Inside Politics: Putin’s ‘back to the wall’

Joe Biden says increasingly frustrated Russian president could resort to using chemical and biological weapons in starkest warning yet, writes Matt Mathers

Tuesday 22 March 2022 04:40 EDT

Russia Ukraine War Africa's Stance

Is Boris Johnson out of the woods on the Partygate scandal? Following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, stories about Downing Street drinks gatherings during Covid lockdowns have mostly dropped out of the news, giving the prime minister some much-needed breathing space following a period in which new details about some of the unsavoury scenes taking place at the heart of power made the front pages on an almost daily basis.

The scandal is, however, back in the spotlight this week thanks to the Met Police’s announcement that it is to start interviewing key witnesses. That’s a significant escalation in an investigation that has progressed at a snail’s pace, but that still presents fresh danger for the prime minister, who himself could still technically face the humiliating prospect of a face-to-face interview with officers from the Yard.

The Met has previously said that, in line with its policy, the force would not reveal the identities of people given fixed penalty notices, although No 10 is on the record as saying that it would be made public if Johnson is one of them. Some Tories have suggested they would regard this as a red line. Other senior figures say that MPs are unlikely to ditch him even if he is sanctioned. While the number of letters sent into the 1922 Committee is reported to be high, it does feel as though events in eastern Europe have taken the wind out of moves to oust Johnson from office. It would be hard for MPs plotting against him to justify removing a sitting PM while the Russian president is threatening to use mass casualty weapons.

Inside the bubble

Chief politics commentator John Rentoul on what to look out for:

No cabinet meeting today, because it will meet tomorrow to sign off Rishi Sunak’s spring statement. The Commons sits from 11.30am with justice questions followed the government’s attempt to restore plans for offshore asylum centres that were deleted from the Nationality and Borders Bill by the House of Lords. The Lords, meanwhile, will be considering Commons amendments to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill – and to the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill, which will repeal the Fixed-term Parliaments Act.

Coming up:

– Shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds on Sky News Breakfast at 8.05am

– Small business minister Paul Scully on Times Radio Breakfast at 8.15am

Daily Briefing

BACK TO THE WALL: Vladimir Putin’s back is “against the wall” due to stiff Ukrainian resistance and western unity against the war, according to Joe Biden, who last night warned that the Russian president could resort to chemical and biological weapons if his troops’ advance continues to stall. Delivering one of his starkest warnings since the invasion began on 24 February, the US president said: “He’s talking about new false flags he’s setting up, including asserting that we in America have biological as well as chemical weapons in Europe. Simply not true. They are also suggesting that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine. That’s a clear sign he’s considering using both of those.” The Kremlin said Biden’s “unacceptable” comments damaged relations with Russia. Biden also warned businesses that Moscow is likely to ramp up its cyberattacks in the coming days. Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said his forces have been able to slow down the Russian invasion, although the country’s military says the Kremlin has increased its air presence in the past 24 hours. In its latest update, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said: “Despite heavy fighting, Ukrainian forces continue to repulse Russian attempts to occupy the southern city of Mariupol. Russian forces elsewhere in Ukraine have endured yet another day of limited progress with most forces largely stalled in place.” We’ll have all the latest updates on our liveblog.

SPRING STATEMENT: Cabinet ministers have issued a last-ditch plea to Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, calling on him to delay a planned rise to national insurance contributions to help families facing a worsening cost of living crisis, according to a report. Sunak is set to deliver his spring statement tomorrow and is under pressure to intervene to help with the rising cost of fuel, energy bills and other essentials. One cabinet source said at least five others believed putting off the 1.25 per cent increase would be better than imposing it next month amid concerns over the cost of living, The Daily Telegraph reported. “A lot of Cabinet ministers privately agree,” the source told the paper. Government sources played down the prospect of the tax hike being deferred. Sunak is due to address MPs in the House of Commons at around midday, after the Office for Budget Responsibility publishes its biannual forecast for the UK’s economy and public finances.

PARTYGATE RETURNS: In a statement yesterday, the Met said that it would begin interviewing key witnesses in the Partygate investigation, some seven weeks after it was launched. “In addition to the detailed review of all available material, including returned questionnaires, detectives from the Operation Hillman investigation team have started interviewing key witnesses,” said a Met Police spokesperson. The Independent understands that Johnson, who returned his questionnaire to investigators last month, has so far not been called for an interview. The Met Police revealed that no fines had been handed out so far, with no referrals to the Acro Criminal Records Office for the issuing of Fixed Penalty Notices made at this stage. “However, every questionnaire response is being assessed alongside all available evidence, and should this reach the evidential threshold, then referrals will be made,” the spokesperson said.

AMESS KILLER IN THE DOCK: The veteran Conservative MP Sir David Amess was assassinated by a “radicalised Islamist terrorist” who also targeted Michael Gove, a court has heard. Ali Harbi Ali, 26, tricked his way into meeting 69-year-old Sir David at a church before stabbing him to death in a “vicious and frenzied attack” last October, jurors have been told. Ali is also accused of carrying out reconnaissance on communities and levelling up secretary Michael Gove and Tory MP Mike Freer. In addition, the court heard that the defendant conducted internet research on deputy prime minister Dominic Raab, defence secretary Ben Wallace and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

‘DIDN’T WANT TO KNOW’: Another potential bit of danger for Johnson is the latest revelation from the Pen Farthing saga. A second whistleblower has come forward to tell The Guardian that it was “widespread knowledge” within government that the PM had given the order for the ex-British marine’s animals to be airlifted out of Afghanistan as Kabul fell to the Taliban. Johnson and Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, have both denied signing off on the controversial rescue effort. At a stormy evidence session of the Commons foreign affairs committee yesterday, Foreign Office mandarins were accused of a cover-up to shield the PM from involvement. Top civil servants failed to back up the PM’s claim that he was not involved in the decision, instead saying they did not know. But MPs cast doubt on why Philip Barton, the Foreign Office’s top civil servant, and Nigel Casey, the special representative for Afghanistan, had not established who gave the order to give priority to Pen Farthing’s Nowzad animal charity. Tom Tugendhat, the Tory chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, called it “a little bit odd”, telling the pair: “It makes me wonder whether you deliberately didn’t want to know.”

LOST TRUST: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has said she lost trust in the UK government to bring her home after a string of foreign secretaries failed to get her out of detention. The British-Iranian dual national, who was detained for six years in Iran, said she should have been back in the UK “six years ago”. Speaking in parliament on Monday at her first press conference, she said she did “not really agree” that she should be thanking the foreign secretary for her return. “I have seen five foreign secretary changes over the course of six years. That is unprecedented given the politics of the UK,” she told the assembled media.

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.

On the record

“I mean, how many foreign secretaries does it take for someone to come home? Five? It should have been one of them eventually. So now here we are. What’s happened now should have happened six years ago.”

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe says her nightmare in Iran should have ended much sooner.

From the Twitterati

“The row over @BorisJohnsons remarks about Ukraine and Brexit lays bare just how keen he is to win back lost Leave voters. ‘No regrets’ one No.10 source tells me.”