Nicola Sturgeon regarded Boris Johnson as ‘a clown’ because of his handling of Covid, inquiry learns – UK politics live

Key events

Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper talking to police officers during a visit to Milton Keynes police station this morning. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

At the Covid inquiry hearing in Edinburgh Liz Lloyd, Nicola Sturgeon’s former chief of staff, was asked about her wanting a row with the UK government. (See 11.35am.)

Asked if she was looking for a spat, Lloyd replied:

I was looking for a spat with a purpose.

It had been shown in the past that they would sometimes change their mind if they felt that pressure and I wanted them to change their mind.

As PA Media reports, handwritten notes shown earlier in evidence showed Lloyd suggesting a possible strategy of “calling for things” that the Scottish government could not do to “force the UK government to do things”.

Liz Lloyd giving evidence this morning. Photograph: Covid inquiryNicola Sturgeon regarded Boris Johnson as ‘a fucking clown’ because of his handling of Covid, inquiry learns

Nicola Sturgeon called Boris Johnson “a fucking clown” in a private message when he announced a further Covid lockdown on 31 October 2020, the inquiry has heard.

As PA Media reports, at a hearing in Edinburgh this morning the inquiry highlighted WhatsApp messages between Sturgeon and Liz Lloyd, her chief of staff. PA says:

Sturgeon said his address was “fucking excruciating” and that the UK communications were “awful”. Sturgeon also told Lloyd: “His utter incompetence in every sense is now offending me on behalf of politicians everywhere.”

Lloyd said she was “offended” on behalf of special advisers everywhere. Sturgeon replied: “He is a fucking clown.”

Lloyd told Sturgeon she wanted a “good old-fashioned rammy” with the UK government so she could “think about something other than sick people” in WhatsApp messages.

Asked about the messages, Lloyd said the Scottish government were “clearly not complimentary about [the UK government’s] communications handling”.

She said: “We had to mitigate the chaos that appeared around some of the decisions they took.”

Junior counsel to the inquiry Usman Tariq asked Lloyd if the relationship between the then first minister and then prime minister had “broken down”.

Lloyd replied: “That overstates what was there to break.”

Commenting on Johnson, she said: “He didn’t want to be on those calls, he wasn’t well briefed, he wasn’t listening, engagement with him became slightly pointless. They didn’t get us anywhere. We started with the approach we should work together, in co-ordinated fashion, but a substantive discussion isn’t what we got. The prime minister was reading a script and would largely ignore points made.”

She said Sturgeon’s strong language showed her “frustration” towards Johnson.

Kathryn Samson from Channel 4 News has posted the WhatsApp exchange on X.

Updated at 06.41 EST

40% investigations into crimes closed without suspects being identified, Home Office figures show

The government has been accused of “failing” on crime following the publication of Home Office figures showing that 2.18m offences were closed in England and Wales in the year ending September 2023 without a suspect being identified. That was 40% of all recorded offences – up from 37% the previous years.

The figures also show that only 5.9% of recorded offences have so far resulted in charges. That is up from 5.5% the previous year.

Some 8% of cases are recorded as not yet having an outcome, which means they are still being investigated. Other recorded offences have not resulted in charges largely because of evidential difficulties.

The figures were highlighted by the Liberal Democrats. Alistair Carmichael, their home affairs spokesperson, said:

The Conservative government has totally failed to get a handle on crime, and they have no one but themselves to blame.

For years, they have taken resources out of frontline policing at the expense of our communities. It’s no surprise that more and more criminals are getting away with it as victims are left without justice.

Updated at 06.04 EST

Former adviser to Rishi Sunak working with Tory rebels trying to oust him

Will Dry, a former special adviser to Rishi Sunak, is reportedly working with a group of rebels trying to oust the prime minister and helped commission polling which predicted a landslide Labour victory, Tom Ambrose reports.

There are further details in the Times, which says Dry has been “working with a loose grouping of about a dozen former government political advisers and MPs who believe that the Tories are doomed under Sunak’s leadership”. It reports:

The rebel group is based in central London. They are said to be working with around ten Tory MPs as they draw up plans to remove Sunak from office. Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, is said to be among those who believe there needs to be a new prime minister. She has repeatedly said that Sunak needs to “change course”.

Updated at 05.39 EST

Sturgeon denies concealing emails relevant to Covid crisis from inquiry

Nicola Sturgeon has denied concealing emails about the covid crisis from her private Scottish National party account, and said those “relevant to the management of the pandemic” have been handed over.

