Tag Archives: sack

Sunak sacks Zahawi: he wouldn’t go so he had to be pushed

Out: Nadhim Zahawi.

This is probably the least interesting political story of the weekend because we all knew it was coming.

Even though Rishi Sunak is a weak prime minister – he has to maintain support from all the different factions of the Conservative Party and that means he has to appease them – Nadhim Zahawi had put himself in an untenable position.

That’s what the ethics advisor, Sir Laurie Magnus, found anyway:

The PM said Sir Laurie Magnus’s inquiry made clear there had been a “serious breach of the ministerial code”.

Rishi Sunak asked for the probe after Mr Zahawi admitted paying a settlement to HMRC, including a penalty.

Sir Laurie said the MP had missed many chances to be open about his tax.

In his report for Mr Sunak, he wrote: “Mr Zahawi’s conduct as a minister has fallen below the high standards that, as prime minister, you rightly expect from those who serve in your government.”

Sir Laurie cited Mr Zahawi’s failures to update his register of interests until more than a year after HMRC started looking into his taxes.

When Mr Zahawi reached a settlement with the taxman in August 2022, this too should have been declared, Sir Laurie wrote.

After receiving the findings, Mr Sunak wrote to Mr Zahawi to say he had decided to remove him from government.

Mr Zahawi thanked the prime minister and said he took pride in his role in the vaccine rollout and the Queen’s funeral – but did not offer an apology or mention his tax affairs.

In fact, Zahawi took the opportunity to attack the media, in his letter to Sunak.

Here’s a TV report on this story:

Commentators are saying it is impossible to envision a circumstance in which Zahawi will return to frontline politics.

Good riddance.

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The shabby story of Conor Burns

Conor Burns.

A Tory minister was unceremoniously sacked from his government job and suspended as a Conservative MP amid claims of misconduct that have yet to be entirely clarified – two days later.

Conor Burns, who was a friend of the late Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher in her later years, was dumped by the party on Friday.

It has since been suggested that the claims concern Burns touching another man’s thigh in a Birmingham hotel bar during the Conservative Party conference last week:

Allies of the MP claim he had injured his ribs the weekend before the party conference and was on heavy medication to manage the pain.

They suggested the prescribed medicine made the effect of the alcohol worse.

It is not disputed by the former minister’s friends that he had been drinking or that he flirted with the young man who had joined him, who, we understand, was not known to Mr Burns.

The MP was sufficiently drunk that he had to later be taken back to his hotel by a friend.

We understand that Mr Burns is strongly of the view that the flirting was consensual, but the BBC has not yet spoken to the man the former minister was with to hear his account of events.

Burns has protested his innocence – but this produced an unexpected knock-on effect:

Professor Tim Wilson has vlogged about this, and raises an interesting question: is this just a ‘dead cat’ to distract attention from Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng?

He provides further analysis here:

I think we can all agree with his final sentiment.

We should all be truly ashamed of the Conservative Party.

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Why haven’t Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak resigned yet?

Stupidity is no excuse: Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson have both broken UK law – that Johnson himself announced to the nation – and are therefore criminals. The people at the UK should not tolerate a criminal government. They must be removed if they won’t go willingly. What are you doing about it?

The rules are very simple: Boris Johnson broke the law and lied to Parliament about it. This lying criminal cannot remain in office as prime minister. If there was any justice, he would be ejected from Parliament.

Likewise, Rishi Sunak has been caught making unsavoury tax arrangements for himself, as has his wife – and now he has been found to have broken the laws set by the government of which he was a member. He is also a criminal; he must be removed as well.

And Johnson’s wife Carrie, who attended at least one lockdown-busting party even though she is neither an elected member of the government nor a government employee, has also been fined for breaking the law.

So all the occupants of Number 10 and Number 11 Downing Street are either criminals or tax cheats. Why aren’t they all packing their bags?

Instead, they are trying to jolly us along with tepid, insincere words. Johnson said he felt “an even greater sense of obligation to deliver” (but what will he deliver? More corruption?) and Sunak rambled something about being “focused on delivering for the British people” (but we know that the only thing he is capable of delivering to the majority is misery).

Sunak also said, “I understand that for figures in public office, the rules must be applied stringently in order to maintain public confidence.” How, then, can he expect the public to have any confidence in a Conservative government that allows criminals to remain in place at the very top of UK society? By his own words, he should be gone.

Possibly worse than this is the fact that almost all the Tory Cabinet ministers have supported Johnson and Sunak. This means the Tory cabinet supports criminality and by rights they should also be removed.

