#ministerial-code

#ministerial-code

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 Only a third of the public believes the Government is running the country properly, competently and seriously, according to a new poll.Just 32% or people told pollster Ipsos they had confidence that the Government was running the country properly, while 30% said they thought the country was being run with integrity.

The SNP has signed a contract with a new auditor more than six months after the previous company quit, the PA news agency understands.The party has been without auditors for its accounts since October, with the Westminster group left with just weeks to file with the Electoral Commission or risk losing 1.2 million in funding from UK Parliament authorities to support their work.

The Scottish Tories will on Wednesday push for a statement on the turmoil engulfing the SNP, claiming it is in the public interest.Led by Douglas Ross, the party will use its Holyrood debating time to push for clarity on the financial situation within the ruling party.In the past month, both its former chief executive, and Nicola Sturgeon's husband, Peter Murrell and its then treasurer Colin Beattie were arrested in connection with a police probe into the party's finances, overshadowing the first month of First Minister Humza Yousaf's time in office.

Matt Hancock broke government rules by not seeking permission before appearing on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, a watchdog has ruled.The former health secretary  already stripped of the Tory whip for flying off to earn a reputed 400,000 in the jungle  failed to consult the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA).

Legal advice presented to ministers over a potential challenge to the UK Government's blocking of gender reforms is unlikely to be published, a spokesman for the First Minister has said.Throughout his campaign to be leader of the SNP and First Minister, Humza Yousaf said he would challenge the Section 35 order that blocked the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill but in the final debate, he said he would not fight a court battle if legal advice to the Scottish Government said it would fail.

Nadhim Zahawi said he "completely accepted the position of the prime minister", who fired him as party chairman last month for what Rishi Sunak described as a serious breach of the ministerial code - Mr Zahawi failing to disclose an investigation into his tax affairs.In his first broadcast interview since he was sacked, Mr Zahawi told the BBC he had "co-operated fully" with the PM's independent adviser on ministerial interests, including providing access to his tax returns "as a whole".

Rishi Sunak's ethics adviser has said would expect to be given the go-ahead to investigate a minister if he believed there had been a breach of the rules.Sir Laurie Magnus told MPs that while he required the Prime Minister's permission to mount an inquiry into alleged violations of the Ministerial Code, he believed it would only be withheld if there was a very, very good reason.

Rishi Sunak's ethics adviser has said you can never say never to the idea of investigating the prime minister should serious allegations about conduct arise.Sir Laurie Magnus told MPs that while he required the PM's permission to mount an inquiry into alleged violations of the ministerial code, he believed it would only be withheld if there was a very, very good reason.

A single official complaint regarding the behaviour of the deputy prime minister Dominic Raab represented the concerns of 27 of his officials, the Observer has been told.The group of Ministry of Justice officials are understood to be represented by a memo warning that some colleagues had been forced to take time off for extended periods as a result of having to deal with Raab.

Political reporter, BBC News

Rishi Sunak defended his decision to launch an ethics inquiry into Nadhim Zahawi rather than sacking him, at Prime Minister's Questions.Sir Keir Starmer said the PM was "hopelessly weak" for not firing the minister for "seeking to avoid tax"."Is he starting to wonder if this job is just too big for him?" the Labour leader asked.

Rishi Sunak has published his long-awaited personal tax returns, showing that he paid more than 1m in UK tax over three years.The returns show the prime minister raked in more than 1.9m last year, including 1.6m in capital gains and more than 300,000 in salary earnings and investment income.He paid more than 1m in UK tax over the past three financial years including just over 432,000 in the past year (2021-22) alone.

Rishi Sunak has created a standalone ministry for energy security as he tries to improve economic growth and cut sky-high bills in the face of disastrous poll ratings.In a mini-reshuffle, the prime minister also plumped for an ally to replace Nadhim Zahawi, the Conservative party chair sacked a week ago after he was found to have broken the ministerial code over his tax affairs.

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 Downing Street has distanced Rishi Sunak from an email attacking civil servants that was sent to Tory supporters in the Home Secretary's name.Suella Braverman has insisted she did not sanction the widely criticised message, sent to thousands of Conservative Party members, which blamed an activist blob of left-wing lawyers, civil servants and the Labour Party for blocking previous attempts to tackle illegal migration.

