More from former Tory minister David Gauke on the cost-of-living crisis, including his prediction that the government will end up taxing the profits of oil and gas companies.

He told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme:

It’s not ideal. I don’t think it’s an easy or straightforward answer.

“I can understand why the Treasury is reluctant to go down this route when we do want to encourage investment, particularly in the energy sector, as we move away from relying on hydrocarbons.

“I suspect, in the end, the political case for it, the way in which one can raise really quite substantial sums of money, and if you can try to deliver this in a way that makes it clear that the government is not going to come back again and again, then it might not have that much of a behavioural impact.

“You know, I think increasingly it seems the oil companies are kind of reconciled to the fact that they’re going to get hit with this at some point or other.

“So, it’s not ideal, but I suspect in the end that they will turn to those oil and gas companies and pick up an element of what are exceptional profits.”

Here’s a bit more detail from PA on the news that Boris Johnson was not among those to be fined in the latest tranche of penalties issued by the Metropolitan police over Partygate.

PA reports:

Johnson’s official spokesman confirmed following the Met’s update that neither the PM nor cabinet Secretary Simon Case were among those fined in the latest tranche.

“With regards to the cabinet secretary and the Prime Minister, I don’t have any update … the position (is) we will update you if that were to change,” he said.

Pressed on whether it was his understanding that the PM and Case were not among those hit with the most recent set of penalties, the spokesman said: “That’s correct, yeah.”

He added: “You’ll know that the Prime Minister has on a number of occasions apologised and made clear that there were things we simply did not get right, and that he is sorry for how this matter has been handled.

“Obviously that remains the case. And like I say, he will have more to say at the conclusion … and when the Sue Gray report is published.”

The Prime Minister said he was “sure we’ll have plenty to say about that when the thing’s finished” when asked about the extent of law-breaking in Downing Street as he arrived for a cabinet meeting in Staffordshire on Thursday.

Ministers dodged questions on whether they still had faith in the PM when asked about the latest development at the same event.

Johnson is alleged to have been at six of the 12 events being examined by the force, meaning he could be fined again.

Asked in an interview broadcast on Thursday if he too should resign in the event the Labour leader steps down, Johnson told LBC: “What matters to me and the thing that gets me out of bed in the morning is not stuff that, I think, is, however fascinating (it) is to people, I don’t think is material to the cost of living.”

Culture secretary Nadine Dorries and education secretary Nadhim Zahawi also said they still had faith in their leader when asked about the fines as they attended the Staffordshire meeting.

The excerpt has been edited for length.

Downing Street has said that neither Boris Johnson nor the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, believed a windfall tax was the “right approach” to address the cost of living crisis, but that it was important to keep all options on the table.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said:

We do keep options on the table – rightly so.

But, as the prime minister has set out, as the chancellor has said, we do not think this is the right approach.

We want these companies that are making profits to make further investments. But we are simply not cutting off options given the circumstances that we find.

Senior Tory MPs have criticised ministers for their response to the cost of living crisis, arguing that they must ensure it is “first and foremost” in their policy priorities and that they should “tame inflation”.

PA reports:

Former cabinet ministers Liam Fox and Maria Miller led calls for the government to focus on such issues in the short term to enable it to realise its longer-term ambitions.

Fox, the Conservative MP for North Somerset, said the government’s first duty was to protect citizens from threats, adding:

There are other threats that I believe we have a right to be protected from: the debasement of our currency, the erosion of our earnings and the devaluation of our savings.

“ believe it is fundamentally wrong for governments to engage in structural profligacy, spending excess across the economic cycle and passing ever-larger amounts of debt on to the next generation, and I believe that it is the duty of central banks to safeguard the value of our money and our savings.

Fox called for the Treasury Committee to launch an “investigation into why the Bank of England so comprehensively underestimated the inflationary threat”.

Miller, the Conservative MP for Basingstoke, told day three of the Queen’s speech debate:

One of the levers the [government] can pull in their response to the challenges we face is around inflation, and it’s very much in the government’s gift to be able to make those changes to bring inflation more under control.

