• David Wolfson has resigned as a justice minister saying he can no longer serve in the government because of its disregard for the rule of law. The distinguished lawyer who joined the government in 2020, said he was shocked not just by the extent of law breaking at No 10, but by the “official response” to it.

• Tory MP Craig Whittaker has called for Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak to quit after they were fined for breaching coronavirus laws. According to the Halifax Courier, the Calder Valley MP said during a Facebook Q and A: “I not only think that the prime minister should resign but I also think that Rishi Sunak should resign as well.

• A former deputy assistant commissioner for the Metropolitan police, Stephen Roberts , told Sky News that officers have a “huge amount” of Partygate evidence that they still have not reviewed. Conservative MP Nigel Mills told the World at One that he thought there were worse revelations yet to come.

• Ruth Davidson, the former Scottish Tory leader, has renewed her calls for Boris Johnson to quit over the Partygate scandal as she accused him of “traducing” the office of prime minister. The Tory peer said the prime minister had “made a mockery” of the British public’s sacrifices during the pandemic, opening up a split with Douglas Ross, her close ally and successor as Scottish Conservative leader.

• One of the most senior Cabinet Office directors is a non-dom, the Guardian can reveal. Anand Aithal, a former Goldman Sachs managing director, is the lead non-executive director at the Cabinet Office. A Cabinet Office spokesman said Aithal, who is domiciled in India, paid “all taxes on all of his income, both from the UK and abroad, in the UK”.

• The Information Commissioner’s Office said there is not enough evidence to prosecute two people suspected of leaking footage of former health secretary Matt Hancock kissing his then aide in his office in the Department of Health last year.

• Chris Mason has been named as the BBC’s new political editor, replacing Laura Kuenssberg.

54m ago19:48

Jessica Elgot

One of the most senior Cabinet Office directors is a non-dom, the Guardian can reveal, in a disclosure which comes as Labour vowed to crack down on the favourable tax status.

Anand Aithal, a former Goldman Sachs managing director, is the lead non-executive director at the Cabinet Office, a role which a Whitehall source said meant he had significant responsibilities in the department and a close relationship with the Downing Street chief of staff, Steve Barclay.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said Aithal, who is domiciled in India, paid “all taxes on all of his income, both from the UK and abroad, in the UK”. Aithal was born in the UK but acquired the status through his Indian-born father.

Last week it was revealed that Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty, who receives about £11.5m in annual dividends from her stake in the Indian IT services company Infosys, declares non-dom status. She has since said she will pay tax on all overseas income in the UK.

Tory MP Craig Whittaker has called for Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak to quit after they were fined for breaching coronavirus laws.

According to the Halifax Courier, the Calder Valley MP said during a Facebook Q and A: “I not only think that the prime minister should resign but I also think that Rishi Sunak should resign as well.

“Through this whole process it hasn’t been particularly clear that the prime minister broke any rules until of course he’s been issued with a fixed penalty notice this week.

“My expectation is that he and the chancellor should do the right thing and resign.

“The reality is that they’re not going to resign. We’ve seen that from the press and they’ve both issued apologies so I suspect we’ll end up where we are and moving on.”

The MP said he will not be submitting a letter to the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories, saying he expects the prime minister would win the vote which would detract from the government’s “day-to-day” business.

Responding to David Wolfson’s resignation, Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson Wera Hobhouse MP said: “Lord Wolfson’s resignation shows that, just like many lifelong Conservative voters up and down the country, he has had enough of Boris Johnson acting as though he is above the law.
“We cannot have a situation where there is one rule for Boris and his mates, and another for everyone else. “Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak should both go, so we can focus on what really matters – giving families the support they need to weather the cost of living crisis.”

Marine Le Pen’s plan for a new partnership with a post-Brexit Britain is dangerous for France, ignorant and completely misunderstands the basis of British alliances, Peter Ricketts, the former UK national security adviser and UK ambassador to France, has told the Guardian.

