EXCLUSIVE at @GBNEWS

Tory MPs will be briefed on whether the Rwanda Bill is workable at lunch tomorrow, as they decide whether to back it in a vote on Tuesday. Sir Bill Cash will present the findings of his "star chamber" to an unprecedented meeting of four backbench groups. 1/4 Mark Francois, the ERG's chairman, told @GBNEWS: "The ERG will be meeting tomorrow, from noon onwards, to hear a presentation from Sir Bill Cash on the findings of his ‘Star Chamber’ of legal experts, following their forensic examination of the Rwanda Bill. 2/4

BREAKING

Dozens of Conservative backbenchers from the European Research Group, the Common Sense Group and New Conservatives have set up a Brexit-style 'Star Chamber' of legal experts to establish whether the new Rwanda Treaty "would facilitate flights to Rwanda". 1/4 ERG Chairman, Mark Francois, told @GBNEWS: “Our ERG Meeting this evening, which also included members of the New Conservatives and the Common Sense Group, resolved to refer the Rwanda Bill to the “Star Chamber” of legal experts, chaired by Sir Bill Cash. 2/4

BREAKING ITV bosses are to be grilled in Parliament next week by MPs in a televised evidence session over the national broadcaster's handling of Phillip Schofield's affair, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
More at telegraph.co.uk MPs on the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will ask ITV executives about their handling of the scandal at a televised hearing in Parliament at 10am on Tuesday.

Conservative chairman Sir @JakeBerry tells the @Telegraph: “This is an existential crisis for the future of the Conservative party…
"If we believe in democracy, members cannot be denied a say on who the next leader of the party is." . @JakeBerry: “We have seen two Prime Ministers in a row effectively removed from office by MPs despite the fact that they have won the membership.
"I fear that it might be a point where members think 'what is really the point of being a member of the Conservative party'."

** EXCLUSIVE in today's Chopper's Politics Newsletter **
More than 1,800 Conservative party members have written to the Tory party chairman in less than 12 hours to demand that a vote on whether Boris Johnson should carry on as leader. 1/5
Sign up: telegraph.co.uk/politicsnewsle… The members - all of whom have to give their membership numbers when they sign up - are backing a petition organised by Tory donor Lord Cruddas and former Conservative MEP David Campbell-Bannerman @DCBMEP. 2/5
Sign up: telegraph.co.uk/politicsnewsle…

What’s happening this week?

Monday
2pm - 3.30pm: 1922 hustings
5pm - 7pm: MPs vote in the third round of the Conservative leadership contest
8pm: 1922 chairman Sir Graham Brady announces the result
10pm: MPs vote on whether they have confidence in the Government 1/4 Tuesday
Noon - 2pm: Four candidates remain. MPs vote in fourth round of the leadership contest
3pm: Sir Graham Brady announces the result
7pm: Sky News hosts final leaders' debate, expected to feature the remaining three candidates 2/4

** BREAKING **
@KemiBadenoch has picked up real momentum in a new @ConHome survey of 850 Tory party members today, in the wake of the Channel 4 TV debate last night.
The poll puts Ms Badenoch in the lead on 31 per cent, up from 19 per cent last Monday. 1/3 #ToryLeadershipContest . @trussliz was second on 20pc, up from 11pc, in the @ConHome poll.
Support for @PennyMordaunt appears to have stalled, with her support falling from 20pc to 18pc.
@RishiSunak was in fourth place on 17pc, up from 12pc last Mon.
@TomTugendhat was fifth on 10pc, up from 7pc. 2/3

** EXCLUSIVE in the Daily Telegraph **

Britain to have a new Prime Minister by September 5 under secret Conservative plans to be rubber stamped on Monday by 1922 and party board

telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/… Mon July 11 - 1922 committee and party board rubber stamp leadership election plans
Tues July 12 - Nominations close. MPs will need the backing of 10 or 20 MPs to enter the leadership race.
Weds July 13 - First round of voting. Candidates with fewer than 36 MPs' support withdraw

NEW Conservative MPs are being sent home and told they don't have to vote on Labour's Privileges committee motion.
This means the motion will almost certainly pass and Boris Johnson will be investigated for misleading the Commons, as soon as Scotland Yard finishes its work. Images of any parties taken by taxpayer-funded photographers in Downing St might now be published (if the Tory-majority committee agrees to it).
This will severely test Boris Johnson's defence he did not "deliberately mislead" MPs, which he set out as recently as Tuesday.

💥Big 48 hours for Boris Johnson next week in the House of Commons ...

