Burka row latest: Boris Johnson vs Tory high command

Theresa May visited Scotland on Tuesday to hold Brexit talks with Nicola Sturgeon. Not that you would know this from reading today’s papers as they are all about Boris Johnson. The Boris and the burka row rumbles on for a third day – after the former foreign secretary refused to apologise for his comments on Monday comparing muslim women dressed in the full veil to ‘letterboxes’. Although Johnson not apologising is in some ways unsurprising, what’s driving the news is the number of his former Cabinet colleagues who have called on him to do so.

After Tory chairman Brandon Lewis took to social media to say that he had asked Johnson to apologise, Theresa May used a television to say that she agreed with hr chairman as ‘some of the terms Boris used in describing people’s appearance obviously have offended people’. That list is growing this morning with Defence minister Tobias Elwood joining the calls along with Jeremy Wright.