Brexit

Express
BORIS Johnson is being advised he needs to bounce back from Partygate and focus on “the real threat” of a pro-EU “Rejoiner alliance” as a priority.
Express.co.uk understands senior Conservative Party figures are concerned over the prospect of Labour having a form of “Rejoiner alliance” with the Lib Dems and SNP which could also threaten the fabric of the UK. The Prime Minister has been warned with Partygate now behind him, he needs to focus on making Brexit work to prevent an ambush at the next election.
One source said: “The fact is that part of the motivation of the whole Partygate scandal was to get rid of Boris, because Rejoiners think that if you depose Boris you destroy Brexit.
“But we have also seen evidence of a Rejoiner alliance forming particularly with Labour and the Lib Dems which if it succeeds at the next election could see Brexit reversed.”
Conservatives have claimed there is evidence of a Rejoiner alliance in the Tiverton and Honiton by-election called because of the resignation of former Tory MP Neil Parish after he was caught watching porn in the Commons.
Labour has been accused of deliberately stepping back to give the Lib Dems a better chance of overturning the 24,239 Tory majority.

Energy

Telegraph
Every household in the country will get extra money taken off their energy bills this autumn under a new cost of living support package to be unveiled by Rishi Sunak on Thursday.
The Chancellor is set to announce an increase to the £200 saving unveiled earlier in the year and scrap plans to make people pay back the amount over the coming years.
To fund the move, he will announce an oil and gas windfall tax that will see the amount companies pay linked to how much they invest.
The multi-billion pound package is also expected to include new “targeted” support for the poorest households, possibly through Universal Credit or extra help for pensioners.
Boris Johnson and Mr Sunak hammered out the agreement after talks earlier this week as they faced growing pressure from voters and Tory MPs to act.
Mr Sunak will announce the new package to the Commons and is pencilled in for a round of broadcast interviews on Friday morning to justify the moves.

Independent
Hundreds of pounds will be cut from energy bills under measures expected to be announced by Rishi Sunak to ease the cost of living crisis.
The chancellor is to ditch the previously announced £200 loan on energy bills and replace it with a grant that will not have to be paid back, with the discount possibly increasing to as much as £400, according to reports.
And despite initial opposition from himself and other prominent government figures – such as Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg – Mr Sunak is set to approve a windfall tax on energy companies.
Extra measures which have been discussed as part of a package worth around £10bn could include a further increase to the warm homes discount to help low-income households cope with rising energy bills.
Other policies which have been discussed include increases in the winter fuel allowance, a further cut in council tax or a VAT cut.
Mr Sunak will detail his plan in the Commons on Thursday as the government seeks to regain the initiative following a damaging set of revelations in Sue Gray’s report on the Partygate row.

ITV News
People on means-tested benefits could receive a one-off payment of up to £600, Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to announce when he unveils a significant package to ease the cost-of-living crisis later on Thursday.
Mr Sunak is expected to cave in to pressure to impose a windfall tax on the soaring profits of oil and gas firms.
Treasury sources did not deny reports he would use his announcement on Thursday to scrap the requirement to repay the £200 discount on energy bills, and could increase the level of the grant.

BBC News
UK households are set to have hundreds of pounds knocked off energy bills this winter as part of a £10bn package to help people cope with soaring prices.
The government is to scrap a plan to give people £200 off bills from October which would be repaid over five years.
Instead, the BBC understands that sum will be increased and possibly doubled, and will not need to be paid back.
Additional help for those on the lowest incomes is also expected.
The support, to be announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak later, is expected to be largely funded by a windfall tax on oil and gas firms that could raise £7bn.

Metro
The government will announce an emergency package to help people through the cost of living crisis on Thursday.
Rishi Sunak will give a statement and set out measures designed to help the poorest deal with the biggest squeeze on living standards in decades.
It has been widely reported the chancellor will adopt Labour’s policy of imposing a windfall tax on energy firm profits to fund the assistance.
Households could receive up to £400 in relief after an expansion to the energy rebate scheme previously worth £200 was signed off by the Treasury, according to reports.

Mail
Rishi Sunak will today unveil a £10billion cost-of-living bailout that aims to provide financial assistance to help every household in Britain pay for surging energy bills.
With energy prices set to soar again this autumn the Chancellor will intervene and announce additional measures, funded by a windfall tax on oil and gas giants, to ease the pressure on household finances.
He will prioritise the most vulnerable in society with a multi-billion package of targeted measures, reportedly using Universal Credit or additional funds for pensioners, reports the Telegraph.

Boris

Times
A defiant Boris Johnson claimed he had been “vindicated” by Sue Gray’s report even though she laid out “failures of leadership” at the heart of government for which the prime minister must take responsibility.
Gray’s report described 15 gatherings while Britain was under coronavirus restrictions, one of which stretched beyond four in the morning, and another that involved karaoke, vomit and a “minor altercation”.
She also recounted “multiple examples of a lack of respect and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff,” which she said was “unacceptable”.
The prime minister insisted that he took “full responsibility for everything that took place on my watch”, telling MPs: “I am humbled and I have learnt a lesson”.
But he was also defiant, arguing that it was his “duty” to gather staff for leaving parties. He repeatedly drew attention to the fact that the Metropolitan Police had fined him only once. He denied that he had lied to MPs.

