Sunak accused of ‘cowardly cop-out’ at Johnson vote

Rishi Sunak has been accused of a ‘cowardly cop-out’ after ducking a vote in which MPs overwhelmingly endorsed a report that found Boris Johnson lied to Parliament with his partygate denials.

The prime minister will chair Cabinet on Tuesday, with some of those around the table having backed the sanctions against his predecessor.

But Sunak, along with the majority of Tory MPs, opted to stay away from the vote on the Privileges Committee’s findings on Johnson’s conduct. Opposition parties criticised the PM for failing to ‘distance himself from his disgraced predecessor’, while Tory former premier Theresa May appeared to urge him to ‘show that we are prepared to act when one of our own, however senior, is found wanting’.

British billionaire among five aboard missing submersible visiting Titanic wreck

A British billionaire is one of five people aboard a submersible tourist vessel which went missing during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck.

Hamish Harding, chairman of private plane firm Action Aviation, is understood to be aboard the five-person OceanGate Expeditions vessel, which was reported overdue on Sunday evening about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland.

A major search and rescue operation, being led by the US Coast Guard and involving military aircraft, is under way. It’s thought the submarine has 96 hours of emergency capability, giving a window for rescuers to find the occupants alive.

Government assured me over Johnson judgment, Harriet Harman says

Harriet Harman has revealed the government provided her with assurances that she would not be perceived as biased when making judgments regarding Boris Johnson.

The Labour veteran and chairwoman of the Privileges Committee made the revelation after Conservative former cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg asked her about her ‘famous tweets’ and whether she believed she met the Hoffmann test — an assessment of impartiality.

Harman’s suitability has been repeatedly questioned by Johnson and his loyalists over an April 2022 tweet, in which she suggested that by accepting a fine for breaking Covid rules the former prime minister was also admitting to misleading the House.

Tory voters think government should prioritise social housing, polling suggests

More Conservative voters think the government should prioritise building social homes than homes for sale or private rent, according to new polling.

The research also suggested that a majority (52 per cent) of Tory voters believe not enough social housing is being built in the UK.

The National Housing Federation, which commissioned the YouGov poll of 2,048 adults in Great Britain earlier this month, said the results demonstrate strong public support for more social housing and called for a long-term plan from government to address what they described as a housing crisis.

New accounts clash with official version of migrant disaster off Greece

The number of confirmed victims from one of the worst migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean has risen to 81 after three more bodies were found off southern Greece, as more survivors claimed the battered trawler had been under tow by another vessel before it sank with hundreds aboard.

The new accounts raised further questions about the Greek coastguard’s response from the moment it located the ship until it went down.

Officials in Athens have insisted that the metal fishing boat carrying migrants from Libya to Italy was at no point under tow, and only had a line briefly attached hours before it capsized and foundered.

Bowel cancer treatment hope as scientists solve immune system mystery

Scientists are hopeful that a new method of treating bowel cancer can be found after their research solved a decades-long riddle of why the immune system of patients ignores the disease.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow and Cancer Research UK’s Beatson Institute have discovered how bowel cancer blinds the immune system so it cannot see the cancer and renders it unable to destroy it.

Scientists have said the discovery, published in Cancer Immunology Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, opens the door to potentially reversing or preventing this process.

Six million with disabilities to start receiving £150 cost-of-living payments

More than six million people with disabilities will start to receive a £150 cost-of-living payment from Tuesday.

The one-off payments, issued by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) throughout a two-week window, will support people with the extra costs they face.

The payments are part of a wider package of cost-of-living support worth up to £1,350 to the most vulnerable households.

TSB becomes latest bank to press pause on some mortgage lending

TSB has become the latest lender to press pause on sales of some of its mortgages.

The bank said it was removing some mortgages from sale as of 4pm on Monday.

The changes apply to products sold both direct and via brokers and TSB is expecting to reintroduce residential deals on Wednesday. For residential mortgages, TSB said it is temporarily removing two, three and five-year fixed house purchase and remortgage products with a £995 fee. It will retain a full range of products without a fee.

Next sales jump on back of hotter weather and higher pay

Fashion brand Next has revealed that warmer weather and continued wage increases have sparked a jump in sales in recent weeks.

On Monday, the high street retailer lifted its sales and profit guidance for the year as a result, sparking a jump in the company’s shares.

Next, which operates around 500 stores, said trading has been ‘materially better’ than the sales guidance it gave shareholders last month. Full-price sales have been up 9.3 per cent over the past seven weeks, compared with guidance predicting a five per cent decline.

Renault’s new Rafale arrives as firm’s tip-top SUV

Renault has added a new range-topping model to its list of SUVs – the Rafale.

Measuring 4.71 metres long, the Rafale is slightly longer than Renault’s Austral SUV while a wheelbase measuring 2.74 metres means that it’s able to offer plenty of interior space and a 647-litre boot. With a sloping roofline, the Rafale becomes Renault’s second coupe-SUV in its range after the Arkana.

The Rafale uses a hybrid powertrain which uses a 1.2-litre petrol engine as its base, combined with two electric motors. Together, you get 197bhp, while Renault also claims CO2 emissions of 105g/km and fuel efficiency of up to 60.1mpg. A more powerful version of the Rafale is in the works already.

Weather

Heavy showers in the south and south-west will move across the country to the north and east, reports BBC Weather. Behind the rain will remain a few odd showers and sunny spells. Still warm though, with highs of 24 degrees celsius.

Rain will clear tonight leaving a dry night for all. Towards dawn, a few showers may develop in the north-west.

• Join our breaking news WhatsApp group
• Sign up for daily email Car Dealer news bulletins
• Listen to the latest Car Dealer Podcast
• Read the latest digital issue of Car Dealer Magazine
• Create a Car Dealer account to access premium content