Government whips are trying to decide what Tory MPs should do when the Commons votes tomorrow on a motion calling for a privileges committee inquiry into claims Boris Johnson misled parliament about Partygate. (See 1.07pm.) The government had been expected to order its MPs to vote it down, but Labour - and the six other opposition parties supporting the amendment (see 1.14pm) - have drafted it in such a way as to make it hard for Conservatives to vote against. First, the motion does not explicity accuse Johnson of intentionally misleading MPs. And, second, the motion says the inquiry should not start until the police inquiry into Partygate is over. In another move that should make the motion more acceptable to Tories, Chris Bryant, the Labour chair of the committee, and an outspoken critic of Johnson, has agreed to recuse himself from any inquiry. (See 4.14pm.) Tory MPs are wary of voting down the motion because that would lead to them to being accused by Labour of covering up Johnson’s lying. Government whips also know that, if they order MPs to vote against, many backbenchers might ignore them and abstain - which could see the opposition winning. No 10 is thought to be considering a ploy that would involve Tories voting for an amendment that might water down the potential threat posed by any inquiry, but details are not expected to be announced until later tonight. Downing Street has gone into open battle with the Church of England over its condemnation of the Rwanda deportation scheme, after No 10 officials doubled down on Boris Johnson’s criticism that archbishops were being unfairly critical. Evgeny Lebedev’s nomination for a peerage was paused after advice from MI5 and was only ultimately approved with a letter advising his appointment would be controversial, the chair of House of Lords appointments commission has told MPs. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the minister for Brexit opportunities has told the EU scrutiny committee the UK will “reform” the NI protocol unilaterally if the EU does not. As my colleague Lisa O’Carroll reports, this raises the spectre of some dramatic move after the Northern Ireland assembly elections on 5 May. He said: We signed it on the basis that it would be reformed and there comes a point at which you say, well, you haven’t reformed it and therefore we are reforming it ourselves. And the United Kingdom is much more important than any agreement that we have with any foreign power.
The acting head of the UK’s biggest police force has admitted that cultural problems in the force are “not a few bad apples” and called for a change in procedures to allow managers to speedily sack errant officers. Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, said he was worried by allegations of “systemic antisemitism” within the National Union of Students, telling MPs that the government may sever links with the organisation unless it reforms.