Where's Boris?

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Some cabinet ministers later tweeted their qualified support for the prime minister – though the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, was noticeable by his silence and absence from the frontbench as Johnson offered his account during prime minister’s questions. Funds do not have to have been handed over for a donation to have taken place. If someone paid off a bill that Johnson owed to someone else, that counts as a donation. If someone paid off a bill Johnson owed to a third party but then required Johnson to repay the money, that is a loan covered by the law. Ruth Davidson, the former Scottish Conservative leader, has said that Douglas Ross, the current one, was right to call for Boris Johnson’s resignation.

The culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, said Johnson had been “right to personally apologise” because people were “hurt and angry at what happened”. She said it was now right to await the findings of senior civil servant Sue Gray’s inquiry into Downing Street gatherings. The findings could come as soon as the end of next week but more likely the week after, a cabinet source suggested.

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It is looking as though those Tories who are part of Boris Johnson’s inner circle are doing their utmost to rally the troops, as the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, joined Priti Patel and Jacob Rees-Mogg in calling for Tory MPs to stand by the prime minister. An NHS doctor has described Boris Johnson’s apology as “insulting”, as she recalled how she was sweating while working in full PPE around the same time as the event took place. Dr Saleyha Ahsan, who lost her father to Covid in the pandemic, said she believes the prime minister’s situation is untenable. If it believes that the failure to declare the donation was intentional then the commission could refer its findings to the police, who could open a criminal investigation.

Lord Falconer, the Labour former lord chancellor, told Radio 4’s the World at One that Boris Johnson should be fined, or charged, because he admitted at PMQs that he attended an event that broke the law.

According to i, the Johnsons are planning on moving to a five-bedroom house on the outskirts of Dulwich Village near Herne Hill.