Boris Johnson flat row: minister defends PM, saying he has been following advice of officials – live

Latest updates: vaccines minister suggests officials would be to blame if Johnson had failed to declare donations to cover original refurb cost

Yesterday, when Downing Street announced the appointment of Lord Geidt as the new independent adviser on ministers’ interests, it also confirmed modest changes designed to give the adviser more authority.

But the reforms do not go as far as those proposed by the chair of the committee on standards in public life, and this morning Labour’s Liz Kendall said the adviser was still not properly independent. Kendall, the shadow social care minister, told the Today programme:

It’s not just that Johnson would be marking his own homework [under the current system], he wouldn’t be setting himself any homework in the first place.

If you have the name, independent adviser, you’ve got to do what it says on the tin and I’m afraid there are still so many questions that have to be answered.

Related: Labour calls for wholly independent adviser amid row over PM’s flat

Heathrow may have to turn to its sovereign wealth fund shareholders, including those from Qatar, China and Singapore, for a cash injection after the UK aviation regulator blocked its “disproportionate” bid to raise airport charges to recoup £2.6bn lost during the pandemic, my colleagues Julia Kollewe and Gwyn Topham report.

Related: Heathrow’s bid to raise charges to cover £2.6bn Covid costs rejected

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