Boris Johnson news – live: No 10 fails to deny PM discussed two top jobs for Carrie

Foreign secretary Liz Truss will step up efforts to end Russia's blockade of Ukrainian grain and ease global hunger fears during a visit to Turkey on Wednesday.

The UK and its allies "only have a number of weeks" to get the grain out of the country, Ms Truss warned ahead of talks with her Turkish counterparts.

Ukraine has been described as the "bread basket of Europe" and was one of the world's largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil.

But the Russian invasion and Moscow's mining of the access to the southern ports, including Odesa, has halted much of that flow and endangered world food supplies.

Speaking at Foreign Office questions, Conservative MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP (The Cotswolds) told the Commons: "The harvest in Ukraine is going to have to start in the next few weeks. The problem is that there is 25 million tonnes of old crop filling up all the stores.

"There will be nowhere to put the new crop, it will have to be piled on the fields, and then the Russians will seize it and use it as a weapon of war to buy influence around the world.

"What more can (Ms Truss) do to ensure that there is international passage for that grain out of Odesa and other ports?"

Ms Truss replied: "We are doing all we can to secure the export of that very important grain from Ukraine. And (Sir Geoffrey) is right, we only have a number of weeks to be able to achieve that.

"We are backing the UN plan, but we are also doing what we can with our allies to provide safe passage, to make sure that Odesa is fully defended, and tomorrow I will be travelling to Turkey to talk to them about how we can do more to get the grain out of Odesa."

Boris Johnson promised the UK would be "steadfast" in supporting Ukrainians as he warned of "growing fatigue" around the conflict and said any concessions to Russian president Vladimir Putin would be a "disaster".

The prime minister vowed to ensure "fresh political, military and financial support from the international community" to the war-torn country, his official spokesman said on Tuesday.

"The prime minister's concern is that it may not be at the forefront of everyone's minds, because of ... some of those wider global challenges we're facing, not least on inflation around the world," according to the official.

Mr Johnson told Cabinet that "we must not allow anyone to believe that making concessions to Putin would lead to anything but disaster", as this could be "perceived to be a reward for their unwarranted aggression" and "would embolden not just Russia but their allies and have an impact on UK security and on our economy," the spokesperson said.

The Tories are odds on to lose both the Wakefield and Tiverton & Hontip byelections on Thursday, according to a bookmaker.

The Lib Dems are odds-on at 4/11 to win the seat in Tiverton and Honiton, a Tory-voting area since the 1920s, Betfair Exchange says.

Meanwhile the Conservatives are set to lose another seat in the Wakefield by-election with Labour nailed on at 1/100 to come out victorious.

Betfair spokesperson Sam Rosbottom said: “Boris Johnson looks set for more headaches with Thursday’s by-elections as the Lib Dems are 4/11 on Betfair Exchange to win the Tiverton and Honiton seat, while Labour are nailed on at 1/100 to claim back their Wakefield seat.

“Losing those two seats will only increase the pressure on Johnson’s position after he survived a vote of confidence earlier this month, with the Prime Minister currently 5/2 to leave his role this year. Should he go, Jeremy Hunt is the 11/2 favourite to be the next Tory leader, with Penny Mordaunt 6/1.”

Ministers stressed the need for "fiscal discipline" at Tuesday's cabinet meeting, Downing Street said as it said double-digit pay rises in line with inflation for public sector workers were "not feasible".

The PM’s official spokesman said: "The prime minister, chancellor and chief secretary to the Treasury then led a discussion on the importance of fiscal discipline.

"The prime minister said the public would expect the government to stick within their means at a time of global cost-of-living pressures.

"The chancellor emphasised that the government had a responsibility to not take any action that would feed into inflationary pressures, or reduce the government's ability to lower taxes in the future.

The spokesman added that Boris Johnson noted "the settlement at the spending review was a relatively generous one" and that public sector pay increases in line with inflation were "not feasible across the board at the moment".

"The consensus is that providing pay rises that chase inflation only adds to the problem and it is that act which is what would take most money away from the public in the long term," he said.

Downing Street has not refuted claims that Boris Johnson spoke with aides about getting wife Carrie Johnson two top jobs while prime minister.

Mr Johnson discussed environmental roles for his wife in autumn 2020, either for the Cop26 summit or with the Royal Family, sources told the Daily Mirror.

The latest claim followed reports Mr Johnson tried to hire her as his chief of staff when he was foreign secretary in 2018.

The PM allegedly went on to suggest securing her a role as green ambassador in the run-up to Cop26 or as communications director for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's Earthshot Prize.

