Johnson inquiry saga drags on while Starmer pledges a cleaner politics

It’s Whitsun recess this week, so parliament is not sitting and things are generally pretty quiet. The big Westminster story continues to be the lumbering saga of the Covid inquiry’s attempt to pin down Boris Johnson, specifically over diaries and WhatsApps that he is refusing to hand over. Following the extension of the deadline for materials, Angela Rayner said: “It now appears that vital evidence has gone missing.” The Deputy Labour leader continued: “It is for the Covid inquiry itself rather than Conservative ministers to decide what is and is not relevant material for its investigation, and this interference only serves to undermine the inquiry’s crucial job of getting to the truth.” This is a running sore for the government and, to mix a metaphor, one that is now threatening to engulf the Prime Minister, too. One can only expect Labour to continue pushing this Conservative bruise until such time as Boris Johnson does the decent thing and complies with the inquiry. So, forever, then.

Standards in public life have proved a rich seam for Labour in terms of channelling voters’ alienation from politics and politicians (particularly Tory ones), and the Financial Times this morning reports that Labour would ban ministers from lobbying for five years after they leave office, with infractions punished with fines. Of course, attentive readers of LabourList will have seen this included in our comprehensive list of draft policy a few weeks back. The Owen Paterson case and its huge political ramifications (although, admittedly, the former North Shropshire MP ended up in trouble for lobbying that was very much more hoc than post-hoc) was clearly in the heads of Labour’s policy team as they drew that one up, but it’s a policy that would no doubt have many former Labour cabinet ministers looking very intently at their shoes.

Meanwhile, Keir Starmer has sought to quash rumours that his party has (as the Telegraph put it over the weekend) a “secret 10-year plan to take Britain back into the EU” by penning an article for the Express, where he writes: “Britain’s future is outside the EU. Not in the single market, not in the customs union, not with a return to freedom of movement. Those arguments are in the past, where they belong.” No backsies.

Also afoot this morning, the train drivers’ union ASLEF is kicking off three days of industrial action this week, and the selection battle is hotting up in the Wirral, where Mick Whitley has released a video and Alison McGovern is touting an endorsement from Gordon Brown. Hustings are this Saturday. And, on LabourList, you can read the excellent first offering from our new monthly columnist Sunder Katwala.

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