14 Monday February 21 2022 | the times
News
Ministers believe that a civil servant is
leaking secret information to Sir Nick
Clegg about government plans to regu-
late Facebook and other social media
platforms.
The former deputy prime minister
has been blamed for two leaks relating
to the Online Safety Bill, a landmark
piece of legislation that is expected to
be introduced to parliament next
month four years after the government
At least two cabinet ministers will
withdraw their support for Boris John-
son if he is handed a fixed penalty
notice for breaching his own corona-
virus laws, The Times has been told.
Yesterday the prime minister stone-
walled questions over whether he would
quit if the police fined him. He dodged
17 questions in ten minutes in a BBC
interview on alleged parties in Downing
Street that broke the rules, saying there
was “literally not a bean I can tell you”.
The prime minister’s allies have said
he will not resign if police fine him for
attending Downing Street parties.
James Cleverly, the Europe minister,
who is close to Johnson, told Times
Radio yesterday that the prime minis-
ter should not have to step down even if
Labour MP
backs tough
terror stance
Matt Dathan
A second Labour frontbencher has said
the police should kill terrorists if lives
are in danger as the party continues to
distance itself from its Jeremy Corbyn
era.
Wes Streeting, the shadow health
secretary, said it was “plainly obvious”
that an armed police officer should use
lethal force to save lives.
He was defending comments made
by Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy
leader, who started a row with the
party’s left wing after saying police
should “shoot terrorists and ask ques-
tions second”. She told The Political
Party, Matt Forde’s podcast, last month
she was “quite hardline” when it came
to law and order and was on a “different
page” from Corbyn, who in 2015 said he
was “not happy with the shoot-to-kill
policy”.
Asked whether he agreed with Ray-
ner that the police should have the right
to shoot a terrorist if lives were in
danger, Streeting told the BBC’s Sunday
Morning programme: “I think it’s plain-
ly obvious, isn’t it? Angela’s a Greater
Manchester MP and we remember
what happened in that terrible suicide
bombing at the Ariana Grande concert.
“If an armed police officer has an
opportunity to shoot a terrorist to save
the lives of others, of course they should
pull the trigger.”
Rayner had also called for the police
to “antagonise” burglars, as she and Sir
Keir Starmer seek to harden Labour’s
position on crime.
Her comments on shooting terrorists
are especially potent because the Con-
servative Party repeatedly attacked
Corbyn for his opposition to the blanket
application of shoot-to-kill policies. “I
am not happy with the shoot-to-kill
policy in general,” he said in 2015.
Two ministers ‘would quit’ if PM is fined
Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor he were to be given a fixed penalty
notice (FPN).
But sources speaking on behalf of
two members of Johnson’s top minister-
ial team said that his position would
become untenable if he were found to
have broken the law.
Receiving an FPN for the alleged
party in the prime minister’s No 10 flat
would make his position particularly
vulnerable, they said.
One of the sources told The Times: “If
he gets an FPN he’ll have to go. How
can you have a prime minister who
has been found guilty of breaking the
law?”
A minister and close ally of a second
cabinet member said: “If the Met’s
conclusion is effectively that he broke
the regulations then it makes his posi-
tion extremely difficult. It’s going to be
very difficult for him to stay, especially
if it’s for a party in the No 10 flat.”
A minister has separately said they
expected Johnson to appeal against an
FPN “to kick it into the long grass” in
the hope that it would give him a re-
prieve with his party.
The two cabinet ministers have not
been named due to fears that identify-
ing them would jeopardise the jobs of
the sources who spoke to The Times.
Receiving a fine would be likely to
trigger a vote of confidence, meaning
Johnson’s fate would depend on how
many of the party’s 360 MPs voted for
or against him in a private ballot.
Johnson said he hoped the public
“won’t have long” to wait for the investi-
gations to finish, adding: “I will be say-
ing a lot more about it in due course.”
He said there was “not a jot” he couldsay beforehand, adding: “I can’t com-
ment about a process that is currently
under way.”
Asked by Sophie Raworth on Sunday
Morning on BBC1 why he was unable to
comment, the prime minister said:
“You’re just going to have to wait until
the process is complete; there is literally
not a bean I can tell you about that, as
much as I would like to.”
On Friday he returned a legal ques-
tionnaire to police investigating alleged
breaches of coronavirus laws in Down-
ing Street. The Sunday Telegraph said
Johnson would be one of the first indi-
viduals to be told if he would be fined
because the Metropolitan Police want-
ed to resolve the trickiest cases first.