Downing Street said he had never recommended Ms Johnson for a government role, but stopped short of denying that he considered or discussed the move.

The PMs’s official spokesman said: "The Prime Minister has never recommended Mrs Johnson for a government role, or one as part of the Earthshot Prize.

"Beyond that I wouldn't get into any conversations the Prime Minister may or may not have had in private."

Here are more details from former Tory Party chair Chris Patten’s interview with LBC, in which he blasted the Johnson administration for its “seediness and mendacity”.

Warning that it would be a “disaster” for the Tories and the UK, Lord Patten told Andrew Marr: “I don’t think we have a Conservative government at the moment. I think, as I’ve said, we have a English Nationalist government with all the consequences – and one that you can’t trust.”

He claimed that a second term for Mr Johnson would “hasten the break-up of the Union”, saying he favoured “a coalition which hold the Union together” led by “a decent, competent, generous, spirited, sensible political force in the middle – which nobody is, at present, providing”.

He also accused Mr Johnson of “playing fast and loose” with the Good Friday Agreement by threatening to override the Northern Ireland Protocol which he negotiated and agreed with the EU less than three years ago.

Lord Patten, who played an important role in the Northern Ireland peace process, accused Mr Johnson of “playing fast and loose” with the Good Friday Agreement and suggested the PM’s confrontational stance on the post-Brexit protocol was driven by the desire to curry favour with the DUP and Tory right-wingers, rather than the national interest.

“To play to the hardcore in the DUP really is dangerous,” he said. “You’re actually giving into to the mob in a really significant and unattractive way.”

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has the full report:

Airport chaos which has seen constant flight delays and cancellations is “completely to do with Brexit”, the boss of the Ryanair airline has said.

Michael O’Leary said Brexit has been an “abject failure” and claimed resolvable labour shortages were behind the disruption at UK airports, adding: “This government couldn’t run a sweet shop.”

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has denied Brexit was to blame for ongoing travel woes, and has accused airlines of “seriously overselling” flights since the Covid pandemic.

Asked about the minister’s comments, the outspoken Ryanair chief executive told Sky News: “It’s completely to do with Brexit. A lot of these pinch points would be solved very quickly if we could bring in European workers.”

Our politics correspondent Adam Forrest has more details here:

Angela Rayner has defied Keir Starmer by backing the rail workers’ decision to strike, saying they “have been left with no choice”.

Labour’s deputy leader gave the party’s strongest support yet for the biggest industrial action on the railways for 30 years – after its leader was accused of “hiding” from the dispute.

Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick has the full report:

In the Commons today, ministers have faced calls to restore the government’s vast cuts to international aid to help build a “coalition” against Russian president Vladimir Putin in the wake of grain blockades to the global south.

Suggesting to Foreign Office minister James Cleverly that it “is very clear that Putin is indeed using the starvation of the world’s poorest people as a tool of war”, Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron asked: “As we seek to fight back against Putin and use all diplomatic powers, does the minister agree that it would be easier to build a coalition against Putin across the developing world in particular, and of course morally right, if we restored the cuts in international aid, or kept them?”

Mr Cleverly claimed that Mr Farron’s question was “conflating two fundamentally different issues”, and said: “The world should be clear that it is Vladimir Putin alone that is creating these problems with his blockade of grain exports from Ukraine.

“He could turn the tap of food to the global south on tomorrow, and we demand that he does.”

Mr Cleverly added: “The world should be clear it is down to him and the Russian blockade of those Black Sea and Azov Sea ports that is creating that hunger, and he should be held accountable for it.”

Boris Johnson’s government is still refusing to come clean about how much taxpayers’ money it spent on chartering the grounded Rwanda flight.

In a response to a written question by Yvette Cooper, Labour’s shadow home secretary, Tom Pulsgrove, a Home Office minister, said: “The costs of our broken asylum system are at a 20 year record high, currently costing the UK taxpayer over £1.5bn a year, with £4.7 million a day being spent on hotels alone. This cannot continue – and the partnership with Rwanda is a key part of our plans to reform the system and put an end to the unsustainable costs which impact the taxpayer.

“The Government’s efforts to facilitate entirely legitimate and legal returns of people who have entered the UK illegally are too often frustrated by late challenges submitted hours before the flight. These claims are very often baseless and entirely without merit, but are given full legal consideration which can lead to removal being rescheduled.”

He added: “Costs for individual flights will vary based on a number of different factors and are regularly reviewed to ensure that best value for money is balanced against the need to remove those individuals with no right to remain in the UK.

We do not routinely disclose commercial or operational information relating to individual charter flights.”