Boris Johnson news: More than half of Britons ‘think Tories made wrong decision keeping PM’

The government has denied claims that it is planning to burn £4bn worth of unusable personal protective equipment (PPE) procured during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A DHSC spokesman said: “A number of these claims are misleading, including the claims that we are burning £4 billion of unusable PPE and that there is no clear disposal strategy for excess PPE.

“In the face of an unpredictable and dangerous virus, we make no apology for procuring too much PPE rather than too little, and only 3% of the PPE we procured was unusable in any context.

“At the height of the pandemic, there was unprecedented global demand for and massive inflation in prices of PPE.

“But, despite these global challenges, we delivered over 19.8 billion items of PPE to frontline staff to keep them safe.

“Now we are confident we have sufficient PPE to cover any future Covid demands, we are taking decisive action and have reduced storage costs by 82% since October 2020.”

Schools minister Robin Walker has defended the prime minister after the government’s top social mobility cheif said she did not think he was a good role model to children.

Mr Walker said Ms Birbalsingh was “entitled to her opinion”, but disagreed.

He said: “I think actually anyone who leads this country is a role model - someone that children can look up to.

“The prime minister has shown phenomenal resilience through the Covid pandemic and leadership, and I think that’s something that children should learn about in schools.

“He’s also a great communicator, and one of the things that we seek to teach in all of our schools is communication - literacy through great speech and language.

“So there’s plenty for people to look up to in that respect.”

When asked about Mr Johnson being fined for breaking his own lockdown rules, he added: “I think the Prime Minister has accepted the things for which he has apologised.

“And it’s quite right that he should do that in that respect as well.

“I think it’s important that children understand the importance of acknowledging when you’ve got things wrong.

“He’s also someone who has taken the big calls, taken great decisions in the long run and I think that’s why the party has been behind him when we had this vote of confidence earlier in the week.”

The Labour leader has travelled to Belfast to meet several of Northern Ireland’s political leaders amid a deepening row over the post-Brexit protocol.

Sir Keir Starmer arrived at Stormont on Friday morning for discussions with Alliance leader Naomi Long, SDLP chief Colum Eastwood and acting Stormont speaker Alan Chambers in Belfast.

He held meetings with DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and UUP head Doug Beattie in London earlier this week and met Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald on Thursday evening in Belfast.

He is also expected to meet US consul general Paul Narain and go on a walkabout in Belfast to view changes in the city since the Good Friday Agreement.

More than half of Britons think the Conservative party made the wrong decision in backing Boris Johnson’s premiership in the confidence vote earlier this week, a poll has found.

Mr Johnson described his victory as “decisive”, despite winning the ballot by 211 votes to 148.

But critics say the prime minister has found himself in the eye of a revolt against his positon, the scale of which far surpassed the expectations of his allies - failing to put to bed questions over his leadership.

On Friday, an Ipsos poll found that 51 per cent of Britons think MPs slipped up in retaining the prime minister, a number which includes one in four 2019 Conservative voters.

And, overall, 36 per cent said they made the right decision.

Claims that Rishi Sunak squandered £11bn of taxpayer money by paying too much interest servicing government debt are “not true”, treasury minister John Glen has said .

It comes after the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said the losses were the result of the chancellor’s failure to insure against interest rate rises on £900 billion of reserves created through the quantitative easing (QE) programme.

Posting on Twitter, the economic secretary to the Treasury said: “The Treasury has inaccurately been accused of wasting billions of pounds.

“This is not true and the proposed measures come with huge economic risks and could undermine the Bank of England’s independence.

“This government has always managed the economy responsibly and carefully, and respected the independence of the Bank of England completely.

“This will always be the case.”

The Home Office cancelled the removal of three people who had asked the High Court to prevent their deportation to Rwanda, court submissions revealed.

The High Court in London is hearing the case of migrants and charities seeking to stop the first deportation to Rwanda set to leave on Tuesday, 14 June.

Raza Husain QC, for people and groups bringing the claim said: “The secretary of state’s conclusion as to the safety of Rwanda was irrational. I’m going to submit that we have a very strong case on that.”

Thomas Kingsley reports:

Rory Stewart is a hot topic of debate on Twitter, after condemning Boris Johnson on the BBC’s Question Time.

“He lurches sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left. But always in the direction of his own self interest,” said the MP who once himself stood for party leader. The comment was widely shared.

And Mr Stewart also retweeted a post by an account parodying Mr Johnson, after he attacked the PM’s latest policy announcements as a distraction.

“What about sending people to Rwanda, imperial measures, benefits to bricks.... all good sensible policies that will definitely happen,” the parody said.

Mr Stewart was also a popular answer to questions over who would make a good next prime minister.

Mr Johnson is still hoping that the first flight sending migrants to Rwanda will go ahead on Tuesday, Downing Street says.

A No 10 spokesman said: “You’re aware of the ongoing court case today but we’ve set out our position on why we think this is the right approach.”

The vast majority of peers will back attempts to block a Bill aimed at overriding parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol, according to Conservative Party grandee Ken Clarke.

The controversial legislation, designed to take unilateral action to stop checks on goods agreed with the EU as part of the Brexit deal, will be published on Monday, writes Adam Forrest: