall thwarting ambitions of ministers”. (See 2.56pm.) Sunak replied:

No. It doesn’t come from me. I’ve always been supported by incredibly hard-working and diligent civil servants who responded to what I needed and worked all hours day and night to deliver what I’ve wanted.

Michael Gove was the first politician in the UK to popularise the term “blob”. When he was education secretary, he used it to describe the educational establishment, which he claimed was opposed to his curriculum reforms and his academy programme.

More recently it has been used by Tories to refer to the establishment in general, often when they are floating the theory that pro-EU civil servants are responsible for Brexit not being a success. Jake Berry, the former Tory chair, delivered a good example last month, posting this message on Twitter.

You voted for Brexit - the establishment blocked it. You voted for

@BorisJohnson

- the establishment has forced him out. Who is in charge here… The Berrvoters or the blob?

Berry used the term again last week after the court of appeal ruled against the Rwanda policy.

When Dominic Raab resigned as deputy prime minister, he also claimed that some civil servants were preventing ministers implementing their policies.

Here is the PA Media story about the clash at the liaison committee between Rishi Sunak and Chris Bryant over Sunak’s respect for parliament. PA says:

Rishi Sunak was accused of caring more about the laws of cricket than respecting parliament in tetchy exchanges with a senior MP.

The standards committee chair, Chris Bryant, clashed with the prime minister over his attendance in the Commons chamber.

Bryant challenged Sunak over his failure to deliver a major NHS statement in parliament and missing the next two sessions of PMQs.

He also questioned him on his absence from votes on the conduct of Owen Paterson and Boris Johnson.

“We are talking about your respect for parliament,” Bryant said.

In a reference to Downing Street’s comments on the controversial Lord’s Ashes Test, Bryant said: “For two rule-breaking moments you chose not to be in parliament but yesterday you opined on the rules of cricket.”

Sunak said: “I’m very happy to talk about the rules of cricket, as you mentioned,” but Bryant shot back: “But not about rule-breaking in parliament.”

Appearing in front of the liaison committee of senior MPs, Sunak said: “I have always tried to announce what I can in parliament.”

On his decision to miss the vote on whether Johnson lied to MPs in order to attend a Jewish Care dinner event, he said: “I chose to fulfil my obligation to an incredible charity, for whom that is one of their significant fundraising moments of the year.”

And he defended missing the next two PMQs appearances to attend an NHS 75th anniversary service on Wednesday and the Nato summit next week.

Sunak said that even if he was not attending the NHS event, he might be expected to attend a ceremony involving the king in Scotland.

He told Bryant: “Your view is that I should not be attending the NHS celebration, or the king’s coronation celebration in Scotland or indeed the Nato summit?

“That’s a perfectly reasonable point of view, but it’s worth pointing out the leader of the opposition also will be speaking at the NHS church service on Wednesday.”

Sunak told Bryant he had not fully read a privileges committee report on allies of Johnson seeking to undermine the work of the panel during its investigation into the former prime minister.

The Tory peer Lord Goldsmith quit as a minister after Sunak asked him to apologise after being named in the report.

The prime minister said: “I’ve read the findings of the report, I haven’t read the report yet cover to cover.”

In reply, Bryant said that it was only three pages long. [Actually, the whole document runs to 13 pages, but there is a long appendix and the report proper only covers four and a half pages.]

Asked if the Tory MPs named in the report should apologise, Sunak said there was a difference because of Goldsmith’s position as a minister.

2:35

Nigel Farage, the former leader of Ukip and the Brexit party, told Radio 4’s the World at One that he did not accept that his account with Coutts was closed because it did not have enough money in it. (See 12.43pm.) He told the programme:

I’ve got more money sitting in my current account than I should have. Perhaps I’m stupid leaving it there in cash so they can make a lot of money out of it.

I’ve been with them for over a decade and at the moment I have more money sitting on current account than I’ve had for most of that period of time.

Here is our version of the story by Kalyeena Makortoff and Ben Quinn.

At the liaison committee Chris Byrant asked about Rishi Sunak’s record missing PMQs. Last month Damian McBride, a Labour adviser, posted data on Twitter showing Sunak to have the worst attendance record of any modern PM. In early June Sunak had missed 17% of the PMQs he could have attended.

The liaison committee hearing is over. I will post a summary shortly.

In the meantime, the SNP MP Mhairi Black has announced that she is standing down at the next election. Black, who is now the party’s deputy leader at Westminster, was the youngest MP in the Commons when she was first elected in 2015, as part of the post independence referendum SNP landslide.

In an interview with Emily Maitlis for the News Agents podcast, asked why she was quitting, Black replied:

Honestly, because I’m tired is a big part of it. And the thing that makes me tired is Westminster.

I think it is one of the most unhealthy workplaces that you could ever be in. It’s a toxic environment.

Just the entire design of the place and how it functions is just the opposite of everything that I find comfortable…

It’s definitely a poisonous place.

