#priti-patel

#priti-patel

Boris Johnson allies will hold a conference this spring aimed at taking back control of the Conservative party.The Conservative Democratic Organisation (CDO), the group set up after Mr Johnson was kicked out of No 10 by his own party, is to hold its first convention in Bournemouth on 13 May.Johnson supporters Jacob Rees-Mogg, Nadine Dorries and Priti Patel will make speeches or join debates at the first national gathering of the CDO.

Unfair behaviour from ministers is damaging government policymaking, meaning civil servants may feel afraid to give frank advice, a former senior adviser to Dominic Raab has said.Raab is under investigation over eight separate complaints across three ministerial departments.The inquiry into his behaviour by the independent investigator Adam Tolley KC is likely to be complete within the next month.

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails The Home Office has been accused of arrogance after a minister said there was no need for extensive engagement with refugee organisations before announcing controversial proposals to curb Channel crossings.

A government adviser on violence against women appears to have effectively resigned from her role on live radio after saying she is on a completely different planet to the home secretary, Suella Braverman.Nimco Ali, a social activist who was appointed to the independent role by the then home secretary, Priti Patel, in 2020, used an interview to criticise Braverman's stance on the issue and announce her intention to relinquish her role.

Sue Gray was not involved with handing over Partygate evidence to the privileges committee inquiry into Boris Johnson while she was in talks with Labour about a job, multiple sources have said.Allies of Johnson are furious that Gray is off to work for Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, as chief of staff, after the senior civil servant was in charge of the report on Partygate published last May.

Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab will have no choice but to resign at the end of independent inquiry into bullying allegations, it has been claimed.A senior Cabinet Office official told colleagues that Mr Raab is toast when the process concludes later this month, according to the Sunday Times.Officials close to Adam Tolley KC's probe are said to have been shocked by some of the claims including staff being sick before meetings with Mr Raab and regularly left in tears.

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Suella Braverman is to visit Rwanda as Britain's 140m deal to send asylum seekers to the country remains mired in legal challenges.The home secretary is to reaffirm her commitment to the agreement struck in April 2022 by her predecessor Priti Patel, which has so far failed to achieve the government's aim of deterring small boat crossings.

Rishi Sunak must ask his ethics adviser to help decide whether Dominic Raab is a serial bully or risk losing the public's trust, a union leader has said.The prime minister alone will decide whether his deputy and justice secretary has broken the ministerial code after eight separate complaints across three ministerial departments.

Emmanuel Macron and Rishi Sunak meet in Paris on Friday for the first bilateral summit between France and Britain since 2018.High on the agenda will be the longstanding row over small boats crossing the Channel, given new impetus by the plan to tackle the issue announced by the UK on Tuesday.Strained by years of ill-tempered Brexit negotiations and a series of heated cross-Channel disagreements, relations have improved markedly since the departure of Boris Johnson, viewed by Paris as fundamentally untrustworthy.

Tories take their pleasures where they can find them in Westminster these days.Which is why the government benches were surprisingly full for an urgent question on Keir Starmer offering Sue Gray a job as chief of staff.It's not often Conservative MPs get to occupy the moral bump in the road, so at least 50 or so took to the Commons to vent confected hypocritical outrage.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak should suspend Dominic Raab from the Cabinet while investigations into alleged bullying are ongoing, according to the leader of the largest trade union in the civil service.Failing that, Mr Raab should step down, said Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union.

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Jeremy Hunt faces a backbench Tory rebellion over the rise in corporation tax set to be confirmed at Wednesday's Budget.Influential MPs on the right including Priti Patel and Simon Clarke have warned that raising the rate from 19 to 25 per cent would hammer businesses and curb growth.

The attempt by Rishi Sunak and Emmanuel Macron to reset the Anglo-French relationship on Friday is not just important bilaterally, but also in terms of Britain's relationship with the EU.The French president, a gatekeeper to improved relations, sees the British prime minister's efforts to resolve the Northern Ireland trade issues as a signal Britain is in the hands of a fellow technocratic nationalist, and that its brush with populism may be over.

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails The mother of a woman killed by her husband has said her family is fearful about the prospect of his release, and is calling on the Justice Secretary to look at the case.

