Ed Davey spoke in the Commons following the Prime Minister’s statement on the Sue Gray report.
Boris Johnson is only sorry he got caught. He's not fit to be Prime Minister. He should resign, if he won't Conservative MPs should sack him. pic.twitter.com/PWK8CyO6Kx
— Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) May 25, 2022
As you might expect, other Lib Dem MPs also expressed their anger.
Livid. Absolutely livid. Johnson's statement on the Sue Gray report was utterly shameless and I felt quite sick listening to it. A litany of excuses. Tory MPs' faces suggest many probably agree. #BorisJohnsonOut
— Munira Wilson MP 🇺🇦 (@munirawilson) May 25, 2022
30 seconds into his statement and the excuses begin. ‘These people were working long hours’… what? So were millions of others. They followed the rules that you set. How dare you.
— Tim Farron (@timfarron) May 25, 2022
Ordinary people stayed at home whilst the PM and his staff had 'Wine Time Friday'.
The disrespecting and mocking of staff who tried to stop these parties is another example of the arrogance in Number 10.
For the good of this country, Boris Johnson must resign.#SueGray
— Sarah Olney (@sarahjolney1) May 25, 2022
And this from LDHQ:
Boris Johnson wrote the rules. He broke the rules. Then he lied and tried to cover it up.
He's not fit to be Prime Minister. He should resign, if he won't Conservative MPs should sack him. pic.twitter.com/WXoEloarjE
— Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) May 25, 2022
Meanwhile, Brian Paddick (who is our spokesperson on Home Affairs in the Lords), has taken legal action along with The Good Law Project over the failure of the Metropolitan Police to properly investigate Brian Johnson’s attendance at three events which resulted in fines for other attendees.
* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.
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13 Comments
B.A. de Pfeffel J. is the biggest political rascal in Downing Street since David Lloyd George – but without the compensating charisma, intelligence, political skill, energy, capacity for work and the ability to master a subject – or to surround himself with effective advisers and Ministers..
It’s minus Nil points from me and an early P60….. though as Theakes points out elsewhere it might just serve the purpose of the opposition parties better in the hope of a new non-Tory Government if that P60 could be decisively delivered by the electorate at the next General Election.
PS It’s the centenary of D.LG.’s defenestration by the Tory M.P.s next October.
The alleged ABBA party wasn’t investigated because Sue Gray stopped investigating when the Met (previously uninterested in looking into the matter) started to investigate and wasn’t looked at again when The Met stopped their lazy investigation which allowed those who could afford legal advice to get away with it. Why? Presumably because it wasn’t her place to investigate in the first place due to conflict of interest.
Regardless of what we know about Covid now, at those times it was critical we were all in it together otherwise things would have been much worse. The only leadership from Westminster at that time was leading us into the NHS collapsing and many, many more deaths, and now there is only the feeling that the rich and powerful get away with it while the cleaners get verbally abused. Roll on the next general election when the Tories still end up in government albeit potentially as a minority one.
It should be noted that most Conservative MPs are not unduly concerned whether Johnson is a good PM; their prime concern is whether or not he is an electoral asset.
Real humorous stuff from David, agreed!
Johnson ought to go. A bafoon.
But if he does not, we might get a better govt?! A Labour Liberal one!
The bottom line on all this is that if this report had been published in the frenzied, angry atmosphere of February it would have led to ‘the 54 letters and a leadership challenge. The Met police’s decision to investigate drew the whole process out: the Westminster bubble got distracted, their anger cooled and BJ’s people – who were running round like headless chickens in Jan/Feb – got time to put some effective rebuttal lines in play, e.g. Beergate and ‘Ukraine changes everything’.
That’s what happened here. The Met’s intervention saved him. For now at least. The shadow of this scandal will always hang over him, so in his next crisis he’ll be more vulnerable.
I am certainly not surprised that Johnson refuses to resign or that his MPs lack the balls to sack him. No-one is this appalling government resigns unless forced to to so. As long as his MPs regard him as an electoral asset, Johnson will stay.
So we have an important role in putting pressure on the government and Johnson in particular. A double by-election loss on 23/6 may persuade wavering Tory MPs to push the button on a leadership contest. Sad though it is, we can’t win Wakefield, but Tiverton and Honiton could be a 3rd by-election gain from the Tories for us. A plea, however. Just because the bookies and the political gossips say we will win, doesn’t make it so. I can’t be there to help this time due to family illness, but the party needs all its campaigners to stop doing what they’re doing and go to Devon. That’s what enabled us to win the last two by-elections. Boots on the ground and intensive canvassing won Chesham and Amersham and then North Shropshire. Without concerted action we risk losing.
Whilst I know that the country needs rid of Johnson, the party will do better at the GE if he still leads the Tories. Bit of a dilemma there!
I’m not angry with Johnson; we have always known what he is.. I’m not even angry at his immediate circle, Raab, Patel, Truss, et al; they owe their ministerial position to his patronage.. I AM angry at the ‘ordinary’ Tory MPs who are willing to allow their party to be dragged ever further into the cess pool of Johnson’s ambition.. I AM angry at the third of the English electorate who are willing to still back a liar and a cheat who is only interested in himself..
Mick Taylor (26th May ’22 – 5:55am) writes, “Sad though it is, we can’t win Wakefield”; well, we can’t, but we should do everything possible to ensure the Tories don’t..
If Boris Johnson stays it will help us win many seats at the next general election. However, we are facing a cost of living crisis, an oncoming recession and confrontation with Russia. Boris Johnson should go now to allow someone concerned about these matters to take over.
He is only concerned about himself and will go down in history as “The Dishonourable Prime Minister”.
Expats.I suspect we are, but I doubt anything we do will stop Labour winning a seat they should never have lost.
One of the most bizarre Johnsonisms following the vomit-worthy statement was the non-reply to a journalist who suggested that he ought to have found out what was going on and dealt with it. He replied that he had instituted an enquiry and then asked for the next question!
Ref my earlier post,,,
Boris stated how “He’s Humbled” then, a few hours later,goes to the ’22 Commitee’ and it’s all a big joke.. As one Tory MP attendee said, “….. reducing everything to a joke. Tractors & farmers, drinking at work and something about the Second World War. Everything is a joke & some laugh along. Making us all the clowns in his circus.”
Don’t waste your anger; he doesn’t care…Just use the energy, at Tiverton and Honiton, to really hurt his party at the by-election..
I see from the Guardian just now that the artful dodger is at it again – re-writing the rules to suit himself :
“Boris Johnson is changing the rules to let ministers avoid resigning if they break the ministerial code, allowing them to apologise or temporarily lose their pay instead.
The prime minister, who is facing claims of breaching the code, published a policy statement on Friday saying it is “disproportionate to expect that any breach, however minor, should lead automatically to resignation or dismissal”.
Whatever happened to the Nolan principles ??
Artful dodger David, that’s not what I would call him!