Ministers and phone’s problem

It was revealed earlier this month that the prime minister had a text exchange with businessman Sir James Dyson at the start of the pandemic. In the messages, Mr Johnson promised to "fix" a tax issue for Sir James, whose company planned to work on building ventilators during the pandemic. The PM said he had done the "right thing" in "shifting heaven and earth and doing everything I possibly could" to help increase supply. But Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was wrong that those "who've got the prime minister's number can access him and ask about tax breaks". The Daily Telegraph recently reported the UK's most senior civil servant, Simon Case, had suggested Mr Johnson change his number because it was too widely known. And the Times reported last week that a Universal Credit claimant once contacted the PM directly "asking for help with their benefit claim" after they were passed his number by a friend. Ministers are issued with official mobile phones when they get a job in government, but they are allowed to keep their own personal devices.