Keir Starmer defended Labor’s determination to keep up the pressure on the Prime Minister over the Downing Street parties during the Covid blockade, saying even conservatives were “tired of defending the defenseless.”
Disputing whether he focused too much on Partygate, the Labor leader insisted that his party could not simply ignore the fact that Johnson had been issued a FPN, along with Rishi Sunak and dozens of officials.
“It has been found that they have broken the law – and the criminal one,” he said. “No other prime minister in the history of our country has been found to have broken the law before. And I don’t think we can just get past it. “
Starmer said he would not pretend it didn’t matter and that “Johnson’s powers to run the country have been shot.” He added: “His own deputies now, as we saw on Thursday, do not really want to defend him because they are tired of defending the defenseless.
Johnson’s leadership has come under heavy pressure in recent days, with senior lawmakers including Mark Harper and Steve Baker urging him to leave.
Conservative co-chair Oliver Dowden dismissed Johnson’s resignation, saying he had “a very, very strong argument for him to stay in office”.
He insisted: “I do not think I am defending the indefensible. I think what happened on Downing Street was wrong, and I feel that people are experiencing a great deal of legitimate pain and anger at what happened, so I think it is right for the Prime Minister to apologize. “
Speaking to Sky News, Dowden praised Johnson’s record, saying he “fixes those big calls” and has “real energy and determination.” He added that the uncertainty caused by the leadership challenge would be “very detrimental to this country”.
Downing Street has insisted that Johnson has not yet been fined for attending a “bring your alcohol” garden party on May 20, 2020, for which at least some others attended received an FPN on Friday.
The prime minister has already admitted to attending a gathering described by his then-chief personal secretary in a leaked email as a “socially distancing drink”, but Johnson told lawmakers that he “implicitly believes it is a business event”.
The Sofia police did not confirm that they imposed fines during the May 20 rally and refused to make other public statements until after the May local elections. But the Guardian learned of at least one person who was fined for attending the event.
Starmer dismissed the idea that Partygate’s FPNs were light penalties, similar to parking fines, telling the BBC’s Sophie Raworth: “I tell you that in all my days no one has ever broken down in front of me in tears because can’t drive at 35 mph in a 30mph zone. People collapsed in front of me, in tears, because they couldn’t do what they wanted because of it [Covid] rules.”
He said “raw human emotion” was the reason so many people felt strongly about Johnson’s behavior.
Johnson was forced to step down last week after it became clear he would not be able to get his own lawmakers to postpone an investigation by the House of Commons Privileges Committee into cheating parliament.
The prime minister appears to be blaming opposition critics for his continued suffering, saying during a visit to India: “If the opposition wants to focus on this and talk about it much more, that’s fine.”
Starmer dismissed the idea that Labor had failed to focus on other issues, saying he had called for an urgent budget to tackle the cost of living crisis.
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