Inside Politics: Boris Johnson facing fresh questions on invoices for flat refurb

Mother of God – it was Buckells all along! It turns out Ian Buckells was the big bad bent copper in Line of Duty, as H’s identity was finally revealed to nerve-shattered telly viewers. It looks like never-shattered viewers of Westminster’s long-running drama – the cash-for-cushions saga – will have to wait a bit longer for closure. Boris Johnson is facing yet more questions, after the possibility of a mystery Tory donor (and a second invoice for work over and above the £58,000 we already knew about) emerged at the weekend. The answers may finally come after the thrilling finale to the local elections later this week.

Inside the bubble

Deputy political editor Rob Merrick on what to look out for today:

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab meets US secretary of state Antony Blinken in London, before conducting more face-to-face meetings with G7 ministers in the coming days. As party leaders hit the campaign trail in the final hours before the May elections, look out for Labour’s big campaign ad on BBC One at 6.25pm.

Daily briefing

TROLLEY FOLLY: Boris Johnson has earned the nickname “trolley” in Whitehall, according to Laura Kuenssberg. Why? Because he’s forever veering off course. Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross has offered Johnson a gentle warning that it’s possible to veer much too far off course. He said the PM should resign if he’s found to have broken the ministerial code over cash-for-cushions. “People expect the highest standards of those in the highest office of the land,” Ross told Marr. No 10 is refusing to comment on a report in Sunday Times claiming there was a second invoice for Johnson’s flat refurb, settled directly with a supplier by some kindly soul (believed to be a Tory donor). A Tory donor was also asked to pay for a nanny for Johnson’s son Wilfred, according to the newspaper. “I resent being asked to pay to literally wipe the PM’s baby’s bottom,” the donor is said to have moaned to a Tory MP. Cabinet minister Dominic Raab dismissed all this stuff as “tittle tattle”. But Tory HQ is taking things a tad more seriously. An email sent to all staff told them all communications have to be provided to Electoral Commission investigators by 7 May.

WE COULD BE SHIFTING: Are all the sleaze stories sloshing around finally beginning to have an impact on the polls? The Tory lead dropped from 11 points to 5 points in the latest Opinium survey, while the latest Focaldata poll puts Labour only one point behind the Tories. Labour’s shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy sounded relatively cheery about the party’s prospects at this Thursday’s local elections. She told Sky News that “something is shifting” on the doorstep, but said it still remained likely to be “very difficult” election. Asked if Labour could lose all three key tests it faces – the Hartlepool by-election and the mayoral races in the West Midlands and Tees Valley – Nandy replied: “Anything is possible.” Keir Starmer faces the possibility of a “hard-left coup” if things go particularly badly, according to the Mail on Sunday. But the Tory side is also trying to manage expectations. Simone Finn, No 10 deputy chief of staff, reportedly told a meeting of top advisers that the Tory candidate was unlikely to win the Hartlepool contest. Boris Johnson may be more worried about his own fading popularity with party members. A ConservativeHome poll saw him fall from the sixth most-popular cabinet member to the 19th. Not good for the PM.

PACKING ‘EM IN AGAIN: The government is thought to be ready to ditch the “one metre-plus” social distancing rule for pubs and restaurants so they can reopen fully from 21 June. Dominic Raab sparked outrage from hospitality chiefs on Sunday after telling Marr there would still need to be “some safeguards” after June, which could mean some “distancing”. But officials have now told The Times that pubs and restaurants will be able to reopen at full capacity (though there may be some requirement to wear masks while moving around). It comes as the government revealed that the 30-person legal limit on the number of mourners at funerals in England will be dropped from 17 May – a month earlier than planned. The Daily Mail’s splash calls it a ‘Triumph for Decency’. A nice front page to get only a few days away from an election. Meanwhile, a cross-party group of MPs is urging the government to keep curbs on foreign holidays beyond mid-May to protect the nation from Covid variants. The all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on Covid said airport arrival halls were “a breeding ground for infection”.

IS THIS CHAP ONE OF US? Boris Johnson’s view of women has been “forever impacted” by not mixing with girls during his all-male education, a senior Tory MP has claimed. Caroline Nokes chair of the women and equalities committee, told The Independent the PM’s ministerial appointments are based on finding the “right chap”, with women get “overlooked repeatedly”. Nokes said of her leader: “You don’t become a feminist by calling yourself one.” It comes as both Labour and the Lib Dems called on the Tories to cease their attacks on the Electoral Commission and allow the watchdog to conduct its cash-for-cushions probe “without fear or favour”. Elsewhere, MPs have said parliamentary committees should have the legal power to compel witnesses. The privileges committee said reluctant witnesses have become “an increasing problem" – with Dominic Cummings cited as an example of people previously refusing to give evidence. Ironically, Cummings is expected to be a highly enthusiastic witness when he spills the beans at a select committee hearing on 26 May.

BEST LAID PLAN B: Nicola Sturgeon has tried to reassure sympathetic Scottish voters wary of diving into an independence referendum during the Covid crisis. This week’s Holyrood election “is not an independence referendum”, the SNP leader insisted – rejecting the idea she was planning to demand a section 30 order from Downing Street (to stage a referendum) as soon as Thursday’s results become clear. But Sturgeon is facing the flak from opposition parties following weekend reports claiming she ordered work on her own ‘plan B’ referendum bill in early February – at the peak of the second wave. Tory leader Douglas Ross said: “It’s a jaw-dropping disgrace that Nicola Sturgeon chose to kick-start her indyref2 bill while Scotland was stuck in lockdown under the stay-at-home order.” It seems most voters across Britain don’t really have a problem with a fresh ballot on Scottish independence. A new BMG poll for The Independent found that 41 per cent back another vote within four years if pro-independence parties win a majority at Holyrood, compared to just 33 per cent who oppose.

On the record

“Often when it comes to making ministerial appointments, it’s all about who is the best chap for the job, not necessarily who would be the best candidate for the job.”

Caroline Nokes on the chapocracy run by Boris Johnson.

From the Twitterati

“Dear Lord, what a terrible piece. Johnson is quite literally the best documented liar in the UK. Yet this article skips around hard examples, quotes his friends & suggests he is like Steve Jobs.”

Mike Galsworthy on Laura Kuenssberg’s long read on Johnson’s ‘relationship’ with the truth…

“A propos of nothing, let’s get something straight. Boris Johnson is not a ‘skilled wordsmith’. He knows a lot of words … there is a difference.”

…and Jonathan Lis says the PM has an odd relationship with words.

Essential reading

John Rentoul, The Independent: Starmer will survive any election blows – but that ought to worry Labour

Tom Peck, The Independent: Thoughts and prayers for the Russians monitoring Boris Johnson’s phone

Dani Garavelli, New Statesman: Why the SNP fears Salmond is still a threat

Nesrine Malik, The Guardian: How many more images of Covid disaster before rich countries are jolted into action?

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