Boris Johnson shrugs off Partygate scandal with another party… at care home
BORIS Johnson was caught at yet another party yesterday — but this time it was just for tea and cake at a care home.
It came as he continued to shrug off Partygate — while a handful of Tory MPs called for his resignation.
The PM chatted with residents and posed in front of cake in a Platinum Jubilee-themed room in his Uxbridge constituency, as Westminster continued to row over the Sue Gray report.
Four more Tory MPs called for him to quit — dashing his hopes of drawing a line under the scandal.
Ex-minister Stephen Hammond, who lost the Conservative whip in 2019 for voting against Brexit, joined John Baron and new MPs David Simmonds and Julian Sturdy in slamming the PM for his failures over Downing Street’s booze culture.
Mr Hammond said he “cannot and will not defend the indefensible” and indicated he had sent a letter of no confidence to the Tory backbench 1922 Committee.
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Mr Simmonds, the MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, said: “It is clear that while the Government and our policies enjoy the confidence of the public, the Prime Minister does not.”
And Mr Baron said: “Given the scale of rule-breaking in No 10, I cannot accept that the Prime Minister was unaware.”
A total of 20 Tory MPs have so far publicly called for Mr Johnson to go. But 54 MPs must write to chairman of the 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady asking for a vote on the PM’s future — and only he knows how many have been sent so far.
In a separate blow for No 10, Labour is poised to nominate party grandee Harriet Harman to lead a Standards Committee investigation into whether or not the PM deliberately misled the House of Commons.
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But Ms Harman was herself fined three times for driving offences during her time as Labour minister.
Meanwhile the Met Police defended their probe amid questions about why the PM got one fixed penalty notice for his birthday party despite attending several gatherings.
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Acting Met Police chief Sir Stephen House said: “I accept that many of the photographs we are seeing look bad and Sue Gray’s report has dealt with that.
“We deal with the law, not what looks bad. And just because there is alcohol present, can I just remind people that the Covid regulations are about breaching Covid regulations, they’re not about whether there’s drink there or not.”
BBC COVID GAFFE
BBC presenter Nick Robinson has apologised for wrongly claiming that a Government cleaner died of Covid while working in Downing Street.
While grilling Cabinet minister Steve Barclay on air, Robinson linked the death of Emanuel Gomes in April 2020 to being around No10’s rule-breaking staff.
In fact, Mr Gomes worked at the Ministry of Justice and there is a dispute overhis cause of death.
The BBC is to broadcast a correction, while Robinson, 58, said: “That was mistake and I apologise for that.”