Cleverly said it was “not really partic-
ularly useful speculating as to what
may or may not happen” when askedwhether Johnson would have to quit.
He made clear in an interview with
Times Radio that he would not call for
the prime minister to go, and said: “I
don’t think that now would be the
appropriate time for us to start thrash-
ing around for a new leadership.
“I think the prime minister has been
doing an incredibly effective job as we
have seen evidence in our economic
and medical response. And I think
that’s what he should continue to do.”
Johnson, who denies wrongdoing,
could be fined more than £12,000 if he
is found to have breached coronavirus
laws, according to legal experts.
At least six of the 12 events referred to
the Met by Sue Gray, the senior civil
servant investigating allegations of
lockdown breaches, were attended by
Johnson or are linked to him.Clegg suspected by ministers over leaked plans for social media rules
Matt Dathan began drafting it. Clegg was promoted
last week to president of global affairs at
Meta, the company formerly known as
Facebook, where he will be responsible
for “all policy matters” at the social
media giant.
Contents of a confidential “write-
round” on government plans for the bill
were leaked last week to “tech industry
sources” who were quoted in the
Financial Times.
The government has launched a leak
inquiry and a government source last
night confirmed reports in The Mail On
Sunday that Clegg was suspected of
being the recipient of the information,
which subsequently was leaked to the
media.
The alarm was raised after Clegg
cited classified information about the
bill in a Zoom call with government
officials in June 2020, the newspaper
reported.
Whitehall sources said they suspect-
ed that the former Liberal Democrat
leader was communicating with a civilservant that he knew from his time in
government.
A spokesman for Meta strongly
denied the claims, saying any sugges-
tion that Clegg was soliciting docu-
ments was “absurd and false”.
The media report at the centre of the
latest leak referred to plans that would
require technology companies to pro-
actively monitor and remove content
that is considered harmful but not ille-
gal from their platforms. Government
sources said the plans had been misin-terpreted as they related only to con-
tent that was harmful to children, such
as pornography or material that en-
courages self-harm. Nevertheless, min-
isters are furious that a confidential
memo shared between ministers had
been leaked to the technology industry.
A government source said: “That got
briefed to industry so that’s why discus-
sions are going on.”
The Cabinet Office said it could not
confirm or deny whether Clegg was the
subject of a leak inquiry.Kinnock is proud as
grandson transitions
T
he former
Labour leader
Lord Kinnock
has spoken of
his pride after
his grandson came out
as transgender
(Jonathan Ames writes).
Milo Kinnock, 22, is
one of two children of
Stephen Kinnock, 52,
the shadow minister for
immigration, and his
wife, Helle Thorning-
Schmidt, 55, the former
prime minister of
Denmark.
Milo, who was raised
as a girl named Camilla,
revealed on
Danish
television that
he identifies
as non-
binary and
prefers to be
referred to
as a man.
“It just felt
just right to me... and it has really
given me a lot of
freedom,” Milo Kinnock
told the DR1 television
channel, according to
The Mail on Sunday.
He added: “I am so
lucky to have a lot of
friends, a partner and
my family who support
me and have always
backed me up on
everything.”
Neil Kinnock, 79, who
led Labour for nine
years and into the 1987
and 1992 general
elections and was made
a life peer in 2005, said
Milo was “a beloved
grandchild with a great
personality and strong,
mature judgment”.
He added: “We’re a
very close family who
cherish him and wish
him all the best.”
Stephen Kinnock said
that he and his wife
were “very proud of the
way in which Milo has
spoken out about being
non-binary and using
the pronoun he/him”.
The MP for Aberavon
added that “it takes real
courage to go on the
journey that Milo’s been
on, and by talking
about it so
publicly he’s
helped many
others who
are having
similar
experiences
to discuss it
more openly
with their
families and friends”.
Writing on social
media, Milo Kinnock
said it was “lovely and
heartwarming” to
receive messages from
people who said that his
television interview had
“helped them to speak
with their parents and
grandparents about
pronouns, gender and
the patriarchy”.
He went on to say that
“it’s clear that people
want to change and help
the queers around them,
but even so there’s still a
long way to go”.tme
really
tfon, and
abou
pub
he
ot
a
si
ex
to
mor
with t
fffamilies a
W itiMilo Kinnock. Top, as
Camilla with father
Stephen, mother
Helle Thorning-
Schmidt and sister
Johanna. Right, Neil
Kinnock in 1985