Boris Johnson told James Dyson he would ‘fix’ tax – follow live

Voters in Northern Ireland would opt to remain in the UK if a referendum were held today, a poll found.

The survey, undertaken by Lucid Talk for the BBC ahead of the centenary of Northern Ireland’s formation, found that if a vote was held today 49 per cent of the region’s voters would vote to remain in the United Kingdom, while some 43 per cent would vote to leave and 8 per cent were undecided.

However, 51 per cent said they believed Northern Ireland would no longer be part of the United Kingdom in 25 years, with 37 per cent saying they believed it would still be.

Some in the region expect higher birth rates among Catholic Irish nationalists to change the balance of power within a generation. Others believe many Catholics will ultimately balk at the upheaval that leaving would entail.

Tony Blair suggested texts between Sir James Dyson and the prime minister were acceptable as they took place at the height of the first wave of the pandemic.

‘We’re in the middle of a pandemic and afterall we were asking James Dyson to step forward and start making ventilators,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

He went on: “I find it hard to get worked up about this,

“There’s got to be a certain degree of understanding, when you are in the middle of a huge crisis like this people are going to use every means they can to respond to the immediate crisis.”

Mr Blair also said he was glad not to have had a mobile phone during his time as prime minister.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said Boris Johnson and Sir James Dyson had not exchanged texts “for their own gain”.

It is not clear if an official had overseen the exchange, nor if the prime minister had declared the texts as required.

When asked on BBC Breakfast this morning if he felt “comfortable” about text correspondence between the businessman and the prime minister, Mr Dowden said: “Yes I do, for two reasons.

“First, we were in the middle of a national emergency and the prime minister was doing this not for his own gain, James Dyson was not doing it for his own gain, they were doing it in order to ensure that we got these ventilators rapidly, in order to ensure we dealt with the national emergency – and it was a temporary measure.

“Secondly, this measure went before Parliament in the proper transparent way, so there was an opportunity for MPs to approve this very temporary measure.”

Downing Street has ditched its plan for White-House style press conferences, despite £2.6m being spent on a new media suite.

Boris Johnson’s media chief Allegra Stratton – hired partly to front the TV briefings – will instead become the spokeswoman for this year’s Cop26 climate summit. “I am delighted,” she told the BBC.

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner claimed the PM and his team had got scared of regular scrutiny – accusing them of “wasting millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money” on the new media venue.

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden denied it was a waste. “This was just about building a modern press facility,” he told the BBC on Wednesday morning.

“It won’t just be used by this government, it will be used by future governments, it’s very similar to what many governments around the world have. So it’s not wasted money in that sense, it is just a normal press facility for government.”

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden said the government has not ruled out the option of appointing an Ofcom-style regulator to oversee football.

Following the collapse of the European Super League, Dowden said it is one of the issues that will be considered by the fan-led review.

“Clearly we have got to get a balance. I want the Government to do as little as it has to do. The game is rightly self-governed, but I do think it is right that we look at governance questions like that, and that will not be off the table.”

Dowden said that football fans should savour their victory after the ‘big six’ withdrew from the despised project.

“I think it’s a great day for fans and I think fans of football up and down the country should savour this – it’s their victory,” said the minister. “They stood up and said, ‘You can’t take our game away from us’.”

We hoped it would be all over. Looks like it is now. Both Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer are delighted that all six of the Premier League teams involved in the European Super League (ESL) pulled out the project last night.

Johnson – who had promised football bodies and fan groups his government would “drop a legislative bomb” to prevent it from going ahead – responded to last night’s news by saying he “commended” Chelsea and Man City for being the first to back out.

Keir Starmer said the English withdrawal was “fantastic” – but insisted it must usher in real change.

The Labour leader told The Independent he backed a German ownership model, where supporters own 51 per cent stakes in their clubs. “It needs to be a watershed moment in the positive sense, that fans and others rise up.”

Rises in the costs of fuel and clothes pushed up the rate of inflation to 0.7 per cent in March, new figures from the Office for National Statistics have shown.

Inflation had been as low as 0.4 per cent in February due to unusually large falls in the costs of clothing and footwear but was now beginning to grow again as the UK edged out of the Covid pandemic.

The ONS said the Consumer Prices Index, which tracks the rising or falling cost of a standard basket of goods, was now at 0.7 per cent, a rise of 0.3 per cent from the previous month.

Tim Wyatt has more details here:

Boris Johnson personally promised Sir James Dyson he would “fix” an issue over the tax status of his employees, according to a report.

The exchange took place in March last year at the start of the pandemic when the government appealed to Singapore-based Dyson to supply ventilators amid fears the NHS could run out.

Sir James had written to the Treasury asking for assurance that his staff would not have to pay additional tax if they came to the UK for work but after receiving no reply he took it up with the prime minister himself.

In texts seen by the BBC, Sir James said the firm was ready but that “sadly” it seemed no one wanted them to proceed.

Mr Johnson replied: “I will fix it tomo! We need you. It looks fantastic.”

He then texted again: “[Chancellor] Rishi [Sunak] says it is fixed!! We need you here.”

When Sir James then sought further assurance, Mr Johnson replied: “James, I am First Lord of the Treasury and you can take it that we are backing you to do what you need.”

Labour described the disclosures as “jaw-dropping” and said Mr Johnson must now agree to a full, independent inquiry into lobbying.