Sun
Boris Johnson faces a day of reckoning over the Partygate scandal as Whitehall enforcer Sue Gray prepares to finally publish her report tomorrow.
The Prime Minister stands accused of lying to Parliament over his multiple claims that “no rules were broken” in No 10 during lockdown.
Downing Street staff revealed they watched in disbelief as Mr Johnson repeatedly told the Commons he had been unaware of the rules-busting gatherings.
One said: “We were watching it all live and we just sort of looked at each other in disbelief like – why?
“Why is he denying this when we’ve been with him this entire time, we knew that the rules had been broken, we knew these parties happened?”

ITV News
The fallout from Sue Gray’s report into Covid-rule-breaking in Downing Street continues, after the 60 page document revealed highly-damaging details of the Partygate saga.
Senior leadership at Number 10 was heavily criticised in the report, with top civil servant Ms Gray saying they must “bear responsibility” for the party culture in Downing Street, which came about due to a “failure of leadership”.
The Prime Minister said he took “full responsibility” for the rule-breaking which took place on his watch – but defended himself by saying he was not present for a number of the illegal gatherings, and resisted calls to resign.

Mirror
Sue Gray’s scathing report into Covid lockdown parties today declared Boris Johnson must “bear responsibility” over brazen No10 gatherings – eight of which he attended.
A long-awaited inquiry – packed with private WhatsApp messages and nine photos – ruled junior officials felt “permitted” to attend rule-breaking events that “should not have been allowed to happen” because “senior leaders” took part.
After claims No10 security were mocked for questioning the bashes, Whitehall investigator Ms Gray added: “I found that some staff had witnessed or been subjected to behaviours at work which they had felt concerned about but at times felt unable to raise properly.
“I was made aware of multiple examples of a lack of respect and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff. This was unacceptable.”

Morning Star
DOWNING STREET staff partied with their bosses’ approval while Britain was in lockdown, the long-awaited publication of senior civil servant Sue Gray’s report found today.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was told by opposition MPs that “the game is up” following her damning report into 16 gatherings between May 2020 and April 2021.
The report found that a large number of staff at No 10 attended the frequently boozy events and breached Covid guidelines.
In the wake of the report, a snap YouGov poll found 59 per cent of Britons thought the PM should resign.

Strikes

Mail
Britain is facing a ‘summer of discontent’ with the biggest rail strike in modern history causing power blackouts, petrol shortages and empty shelves – along with industrial action affecting airports, courts and bus services.
Militant rail union leaders are threatening to cripple the country with strikes that could begin within weeks by mid-June unless train drivers are handed 11 per cent pay rises on their average £59,000-a-year salaries.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union at Network Rail and 13 train operators have backed launching a huge campaign of industrial action, and the organisation’s leaders will now decide when to call strikes. The rise proposed by the union is significantly above the 3.2 per cent average given to workers in the private sector.
The RMT’s vote last night paves the way for chaos if a deal is not struck with Network Rail and the operators. Rail union leaders want staff pay rises in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI) rate of inflation – currently 11.1 per cent.
Over the last decade, the median earnings for train drivers have risen 39 per cent, far above the national average of 23 per cent, or 15 per cent for nurses. Train drivers on average earn £59,000, compared with £31,000 for nurses and £41,000 for police officers. Rail workers can also retire at 62, earlier than civil servants, nurses and teachers.

Sun
RAIL union leaders reckon their members are more deserving of a pay rise than Covid nurses, it has emerged.
RMT officials, poised to launch a strike, claim their staff — average salary £46,000 — kept the country moving in lockdowns.
They will sit down next week to plan forthcoming summer walk-outs but insisted yesterday they were right to demand a “decent pay rise”, job security and no compulsory redundancies despite passenger numbers tanking during Covid.
Asked if they were more deserving than nurses, RMT representative Eddie Dempsey said: “We don’t think it’s unreasonable to get a pay rise.”
Yet over the past decade, train drivers have seen their pay rocket 39 per cent to an average of £59,000.
The UK average is 23 per cent and is 15 per cent for nurses whose average salary is £31,000.
Rail staff can also retire at 62, earlier than nurses, civil servants and teachers.

Commonwealth

Guardian
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall are likely to witness an unseemly showdown at the Commonwealth conference in Rwanda next month when Boris Johnson tries to oust Patricia Scotland as secretary general of the Commonwealth.
The UK has been working behind the scenes for nearly two years to remove Lady Scotland, claiming she has not modernised the institution, and last week the prime minister publicly stated he was supporting a rival to Scotland.
Johnson said “the UK” supported the candidacy of the Jamaican minister of foreign affairs, Kamina Johnson Smith, for her “vast experience and support to unite our unique family of nations and seize opportunities ahead”.
Supporters of Scotland claim that Johnson’s backing of one candidate, at a time when the UK is supposed to be the neutral scrutiniser of the election process, is an abuse of his position and has compromised the UK’s role.

