it were everybody else and that was part of his appeal. ready? ah, there are. these are the told stories russian foreign minister. so guy love on says he doesn't expect the breakthrough to happen during talks with the us as well as meeting us secretary of state and the blanket in geneva, in an attempt to defuse the cranium. border crisis. lincoln says of russia invades ukraine, nato and his allies will respond swiftly and severely. we are all of us equally committed to the path of diplomacy in dialogue to try to resolve our differences. but we're also committed, if that proves impossible. and russia decides to pursue aggression against ukraine to a united, swift, and severe response. this is a critical moment. you're right. we don't expect to resolve our differences here

today. but i do hope and expect that we can test whether the have diplomacy or dialogue remains open. we're committed to walking that path into resolving our differences peacefully. and i hope we can test that proposition today and see where we go from here. aid from around the world has been found to target as the pacific automation cleans up after a major volcanic eruption and soon army. the 3 people died off the ropes on saturday. peru is taxing alarm to oil spill on its shoals as a link to the volcanic eruption. their tongue or environmental agency said that 6000 barrels of oil was spilled affecting 21 beaches. 11 iraqi soldiers have been killed in an attack by isolate gunman that happened overnight, an army barracks in the l, as in district north of baghdad. it's one of the worst assaults on the iraqi

military and recent month. japan is expanding its corona virus restrictions and f and to beat a surgeon cases caused by the only con variant restaurants involved will close. early in tokyo of and a dozen other areas from friday. austria has become the 1st e u country to make corporate 19 vaccinations mandatory for adults. adults can now be fine up to $4000.00 for rejecting the job. a singer an actor meatloaf is dives in 74. the stars bat out of hell album was one of the best selling records all time grammy winner born mob and b a day played eddy in the rocky horror picture. so. and so more than 100000000 albums worldwide. one use on how does era. but after inside story synnex time, bye bye. ah

ah, the political crisis engulfing the british prime minister keeps on growing boys. johnson is under pressure to resign. but will he? and what are the implications of unfitting, a prime minister in the u. k. and what could it all mean for british politics? this is inside story. ah hello and welcome to the program. i'm danny navigator. britain's prime minister wars johnson has been defying calls to quit over a lockdown violation scandal. johnson attended parties and his downing street residence while the rest of the country was being told to isolate or pay hefty fines if they broke covered rules. but he said he won't step down over the so

called party gates, scandal, and johnson faces the prospect of no confidence vote among m. p. 's. in the coming days, one m p from johnston's conservative party has defected to the opposition, and others are reported to have already submitted letters of no confidence. neve barker sent this report from london. yes. in highly charged atmosphere for ministers. questions began with another major body blow for boris johnson. news. one of his m. p. 's christian wakefield had defected to the opposition party. this following morning, newspaper reports of a whitening plot to ouse. johnson by members of his own party. jokes of the prime minister's expense followed i see the very noise out until the chief whip was told to bring their i'm bruce ha salvo off to silva. like way nobody told the prime minister. he was breaking his own rooms. absolutely pathetic. if he had any shred

of compassion for all those out there who separate to this heat go, i am peace clamoring for explanations. with johnson about the increasing catalogue of rule breaking policies that took place under his watch when the country was deepened lockdown. but the prime minister seemed energize fighting tooth and nail for his party. and his job. when the history of this pandemic comes to be written on the history of the labor party come to be written, i believe me, they are history. main history says he will show emotion able show that we delivered while they did it and we, we vaccinated. well, they vacillated mister speaker. i am intensely proud of what this government has done. and call off to call for johnson to resign was met with the same message to reserve judgement and wait for the results of the inquiry into a growing list of rules breaking. mister speaker, when

