Boris Johnson news – live: Christmas party reports ‘unsubstantiated’, Raab says as drugs crackdown announced

Boris Johnson is facing a backbench revolt against the government’s rejection of calls for cases of rape in the armed forces to be taken out of the military courts system, where defendants are five or six times less likely to be found guilty.

Prominent Tory MPs Johnny Mercer – a former Army officer who was in charge of legislation on the issue before resigning as a defence minister earlier this year – and Commons defence committee chair Tobias Ellwood are among those expected to break party ranks in a crunch vote on Monday.

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has the full report below:

Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab said that any parties held during tier three restrictions, would be contrary to the rules and “the wrong thing to do.”

Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show, Mr Raab was quizzed on whether Downing Street held a Christmas party last year while the rest of London was under restrictions.

While he called reports of the Christmas party in The Daily Mirror, BBC and Financial Times, “anonymous and unsubstantiated,” he conceded that if a party took place it would be contrary to the rules. He insisted that all rules were followed and that he was not aware of a Christmas party taking place at Downing Street last year.

Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said the government will start publishing crime “scorecards” to identify where the criminal justice system is failing.

Mr Raab told Sky News’s Trevor Phillips On Sunday programme: “We are going to be publishing scorecards, both for general crime but also for rape, which means that we can see exactly where the system is working and exactly where it isn’t working, whether it is at the police stage, the prosecution stage.”

Mr Raab said he wanted to drive up prosecutions for rape. Among the measures being considered were methods to get swifter read-outs from the mobile phones of victims so they are not deprived of their phone for an extended period, which he said deters some women from coming forward.

The Justice Secretary also said he wanted to extend the use of pre-recorded testimony in rape cases.
“We have been trying this in a number of crown courts. I actually think this is something we need to roll out nationally. I want to look at the right way to do that,” he said.

Children’s commissioner Rachel de Souza has said schools must not be closed again following conerns that lockdowns hid horrors of child abuse that the social services system were unable to detect.

“We must not close schools again,” Ms de Souza said.

Amid the spread of the omicron variant, Ms de Souza added that she would urge the Prime Minister not to close schools if infections increased to a dangerous level.

“Children took a huge hit for us, we must not close schools again,” she added.

The children’s commissioner for England, Rachel de Souza, said “decisive action” must be taken to ensure the horrors experienced by Arthur Labinjo-Hughes will not be repeated.

Ms de Souza has called on the social services system to listen to children, telling Andrew Marr that Arthur did raise concerns – as well as his uncle and grandmother – but their voices were not heard.

She added that social services must look at where the best social care is delivered and seek to replicate this.

Justice Secretary Dominic Raab has said ministers are determined to see what lessons can be learned from the murder of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.

Asked if there would be an inquiry, Mr Raab told Sky News: “The Prime Minister made clear that we want to see how social services liaise with the criminal justice agencies, and what lessons we can learn.”

He added: “It is right that we look at the criminal justice end and in between that I think the job of social workers – particularly those looking at children at particular risk – we need to learn the lessons.”

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock, has the full story below:

Senior Tories have demanded a radical overhaul of the asylum system to allow migrants to claim refuge at UK embassies anywhere in the world – rather than having to travel to the UK – in a bid to cut the numbers attempting dangerous Channel crossings.

Ex-cabinet members David Davis and Andrew Mitchell are among those calling for the change, which marks a stark challenge to the punitive approach taken by Boris Johnson and Priti Patel, who are demanding tighter controls on French beaches and are threatening to “push back” small boats at sea.

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock and our home affairs and security correspondent Lizzie Deardan have the full story below:

Trust in politicians to act in the national interest has fallen dramatically since Boris Johnson became Prime Minister, new figures from the Institue of Public Policy Research (IPPR) has revealed.

The polling data from YouGov for IPPR showed that 63 per cent of the public believe politicians were “out merely for themselves” in the wake of the Owen Paterson sleaze scandal. This has increased from 48 per cent in 2014 when David Cameron was Prime Minister.

In the same poll, just 5 per cent of voters thought politicians were in the job primarily for the good of their country.

The Prime Minister will this week launch a 10-year plan to tackle illegal drug-related crime which will include removing passports and driving licences from offenders, it has been reported.

The crackdown will also include football-style travel bans, harsher sentences for drug dealers and measures to break up County Lines gangs.

The Sun reported Boris Johnson will outline “record” funding for addiction treatment and recovery services, with more money promised for the 50 local authorities with the worst drug issues including Middlesbrough, Blackpool and Liverpool.

More details are in our story below:

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