Sunak says Boris Johnson asked him to do something he ‘didn’t think was right’ with honours list – UK politics live | Politics

Here is the full quote from Rishi Sunak in his Q&A on Boris Johnson and his honours list.

When it comes to honours honours and Boris Johnson, Boris Johnson asked me to do something that I wasn’t prepared to do, because I didn’t think it was right.

That was to either overrule the HOLAC [House of Lords appointments] committee or to a promises for people. Now, I wasn’t prepared to do that. As I said, I didn’t think it was right. And if people don’t like that, then tough.

At that point there was a large round of applause. Sunak went on:

When I got this job, I said I was going to do things differently because I wanted to change politics. And that’s what I’m doing.

And I’m also keen to make sure that we change how our country works. And that’s what I’m here talking about today – making sure that we can grow our economy, that we can maintain our leadership in the innovative industries of the future. Why? Because it’s going to create jobs for people, it’s going to spread opportunity around. And it has the potential, as we’ve been discussing, to transform people’s lives.

As prime minister, I want to make sure that that happens, because I want to make sure that I improve everyone’s lives in this country and do it in a way that is right and is in accordance with my values. And that’s what I’m going to keep doing.

There was another round of applause when he ended.

At the London Tech Week event Rishi Sunak is now taking questions from journalists.

Asked about Boris Johnson, he says Johnson asked him to do something that he was not prepared to do, because he “didn’t think it was right”.

He says Johnson wanted him to either over-rule the House of Lords appointments committee, or to make promises (to the MPs offered peerages by Johnson, who wanted to delay their resignations until later, so as not to cause byelections).

This is the first on-the-record explanation we have had from Sunak about the rift with Johnson over the honours list.

There is a round of applause for Sunak when he says this. (This is highly unusual in a Q&A like this.)

UPDATE: See 9.53am for the full quote.

Good morning. At the end of last week Boris Johnson, and two of his most loyal supporters, resigned their Commons seats, unexpectedly and without any need to do so, triggering byelections that could destabilise Rishi Sunak’s government. Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams offered no proper explanation for what they were doing, and Johnson (wrongly) claimed that he was being forced out because the privileges committee is due to publish a report saying he misled parliament. (He could have stayed in the Commons to defend himself, and only losing a recall election would have forced him out for good.) Johnson’s resignation statement attacked the privileges committee, but the three resignations were also an implicit declaration of war against Sunak by a former PM whose only hope of returning to the political frontline rests on Sunak losing the next election.

In this situation, what does Sunak do? Go on the offensive and seek to marginalise Johnson even more? Or calm things down, avoid antagonising the Johnson faction even further, and hope that mainstream party opinion will unite behind the leadership. Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, has been giving interviews on behalf of the government this morning, and he made it clear that No 10 is adopting the latter strategy. Here are some of his messages.

The people who served on that committee were asked by the House of Commons collectively to do a particular job. It’s a job that has required careful work on their part and no little effort to make a series of significant judgments.

So I have respect for the work that they have done. And I think that we need to respect again the integrity of the process, and wait until the report is published before then debating its conclusions and the consequences.

The second thing that I want to say is that I do deprecate the fact that they are now in a position where, as reported, they have to seek or have been granted additional security. As someone who’s been through that position myself in the past then I extend my sympathy to them and their families at this point.

Gove did not explain why the MPs on the committee feel they are under threat. It is because Johnson has accused it of acting like a “kangaroo court”, and suggested that it is ruling against him as part of some shadowy establishment plot to undermine Brexit, and because some Tory MPs, notably Jacob Rees-Mogg, have said much the same. The committee is meeting this morning to finalise its report into Johnson.

Elections are part of political life. It’s also the case I think that you do best in elections when you concentrate on good government.

And we are united behind Rishi Sunak in making sure that we demonstrate that the priorities that the British public have are those which govern every waking moment that we have.

• Gove declined to criticise Johnson, Dorries or Adams explicitly. Asked repeatedly on the Today programme to acknowledge Johnson’s faults, he said he preferred to remember his achievements, and in another interview he refused to criticise Dorries or Adams for standing down.

I’ve offered Boris advice in the past. He hasn’t always taken it. And so therefore, I think Boris will make his own mind up.

Some Tories want Sunak to declare that Johnson cannot stand again as a candidate, while Johnson’s supporters are saying blocking him would be unacceptable. It is not surprising that No 10 currently seems to be sitting on the fence on this one.

We should hear from Sunak on the topic of Johnson soon. Here is the agenda for the day.

9am: Rishi Sunak gives a speech on AI at the London Tech Week conference.

Morning: The Commons privileges committee meets in private to discuss the final version of its report on claims Boris Johnson misled MPs about Partygate.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby conference.

After 3.30pm: MPs debate Lords amendments to the retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill. Later there will be a debate on Public Order Act regulations, followed by a general debate on the principle of excluding MPs from the parliamentary estate if they are deemed a risk to staff because of accusations they face.

4pm: James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, gives evidence to the Commons foreign affairs committee on the integrated review.

Also, Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, will be campaigning today in Mid Bedfordshire, ahead of the byelection caused by the resignation of Nadine Dorries.

If you want to contact me, do try the “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a PC or a laptop. This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line, privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate), or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.