Politics live: Boris Johnson receives questionnaire from Met Police about lockdown-breaking parties

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been contacted by the police as part of the probe into parties that took place in Downing Street during lockdown.

A No10 spokesperson said: "We can confirm the Prime Minister has received a questionnaire from the Metropolitan Police. He will respond as required."

On Wednesday evening, Scotland Yard announced officers were to begin contacting more than 50 people believed to have been involved in the 12 events under its investigation - which has been named Operation Hillman.

You can read the full story here...

Henry Dyer, who has accused Labour MP Neil Coyle of making racist comments against him, said he has been contacted by the MP today. 

Mr Dyer said the MP "offered his apologies for his inappropriate actions" and will be complying with his party's investigation into the alleged comments. 

Mr Coyle has his whip suspended today following the allegations. 

A friend of Gabriel Kovari, who was a victim of serial killer Stephen Port, has said he was "gratified" by the Met Police Commissioner's resignation.

A coroner had concluded late last year that Met Police mistakes "probably" contributed to the deaths and officers had repeatedly missed opportunities to catch Port.

Writing after Dame Cressida Dick's announcement last night, Mr Kovari's friend John Pape said: "I was sat behind Cressida at the London Assembly when she said the Met is 'a caring organisation'.

"Laughable given the context was her being questioned about the Port case. I'm gratified Sadiq took decisive action."

A Labour MP who has come in for abuse over views criticised as transphobic has spoken out about what she perceives to be a lack of change since Sir Keir Starmer took over as party leader.

Rosie Duffield said she has not seen a "huge amount of difference" between Sir Keir's leadership and that of predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.

Labour said in response that Ms Duffield had the "full support" of the party and the leadership.

She has come under fire for her opposition to "male-bodied biological men" being allowed to self-identify as female in order to access women-only spaces such as prisons and domestic violence refuge

The Canterbury MP said last month that her party had given her "no support at all" since she was elected in 2017 and that she was "considering my future" as a Labour member.

But, in comments published today, Ms Duffield appeared to suggest she was not considering a defection to the Conservative Party.

She told the Telegraph's Chopper's Politics podcast that while it would "tempting to go somewhere where you don't have to battle your own tiny faction of your own membership", there were issues, such as Brexit and immigration, she could not agree with the Tories on.

"I'm a Labour person. I shouldn't be having to feel like this," the opposition backbencher said.

As we've been reporting today, Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick announced her resignation last night. 

She was one of the UK's most senior female police officers before she left Scotland Yard to take up a highly sensitive security-related post within the Foreign Office in 2014.

However, her return to lead the country's biggest police force in 2017 was not without controversy.

In 2005, she was the officer in charge of the flawed operation which lead to the death of a young Brazilian man, Jean Charles de Menezes. He was mistaken by a suicide bomber and shot dead by armed police while on the London Underground.

The force came under fire in March 2021 following the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer. Wayne Couzens, who was later sentenced to a whole life order, used his position as an officer to lure the marketing officer to her death. The Met were also criticised for their heavy-handed policing of a vigil in Miss Everard's memory.

In June 2021, a long-awaited report into the axe murder of a private detective accused the force of "institutional corruption". An independent panel examining the unsolved killing of father-of-two Daniel Morgan in a pub car park found "multiple very significant failings" during the initial Met Police investigation.

In December 2021, an inquest into the deaths of four victims of serial killer Stephen Port found Met Police mistakes "probably" contributed to the deaths, with officers missing repeated opportunities to catch Port in 2014.

In February 2022, the police watchdog condemned Scotland Yard officers for bad behaviours that included racism, misogyny, harassment and offensive social media messages. The investigation was initially launched following a complaint an officer had sex with a drunk person in a police station, but later uncovered so much more.

The force has also been accused of acting too late investigating alleged lockdown-breaking parties held at Number 10 Downing Street.

Returning briefly to Dennis Skinner, who celebrates his 90th birthday today, here's some highly entertaining footage of an exchange between the titan of the Labour Party left and then prime minister Margaret Thatcher for your late lunchtime viewing.

While there has clearly been some tension between the home secretary and the mayor of London, they seemingly both agree that the new Metropolitan Police commissioner will have plenty to address when they take over.

Priti Patel has been giving her views in a piece for the Evening Standard.

"Following a series of appalling incidents and too many historical cases involving serving Met Police officers, it is clear that strong and decisive new leadership will be required to restore public confidence in our largest police force," she wrote.

The public in London and across the entire country must once again have confidence in the integrity and professionalism of the police officers who serve them.

"Policing culture and conduct have rightly come under scrutiny. Be in no doubt that a new leader must tackle these institutional issues."

Sky News' Great Debate show will see discussion of issues including partygate, Cressida Dick's departure and footballer Kurt Zouma's cruelty to a cat.

You can watch it on Monday from 9pm.

While not directly disowning the comments in which a senior ally of the PM was said to have warned police they would need to be "very certain" before issuing a fixed penalty to Boris Johnson, a Number 10 spokesperson has now provided an official comment on the matter.

“This government has always backed the police and fully respects their complete independence to carry out inquiries without fear or favour," the spokesperson told Sky News.