before the constitutional affairs committee. he said he didn t have the power to initiate an investigation into the claims. our political correspondent ben wright is at westminster for us. what was the initial allocation? simon case, a very important man in britain, he runs the civil service, he is the cabinet secretary, we don t hear from them very often, and he was in front of the select committee and it wanted to go through a whole range of subjects is to investigate the question of propriety and ethics in government, thatis propriety and ethics in government, that is a broad front, they want to talk about partygate, the resignation of lord geidt, and also about allegations that have been in the press recently that, when he was foreign secretary in 2018, boris johnson tried to procure a job as his chief of staff for his then girlfriend carrie. john mcdonald, labour mp, wanted to ask simon case what he was doing about abuse
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yes, it is that group of mps that i was just about to ask you about next, those who backed him in the confidence vote but said, look, this is a last chance for you to show that you can govern, that you can lead will they now be thinking that the game is up? well, i certainly think next week is going to be a really big week and it is unfortunate for the prime minister in some ways that he isn t going to be in westminster, of course, he is on to berlin for the g7 and then madrid for the nato leaders summit. that leaves days and days which is a lot of space and time for people to plot in westminster. i think that the critics and wavering tory mps, as you say, some of those who backed in the confidence vote but wanted to see change, have a disparate spectrum of gripes it includes concerns about ethics and his character, that hasn t been made any better by the shock resignation of lord geidt in recent days.
about ethics and his character, that hasn t been made any better by the shock resignation of lord geidt in recent days. i think there are some who are concerned about policy. he is trying to say in recent days, since the by election defeat, focus on policy not on personality. but many of his backbenchers have concerns about the way his administration is going, and they think there is a sense of drift, there is not a real mission, policies like the rwandan flagship immigration policy haven t really come off yet, it has all been botched with a fake first plane due to take off and grounded, the whole levelling up agenda that is meant to be the flagship policy of this government, hasn t really had much flesh put on the bones which is what really is just a slogan, the critics say, and setting up the billion pound investment that would allow north and midlands communities to see really significant differences in their standard of living. fin
type of attack. so it s so significant what is happening in china, and that is why it is so important for everyone. and don t forget, also, i there are still significant countries that are completely let s not say fine but have - not criticised putin. india very key to this. a quad member for us in australia. - therefore, we share intelligence. canada. the same strategic interests at heart. i brazil another really- important player that has not come out on the west s side. south africa, another. exactly. some of these gains - that we believe we have made are not as big. we have about three minutes to end to talk about lord geidt. he s the kind of figure most people would not have heard of a former military officer, intelligence man, then he worked for the queen and was drafted in after boris johnson s last ethics adviser resigned because borisjohnson decided priti patel, the home secretary we re all back to the same cast of characters hadn t broken the ministerial code