I’ve made this point to Liz Truss…

… and will try to do the same with other Cabinet ministers who’ve put their heads above the parapet. How many of them have also been fined – or will be in the future?

Particularly enjoyable is Grant Shapps’s attempt at justification – that Johnson was “mortified” about being fined (he would be. How dare those Met Police plebs fine him. Don’t they know he’s above the law?).

He also said Johnson had not “set out with malice to break the law” (but ignorance of the law is no excuse. And deliberately breaking the law “without malice” is no excuse either: people who steal in order to feed themselves, because Tory laws mean they can’t afford to live otherwise, still go to prison).

And Shapps told BBC Breakfast, “Everyone is human. People make mistakes” (which asserts that Johnson’s attendance at lawbreaking Downing Street parties was a mistake, and there’s no evidence whatsoever to support this. He knew what he was doing. He knew he was breaking the law – because he announced it. He decided he was above the law).

Possibly most disappointing is the response from the major Opposition parties in the House of Commons.

Leaders (and Labour’s Deputy Leader; what’s the matter, Mr Starmer? Are you so used to supporting Tories that you’ve forgotten how to oppose them?) have all demanded that Johnson and Sunak resign – but have taken no steps at all to force the issue.

Where are the demands for a recall of Parliament? Why aren’t they whipping up public outrage at this criminality and dishonesty? Are they “all in it together”?

Groups representing bereaved families who could not be with their loved ones as they died during Covid-19 lockdowns – because they were following the rules that Johnson and Sunak ignored – have demanded an end to the careers of both of these “shameless” criminals.

Don’t these people deserve some form of justice too?

Remember: this is only the first of what may be several fines for Johnson and members of his government – fixed penality notices have been issued only in relation to two out of the 12 events under police investigation. How many more will it take before these crooks finally admit that they can’t inflict themselves upon us any longer?

Oh – and one more thing: how much money were Johnson and Sunak fined? £50? £60? But ordinary members of the public, fined for chatting with each other in their back gardens (for example) faced penalties of more than £1,000. Isn’t this yet another example of the kind of privilege that means these parasites must be removed from the body politic?

Even if you are raging about this, you aren’t angry enough.

What are you doing to get rid of the criminals in the UK’s government?

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Criminal Boris Johnson lied to Parliament and to all of us. He HAS to go

Before we get to the latest developments, let’s remind ourselves of what Boris Johnson told us in March 2020. The important part is between one minute and 45 seconds and three minutes and eight seconds into the clip:

Let’s reinforce that message with this clip of Tory Party co-chairman Oliver Dowden, who was Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport at the time:

So we know that Boris Johnson knew that nobody was allowed to meet in a social situation of any kind on – for example – his birthday, June 19, 2020.

And that means we have every right to be outraged that Boris Johnson broke the rules that he announced to us, in order to attend a birthday party laid on for him on that date.

We know that he did break the rules that he himself explained to the rest of us because the Metropolitan Police Service has told us so – issuing him a fixed penalty notice for breaking those rules.

This means that Boris Johnson has finally achieved his place in the history books – by becoming the first UK Prime Minister to become a criminal while in office.

The fixed penalty notice he received is described as a criminal sanction, rather than being for a criminal offence, but the legal situation remains that Johnson is to be consider a criminal from now on.

But it’s worse than that.

The reason it is worse is that Johnson lied to Parliament – and to the nation.

He denied that any lawbreaking took place – on multiple occasions. This Site has audio of it, obligingly provided by the BBC’s PM:

Here’s a more complete video of the December 8 apology:

And here’s his apology from January 12:

As you can see, he has gone from absolute denial that any wrongdoing happened, to denial that he took part in any wrongdoing. And now we know that he did indeed take part in the wrongdoing.

He can no longer claim that he didn’t know he was breaking the rules; he announced them, he broke them, and then he lied about breaking them.

In the circumstances, if he really didn’t know he was doing wrong, then he is not mentally competent to occupy the office of prime minister.

The Ministerial Code, which governs the behaviour of government members, is very clear on the subject of intentional dishonesty to Parliament: anybody committing such an act must be removed from office immediately.

Yet Johnson seems to think he can deliver an insincere apology and carry on. And because, as prime minister, he is the ultimate arbiter of whether the Ministerial Code has been broken, you can bet that he thinks he’ll get away with it:

What do you think of that?

It’s not acceptable.

He committed a crime.

He lied about it in order to cover it up.

He has only apologised after the police forced him to admit it.

This is not prime ministerial behaviour.

