Docherty also discussed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Asked if there is effectively a proxy war between Nato allies and Moscow, now Ukrainian troops are in the UK being trained on how to use new equipment, he said: Not at all. I think what it shows is that we are standing by our brothers and sisters in Ukraine. We’ve done that all along. We’ve been very much on the front foot. We were the first European nation to give lethal aid and we’re very proud of that. We’re proud of the fact that we’ve been able to help Ukraine defend their homeland. And I think what’s been amazing is the incredible bravery and commitment of all of the Ukraine armed forces. That same spirit I think is shown in the team that they are fielding here at the Invictus Games.

When it was put to Docherty that Partygate was overshadowing Johnson’s trip to India, he told the PA news agency: I wouldn’t say so. I would say actually the outcome will be improved trade relations with India. Outside the Westminster bubble, I think people realise that the Partygate story is just sort of fizzling out, I would say. It was put to Docherty that people were concerned about the integrity of government and the possibility the prime minister may have misled parliament. He replied: Well that’s a valid question, but I’m 100% supportive of the prime minister. He said Johnson had “behaved with integrity” because he had been “very upfront” in apologising. Docherty tried to portray Johnson as someone who “encapsulates that positive, aspirational view of the Great British future”. Asked if history would look upon Boris Johnson favourably, he said: Yeah, I think history will ... of course, he’s got a number of years to serve as prime minister. But I think history will judge him as someone who was successful as a political leader because he could communicate a sense of hope about the future, because he’s very, very interested in science and technology and innovation. He said Johnson knew that addressing challenges of the future, such as economy, energy sovereignty, and the jobs market, “depends on us being the best in field”.

The prime minister is facing three investigations into his behaviour over Partygate, calls from some of his own MPs to stand down and polls that suggest many voters now see him as fundamentally dishonest and unfit for his job. But, for the junior defence minister Leo Docherty, Partygate is “done and dusted”. Speaking to the PA news agency at the Invictus Games in The Hague, he said: It’s pretty much done and dusted in the sense that the prime minister’s apologised for the fixed-penalty notice he received. In my opinion, I regard that as matter closed. I really want to see him being able to get on with the job. Docherty said the “vast majority” of the country wanted to see Boris Johnson get on with representing Britain. People, I think, are sick of it and want us to move on.

Nicola Sturgeon has defended her party’s decision to campaign for Scottish independence during a local election campaign. The first minister launched the SNP party manifesto at the Beacon Arts Centre in Greenock on Friday ahead of the 5 May council elections. Sturgeon, leader of the SNP, said the cost of living crisis and local services are at the forefront of her party’s manifesto. However, a key pledge also states local councillors will back the Scottish government’s plans to hold a second independence referendum during the first half of this parliamentary term. The public could be asked to decide on the constitution issue by the end of 2023, Sturgeon said. When asked if it was appropriate for local councillors to campaign for independence during an election where local issues such as cleansing services and schools should be the priority, Sturgeon said: “The manifesto is very clear that the priority for SNP councillors will be the cost-of-living crisis and local services. “But I don’t think it is going to surprise anybody that SNP councillors will support the Scottish government’s proposals for a referendum in the first half of this parliament. “And of course, that is a mandate that was won at the election last year and one that therefore democratically I have not just a determination to but arguably a duty to proceed with because that’s what I put to people in the election last year.”

Heather Stewart and Dan Sabbagh report that Boris Johnson has said he will close loopholes to ensure UK exports to India cannot end up being used in Russian weapons, as he conceded the war in Ukraine could go on until the end of next year, and Russia could win. Speaking in Delhi at the end of a two-day visit, the UK prime minister warned that Vladimir Putin was resorting to a “grinding approach” in Ukraine and suggested the UK would help to “backfill” countries including Poland if they provided heavy weaponry such as tanks to Kyiv. Johnson was asked about a report by the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), warning that India was one of a number of major routes for smuggling arms to Vladimir Putin’s regime. Johnson vows to stop UK exports to India ending up in Russia

The UK has set up an anti-extremist taskforce to tackle groups like Khalistani extremists in India, Johnson has said. Speaking at the New Delhi conference, he said: “We have a very strong view in the UK that we don’t tolerate extremist groups setting up in the UK with huge... causing, threatening other countries, threatening India. “But what we’ve done in particular, as a result of this visit, is set up an anti-extremist taskforce to see what more we can do to help India in that particular respect.” *This post has been amended. The text, based on an agency contribution, originally read referred to “Kurdistan extremists”. The transcript shows Johnson was being asked about “Khalistani extremists”.