He said the far-right presidential hopeful’s proposals represented a plan for French isolation from its main strategic partners, the US, Germany and the UK.

In her defence manifesto, Le Pen held out the hope of a restored Lancaster House treaty, the Franco-British defence cooperation treaty first signed in 2010, and underlined this by illustrating her defence plans with a picture of the union jack and tricolour flags.

The government has announced conditional allocations for the UK’s shared prosperity fund, saying it has matched previous EU funding but with less bureaucracy and more local control.
The fund will provide £2.6bn by 2025, and the government says it will be “a central pillar” of its “levelling up” agenda. With conditional allocations available for each area of the UK, local authorities will be able to put forward investment plan submissions from June to receive the money, PA reports. However, the Scottish government said the fund fell short of what was expected to replace EU structural funds. The fund includes £559m for Multiply, a UK-wide adult numeracy programme, to offer maths courses for adults with no or low maths skills, including a digital learning platform.

The Welsh secretary, Simon Hart, indicated Boris Johnson would not resign even if he was fined multiple times in the Metropolitan police’s Operation Hillman probe.
On Tuesday, Johnson did not rule out the prospect he could be fined again for further events. Hart told Times Radio: “I don’t necessarily see the difference between one or two [fines], for example, the principle is the same.” He said: “I personally don’t think that for people in public life – or any other walk of life, for that matter – that should necessarily be accompanied by another penalty, which is the removal of your job or similar.”

From my colleague Aubrey Allegretti

David Gauke, the former secretary of state for justice, said he is “not surprised” by the resignation of Lord Wolfson as a justice minister.

He told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme:

[I’m] not altogether surprised, I think it’s a particularly uncomfortable issue for anybody in the Ministry of Justice or for that matter the law officers.

Or at least it should be an uncomfortable situation, because you can’t have those who are making the law breaking the law. Particularly if it’s happened on repeated occasions.

Of course we’ve only had one fixed penalty notice for the prime minister so far, but frankly expectations are that there will be more. It is a very difficult situation … if you have particular responsibility for the rule of law, if you see rule makers breaking it.”

3h ago17:53

Lord Wolfson resigns as justice minister over PM’s conduct and his approach to rule of law

Andrew Sparrow

David Wolfson has resigned as a justice minister saying he can no longer serve in the government because of its disregard for the rule of law. In his resignation letter Lord Wolfson, a distinguished lawyer who joined the government in 2020, said he was shocked not just by the extent of law breaking at No 10, but by the “official response” to it. He said:

I regret that recent disclosures lead to the inevitable conclusion that there was repeated rule breaking, and breaches of the criminal law, in Downing Street. I have again, with considerable regret – come to the conclusion that the scale, context and nature of those breaches mean that it would be inconsistent with the rule of law for that conduct to pass with constitutional impunity, especially when many in society complied with the rules at great personal cost, and others were fined or prosecuted for similar, and sometimes apparently more trivial, offences. It is not just a question of what happened in Downing Street, or your own conduct. It is also, and perhaps more so, the official response to what took place. As we obviously do not share that view of these matters, I must ask you to accept my resignation.

Here is his letter.

This is a striking sign of how much Rishi Sunak’s reputation has suffered since the spring statement three weeks ago – he is now even less popular than Boris Johnson, according to this Savanta ComRes poll.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has complained about Tories using Ukraine as a “shield” to protect Boris Johnson, the BBC’s Andrew Kerr reports.

A former deputy assistant commissioner for the Metropolitan police has told Sky News that officers have a “huge amount” of Partygate evidence that they still have not reviewed. Asked if it was correct that the Partygate investigation has further to go, Stephen Roberts said:

Yes, that’s my understanding as well. There’s a huge amount of material that the team still has to sift through and collate and then submit to lawyers, to be absolutely certain that they have a cast iron case and are able to prosecute if needs be.

This backs up Nigel Mills’ claim that future revelations could be worse for the PM. (See 1.52pm.)