a prime minister is spending his time trying to convince the great british public that he's actually stupid, rather than disowning every time that he go now, eh, but his voice is from his own policy. the could do the most damage to his political future. and p, david davis wants the teresa make governments chief pregnant negotiator delivering this surgical strike, like many on these benches, osman weeks and months defending the prime minister against often angry constituents. but i expect my leaders to shoulder the responsibility for the actions i take yesterday. he did the opposite of that. so i'll remind him of a quotation altogether too familiar to him of layaway murray. to neville chamberlain. you sat there too long for all the good you've done. and the name of god, god was for the full force of grand boris, back on show. and despite the promise stood plum

b cove restrictions will be slash from next week. this was a bruising day in parliament for the prime minister, seemingly impossible for him to escape all the growing anger within his conservative party and with the results of a potentially damaging inquiry just around the corner. forest. johnson's days in office could soon be numbered. naep rocca al jazeera, westminster, so an official, an inquiry is investigating several cases in which johnson and his downing street staff are accused of violating lockdown rules. in may of 2020 a leaked photo shows, boris johnson and his wife, along with 20 of his staff and the downing street garden, eating cheese and drinking wine. again that same month, a leaked e mail reveal staff were invited to the same garden for drinks. 40 people are believed to have attended. in november of that year, the british media reports that 50 people, along with the prime minister, had drinks to mark the departure of one of his aides. a month after another lead

photo shows staff sharing drinks and food at the conservative party headquarters. and again, that month, johnson was photographed sitting between 2 staff members at a christmas zoom quiz. 3 days later, another party was held in downing street according to british media. and then last year, 2 parties are reported to have taken place in april. the night before the funeral for prince philip. that was while the country was in a period of official morning, will downing street has apologized to the queen. ah, let's discuss all of this with our guest. joining us from london as john pete, who's the brick set and political editor of the economist in full curve. julian mackay's, a member of the scottish parliament on member of scott. his green party, also in london, was stopped by rahman, who's the managing director for europe at you razor group. welcome to the program. thanks so much for joining us on inside story jillian mckay. if i may start with you, the prime minister has said that he's taken responsibility for his handling off the

downing street parties and insist that every one should wait for the findings of that official inquiry being conducted by su gray before reaching any sort of judgment. but you are calling for the prime minister to go. are you saying that he needs to go now? and if so, tell us why. the paymaster should have gone at the start of this scandal and prime minister and those in his inner circle. clearly think that above the rules, as you've li dated beach, the rules several times repeatedly and deliberately, they've tried to cover it up and some of even been caught laughing about it. and it's no laughing matter for those of us who've lost a loved one. during the pandemic bought as johnson, it's completely unfit to be prime minister, and it is beyond time for him to go. but why don't you? why not wait? why not just wait for the report that that's due out? so we understand next week. i think he is now beyond reproach. to be perfectly honest. is excuses of changed consistently. his death almost certainly

misled parliament with gold calls from his own by benches to resign. and today was haired from a senior and m p of allegations of black meal. again, the m p 's who would undermine johnson. so i think we don't really need to wait for something that was already admitted to the prime minister himself is admitted that he was at that party, but didn't know that it was a party. he would have known that that was the numbers of people alone was breaking the rules. so he really is trying to type by playing stupid rather than playing deliberate. and then are i john, what's your take on this? i mean, some people are saying that they are still waiting for this report is not going to be the next key moment here. is it is going to be the next key movement. i mean, i think there was a point on tuesday this week when it looked this enough concern peas and say, we've had it up with johnson and we're worried that we're going to leave the next election and lose many of our seats. and they've been looked at if they are on the

verge of calling for a conference. but i think after yesterday, the mood has changed a little bit. we're saying, let's wait to this report. see how bad this report is. and in particular, see if this report says that, or it stops and concludes the bar stools misled parliament. if that happens, i think that will be a competent fate. so the next big point is indeed the publication of the report. but even if you get through that, i think the wound in the party is that they're very worried that it bars stops and lost the competence of ages and is taking the conservative party into a position where they may lose the next election. and john, the prime minister of admission and apology in the common did it by him some time though. i mean, do you think that he'll survive the next few days at least without and confidence book? he's shoot us. if i have been to next week because the next week could be a difficult time for him again when the report comes sized. i think his performance