We reported just now on Burns’ comments this morning on the Northern Ireland protocol. Here’s what the prime minister had to say about it during his press conference in India: The protocol really does not command the confidence of a large, large component of the population in Northern Ireland. We have to address that, we have to fix that. We think we can do it with some very simple and reasonable steps. We have talked repeatedly to our friends and partners in the EU. We will continue to talk to them. But, as I have said many times now, we don’t rule out taking steps now if those are necessary.”

Defending Johnson against such attacks, Burns has said there are some Conservative MPs who never truly accepted the prime minister as their party leader. There are a number of colleagues across parliament who have never really supported the prime minister. If the prime minister stepped off Westminster Bridge and walked on top of the water they would say he couldn’t swim. That is a fact. The reality is that it is is only two years ago since we won a majority of 80 seats – the biggest majority since Margaret Thatcher in 1987. What the prime minister is saying is, ‘I led you to that victory, I have got business I want to do.’ What he has also said is that the events in Downing Street and the fine has actually redoubled his determination to rebuild the bonds of trust with the British people.

The Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood is among those calling on his party leader to stand down, saying “we must stop drinking the Kool-Aid” by continuing to support Johnson. The former defence minister has told Sky News: All MPs are deeply troubled by what the party is now going through and what to do next, given the huge credit you must give to Boris Johnson in bringing the party so far. But we must stop drinking the Kool-Aid that’s encouraging us to think this is all going to disappear and that we can all move on. We can’t use Ukraine as a fig leaf to dodge those difficult questions – the issue of Partygate continues to distract from both domestic and international issues and is just not going away. We’re going to see, I’m afraid, a steady trickle of letters, resignations … I predicted that. You listen carefully to the silence of support, and it’s clear that more and more MPs are privately believing that it’s the time that the leadership baton is actually passed on. Ellwood has said the onus is on Tory MPs to force a change in leadership. There’s a recognition that every MP now realises it’s up to us to take ownership of this. Because, I’m afraid, the absence of discipline, of focus and leadership in No 10 during that lockdown period has led to a huge breach of trust with the British people. It’s causing such long-term damage to the party’s brand and that’s proving difficult to repair. Can it be repaired in time for the next general election? So it’s beholden upon all Conservative MPs, then, to take matters into their own hands. And I think this is where things will go; particularly as we have more bad news to follow.” Tobias Ellwood, pictured outside the houses of parliament in February. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

A government minister has issued a fresh warning the UK could unilaterally suspend elements of the deal with the EU governing post-Brexit trading arrangements with Northern Ireland unless Brussels accepts the need for change.

The Northern Ireland minister Conor Burns refused to be drawn on a report by the Financial Times that ministers were preparing legislation giving them sweeping powers to tear up the Northern Ireland protocol in the withdrawal agreement. However, he claimed the protocol was not working in the way it was intended and the protocol’s articles already granted the government powers to suspend elements of it. As far back as last July, the prime minister said that we believed that the threshold for triggering article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol had been reached. There is significant societal disruption in Northern Ireland due to the way that the protocol is being implemented. I hope Brussels are listening to this conversation and other conversations. I hope they will come back to the table constructively to allow us to change the protocol to make it work in the way it was intended. If they don’t hear that, then the government reserves the right – as we have always said, as laid down in the protocol – to take remedial action. This is absolutely astonishing and incredibly damaging. Boris Johnson negotiated, his team drafted the Northern Ireland protocol; they presented it to the EU, they negotiated it into the deal. It doesn’t work as well as it can do, that’s why the Labour policy is, you build on it – we can improve the protocol, we can smooth it, and we can do so without breaking the law and breaking our international treaty we signed with the EU. If we just recklessly pull out of it unilaterally, how will any other country in the world sign a deal with us and think that we will honour it? How will Prime Minister Modi react today when Boris Johnson asks for a trade deal if he is pulling out unilaterally of the last trade deal he signed?”

