Bringyour Own boos
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HUMILIATED Boris Johnson left an angry nation in limbo yesterday as calls for him to quit grew louder.
A day after his unconvincing apology for attending the “bring your own booze party”, the Prime Minister hunkered down after a member of his family tested positive for Covid.
Astonishingly, it emerged that soon after saying sorry, he had told members in the Commons tearoom that he believed he was “taking a hit for something we don’t deserve”.
And crony Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the House, made matters worse as he attempted to defend his boss by saying that lockdown rules were “very hard for people to obey”.
Grieving relatives of those who died during the pandemic have hit out at the Prime Minister and his partying Downing Street staff.
Carl Nunnerley, 47, of Denton, Greater Manchester, whose 88-year-old father James died at the height of the first lockdown – just before the party at Downing Street on May 20, 2020 – said: “The only reason Boris Johnson apologised is that he has been caught.
“He’s trying to cover his back. People are so angry. If he really feels apologetic, the best thing he can do for this country is to resign.”
Former minister Caroline Nokes became the fourth Tory MP to publicly call on the PM to go, declaring: “He looks like a liability.”
She added: “He either goes now or he goes in three years’ time at a general election. It’s up to the party to decide which.”
Fellow Tories Douglas Ross, Sir Roger Gale and William Wragg also called for his resignation while Tory police and crime commissioner for Cumbria, Peter McCall, said: “If it were me I would be considering my position.”
Meanwhile, sources say that Rishi Sunak – the bookies’ favourite to succeed Johnson – was maintaining a low profile at the Treasury yesterday.
Some senior Tories believe that if he opts to quit and challenge Johnson, he could win enough support to oust the PM.
The Chancellor had been in Devon on Wednesday when the PM apologised. He offered lukewarm support, posting: “The PM was right to apologise and I support his request for patience while Sue Gray carries out her enquiry.”
Gray, a senior Whitehall civil servant, is due to report late next week. She spent six years leading the Cabinet Office’s Propriety and
Ethics teams, and once ran a bar in Northern Ireland. Labour deputy Angela Rayner pointed out that matters uncovered by Gray’s probe would be dealt with under the ministerial code, of which the PM is the ultimate arbiter.
She said: “So is the Prime Minister going to act as the judge and jury, even though he’s also the man in the dock?”
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey urged the police to investigate Johnson’s behaviour.
He said: “It is ludicrous to pretend that we
Sometimes we take the credit for things we don’t deserve and this time we’re taking hits for something we don’t deserve – BORIS JOHNSON TO TORY MPs IN THE TEA ROOM, HOURS AFTER COMMONS ‘APOLOGY’
can leave it to a civil servant appointed by Boris Johnson to get to the bottom of this.”
Despite widespread discontent within the party, Downing Street insisted that Johnson retains the Cabinet’s full support.
Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said that Johnson’s apology had been “very, very sincere”. As the scandal dragged on, the embattled PM had to scrap a trip to a vaccination centre in Burnley after a family member living at Downing Street tested positive.
His spokesman refused to confirm if it was his wife Carrie or their children – 21-month-old
Wilf or five-week-old Romy who had contracted Covid – but said: “He will follow the guidance for vaccinated close contacts, including daily testing and limiting contact with others.”
Vaccinated contacts are not legally required to self-isolate.