Tuesday: Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is expected to allow vote of MPs on an investigation into whether Boris Johnson misled the House of Commons over the extent of lockdown parties in Downing St 1/3 Wednesday: MPs set to vote on whether to hand matter over to the seven-MP strong Privileges Committee which has a Tory majority but is chaired by Chris Bryant, a Labour MP.

The Privileges committee will then investigate whether Johnson misled the Commons 2/3

NEW Conservative MPs in red wall seats are up in arms about this tweet from Ben Goldsmith, a board member of Defra, saying he is "with Extinction Rebellion".

https://twitter.com/BenGoldsmith/status/1513764236811546624

LATEST Tory MPs are now quitting the Conservative Environment Network's WhatsApp group in protest at Ben Goldsmith's remarks over XR.
Goldsmith is the group's chairman. cen.uk.com/our-people

LATEST Chaos at the Carlton Club tonight. Boris Johnson had a drink with Conor Burns.
Nadine Dorries was addressing an Onward dinner.
Four 1922 members were having supper.
The Press arrived believing a plot was under way so everyone left by the backdoor. One MP: "It is a farce." UPDATE One Tory MP tells me: "Boris has just turned up at the Carlton Club on a last ditch desperate attempt to persuade people to support him."
This may be an over-reading of the situation. The situation is febrile. And it is past 11pm.

EXC As many as 20 Tory MPs from the 2019 intake are planning to submit letters of no confidence in Boris Johnson tomorrow.
The number could breach the 54 letters required for a confidence vote. One 2019 Tory MP told me it could be the PM’s “D-Day”, adding: “His time has gone.” The 2019 Tory MPs decided their plan at two meetings yesterday and today.
If the no confidence number is not breached tomorrow they say this could happen after the Sue Gray report is published.
The MPs say the Government whips are unaware of this. This is denied by the whips.

* NEW * David Frost on the NI Protocol: "Our most urgent pressing problem, an issue of the highest national interest, is to make sure we can trade freely within our own country.
"I don’t think that is too much to ask and that is where we need to get to one way or the other." Speaking to the @CPSThinkTank's Margaret Thatcher Conference, Frost said: "I am very happy that free Britain, or at least merry England, is probably now the free-est country in the world as regards covid restrictions. No mask rules, no vaccine passports - long may it remain so."

** Exclusive in this weekend's Sunday Telegraph **

Warning for BBC as Government says Ofcom chairman must ensure news is reported 'with due impartiality' in job advertisement lodged online

telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/… The BBC and Channel 4 could face more sanctions over alleged left wing bias after the Government tasked the next head of the broadcasting regulator with ensuring that news is broadcast with "due impartiality".

In this weekend's Sunday Telegraph

Exclusive: Universities face fines as part of 'twin assault' by Government ministers on cancel culture 

telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/… Ministers will fine student bodies which stifle freedom of speech and tell heritage groups "public funds must never be used for political purposes" in a major new bid to torpedo efforts at rewriting Britain's history, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.

This weekend's Sunday Telegraph splash

Picnics and coffee in the park as lockdown to lift from March 8, Government confirms telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/… Meeting a friend for a coffee on a park bench and outdoor picnics will be the first activities to get the green light on March 8, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal with golf and tennis following shortly after.
It is the first confirmation that any restrictions will lift next month.

EXCLUSIVE in this weekend's Sunday Telegraph

Government quietly changes law to give councils lockdown powers until July 17 this year telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/… The changes to the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No.3) Regulations 2020 were made as part of a review of the third lockdown by Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, earlier this month.

NEW Boris Johnson to night told Joe Biden his arrival in the White House was a "moment of hope in a dark time" as he became the first leader outside North America to speak to the US President. Mr Johnson spoke to Mr Biden in a 35 minute phone call from his office at 10 Downing Street. The pair discussed "a very wide range of subjects", sources said, describing the conversation as "very warm, friendly and wide ranging with agreement on key issues".

EXCLUSIVE in this weekend's Sunday Telegraph

Every statue will be given greater protection from "baying mobs" and road names could be saved from the "revisionist purge" of Labour councils, under law changes to be published on Monday
telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/… Robert Jenrick is to change the law so that historic statues, plaques, memorials or monuments cannot be removed without going through a formal planning process.
Twelve thousand statues are covered by the law changes.

The received wisdom now is that Theresa May's deal "wasn't Brexit".
But at the third Meaningful Vote on her deal on March 29 last year the only Tory MPs not supporting it were 28 'Spartan' members of the European Research Group.
This list did not include Boris Johnson. ... and the only national newspapers which held out and did not back Theresa May's Brexit deal in March last year were The Daily and Sunday Telegraph.