as he claimed on a number of occasions that the number on payrolls was higher than before the pandemic. but that was because a lot of the self employed people gave up self employment during the pandemic or afterwards and became employees on payrolls instead. the letter from the director general having had no impact, the chair of the uk statistics authority, that then chair wrote to the prime minister on the 24th of february 2022. dear prime minister, he wrote. it is wrong to claim that there are no more people and work than before the pandemic began. the increase in the number of people who are on payrolls is more than offset by the reduction in the number of people who are self employed. so at the liaison committee in march, i asked the prime minister whether he accepted that correction in sir david s letter. his reply wasn t straightforward, but the transcript of that meeting does show that mr johnson understood fully and clearly what had happened in the labour market. he d
in the next hour, before conservative mps go into that committee room, and place their votes in a secret ballot we will be talking to some of them in the run up. good afternoon. the prime minister borisjohnson has addressed conservative mps to try and convince them to back him in a vote of confidence this evening. in an hours time, tory mps will start voting on whether they want mrjohnson to be replaced. he s been under increasing pressure following the publication of a report which looked into parties at downing street which broke covid rules. a vote of confidence was triggered after some conservative mps handed in letters calling on the pm to resign to sir graham brady, the chairman of an influential group of backbench mps, called the 1922 committee. for a vote to be held, at least 15% of conservative mps need to write a letter that works out at 5a. let s cross straight to college green in westminster now and my colleague victoria derbyshire: it s been a dramatic day and it
it was applying to join nato. meanwhile, in ukraine, russia intensifies its attacks in the donbas region as its forces capture more territory in the south and east. pharmacists have been given temporary power to make swaps to women s hormone replacement therapy prescriptions, amid ongoing shortages. and rangers face heart of midlothian in the scottish cup final this afternoon, looking to put behind them the disappointment of their europa league heartbreak on wednesday. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. opposition parties are demanding that the prime minister explains a meeting with the senior civil servant sue gray over her report into parties held in downing street during lockdown. it s emerged the pair met several weeks ago but there are conflicting accounts of what was discussed. our political correspondent jonathan blake is here what can you tell us about this meeting? we know the prime minister and sue gray met and i am tempted to say thatis gray met and i am t
Difference in lockdown and notjust vindictively going after boris johnson. thank you.- vindictively going after boris johnson. thank you. thank you, mr deu johnson. thank you. thank you, mr deputy speaker- johnson. thank you. thank you, mr deputy speaker. all johnson. thank you. thank you, mr deputy speaker. all that johnson. thank you. thank you, mr deputy speaker. all that glitters i johnson. thank you. thank you, mr deputy speaker. all that glitters is | deputy speaker. all that glitters is not gold. the window is framed by vignette. and my honourable and right honourable colleagues seem intent on paying homage to it above all else. some will say and some have said that borisjohnson misled the committee and misled parliament. other areas that the committee set out to achieve their predetermined goal of finding him guilty on all charges. the public, many of them hold both of these at once, and it s not mutually exclusive, so this pantomimed staggered sign. the reality is that pa
And sadly i think through the process, we have seen the collateral damage to this reputation of the house. i think the privilege committee itself has been damaged and may be damaged further by revelations. it s very much public concern as a plague on all our houses. what has caused this loss of public confidence in the procedures of this house? well, the evidence is damning. borisjohnson and his government used behavioural scientists and spin doctors to instill unreasonable fear. to scare the public into seizing their normal lives over the guys of a threat so deadly, they dared not go outside to see another person. we all remember the relentless day in, day out, informing the public by ministers and number 10 informing the public by ministers and number10 of informing the public by ministers and number 10 of death rates and horror stories, and number 10 of death rates and horrorstories, remembering and number 10 of death rates and horror stories, remembering the signs everywhere that w