Boris Johnson has all but confirmed that Brexit controls on imports of goods from Europe, due to come into force in July, will be delayed for the fourth time.

Experts have warned of a collapse in trade if controls are implemented on July 1 at a time of rapidly rising prices and falling consumer confidence, writes Andrew Woodcock:

Here are some of the latest images from Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s two-day visit to India to discuss new defense and green energy collaborations with his counterpart Narendra Modi:

The saga over the many anti-lockdown parties held at No 10 is “done and dusted off”, Defense Minister Leo Docherty said this afternoon.

It comes as a number of senior Tory MPs have called on Boris Johnson to step down for failing to obey his own Covid rules.

Speaking to the PA News Agency during the Invictus Games in The Hague, Mr Docherty said: ‘It’s pretty much done and dusted off in the sense that the Prime Minister apologized for the fixed penalty notice he received.

“In my opinion, I consider this a closed matter. I really want to see him able to continue his work.

He said the “vast majority” of Britons wanted to see Boris Johnson continue to represent the UK.

“I think people are fed up and want us to move on,” he said.

Mr. Docherty has already been called upon to resign. In September 2019, his brother Paddy Docherty wrote an open letter to the Guardian urging the Tory MP to stand down following Mr Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament.

He wrote, “I used to joke that your degree in Swahili and Hindi made you ‘perfectly qualified to be an army officer – in the 1840s.’ with alarmingly retrograde intentions, it doesn’t seem so funny anymore.

“So I must plead with you, as your brother, to step down from your position in the whips office and stand up for democracy.”

Tory MPs have condemned their own party’s new online adverts attacking Labor MPs over immigration, warning they will stoke hatred and put all politicians at greater risk, writes Adam Forest.

Tory backbenchers have raised fears of personalized ads targeting Yvette Cooper and other high-profile Labor politicians – telling the public they voted ‘to keep illegal migrants in Britain’.

Some Tories have criticized potentially inflammatory ads in a private WhatsApp group where MPs share graphics on social media, according to Bloomberg.

“These ads lead directly to attacks on MPs and their families and they stoke hatred among politicians,” Tory MP Miriam Cates wrote – calling the ads “very, very disappointing”.

“Time is running out” for Boris Johnson, said his Scottish counterpart, calling the Prime Minister’s referral to the Privileges Committee a “quite significant turning point”.

Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said that if Mr Johnson can ‘try to hang on’ to power in Downing Street, the upcoming inquiry could be a pivotal moment.

She said: “I think time is running out for him. I feel like yesterday’s events turned things into a matter of when, not if.

“The fact that the Tories have had to do a last-minute U-turn on their instructions to their own MPs, I think, is very telling and a sign that support is finally seeming – and it’s too late – fade from the Prime Minister into his own ranks.

The SNP leader continued: “I think the Conservatives in Westminster have a big question because every day they allow Boris Johnson to stay in power right now they become complicit in all the wrongdoing he is accused.”

She insisted: “Yesterday seemed like a pretty big turning point. He will try to hang on, there is no doubt.

“He will try to get off the multiple hooks I think he is on. He clearly has no shame. He clearly has no respect for parliament, for democracy, for the institutions on which our democracy depends.

The Scottish First Minister has defended the SNP’s decision to campaign for Scottish independence alongside the local election campaign.

Asked if it was appropriate for local councilors to campaign for independence in an election where local issues such as cleaning services and schools should be the priority, Nicola Sturgeon said: “ The manifesto is very clear that the priority for SNP councilors will be the cost-of-living crisis and local services.

“But I don’t think it will come as a surprise to anyone that SNP advisers will support the Scottish Government’s proposals for a referendum in the first half of this parliament.

“And of course this is a mandate that was won in the elections last year and for which, democratically, I have not only the determination, but arguably the duty to proceed, because that is what that I offered to people in the election last year.”

The European Commission has reminded the UK government that the Brexit deal is a ‘binding’ legal obligation, after a senior Tory minister said there was no need to stick to the deal.

Jacob Rees-Mogg told a committee of MPs on Wednesday it was ‘absurd’ that the UK had to stick to the terms of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which the government negotiated and ratified as part of the exit from the European Union.

On Friday, a spokesperson for the EU executive hit back and told reporters in Brussels on Friday that “the Withdrawal Agreement, the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland, are legal obligations to which the UK United is bound”.

Our political correspondent Peter Jon reports:

Mr Johnson insisted he would still be in office by Diwali in October as he largely avoided questions about whether he would quit Partygate.

The prime minister has set Diwali as the target date for a post-Brexit free trade deal with India.

Asked if he was a ‘nine-life cat’ following calls from MPs including Steve Baker to quit, Mr Johnson said: ‘We’ve had a pretty good shot cat’s foot yesterday.”

Western allies are preparing to offer Ukraine a series of “security guarantees” that should make the country impregnable to a future Russian invasion, Boris Johnson has said.

A long-term vision of Ukraine’s place in Europe’s future “security architecture” must also be developed, the prime minister said.

While he said it would not be the same as NATO’s Article 5 guarantee – in which an attack on one member state is considered an attack on all – he hoped it would offer a ” deterrence by denial”.

“What the Ukrainians want – and I think they will now get – is a set of guarantees from like-minded countries about what we can do to support them with weapons, training and intelligence sharing,” he said.

“I hope this will allow the Ukrainians to offer deterrence through denial and ensure that their territory is sufficiently fortified to be impregnable in the event of further attacks from Russia. That’s what we have to do.

President Zelensky called for security guarantees for his country.