Boris Johnson ‘completely mortified’ at being fined for breaking lockdown rules, says Shapps – UK politics live

Conservative MPs backing Boris Johnson have argued that it would be wrong to replace the prime minister while the war in Ukraine is taking place. But, in an interview with the Today programme this morning, Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, argued that having a new PM would help Britain show support for Urkaine. She explained:

The House of Commons, the Conservative party, the Labour party, are united in our support and solidarity with Ukraine, and our opposition to the aggression that we see from Russia in Ukraine. So changing the Conservative leader would not change our resolve in terms of the conflict in Ukraine.

What you would get is leadership that could concentrate on the job in hand. There was talk earlier this week about parliament being recalled to discuss the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine. That talk of recalling parliament has now disappeared because the prime minister knows if parliament is recalled, he will be asked about the parties and the fines and he doesn’t want to do that.

And so I would argue the exact opposite to what [Tory MPs are saying] – actually, fresh leadership would mean that we would have a government that could concentrate on the issues that we need to focus on as a country, including the cost of living crisis.

The former Conservative minister Edwina Currie told ITV’s Good Morning Britain earlier that she did not care if Boris Johnson broke the ministerial code by knowingly misleading parliament about the No 10 parties. What counted was the “results” produced by politicians, she said:

I don’t care, I really don’t care.

What matters for me and what matters for millions of people in this country is the results we get from our politicians. The results we get from Boris are pretty good …

Last week we had a by-election here in the High Peak and we took a seat from Labour which means we’ve taken control of the borough from Labour.

Everybody had an opportunity to express their viewpoint. And what happened was we won the seat, we actually won it, that’s what’s happening.

Johnson has not accepted that that he intentionally misled parliament on the many occasions that he told MPs there were no parties at No 10, or that the rules were always followed. His argument is that he was not aware of some of the events, and that the ones he was aware of he thought were allowed under the rules.

Given what we now know about what took place, including the warnings issued to Johnson about at least one of the parties and No 10 staff joking privately about how others were impossible to justify, it is hard not to conclude that Johnson was at times lying to MPs.

Here is a summary of the main points from Grant Shapps’ morning interviews.

• Shapps, the transport secretary, refused to confirm that parties took place at Downing Street in breach of lockdown rules. On the Today programme the presenter, Nick Robinson, said that Boris Johnson told MPs that there were no parties are No 10, after the surprise birthday event Johnson attended and after multiple other parties that have been reported. Asked if the government now accepts that there were parties at No 10, Shapps at first said Johnson did not set out to break the law. When pressed, Shapps said it was for the police to decide if parties took place. Asked why Johnson was not prepared to admit that parties took place at No 10, Shapps replied: “The police are the right people to rule on this, and they said that the gathering in the cabinet room where they wished the prime minister happy birthday breached the rules.”

• Shapps claimed that Johnson did not knowingly break the rules and that he was “completely mortified” about the fact that he did so unintentionally. (See 8.50am.)

• He said there was “clearly something wrong with the way that No 10 was operating at that time”.

• He said that he considered Johnson to be an honourable man and that he thought his record should be judged “in the round”. He said:

People judge somebody in the round, how they do the job overall. I’m not saying that the prime minister isn’t a flawed individual. We are all flawed in different ways. We all err.

The question is did someone set out to do these things with malice and overall is he doing a good job as prime minister? Which is why I do think it’s relevant how he performs the rest of his job, the rest of his task.

My colleague John Crace says that judging Johnson “in the round” might not help him very much.

Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, told BBC Radio Scotland this morning that he thought Boris Johnson told the truth. Asked if he thought Johnson was a truthful man, Ross replied: “Yes, and he’s dealing with the situation in Ukraine and he’s dealing with the situation at home here.”

But Ross admitted that Johnson claims about there being no parties at No 10 were not accurate. Asked if those comments were true, he replied:

Clearly not, because the Met police have decided that fixed penalty notices had to be issued.

Ross said that he supported Johnson staying in office because it would benefit Vladimir Putin if he were to go. Ross said:

Anything that would destabilise the UK government at this time would be a bonus to Vladimir Putin. He is indiscriminately killing innocent people and I will do nothing to support a war criminal like Putin.

Ben Houchen, the Conservative Tees Valley mayor, has told LBC he thinks Boris Johnson should be judged “in the round” and not on the basis of Partygate. He said:

I think as with everything in life, the prime minister has apologised.

Obviously, it’s a very, very serious issue. He has clearly made a very serious and grave mistake, but I’m a big believer in life, as we all should be, [that] we all make mistakes.

We have all done things that we regret. We have all done things that we get wrong, but I’m a big believer of looking at people in the round and judging them in the context of all of their actions, and not just on a single action.

Nigel Mills has become the first Conservative MP to say publicly, since Boris Johnson was fined, that he should no longer remain as prime minister. The BBC’s Georgia Roberts has his quotes.

Mills is only being consistent. In January he said that, if Johnson were shown to have attended a party in breach of lockdown rules, he would have to resign. But many of Mills’ colleagues who were saying similar things at the start of the Partygate scandal are now saying the Ukraine war has changed their thinking.

The Spectator is keeping a tally of what Tory MPs have been saying about whether Johnson should stay or go since the news that he was being fined broke yesterday. They have 69 MPs backing him, and only one (Mills) saying he should go. That’s a very positive ratio, but it also means that almost 300 Tory MPs have yet to express a view. Some of that can be explained by the (understandable) reluctance of some of them to feel the need to tweet about everything, but it also may be because some of them have considerable reservations about the PM, which for now they are keeping to themselves.

Good morning. Boris Johnson has now been fined for breaking the Covid lockdown rules that he drew up and ordered the nation to obey, but Conservative MPs are happy for him to remain as prime minister – at least for now. Although no one would claim this is a triumph, his survival prospects now look much better than his colleagues thought they would be at this point. Crucially, the Tory press, which came close to giving up on him when the Partygate scandal first erupted, is broadly supportive, as my colleague Warren Murray shows here.

Here is our overnight story about Johnson, his wife Carrie and Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, all being fined for lockdown breaches – and paying them – yesterday.

Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, and one of the best media performers in the cabinet, has had the awkward job of defending Johnson on the media this morning. His argument has been that Johnson made a mistake, but that he’s only human, it wasn’t intentional, and that he’s truly sorry. He told Sky News:

The one thing I know – and I spoke to the prime minister – is he is completely mortified by this happening …

He didn’t knowingly break the law. He didn’t do it deliberately. He didn’t come to parliament and having knowingly done this. He thought in fact that the same people who wished him happy birthday, who he had already been meeting with earlier that day, was not breaking the law.

The police take a different view. He absolutely accepts that and has paid the fine …

The question I suppose, your question goes to the heart of, you know, did he set out to do this? Was it something that was done with malice, with intent?

And the answer of course, is no. It’s something that happened in error, and as I have said, I’ve spoken to him, he is incredibly embarrassed by the whole thing.

He knows that it was stupid, indefensible. But he didn’t set out to break the law, and he has paid the fixed penalty notice fine, and has a very big job to do.

I will post more from the Shapps interviews shortly.

Yesterday Tory MPs weren’t calling for Johnson’s resignation. Today we will see whether that changes. Parliament is not sitting, and many MPs are on holiday, but there is a campaign event in Scotland where Ruth Davidson, the former Scottish Tory leader, and Douglas Ross, the current one, are appearing together. Davidson wants Johnson to resign, but Ross doesn’t, and so message discipline might get tricky.

Otherwise the only thing we are expecting is an update from Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, on his plans to get the housing industry to fund the removal of unsafe cladding from flats.

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