Opposition leader to say a Labour government would not rejoin single market or customs union, nor reintroduce free movement
- Labour says it would not unpick Brexit as Starmer vows to cut red tape
Will Quince, the minister for children and families, was the government’s spokesperson on the morning interview round. He was there to talk about the plan to relax nursery staff-to-child ratios, but inevitably he spent much of his morning talking about Chris Pincher, and Boris Johnson’s handling of the umpteenth sleaze scandal to hit his premiership.
As Peter Walker reports in his story, Quince said he had been given a “categorical assurance” by No 10 that Johnson was not aware of any “specific” allegation made against Pincher when he appointed him to the post of deputy chief whip earlier this year. But he would not comment on whether Johnson might have known of general allegations about Pincher’s conduct at the time of the reshuffle, saying he had not asked that question when he was briefed before he took to the airwaves.
I think that quote came from Dominic Cummings, who’s not someone who I give a huge amount of credibility to, given past experience.
I think these cases are hard because, like any professional organisation, you can’t act on rumour or gossip. As you know, in Westminster there is a lot of rumour or gossip.
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