Don’t reward disloyalty by placating rebels, PM told

Allies of Boris Johnson have warned him not to reward rebels as he begins a policy blitz designed to overcome deep rifts in his party over his leadership.

- KATE DEVLIN, ANDREW WOODCOCK

They rejected calls for Mr Johnson to widen his cabinet and woo some of the 148 MPs who tried to end his premiership on Monday night, suggesting instead that he should sack ministers yet to publicly support him.

Mr Johnson will attempt to relaunch his government after pleas for MPs to move on from calls for him to resign over his role in the Partygate scandal fell on deaf ears. But a set-piece speech, in which he will announce more help for those struggling to get on the property ladder, risks being overshadowed by the continuing diffiulties within his own party.

MPs expressed fury amid new fears the government plans to breach international law with plans to tear up the Northern Ireland protocol. Leaked correspondence showed a senior legal adviser warned it could not be argued “credibly” that there was no alternative to unilaterally overriding Mr Johnson’s Brexit agreement.

Reports also emerged that Sir James Eadie, the government’s independent barrister on national legal issues, had not been consulted on whether the planned bill will break international law. Aformer cabinet minister told The Independent that not asking Sir James’s opinion on such an important matter was “unprecedented”.

As the row intensified, Irish prime minister Micheal Martin warned that publishing plans to act unilaterally over the Northern Ireland protocol would mark a “historic low point”.