NHS

Mail
West Midlands Ambulance Service could stop responding to 999 calls in August as the ambulance trust approaches a ‘Titanic moment’ amid overcrowding in hospitals, its nursing director has said.
Mark Docherty, of West Midlands Ambulance Service, said patients were ‘dying every day’ from avoidable causes created by ambulance delays and that he could not understand why NHS England and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) were ‘not all over’ the issue.
In an interview with the Health Service Journal (HSJ), Mr Docherty said rising numbers of people were waiting in the back of ambulances for 24 hours before being admitted to hospital, and that serious incidents have quadrupled in the past year, largely due to severe delays.
He said the situation was now so serious that he is predicting the service will collapse in August.

Russia

Express
THE UK has issued a global alert as Russia has expanded its activity and influence to Africa, posing a threat to the security of NATO countries.
At a joint news conference in Madrid, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said that rising instability coupled with hunger in Africa could have a significant impact on Europe. Referencing allegations made by western leaders that last year Russia supported Belarus in encouraging thousands of migrants fleeing war to cross into Ukraine in retaliation to EU sanctions, Mr Wallace said: “If (Russia) can use migrant flows as a weapon at one end of Europe, they can certainly use it at the other.” Spain’s Margarita Robles added that the expansion of Russian operations in countries like Mali and Libya was “very clear”. She said: “NATO cannot remain indifferent in this situation.”

Independent
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said he will not give up his country’s land in return for an end to the war with Russia.
Negotiations for a peace deal cannot resume until Russia demonstrates it is willing to move its troops and equipment back “to the position before 24 February” when Vladimir Putin  ordered the invasion, Mr Zelensky said in a video address to the World Economic Forum  in Davos.
Mr Zelensky also pleaded with the west once again to send more help to Kyiv “without exceptions, without limits”, as he said his army was facing the fiercest attack by Russian forces yet.

Sun
FOR THE first time since the invasion, the Ukrainian army is under more pressure than before.
It has been reported that Volodymyr Zelensky‘s troops could be fighting a losing battle in Luhansk, the northern part of Donbas region.
The Ukrainian General Staff says the Russians appear to be concentrating their forces for another push.
Ukraine’s Zelensky has said the Russians could be killing up to 100 Ukrainian soldiers a day in Donbas.
And in the city, civilians with somewhere to go have left.
Lida, she was being evacuated to the relative safety of western Ukraine on a special train told  BBC News: “They bombed everything, we barely escaped. Glass is smashed, everything is scattered around. And I am not able to walk at all. Disabled. That’s how it is.

Times
Russia has said that it will end its blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports only if the West agrees to lift sanctions.
Andrei Rudenko, the Russian deputy foreign minister, said today that Moscow would be willing to create a “humanitarian corridor” for vessels carrying food to leave Ukraine, in exchange for the removal of trade sanctions and financial restrictions.
About 22 million tonnes of grain are currently stuck in Ukraine, one of the world’s biggest producers of wheat.
“Solving the food problem requires a comprehensive approach, including the removal of sanctions that have been imposed on Russian exports and financial transactions,” Rudenko said.

Express
RUSSIAN advances and Ukrainian losses in the war have been significantly underreported by British intelligence, claimed a security correspondent.
Russian gains in the Donbas region have gone largely underreported by the UK Ministry of Defence, he claimed. Likewise, Ukrainian losses and struggles for military resources have not been covered in British intelligence releases. Security correspondent for the BBC Frank Gardner claimed the official UK defence coverage of the conflict has been significantly “over-optimistic” in hailing the successes of the Ukrainian defence.
Mr Gardner suggested Putin’s invading forces had been performing well in the Donbas region as troops expanded Russian-controlled territory in the east.
In his analysis of the fighting in the Donbas region, Mr Gardner said: “There’s a severe risk of quite a large number of Ukrainian armed forces, regular armed forces, getting surrounded and cut off from any kind of retreat around Severodonetsk, in the Donbas.

China

Express
CHINA has “no love” for the UK, US, or the European Union and will pursue its own foreign policy goals no matter the outcome of the Ukraine war, an expert has told Express.co.uk.
China has refused to join the chorus of Western countries condemning Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, which came just after Beijing declared “unlimited friendship” with the Kremlin. However, Beijing said it was “not a party” to the war as it sought to dodge the fallout of the invasion in March.
Professor Tsang, who heads up SOAS, University of London’s China Institute, told Express.co.uk that the Ukraine war has not “fundamentally changed the relationship” between Western countries and Beijing, partly because “there never really was much love, from the Chinese side, anyway”.
He added that the Chinese president “still” held “no love” for the likes of the UK and the US, and he firmly holds on to the idea that Beijing always “needs to be prepared and pre-empt”.
However, the Chinese government does fear the ramifications of Western sanctions leveled at Moscow over the war, which sparked “huge alarm” in Beijing.

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