And if he won’t go voluntarily, then it is up to us to force him out. If you haven’t contacted your MP already, do so. This Site will inform you of national petitions to force Parliament to adhere to its own rules.

Prime Minister’s Questions: Boris Johnson fails to answer Partygate accusations

Downing Street party: Boris Johnson asks quiz questions at one of the events that he says did not happen at his home and workplace during Covid-19-related lockdowns.

Police have discovered widespread criminality in Downing Street, with 20 people – so far – fined for attending parties there during Covid-19 lockdown when it was illegal to do so.

That’s five more than originally reported when This Site broke the story.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is on the record as saying no such parties took place and all regulations were followed, despite allegedly attending six of the 12 events under investigation himself.

At the very least, Johnson lied to Parliament and under the Ministerial Code he should resign.

In response to questioning, Johnson complained that Opposition leader Keir Starmer had previously said he should not resign, then fell back on a list of other issues he claimed to be tackling.

He did not address the question at all.

Doesn’t that indicate that he is as guilty as sin and should resign or be pushed out?

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P&O boss calls Shapps’s bluff; what consequences will the firm face?

Grounded: P&O Ferries are being held in dock after failing government safety checks. What other penalties, can Grant Shapps devise for the firm until it delivers an equitable deal for its wrongly-sacked workers.

P&O Ferries boss Peter Hebblethwaite has refused to rehire 800 UK staff after Transport Secretary Grant Shapps warned him to take them back or face “consequences”.

Shapps’s bluff has been called. What is he going to do?

Shapps has already said the government is reviewing all its contracts with P&O Ferries and its parent firm, ports operator DP World. It’s hard to see how he could justify continuing any of those contracts in the face of this continuing defiance of the law.

And it has already grounded several ships after they failed safety checks.

Hebblethwaite knew before he embarked on the mass sacking that he had not informed the government of his intention to carry it out in the legally necessary time period.

But he has insisted that his decisions – and the illegal way he has carried them out – were the only way to save the firm, as it was losing £100 million per year.

If he were to reverse the sackings, he has said, then the whole company would have to be dissolved, with the loss of a further 2,200 jobs.

It’s a test of character for the Tory government.

Boris Johnson’s cronies have had no problem with hitting down at society’s most vulnerable people.

But now they are faced with a large employer, defiantly saying it is going to do whatever it wants.

Will the government have the courage to treat Hebblethwaite the same as any other lawbreaker? Or will it cave in to Big Money, as usual?

Source: P&O boss refuses to reinstate 800 sacked staff as row with Government escalates

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P&O owners should face consequences for ‘one of the most shameful acts in UK industrial relations’

Moored: P&O ferries in harbour – and that’s where they should stay until the firm – and its parent organisation, DP World – sorts out fair treatment for the 800 UK staff they illegally sacked without notice.

There’s no question that the mass sacking of 800 UK citizens working for P&O ferries was illegal.

The RMT union has described it as “one of the most shameful acts in British industrial relations”.

And it is: 800 workers were told their contracts had been terminated and were escorted off their ships by handcuff-trained, balaclava-wearing security guards, to be replaced by cheaper, agency workers.

The sacking of P&O’s entire UK seafaring staff without notice is contrary to even this country’s lax employment laws, because they demand that any employer planning to sack more than 100 staff must give ministers 45 days’ notice – and the government was not told about the plan at all.

If the government had been told, it would have been able to act on behalf of the workers, either to get better conditions of release, or to find alternative employment for them, or both. That can’t happen now.

Considering these circumstances, it seems clear that P&O’s behaviour is an act of intentional harm to its loyal staff.

Yes, there have been demonstrations of protest – but these have been hamstrung by the Tory government’s own support of “fire-and-rehire” practices that force workers to accept worse pay and conditions so bosses can profit.

Natalie Elphicke was caught out by this at a demo in Dover:

Apparently Labour’s John McDonnell was also there – but his party leader, Keir Starmer, is also a (covert) fan of “fire-and-rehire” because he decided that the money problems he created for himself meant he had to fire around 90 staff, then take on 50 again on short-term contracts.

Protests are fine but direct action is better.

This Writer would certainly advise anyone who has booked passage on a P&O ferry to cancel and seek alternative provision.

I would advise anyone using P&O to carry freight to do the same.

The company is owned by a Dubai-based corporation – port operator DP World. Any UK business in a position to do so should find a way to penalise that organisation too.

Back in the day, the government would have sent gunboats to blockade their ports but our spineless, mendacious Tories wouldn’t dream of doing anything so bold.

The only successful way to negotiate with these people is to attack their profits.