Whether that’s because of what folk can get away with in it or the number of personal motivations and folk having ulterior motives for things, and it’s just not a nice place to be in.

In a subsequent statement on Twitter Black said her loved ones had been in a “constant state of anxiety” about her safety as an MP. She also said, “as my parents grow older and I embark on married life”, she had reassessed her priorities.

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Steve Brine (Con) goes next.

He starts by congratulating Sunak on the publication of the long-term workforce plan for the NHS.

Q: You are talking about a tie-in period for dentists, that would require dentists to work for the NHS for a period after training.

Sunak says around 95% of people doing medical training stay in NHS practice. So that did not seem necessary.

With dentisty, around only two-thirds of those who train stay with NHS work, he says.

Q: What will the government do to expand provision for SEND at local authority level?

Sunak says a plan for this has been produced by the government. And higher need funding is going up, he says.

Q: How do you strike the right balance between reassuring parents they can have access to sex education material, and ensuring teachers have freedom to teach?

Sunak says material should be age appropriate and factual. He was concerned that was not the case.

Parents should be able to see all materials, he says.

Q: Ministers say that. But the courts have said otherwise?

Sunak says the government’s view is that copyright law should not prevent parents being able to see resources.

Robin Walker (Con) goes next.

Q: You say education is close to a silver bullet. So how worried are you about persistent absence figures?

Sunak says this is a challenge. Attendance hubs are being rolled out, to spread best practice.

Q: One idea is a statutory register of children not in school. The children’s commissioner backs it, and the opposition is in favour. Will the government support this?

Sunak says the government will legislate at a suitable opportunity.

Q: The new childcare policy will mean the government going from subsidising 50% of the market to 80% of the market.

Sunak says a member of his family (his wife) has a financial stake in this market.

He defends the new system.

Q: There is some concern that the new payment rates will not get passed on to nurseries.

Sunak says he wants the money to flow as it is intended.

Chris Bryant (Lab) goes next.

Q: Why did you announce the NHS workforce plan outside parliament when the ministerial code says important announcements should be made in parliament?

Sunak says he tries to announce these things in parliament. This was not just a government announcement. It was the NHS’s plan. The government was pleased to support it.

“Come off it, prime minister,” says Bryant.

He asks if the PM will apologise to the house.

Sunak declines to offer that.

Q: And you won’t be in the Commons for PMQs tomorrow or next week?

Sunak says he is attending a service in honour of the NHS tomorrow, and a Nato summit next week.

Bryant says he could have changed the time of the NHS service. Sunak does not accept that. The king’s timetable was involved.

Q: When did a PM last miss two PMQs in a row?

Sunak asks if Bryant is saying he should miss the Nato summit.

Bryant says Sunak missed the votes on Owen Paterson, and on Boris Johnson.

Sunak says he was at a charity dinner on the night of the Johnson vote.

Q: Other MPs were there but did vote. Like Wes Streeting?

Sunak says his role at the dinner was different.

Bryant says Sunak is happy to opine on the rules of cricket, but won’t vote on MPs breaking the rules.

Q: Do you think the seven Tories criticised by the privileges committee for undermining the Johnson investigation should apologise?

Sunak says he has not read the report.

Bryant says it is only short. And he says Sunak took a view on Zac Goldsmith, who was named.

That was because he was a minister, says Sunak.

Q: The UK government represents English interests, while also trying to abritrate between the four nations of the UK. That is not fair, is it?

Sunak does not accept that. He says Scotland has one of the most powerful devolved governments in the world. He says it is right that the UK government looks after UK interests. Sometimes those conflict with Scottish interests, he says.

Pete Wishart (SNP) goes next.

Q: Is this muscular unionism working for you?

Sunak disputes that characterisation. In some areas London and Edinburgh work well together. He defends Westminster’s right to use a section 35 order to block the gender recognition reform bill. It was always envisaged that section 35 orders might be used, he says.

Q: Are there any circumstances in which a resignation honours list would not be appropriate?

Sunak says there has been a convention to have them.

Q: Are you still reviewing Liz Truss’s list?

Sunak says that process is still ongoing. He has not seen it yet.

Q: I’m keen for the Conservatives to win the next election, but if we don’t, will you have one?

Sunak says he is not focused on that.

William Wragg (Con) goes next.

Q: There are alarming reports of a blob going down Whitehall thwarting ministers. Do you recognise that?

No, says Sunak.

He says his experience has been that ministers are very dedicated and work hard.

Q: Is this an excuse for weak government and poor policies?

Sunak says his experience suggests that civil services want to implement policies.

Q: Do you tell ministers they just have to work harder?

Sunak says he thinks everyone is working hard to deliver for the country. But the last few years have been difficult.

Q: So reports of relations between the government and civil servants being at an all-time low are exaggerated?

From his experience, yes, says Sunak. He says he is very grateful for the work of civil servants.