Boris Johnson news latest: PM quotes Lion King to stop staff leaving as fifth
Boris Johnson ‘toxic’ even to his allies, says Malcom Rifkind
Boris Johnson this morning attempted to put a positive gloss on the exodus of senior officials from 10 Downing Street by quoting The Lion King.
“Change is good,” he told those remaining after a fifth aide walked out of No 10 within 24 hours.
According to Conservative Home, Elena Narozanski, a former adviser to the cabinet minister Michael Gove and Theresa May during her tenure as home secretary, quit her role in the Downing Street policy unit.
Her exit follows the departures of Jack Doyle, communications director, Martin Reynolds, principle private secretary, Dan Rosenfield, chief of staff, and Munira Mirza, head of policy.
Greg Hands, the energy minister, said today: “The prime minister was absolutely clear on Monday that there would be changes at the top of No 10 and that is what he has delivered.”
Reports say that Ms Mirza’s shock resignation sparked a clear-out of No 10 as the PM tried to take back control of events.
PM told me there was only a 30% of new Brexit deal for NI, DUP leader says
Boris Johnson told DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson there was only a “30 per cent chance” of a new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland, he has said.
“I met with the prime minister last week, I asked the prime minister two straight questions,” Mr Donaldson told BBC Radio Ulster.
“I asked him what he thought were the prospects of agreement being reached with the EU on the protocol within the next few weeks.
“His answer was ‘20 to 30 per cent chance of agreement”.
Ashley Cowburn, our politics correspondent, has more on this story and a judge’s decision to block an order to suspend protocol checks, below:
Matt Mathers4 February 2022 14:16
PM will find it ‘almost impossible’ to effectively rebuild team
Boris Johnson will find it “almost impossible” to rebuild his senior team from scratch, the leader of the union representing senior civil servants has said.
FDA general secretary Dave Penman said the loss of four senior figures at the same time will have a huge impact on the way the Government works.
“To lose so many critical posts at once really is undermining the effective working of No 10,” he told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One.
“You have now got to replace with them people of experience, with people who understand how the Prime Minister works, with people who have got policy experience in the areas that they are going to be dealing with, and that is going to be very difficult.
“I don’t think there will be necessarily a shortage of who people want the job. The question is whether you are going to get the right people for the job, particularly when you are looking to build such a core team almost from scratch.
“It would be a challenge to fill each of these jobs individually, to do four of them at the one time is almost impossible.”
Matt Mathers4 February 2022 14:05
Javid ‘frustrated’ at having to answer questions on partygate
The health secretary has admitted it is frustrating to have to answer questions around partygate and Downing Street resignations while making major policy announcements.
Sajid Javid faced a series of…
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