Yesterday opposition leaders demanded full disclosure of emails from her SNP account after the UK Covid inquiry released evidence from the public health expert Prof Devi Sridhar that Sturgeon offered to use her private party account for government business. Sturgeon told Sridhar: “Don’t worry about protocol.”

In response, a source close to the former first minister said:

Any emails relevant to the management of the pandemic received by Nicola to her private email were passed to the Scottish government so that they could be actioned and recorded appropriately.

Yesterday Scottish Labour urged John-Paul Marks, the Scottish government’s permanent secretary, to establish whether or not emails on government business had been handed over to the inquiry. The Scottish government has not yet responded on his behalf.

The Scottish Tories said Sturgeon should publish them – a demand she seems to have rejected.

Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader, said Sturgeon’s carefully-worded response was far from enough. She said:

The full disclosure of all communications is necessary and it’s for the inquiry to determine what is relevant.

The former first minister has form here: during the Salmond inquiry [into the Scottish government’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations against him], reference was made to use of SNP emails to avoid scrutiny. All SNP emails need to be disclosed.

And the former first minister knows that government business shouldn’t be conducted on private emails and she was breaching those rules.

Updated at 05.44 EST

Last night ITV published fresh polling, carried out by YouGov for Labour’s Fabian Society, showing that Labour’s lead in its 150 top target seats is even bigger than its lead across the country as a whole. The polling suggests Labour has a 24-point lead nationally (Lab 46%, Con 22%), but a 34-point lead in the battleground seats (Lab 52%, Con 18%).

The full details of the polling are in this Fabian Society report.

Philp says technology should be available in 2025 to allow police to scan people for knives as they’re walking down street

Chris Philp, the policing minister, also said that within about a year the police might have technology that would enable them to scan people for knives as they walk down a street. He told GB News:

We’re also investing, in the Home Office, in some new technology. It’s not ready for deployment yet but I’m hoping in about a year it will be. That will enable people to be scanned for knives as they walk down high streets to take more knives off the street.

Philp says he wants police to feel ‘more confident’ about using stop and search

In his morning interviews Chris Philp, the policing minister, said he wanted the police to feel “more confident” about using stop and search to tackle knife crime. He told BBC Breakfast:

I also want the police to be much more confident in using stop-and-search powers to stop people on the street when they’re suspected of carrying knives or drugs and performing a search ….

More does need to done, that’s why from April we’re going to be really stepping up these hotspot patrols.

He also claimed that “some Labour politicians, like Sadiq Khan [the London mayor] in particular, I don’t think give the police the encouragement they need”.

Policing minister Chris Philp admits that previous crackdown on zombie knives contained obvious loophole

Good morning. Labour and the Conservatives are in a bidding war over knife crime today, with Keir Starmer announcing or re-announcing various plans to deal with the problem on the day when the Home Office is laying legislation before parliament to ban zombie-style knives. Pippa Crerar has the details here.

You may think the government was meant to have banned them already. According to Labour, the government has made 16 announcements on this theme since 2015. But, as Chris Philp, the policing minister, admitted this morning, a previous crackdown contained a rather obvious loophole.

When the government legislated to ban zombie knives, it defined them as blades having a cutting edge, a serrated edge and “images or words that suggest that it is to be used for the purpose of violence”. When the legislation came into force, manufacturers came up with a cunning ploy to get round the ban; they just left off the images or logos.

When asked why the legislation contained such an obvious flaw, Philp told LBC:

I wasn’t responsible at the time. There was essentially a loophole where the knives that were banned in 2019 had to have threatening words or pictures on them … What happened then is the manufacturers responded by taking the words and pictures off … that, amongst other loopholes, is being closed.

When it was put to him that it should have been obvious manufacturers would do this, he replied:

That may be so. I can answer for what we’re doing now. This came to my attention and we’re fixing it today.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

Morning: Keir Starmer is on a visit in Buckinghamshire.

10am: Alister Jack, the Scottish secretary, gives evidence to the UK Covid inquiry in Edinburgh. Liz Lloyd, Nicola Sturgeon’s former chief of staff, follows him and Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, gives evidence at 2pm.

10.30am: Penny Mordaunt, leader of the Commons, takes questions on next week’s business in the chamber.

11am: Mark Drakeford, the outgoing Welsh first minister, takes part in a Q&A at the Institute for Government thinktank.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

After 11.30am: Karen Bradley, the chair of the Commons procedure committee, makes a Commons statement on her committee’s proposal for David Cameron to be questioned by MPs in the chamber.

Afternoon: Rishi Sunak is on a visit in Yorkshire.

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Updated at 04.45 EST