yesterday did by this time and bizarrely be a defection of concern in anticipated to join. labor also helped him because he tore rebels to worry that if they take this too far, they may be the daughter labor administration. but his denial grantees apologies, have not really come through to the ordinary basis. they think he's just lying, but they believe his apologies. they think the line that he's already where the work event on the party is incredible. and i think that they feel that they're not competence in their prime minister. all right, so must back anyway and on all of this and tell us, i mean, do you think that he'll be able to survive the findings after the report comes out? i'd agree very much with john. i think the mood in west minister is violent, a swinging back and forth. and i, i do think tuesday are the result of a pity and also the red roll that suggested johnson has lost some of his barco in

those crucial seats in the north, in the midlands. lots of reports in west minister about rent roll and he is caucusing to send those letters into sir grey brady. chairman of the $922.00 committee to trigger that votes of confidence. and then of course the defection yesterday for christine are waiting for it to the labor side. i think the combination of those 3 things really. i think that meant johnson was in trouble yesterday. and i agree with john, but actually his performance and the defection, the combination of those 2 things have brought him a little bit of time. but i think next week is now the point of maximun danger for the prime minister. and the su gray record. we know is not going to make a determination on johnson. it will present the facts and then it will leave it to others. to make judgments about whether earn johnson has leyden and subsequently, ultimately misled parliament. and i think it's going to be a perilous moment for the prime minister. assuming you do get 54 letters,

then into sir graham brady is still a big jump to that. get a 191 empties, which is what you would need to know. votes of combo, so i think the 2nd floor must have. i do think that the 54 letters will actually be reached. i mean, for what, what we now would know so far is that so far, 11 conservative m p 's have publicly at these declared no confidence in the prime minister. so do you think that momentum is going to keep on growing? i think a lot will hang on the wording. i'm johnston's reaction to the su gray report. only sir graham brady knows how many letters have been received as of course and piece out or on the record. but many may have gone in that we don't know about. i think brady has probably given indications to number 10 about how serious the situation is i spoke. that is why downing street a signal, but they would fight a confidence votes. and again, i think that's why getting to the 181,

tory on piece is going to be quite a challenge. assuming johnson does get through the next week, and this will be my final point. then of course, there's going to be a big challenge in the aftermath of the males already local elections, where i suspect the tories will do very badly. and at that point, of course, inflation will be keeping and the concerns are on cost of living will be very of the present prep is involving jillian the move in the, in the conservative party. and i think you alluded to this as well as that it's being described as sort of very tumultuous. but do you think the m p 's and the conservative party won a crisis right now on their hands such as this? i think they've been given a crisis whether they want one or not. and it's very much up to those m. p 's at westminster, tim to advocate for the views of those. and constituents like david davis alluded to, who are furious at the level,

the level of flippant from the prime minister. i think some of and some of i've heard from constituents about his performance as i am paymasters. questions wheaties trying to deflect their, bringing a policy to try and aim deflates. some of the heat from the prime minister is only adding to that that the lack of confidence from, from the public. i think some of the, today's, and i really have to decide whether the want to continue under this morally bankrupt government that they have or whether they're going to stand with their constituents. and as, as the other, a, or other panelists have said that to fate them very, very badly at the local elections, both in england and in scotland in may as while don, you know, those are support, the prime minister. say that, well, this is a man who let the u. k. through a crisis, of course, like the pandemic, a national crisis,

and maybe he should be given some credit. what do you think of that argument? well that he does have a sort of hardcore supporters in obviously in the concern itself. and indeed many of the conservative m. p 's one states and the 2019 election. recognize that it's because because of our assumption is christina, is promised to get it done. and so on and, and the sort of fits from 3 of them may be pushed by the posse in 2019. but i think the issue that tory and be a grappling with is that it's not enough to have support inside your budget. you need to support bases in the end, and the bases seem to become disillusioned, particularly over these parties, but to some extent has been coded over his chaotic image over the arguments you've been having with the divers miserably dominic cummings, dining st. looks rather chaotic and disorganized,

