UK politics live: Raab admits no evidence justifies Johnson’s anti-Starmer Savile smear

Good morning. Boris Johnson reminded Tory MPs last night that Covid almost killed him, but his own conduct has led to him suffering a serious of political near-death experiences and he went through another yesterday. By the end of the day he was in a better position than we was at the end of his statement to MPs – he belatedly promised that the full Sue Gray report would eventually be published one day, having refused to make that commitment earlier, and his speech to Conservative MPs at a private meeting in the evening went down much better than his hubristic and tone-deaf performance in the Commons – but nothing has been resolved. Once again, Westminster is waiting for the full Gray report before knowing how this scandal will end.

Here is our overnight story, by Rowena Mason and Jessica Elgot, about yesterday’s drama in the Commons.

Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister, and Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, have both been giving interviews this morning. Starmer’s comments are in line with his much-praised speech shaming Johnson in the Commons yesterday, and he has repeated his call for the PM to resign. Raab has mostly been urging viewers and listeners to wait for the police investigation into partygate to conclude.

But Raab, who is justice secretary as well as deputy PM, found himself unable to repeat or substantiate one of Johnson’s smears in the Commons yesterday. Replying to Starmer, Johnson said the Labour leader was “a former director of public prosecutions—although he spent most of his time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile, as far as I can make out”. As this Reuters fact check explains, the claim that Starmer was to blame for Savile not being prosecuted is false.

On the Today programme, Raab described the remark as part of “the cut and thrust of parliamentary debates and exchanges”. But he admitted that he was not prepared to repeat the remark himself, and he added: “I don’t have the facts to justify that.”

Asked if Johnson had the facts to justify his claim, Raab said that was for the PM to say.

I will post more from the Raab and Starmer interviews soon.

Here is the agenda for the day.

Morning: Boris Johnson chairs cabinet.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

11.30am: Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons.

After 12.30pm: MPs begin a debate on a Labour motion criticising the government for writing off £4.3bn lost to Covid fraud.

Afternoon: Johnson is in Kyiv for talks with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. The two leaders are expected to hold a press conference.

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