Latest updates: report into parties in Downing Street could be published later today after being sent to No 10
No 10 set for U-turn over mandatory Covid jabs for NHS staff in England
In his pooled interview in Essex, Boris Johnson brushed aside suggestions that the version of the Sue Gray report being published this week, with the most incriminating material removed at the request of the Met police (who believe its publication would compromise their own investigation), would be a “whitewash”. When this was put to him, he replied:
You are going to have to wait and see both what Sue says and of course what the Met says.
What I will say to the president, as I’ve said before, is that I think we really all need to step back from the brink and I think Russia needs to step back from the brink.
I think that an invasion of Ukraine, any incursion into Ukraine beyond the territory that Russia has already taken in 2014 would be an absolute disaster for the world, but above all it would be a disaster for Russia.