The cost of living problems that we’re struggling with at the moment need to come first and foremost into the eyes of every minister, regardless of their department.

Prime minister Boris Johnson said his focus would be on continuing strong employment rates and creating more high-wage, high-skilled jobs to help the UK recover from inflationary pressures and the pandemic’s economic aftershocks.

At a cabinet meeting held at a pottery in Staffordshire this afternoon, he said:

People said that we would have unemployment running up to 12% to 14% – it’s back down to 3.8% – and that is the single most important thing that we need to be focussing on, a strong jobs-led recovery.

We’re going to make sure we use all our ingenuity, all our compassion, everything we need to do to help people through the difficult aftershocks of Covid, and the inflationary pressures that we’re seeing, particularly on the costs of energy.

What the Queen’s speech will also do is give us the legislative firepower to deliver on tackling the underlying issues – the things that are driving up prices, particularly for energy, for people’s transport, for the education people need.

That is why I think the Queen’s speech is so important – infrastructure, education, technology – those are the things that we need to focus on – particularly cutting the cost of energy.

The former chief secretary to the Treasury, David Gauke, has urged the government to boost benefits to help those worst affected by the cost of living crisis.

Speaking to Edward Stourton on BBC Radio 4’s World at One, he said:

What we are seeing is a really significant squeeze on living standards and we are seeing a sluggish economy – and that has got to be a worry. Clearly the pressure is on the government to deal with this.

They can’t do everything – they can’t protect people completely from higher levels of inflation – but what they can do and should do is focus on those who are most vulnerable – those who are most likely to be affected – and I think that’s the weakness in the government’s response here.

You’ve got to use the benefits system. If you want to help the poorest, I can see a case for cutting taxes, but it won’t be well directed at those who need the support most.

The government has already announced quite a lot – a big increase in the national insurance contributions threshold – and that’s probably the best way of using the tax system to help low earners. But that still leaves quite a lot of people who have not got the support that they might have done.

Gauke was also asked about the row with the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol. He said:

I don’t think we can shy away from the fact that the economic consequences of Brexit are being felt and that has contributed to some of the inflationary pressures and of course we could make things much worse if we end up with a trade war with the European Union.

Labour has just issued its response to Partygate fines.

Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s deputy leader, said:

Boris Johnson’s Downing Street has now reached a century of fixed penalty notices for their partying.

They have racked up the dubious distinction of receiving more fines on the prime minister’s watch than any other location.

Boris Johnson made the rules, and then broke them at record-breaking scale. Britain deserves better.

The SNP has responded to the 50 extra Partygate fines.

The SNP’s Westminster deputy leader, Kirsten Oswald MP, said:

The sheer scale of law-breaking is staggering. With more than a 100 fines now issued by the Met Police over lockdown-breaking parties, Downing Street may well be one of the biggest law-breaking venues in the UK.

It’s beyond any doubt that while people made difficult sacrifices and followed the rules to look out for each other, Boris Johnson and his Tory colleagues believed the rules they set didn’t apply to them as they laughed and partied away.

People are being hammered by a Tory-made cost of living crisis and the reality is that the prime minister and his chancellor are too consumed by scandals to get on with the day job.

Boris Johnson should have resigned a long time ago over the law-breaking parties – it is beyond shameful that he continues to desperately cling on.

Rachel Hall here taking over the live blog – do send over anything we’ve missed, or other tips, thoughts and ideas to rachel.hall@theguardian.com.

In theory it should be easy for the Conservatives to hold Tiverton and Honiton, the seat in Devon where there will be a byelection following the resignation of Neil Parish over watching pornography in the Commons. Parish had a majority of more than 24,000 in 2019.

But James Johnson, who was in charge of polling at No 10 under Theresa May, says a focus group he conducted in the constituency suggests a Lib Dem win is very possible. He explains why in a Twitter thread starting here.