We reported earlier that Labour’s shadow Northern Ireland secretary Peter Kyle had said the prime minister’s authority is “draining away”. Here’s a little more detail. Kyle has added that the Johnson’s “character flaws” are damaging the way the country is being run. He told Sky News: [Partygate] fundamentally speaks to his character flaws as a leader: he lies, he is untrustworthy and he is incompetent. Those same character flaws are the same reason why we have a low-growth economy and a high-tax economy, we have crime at the record levels it is now, and we have seven million people waiting for NHS treatment. It’s all down to his character flaws, exposed by partygate.

Here’s a little more detail on the announcement that the UK is to reopen its embassy in Kyiv. Since the embassy’s closure in February, the UK has retained a diplomatic presence in Ukraine, but has not been providing in-person consular assistance. The Foreign Office (FCDO) said at that time that the embassy was relocating temporarily and staff were operating from an embassy office in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. However, the embassy is expected to reopen next week after Russian forces were pushed back or withdrawn from the region around Kyiv in the face of Ukrainian resistance. A team of diplomats returning will include Melinda Simmons, the UK ambassador. Johnson said earlier: The extraordinary fortitude and success of President Zelenskiy in resisting Russian forces in Kyiv means I can announce that very shortly, next week, we will reopen our embassy in Ukraine’s capital city. I want to pay tribute to those British diplomats who remained in the region throughout this period.

Nicola Sturgeon has called on Scottish voters to “tell the Tories exactly what we think of their antics and their inaction” while promising a “pandemic-level” response to the cost of living crisis. Launching the SNP’s local council election manifesto in Greenock this morning, Sturgeon promised that “the immediate priority of every SNP councillor elected will be supporting families through the current cost of living crisis – not just in words, but in action”. Describing decision-making in Westminster as “ideological, deliberate, and harmful” she urged voters to “send the strongest possible message to this corrupt, out-of-touch Tory government”. The manifesto includes commitments to prioritise expansion of free early years education to all one and two-year-olds – starting with children from low-income households, protecting council tax reduction schemes and starting a new “parental transition fund” to tackle the financial barriers facing parents entering the labour market, as well as a renewed commitment to holding a second independence referendum by the end of 2023.

Here’s a little more background to that question about ensuring no British-made arms end up in Russian hands via India. My colleagues Dan Sabbagh and Heather Stewart write: Labour has said Boris Johnson should call for ‘urgent action’ from his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, after an influential defence thinktank warned this lunchtime that India was one of a number of major routes for arms-smuggling to Russia. The warning comes only a few hours after Johnson announced the UK would ease its arms exporting licensing arrangements with New Delhi by issuing an open general export licence to India, meaning separate licences are no longer needed for most arms sales. Labour’s John Healey, the shadow defence secretary, accused Johnson of going on a ‘vanity trip’ – but said he could use his visit to try and stop the illegal supply of western components highlighted by the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) in a report out on Friday. ‘In discussions with Prime Minister Modi today he must press for urgent action to clamp down on weapons parts passing through India and into Russian hands,’ Healey said on the day that Johnson met with Modi in New Delhi. ‘He can use this report to help halt the Russian war in Ukraine.’ The Rusi report, a 26-page overview of Russia’s overall military situation, says western economic sanctions mean Moscow will become increasingly reliant on component-smuggling to ensure its jets, missiles and other high-tech munitions can function. Some components have a dual civilian and military use. Its authors – Jack Watling and Nick Reynolds – warn that ‘Russia has established mechanisms for laundering these items through third countries’. And they argue India should be subject to specific restrictions. ‘Restricting access, therefore, likely means preventing export to countries such as India of goods that are in some instances used for civilian purposes,’ they write. ‘Moreover, there are myriad companies based around the world, including in the Czech Republic, Serbia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, India and China who will take considerable risks to meet Russia supply requirements.’

That concludes the press conference. The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that it was not, in fact a joint statement from the leaders of both the UK and India, as we erroneously reported earlier. Johnson was appearing alone at his own press conference.

Source: The Guardian

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