The role of the independent watchdog overseeing government anti-slavery policy has been left vacant for more than 10 months at the same time as cases of suspected trafficking have hit an all-time high, it has emerged.Dame Sara Thornton, the previous anti-slavery commissioner, resigned on 30 April last year, but has not been replaced by the home secretary, Suella Braverman, despite a legal requirement for the post to be filled.

A viral clip of Ian Hislop shutting down Priti Patel's public endorsement of the death penalty has resurfaced following backlash to the new Conservative party deputy chair's comments on the same issue.A clip from BBC's Question Time, recorded in 2011, depicts Private Eye editor and Have I Got News For You host Ian Hislop dissecting fellow guest Ms Patel's argument in favour of the death penalty.

Margaret Thatcher's former press secretary Sir Bernard Ingham has died at the age of 90 after a short illness, his family has said.Ingham was a journalist with the Guardian in the 1970s before going into communications for the government.He served as press secretary for Thatcher for almost her entire time as prime minister.

Nicola Sturgeon's decision to step down as Scottish first minister highlights the pressures women politicians endure and the need to do more to keep them in their roles, campaigners say.Ms Sturgeon, the first female first minister of Scotland, announced she was resigning at a news conference in Edinburgh on Wednesday after more than eight years in the job.

Tech executives whose platforms persistently fail to protect children from online harm will face criminal charges after ministers reached a deal with Conservative backbenchers.Rishi Sunak was facing the prospect of defeat in a Commons vote on Tuesday after a rebel amendment to the online safety bill won opposition support.

The government has been criticised by several public figures after the news of the home secretary's plans to abandon several key commitments made after the Windrush scandal in the run-up to the 75th anniversary of the ship's arrival in the UK.On Friday, the Guardian reported that Suella Braverman was planning to abandon several of the key commitments made since the Windrush scandal, including dropping the pledge to create a migrants' commissioner and a U-turn on the promise to increase the powers of the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration.

One in five police officers plan to quit amid rising anger over pay, working conditions and treatment by the government, a survey suggests.Polling of almost 37,000 officers in England and Wales showed forces to be at crisis point and the police service is on its knees, the Police Federation said.The findings place Boris Johnson's pledge to recruit 20,000 extra constables by the end of March in fresh doubt, with voluntary resignations already at a record high.

The Government said it will not create a specific offence for spiking despite committing last year to look at new legislation.Home Office minister Sarah Dines said a new law is unnecessary because there are already several offences which cover incidents of spiking and the Government has not found any gap in the law that a new spiking offence would fill.

No 10 has refused to say if its review of the Prevent counter-terrorism strategy will be redacted, amid reports it has been delayed by a row between Michael Gove and the Home Office over whether to reveal the names of suspected Islamist extremists.The Prevent review was handed over to the Home Office by William Shawcross, a former head of the Charity Commission, in the summer.

Dominic Raab is facing multiple formal complaints from Ministry of Justice (MoJ) civil servants over allegations of bullying behaviour during his previous stint running the department, the Guardian has been told.The justice secretary has vowed to thoroughly rebut and refute the two official complaints he is already facing, one from the MoJ and one from his time as foreign secretary, but further formal allegations will be a blow to his attempts to clear his name.

Rishi Sunak is facing a rebellion of about 50 MPs who are demanding an end to housebuilding targets for councils, via an amendment which campaigners say would further hinder affordable homes.The amendment, led by the former cabinet minister Theresa Villiers, has backing from 46 MPs who have signed the bid to scrap mandatory local housing targets and make them advisory only.

Rishi Sunak faces a significant rebellion on Wednesday as Conservative MPs push for an end to mandatory housebuilding targets.More than 40 backbenchers have signed an amendment to the flagship Levelling Up Bill that would ban councils from taking housebuilding targets into account when deciding on planning applications.

The home secretary, Suella Braverman, who last week caused outrage by referring to asylum seekers entering the UK as an invasion, had been warned by government lawyers that inflammatory immigration rhetoric risked inspiring a far-right terror attack.Braverman's comments came just one day after a man with links to the far right threw firebombs at a Dover immigration centre.