Otherwise they get away with it.

Source: ‘Scandalous betrayal’: MPs condemn P&O Ferries for mass sacking of 800 staff | Travel & leisure | The Guardian

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Turning advisors into #scapegoats won’t help #BorisJohnson – for these obvious reasons

His only working strategy: Boris Johnson hasn’t thought through his plan to sack all the advisors who know all the rules he has been breaking since he became prime minister. What does he think they will do?

Boris Johnson is the stupidest prime minister the UK has had in decades if he thinks sacking his top team will help him.

These are the people who know everything that has been going in in Johnson’s corrupt Tory administration since he became prime minister in 2019. They have the keys to all the cupboards where the skeletons are buried.

After Dominic Cummings, Johnson should know that it is much better for him to have people inside his tent – if you will forgive the expression, pissing out, than outside it, pissing in.

Personally, This Writer cannot wait to hear the stories that will come out in the weeks and months after any such boneheaded move by Johnson.

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Bethell sacked – for destroying evidence in ‘government by personal email’ scandal?

Lord Bethell: he previously claimed he never used his private accounts for official business. Now he has been sacked by the Tory Government – as This Site suggested. Is he about to face court action too?

Before we start, it should be made clear that Boris Johnson has given no reason for sacking Lord Bethell as a health minister in his Cabinet reshuffle.

That being said, Bethell is a key figure in a major – ongoing – scandal in which government decisions may have been made using personal email and/or WhatsApp accounts in order to avoid public scrutiny.

Bethell had claimed that he never used his private email or telephone accounts for official business – but then replaced his mobile phone before it could be searched for information relevant to £85m of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) deals that are subject to a legal challenge.

The government is expected to disclose Bethell’s correspondence on those matters – by email, WhatsApp and SMS – as part of legal proceedings issued by the Good Law Project.

The Health Secretary has a responsibility to preserve and search documents for information relevant to the case from the point at which judicial review proceedings were issued in late 2020, under the government’s “duty of candour” – and the phone was replaced in early 2021.

The government has admitted it made no effort to issue Bethell with a preservation notice requiring him to save documents, claiming that ministers’ official correspondence was routinely saved as a matter of course. However, this did not cover government business conducted by private means.

It seems Bethell has not reactivated his WhatsApp, SMS and private email accounts from that phone, although there is nothing to stop him from doing so. Efforts are being made to recover information in those accounts from his mobile phone provider.

I wonder if those efforts have borne fruit and Bethell’s departure from government is happening ahead of more serious proceedings in the courts.

Whatever happens there, this development indicates that Boris Johnson’s government is not as immune to public scrutiny as he has previously tried to suggest.

The prime minister has often shrugged off criticism after serious complaints were made about his own misbehaviour and that of his ministers, but at least three of the worst offenders – Gavin Williamson, Robert Jenrick and now Bethell – have been ejected in the reshuffle.

Is Johnson going for plausible deniability – putting distance between himself and Bethell so he won’t be caught in the backlash if serious wrongdoing is exposed?

Bent Bob Jenrick won’t be making any more dodgy decisions on housing developments

Jenrick and Johnson: both had personal connections with property developer Richard Desmond. It has been suggested that Jenrick only stayed in his post after the Westferry scandal broke because Johnson also had a hand in the decision.

Robert Jenrick, the Tory Housing Secretary best-known for fiddling an inner-London development in order to deprive the local council of a huge fee, has been kicked out of Boris Johnson’s Cabinet – and not a moment too soon.

Not only did he override both the local planning authority and the Independent Planning Inspectorate to grant planning permission for Richard Desmond’s controversial Westferry development, despite it having been found not to meet acceptable planning standards…

… but he did it to allow the developer to avoid paying a £45 million levy to Tower Hamlets Council that he had decided should not apply – and then used that as his reason for granting the application.

Text messages between Desmond and Jenrick show the former Express newspaper owner and pornographer pressured the minister to grant planning permission, saying: “We don’t want to give Marxists loads of doe [sic] for nothing!”

He broke Covid-19 lockdown rules to travel between his three homes – and then insisted that young people should adhere to restricts, even though there was no evidence to suggest they did not.

He corruptly induced a fellow MP to approve a grant for his constituency totalling £237 per person recently – but negotiated Covid-19 support for the people of Manchester down to £7.95 per person.

So it is undoubtedly good that Boris Johnson has finally had the guts to kick Jenrick out of the Cabinet.

The only question is, why did it take so long?

Was it because Johnson himself was also involved in helping Desmond? I guess we may never know.

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