Rishi Sunak is expected to unveil a mini-reshuffle as early as Tuesday as he tries to improve his party's disastrous poll ratings, as well as replace the sacked Nadhim Zahawi.It has been a week since the prime minister dismissed Mr Zahawi as Tory party chair for breaching the ministerial code over his tax affairs scandal and, with no successor having yet been named, reports suggest Mr Sunak has been plotting a broader shake-up of his top team.

Rishi Sunak is planning a mini-reshuffle to replace Nadhim Zahawi as Conservative party chair as he tries to reassert his grip over his divided party, according to reports.The prime minister is also believed to be considering a shake-up of Whitehall by splitting the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy into two or three new departments to better reflect his priorities.

Nurses leaders have issued a direct appeal to Rishi Sunak to intervene in their pay dispute as the NHS faces its biggest day of industrial action in its history.In a letter to the Prime Minister, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) general secretary Pat Cullen said that a meaningful pay offer from the Government could still avert strike action.

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.

Lee Anderson, an MP who attracted controversy for criticising England footballers for taking the knee and saying food bank users cannot budget, has been appointed deputy chairman of the Conservative Party.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak used a reshuffle on Tuesday to handed a senior position to Mr Anderson, the MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire and a former miner, making him deputy to new Tory chairman Greg Hands.

Home Office mandarins are demanding an apology from Suella Braverman for offering praise [to] staff in private only to attack them in public after an email in her name claimed civil servants had blocked attempts to curb migration.A letter sent to the department's most senior civil servant has accused the home secretary of an outrageous attack on the integrity and impartiality of the thousands of Home Office staff and says she most apologise.

When the chips are down.When all else seems lost.At least Rishi Sunak will always have a Chris Philp.When they realised Nadhim Zahawi was not going to be fired and that Richard Sharp was not going to resign, most ministers ran for the hills.Switched off their phones.Hid under the duvet.Refused to answer the door.

Jeremy Hunt has finally revealed he has not paid a tax fine to HMRC after refusing three times.The chancellor declined to say whether he has ever paid a penalty to the taxman at a speech in London this morning.However Mr Hunt later said he was willing to disclose that he has never paid a HMRC fine in a BBC interview.

Suella Braverman has said she will not apologise for her language after a Holocaust survivor told the Home Secretary her description of migrants as an invasion was akin to rhetoric the Nazis used to justify murdering her family.Ms Braverman was confronted by Joan Salter, 83, during a meeting in her Fareham constituency in Hampshire on Friday evening.

Developments in eastern Europe and the latest on Nadhim Zahawi lead the national papers.The US and Germany have joined western allies including the UK in agreeing to send battle tanks to Ukraine, says the Daily Mail, i and Daily Mirror.The Financial Times has Lockheed Martin ready to meet demand for its F-16 aircraft as some of Ukraine's closest European allies revive efforts to provide Kyiv with fighter jets.

Nadhim Zahawi, the beleaguered former chancellor and current chair of the Conservative party, is under pressure to reveal the source of about 30m of unsecured loans made to his wife's UK property company.The loans were used to finance parts of a large UK property portfolio, reported last year as worth about 100m, and were declared in company accounts which span a period from 2017 to 2021 but give no information about who the lenders are.

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle suspended action in the Commons after a bust-up over cabinet minister Michael Gove's statement on the approval of the coal mine in Cumbria.Mr Gove said approving the controversial coal mine was the right thing to do and insisted he was satisfied that it would be net zero-compliant.

Former Cabinet minister Damian Green has become the acting chairman of the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee.The senior Tory, who was effectively deputy prime minister under Theresa May, replaces Julian Knight who has recused himself from Parliament while the police investigate allegations of serious sexual assault.

MPs are making more than ever from second jobs despite promises from the government to clamp down on the practice, one year on from the Owen Paterson scandal, an Observer investigation has found.Of the 129 MPs who made more than 2,000 from outside income between October 2021 and September 2022, 86  including the former attorney general Geoffrey Cox  either earned more or the same amount than in the previous year.