The Scottish Conservatives are set to deliver an unprecedented snub to Boris Johnson by not inviting him to their spring conference, it has emerged. (See 4.43pm.) Johnson’s leadership remains in peril, although there have been no more high-profile calls for his resignation from Conservatives today and many MPs seem happy to wait until the Sue Gray report into all the party allegations – and until they have had more time to digest the public reaction to Johnson’s apology yesterday – before deciding whether or not to actively push for his removal. But the controversy has already caused a deep split between the UK party and its Scottish branch. Tory MSPs were outraged when Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, said last night that Douglas Ross, the leader of the party in Scotland, was “lightweight”. The remark has offended non-Tory Scots too, who took it as a dismissal of Scottish people generally, and this morning one prominent Scottish Conservative, the academic and constitutional expert Adam Tomkins, said the Scottish party might want to start thinking about loosening ties with its London HQ. (See 10.19am.) The Metropolitan police has signalled that it will not decide whether to launch a formal investigation into the lockdown-busting party at Downing Street last May, attended by Johnson, until Gray has concluded her inquiry into all the party allegations. This is from ITV’s Paul Brand.
Johnson is unlikely to be seen in public for the next week after a member of his immediate family tested positive for Covid, Downing Street has said. Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, has insisted Johnson was “very, very sincere” when he apologised for attending a BYOB gathering in the Downing Street garden, but did not believe he had broken the rules. Sajid Javid, the health secretary, has confirmed that the minimum time people with Covid in England have to spend in self-isolation is to be cut to five full days. Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England whose knack for analogies helped convey the twists and turns of the Covid crisis, is stepping down from his government role. A security warning from MI5 has been circulated to MPs and peers accusing the lawyer Christine Lee of seeking to improperly influence parliamentarians on behalf of China’s ruling Communist party. The Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski faces suspension from the Commons after the standards watchdog found he undermined a formal apology over intimidatory behaviour towards staff by indicating in media interviews that he did not fully mean the gesture.