Boris Johnson news: PM faces new grilling on groping claim, as talks on toppling him stall and senior MP expelled from Tory conference
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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson has admitted he cannot remember the lunch at which he is alleged to have groped a female journalist – despite repeatedly denying the incident took place.
It comes as opposition talks to oust the PM if he tries to force through a no-deal Brexit have been plunged into fresh turmoil amid splits over who should lead a temporary government.
And Conservative MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown has been sent home from the party's annual conference in Manchester after what a Tory spokesperson described as a "totally unacceptable" clash with security staff.
Late in the evening details emerged of Mr Johnson's planned offer to Brussels. In a speech tomorrow he is to say that the EU must "engage" with his proposals or see the UK walk away without a deal.
The plans, reportedly including the offer of a four-year period inside the EU's regulatory framework for Northern Ireland following the end of the transition period in 2021, represent a "reasonable compromise" on his part, the PM is to say.
Mr Johnson's ultimatum will be delivered despite the passing of the Benn Act, which is designed to prevent a no-deal Brexit.
His opponents accused him of being determined to “force an undemocratic and destructive vision of Brexit on the country”.
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Sajid Javid has revealed he is considering scrapping the inheritance tax.
The policy is widely disliked by the public despite only affecting 5% of inheritance payments - and could prove an easy vote winner for the chancellor.
Rob Merrick reports:
Female comedian Shappi Khorsandi has described a run in with the prime minister which has given her reason to believe the allegations of Charlotte Edwardes.
Writing in The Independent, Ms Khorsandi claims Boris Johnson had reached under the table "and squeezed my hand while I was sitting on the panel for Question Time after knowing me for roughly 20 seconds".
While not equating her experience with Mrs Edwardes', she claims her encounter made the allegations "instantly believable".
People have derided me since I spoke out on Twitter, saying the gesture was merely a reassuring squeeze of the hand offered because the prime minister knew I was nervous. Indeed. That’s exactly what it would have been – if he’d been my mother, a friend, or someone I had a rapport with, who I’d been acquainted with for more than a few moments.
It was not assault, and I’m not saying it was a sexual advance. But it was a gesture by a man who is not used to giving women the same respect he grants to a man. He would not, for example, have held Nish Kumar’s hand when he was on Question Time. And in my experience, if a man is that comfortable holding the hand of a woman he doesn’t know, then I believe the other woman who says he grabbed her leg at a party.
More from Ms Khorsandi below:
In the Republic of Ireland, a border community has been left outraged after number of customs cars were delivered to the area - hours after it emerged that British negotiators had suggested customs posts could be deployed as a result of Brexit
A lorry with a car carrier trailer holding seven customs cars travelled through Co Louth on Tuesday morning, and parked at a yard just miles from the Northern Irish border.
Initial reports on Monday night suggested that the British negotiators had proposed customs posts near the border in both the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, a move that was swiftly criticised by the Irish Premier Leo Varadkar and his deputy Simon Coveney, before Boris Johnson distanced himself from the idea.
The Taoiseach's office is yet to comment on why the vehicles were transported to the area.
More on Sajid Javid's thoughts regarding the potential scrapping of the inheritance tax, which mostly effects the wealthy, as reported by Rob Merrick.
“It’s something that’s on my mind,” the chancellor told a fringe meeting at the Conservative conference – agreeing with a questioner who branded it the “most hated tax”.
Mr Javid added: “I shouldn’t say too much now, but I understand the arguments against that tax.
“I do think that when people have paid taxes already, through work or through investments and capital gains and other taxes, there is a real issue with then asking them, on that income, to pay taxes all over again".
Read more below:
Jacob Rees-Mogg remains tight lipped on the government's plans to sidestep the law handed down by MPs to block a no-deal Brexit.
Mr Rees-Mogg is believed to be one of a select few members of the cabinet in the loop as to the Prime Minister's plan to dodge legislation forcing him to extend article 50 if a deal is not struck.
He told Channel 4's Krishnan Guru-Murthy: "I'm not accepting that we may have to extend. We haven't seen what that law means. It hasn't been tested in front of the courts.
"We will have to see what happens.I'm expecting a deal as it happens - the mood music seems incredibly positive, there seems to have been a shifting in the EU position".
He added: "I think many people are really keen that we should leave on the 31 October. I'm as interested as anybody is in Brexit but even I would quite like to have something else to talk about."
Yesterday it was confirmed Dominic Raab would step up to the despatch box for Prime Minister's Questions for the first time in his role as de facto deputy PM.
Now his counterpart has been announced by Labour, in keeping with the tradition of standing down the leader of the opposition when the Prime Minister is away.
Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, will step forward to grill the minister, with Jeremy Corbyn saying she will be "the first black person to represent their party at PMQs"
Boris Johnson has arrived at the DUP's fringe meeting at conference - and the welcome certainly appears to be a warm one.
Those in the room report the prime minister arrived to people chanting his name - while others shouted "no surrender" in reference to Mr Johnson's controversial terming of the Benn Act.
The Irish Embassy team and the Irish ambassador are also in attendance, with The Guardian's Rowena Mason saying they are witnessing plenty of praised being passed to the PM.
More from the DUP fringe meeting, which has since wrapped up, per reports from the room:
• The Prime Minister is reported to have said it will become clear if the UK will be able to strike a deal with the EU "within days".
• He added he wanted to put Jeremy Corbyn in a “figurative rocket” and “send him into orbit where he belongs”.
• He believes outgoing European Comission president Jean Claude Juncker is no longer quite so tied to the need for an Irish backstop.
Or in his own words, as reported by Bloomberg's Kitty Donaldson:
Expect to hear more from MPs in and outside the commons over the coming days regarding Prince Harry's announcement of legal action against newspaper The Mail on Sunday over its coverage of the Duchess of Sussex.
Antoinette Sandbach, the former Conservative MP who was one of 21 to have the whip withdrawn by the Prime Minister, called the Duke's words a "powerful statement".
Read more on the Prince's comments and the legal action below, as reported by Chiara Giordano.
More from that DUP meeting - footage has emerged appearing to show attendees calling for Jeremy Corbyn to step into a "noose".
As the Prime Minister holds his line asking for the leader of the opposition to "step into a...", the footage appears to show another shouting "traitors gate".
Sky's Lewis Goodall has the video:
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