Amesbury hits out at PM
A RUNCORN MP has hit out at the Prime Minister over ‘partygate’, branding him ‘guilty as charged’ and accusing him of misleading Parliament.
Last week Mr Johnson become the first sitting prime minister to be sanctioned for breaking the law when he was fined by the Metropolitan Police, alongside wife Carrie and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, over a birthday party for the PM at No 10 in June 2020.
Such gatherings were illegal at the time as the country was under strict lockdown rules.
Boris Johnson addressed members in the Commons last week following Parliament’s Easter recess.
He said he repeated his ‘wholehearted apology’ to the House, and said he had acknowledged the ‘hurt and anger’ caused, but said he was unaware at the time that he was in breach of any regulations.
The Prime Minister received a fierce backlash from the opposition benches, with
Conservative MP Mark Harper calling on him to quit over his “indefensible” actions.
Addressing Mr Johnson directly, Mike Amesbury, Labour MP for Weaver
Vale, said: “The Prime Minister has broken the law-guilty as charged-that many people up and down our shores abided by They never had the opportunity to say goodbye to loved ones. The Prime Minister also misled the House over and over again and misled the public over and over again.
“Does he believe in the ministerial code? Is it worth the paper it is written on?”
To which the Prime Minister replied: “Let me repeat my apologies for what I got wrong and what went wrong in Downing Street and also my explanation for why I have spoken as I have in this House.”
Asked by Tory MP Peter Bone if he had deliberately misled MPs in his previous statements, the Prime Minister said: “No.”