and i think both has been like that they think, you know, government should be, should be better on it. and, and that's really the underlying issue here. what are you telling you, john, about the public smooth and what they want to see happen? so they're not saying that the bars, johnson or a certain popularity rating is below that theresa theresa pay was, was very unpopular towards the end of time in office because she was failing to deliver to deliver breakfast. so he, he was never a very popular prime minister. that's one of the things to nature by should use never as popular people like tenure or even in his day job major. but he had enough of a rating to win a large majority in the last election. and now i think the negative against, which was higher than many people realized, have climbed to a level where tori m. p 's. don't worry that they could lose the next election. and as long as that continues, it is a big thing to push out a prime minister. it doesn't happen very often. it happened famously satcher. but

given that they worry about what happened is something that could happen at any time, even if he saw the next week, next few weeks. and mugs must have. i mean, john just mentioning to resume, she didn't go through this in 2018, of course, and m p submitted enough letters to trigger a confidence vote in her. but then when the vote came, she survived that mr. johnson himself have sir, has survive sort of intent storms before. if i can put it that way. can you see that happening to him? me that i think is probably too late for johnson. i think the political context, the economic context is very challenging. indeed. amik crohn in the government sized, or maybe around that, you know, we may be moving on from army kron on turning back corner around the next corner is a massive cost of living crisis. inflation is set to reach, i believe 7 percent in the u. k. this year. so i think the economic challenge is

the government will face and the latter part of the are going to be a very, very big problem for the government. that will, i think way down on johnson. i don't think after the local authority elections, he will be able to recover. so all of us argue this point is when likely to face a leadership contest in the summer. i think probably the 2 front runners in that regard will be the chancellor richie sooner and foreign secretary list try us i. i suspect neither. if it does go to the leadership contests or want to concede, which means torrie members will need to have a say. and at least from where things sit at the moment, i believe her chancellors to knock is most likely her to succeed. johnson has prime minister in the 2nd half of the year, probably her to be announced at the tory conference in the, in the latter part of the year. okay. and julia, would you like to weigh in on, on this issue or far as she soon i kind and less trust that semester i was just

talking about i think it will come as, as no surprise they say i completely lack of favorite tory to take over from, from the prime minister, i think part of the problem for me is the fact that they are continuing. they are some of the people that are defending the prime minister at the moment. so if we're looking at and the prime minister is being completely unfit, what does that say for the rest of the cabinet who are currently defending? i'm and may have known about these, these parties as well. it's something that the cabinet widely won't, won't answer if they were to wait for these. what was happening. so there is a much wider problem at the heart of the u. k. government, which really scotland has to go from on doris as quickly as possible because we're seeing more and more at houghton policies coming forward. the one that was announced over the weekend and about using force against refugees in the channel is just horrendous. and it's something that as

a country we should not be sounding for john. um, would you like to respond to what jillian was saying? ah, no programming to say he lives with geneva, we're hearing from the russian foreign minister survey love roth. as to his take on what's been discussed in switzerland to do with these crucial talks over russia's intentions as to whether it will or will not invade in some shape or form ukraine. the experience of our communications are heard from many examples, ram a, some from the was you roman and it was immediately was the promise was not cap or rejected. i remembered what i remember

immediately after the signature of the henson get agreement for a moment. i think it was jeremy afford the present and that time since i and a couple of days evangel be shown. you got the ring with a hear him, got to remove a bone it, it will sit there after all, my says switch i given analysis, which i filled up with me repeats of the notice and the se employee over that. no, you should. i wait with no solution is good and in terms of what i, what you have been colleagues and in terms of aggression is a state of things over that. so use of normally with about florida. yep. but perhaps they did that number a documents, major conditions. we should be the process, the reviews,

a mom, the minimisation, all a teach the modem, you bring it with your us for a given the, on the diplomatic with a solution. we had an exchange of opinions which will help us dollar continue our diplomatic for all of the, of the international for a minute. i get your right and i'm in english so my rush is not quite up to it last night. the state department put out a lot of information in which they said there was no threats heading from ukraine towards russia in that information. they also said that our t, my network was directly responsible for propaganda, for reporting on neo nazis and right wing groups within ukraine. this is something

that human rights watch is also st. what's the, the russian foreign ministry is response to the statements from the state department. also, how has the amount of weaponry from both the united states and u. k. it has been arriving in ukraine. how is that affected the talks that you've been having with the secretary of state? those doesn't mean those are the conditional. it's the moment you got to go to the part of them. well, you said everything for me, these documents, the state department has prepared, especially for today's meeting is impossible to read these documents. but we have a special department which is headed by a special envoy of the ministry and they are charged with studying of that. and the response has already been given. i do not think that we shared additionally comment on that. but you know, you just have to, you know, you know, look at these pages, she can randomly open a page. and if you read what's written there, you see that it holds no water,

whatever it was on the critical analysis. it's blinds, pure and simple in many cases. now, as far as ukraine is concerned, we talked about it once again. our american counterparts once again tried to push to the forefront the issues at the border between russia and ukraine. they tries to condition everything on the needs of the so called di escalation, which has turned into some kind of a mantra. but i would like to reiterate once again, at the end of our meeting, we agreed that next week the us is going to present us with written answers to all of our puzzles. and you also said, in particular, that you claim, as you present it, to russia. and i would like to once again remind every friend who analyzes our public statements and our analysis. and i would like to say that never before has

russia threatened. so it's a visual representation, the green people you. well, why should the western colleagues have taking present the landscape under their wing containing anything he does? and person soleski said that if someone ukrainians isn't, doesn't feel equal crania and then feels russian because she should get out of the country, europe, and those who are fighting the stage terrorism and don bass while she does them. as you might remember, not people, but you know specimens. so we do not allowed that all this hysterics pounded by our western county. slower to it seeks. well, if not to provoke with the summer forestall actions by ukraine in dawn bus pretty good. well, then at least you, you scared him. not segues this over to, you know,

obviously in the, you know, hide caves and attempts to sabotage the means. agreements with this. i see no other option will go as far as the allegations go. we have responded to everything and when someone tells us that yes, that's your territory. we recognize that, but there are too many troops with the same time. they say that it's not our business. what the americans do with their trips in europe. and this is something we discussed with antony blinking during our talks today. and she agreed that the dialect has to be more reasonable. and i do have that the emotions will receive to the background that there is no guarantee that is going to happen. was there any headway made on any of the points that the russians have raising the past couple of weeks that were a very to your security concern? and then also you come out of this meeting, satisfied, disappointed,

how would you summarize and 1st and foremost, how big you think right now the threat of war is in europe through some sort of calculation with obviously such a large force gathering around ukraine. and finally, one question that a lot of people, i think the international is, why is russia doing this now? why do you feel that need to make these deployments? now we're really the security pastor and nato really hasn't changed over the past couple of years. a was a well, you see, i think the state department has to analyze house in and work with regard to the accuracy of information. you say that we intend to attack you claim, you know, multiple occasions. we have said we never intended to do that. and when you say that this is going to happen, you ask the next question, why now? so this is

a very stringent formulated question. as far as our approach goes, with regard to the need to put an end to an indefinite been large amount of nato este words. we once again we treated this approach and secretary blink. and once again, we have found his position with regard to the asian countries state to have the right to, to their own security arrangements. and i, in turn, asked how, you know, it fits with the commitment not to reinforce once security at the expense of security of others. and he promised me that they would respond to how the u. s. interprets that this is not the end of our dialogue as i said. and now.