Saved by the bell 🔔 This is excruciating to watch. It’s like observing a hermit crab without a shell trying to talk a seagull out of eating it. #Partygate #BorisJohnson #PrivilegesCommittee
If this was a trial the judge would sum up to the jury that Boris Johnson was an unreliable witness.
The panel should ask, given that 9% of people change jobs each year, if a thank you gathering of multiple people for someone leaving was considered essential why couldn't similar thank you gatherings take place for the 1% of people who die each year?
Could finally be seeing Johnsons lies catching up with him.
Sounds oddly defensive and angry
It's over. The big event already happened with the WF vote which has destroyed the erg. The COVID stuff is now just a sideshow for the opposition to snarl and feed over the remains. Unedifying but understandable.
If this was a trial the judge would sum up to the jury that Boris Johnson was an unreliable witness.
The panel should ask, given that 9% of people change jobs each year, if a thank you gathering of multiple people for someone leaving was considered essential why couldn't similar thank you gatherings take place for the 1% of people who die each year?
23 Tories voting no apparently. Disaster for the ERG.
Who was the poster who predicted 100-150 Tory rebels?
HYUFD said it will reflect the support Johnson has in parliament. lol.
I didn't make any prediction on figures however.
You must be in despair
As I predicted the ERG are irrelevant now
I voted for Sunak in the leadership election not Truss if you recall, so I am actually more pro Sunak than most Conservative members
I have just collapsed laughing
Only 43% of Conservative members voted for Rishi like me, 57% voted for Truss
In the Conservative Party though unlike the other main parties MPs put forward only 2 candidates to members and MPs alone can VONC the party leader.
Labour or the SNP though are stuck with an extreme leader until either they resign or most members turn against them. The LDs are too but their leaders are normally moderates
I do think that the Conservative leadership process is the best of the main parties.
I think it's fine for opposition but in government there's a strong argument for either cutting the members out of the process, or perhaps reversing it - members pick the shortlist but MPs have the final say.
IMHO the members should choose the party chairman only. The MPs know the individuals, plus they are elected by normal people (caveat needed) who are not necessarily political geeks. MPs voting for party leaders is actually the most democratic
No in opposition members should get the final say and let the public decide if they want to make the leader they chose PM at a general election.
In government though yes MPs alone should choose the new PM
IMO you might wish to try prefacing your opinion with IMO instead of "no". It makes you come across as a little more humble. Maybe also utilise the odd comma, perhaps?
What we can learn from Boris is that so long as you get someone to say 'the rules are being followed' in writing then you may breach rules as egregiously as you like and claim with a straight face no one could reasonably have realised it was not so.
It's like adding allegedly to a defamatory statement, I'm sure that totally covers you.
Boris and his rag tag band of ERG loons looking very diminished and silly today.
They may still get their revenge by taking over the Tory Party again in opposition (I very much hope not) but any chance of a pre-election comeback now is negligible.
If Sunak had good sense he’d spend some political capital and shore up his position by telling them to quit the party.
The trajectory for closer alignment with Europe is set. Everyone should welcome this, even those who wanted to leave. We still have an interest in maintaining good relations with our closest neighbours and trading partners.
If this was a trial the judge would sum up to the jury that Boris Johnson was an unreliable witness.
The panel should ask, given that 9% of people change jobs each year, if a thank you gathering of multiple people for someone leaving was considered essential why couldn't similar thank you gatherings take place for the 1% of people who die each year?
Weren't funerals always allowed?
Not indoors. We had a cold, and rather miserable small gathering outside the crematorium for my father.
What we can learn from Boris is that so long as you get someone to say 'the rules are being followed' in writing then you may breach rules as egregiously as you like and claim with a straight face no one could reasonably have realised it was not so.
It's like adding allegedly to a defamatory statement, I'm sure that totally covers you.
'Wherever possible', doing a heck of a lot of heavy lifting for him here.
After arguing for weeks that Sue Gray’s report is now under question, Boris Johnson is now peuce with incredulity that he’s not allowed to rely on it as evidence to the Committee.
If this was a trial the judge would sum up to the jury that Boris Johnson was an unreliable witness.
The panel should ask, given that 9% of people change jobs each year, if a thank you gathering of multiple people for someone leaving was considered essential why couldn't similar thank you gatherings take place for the 1% of people who die each year?
Break: ERG number crunching shows @RishiSunak needed opposition MPs to get his Northern Ireland deal passed. There were 48 Conservative abstentions which they say = 24 no votes. Add that to 22 actual No votes and you have 46 No votes which = loss of government majority
If this was a trial the judge would sum up to the jury that Boris Johnson was an unreliable witness.
The panel should ask, given that 9% of people change jobs each year, if a thank you gathering of multiple people for someone leaving was considered essential why couldn't similar thank you gatherings take place for the 1% of people who die each year?
Weren't funerals always allowed?
With restrictions far more severe than those Boris thought acceptable at number 10.
Break: ERG number crunching shows @RishiSunak needed opposition MPs to get his Northern Ireland deal passed. There were 48 Conservative abstentions which they say = 24 no votes. Add that to 22 actual No votes and you have 46 No votes which = loss of government majority
Thats a super-f**king leap to assume all abstentions would be no votes.
Break: ERG number crunching shows @RishiSunak needed opposition MPs to get his Northern Ireland deal passed. There were 48 Conservative abstentions which they say = 24 no votes. Add that to 22 actual No votes and you have 46 No votes which = loss of government majority
Regardlesss of the outcome, what a humiliation this is for someone who once fancied himself as Churchill reincarnated, to be facing such questions from some dimwit pipsqueak like Jenkin
You have had disclosure of all that material for more than two weeks. You could have asked for any of this material to be verified by the witnesses concerned. You have not done that and you have not asked the Committee to do that.
The Committee takes its obligations of confidentiality and to junior civil servants very seriously. You only asked to rely on material that is not evidence at 3.21 pm on Monday this week, less than 48 hours before the evidence session.
This inquiry does not finish with today’s evidence session. You are entitled to obtain witness statements which we will consider. You have all the material in the master bundle and you can refer the Committee to that without prejudicing confidentiality.
Break: ERG number crunching shows @RishiSunak needed opposition MPs to get his Northern Ireland deal passed. There were 48 Conservative abstentions which they say = 24 no votes. Add that to 22 actual No votes and you have 46 No votes which = loss of government majority
If this was a trial the judge would sum up to the jury that Boris Johnson was an unreliable witness.
The panel should ask, given that 9% of people change jobs each year, if a thank you gathering of multiple people for someone leaving was considered essential why couldn't similar thank you gatherings take place for the 1% of people who die each year?
Weren't funerals always allowed?
Not indoors. We had a cold, and rather miserable small gathering outside the crematorium for my father.
Fearless Forecast - much HEAVY lifting attempted by the PB BoJo Brigade today.
With Fear of Keir way more than palpable, more like pulsating.
I’m not sure if there’s anyone left in the PB BoJo brigade is there? I think most of them have jumped ship. Leon was the last seen on the bridge I think, and then just for the LOLs
@HYUFD struggles but most of us want Johnson gone and in my case have supported Sunak for over a year and do see him as the future of the conservative party and able to mitigate the GE24 result
Today in PMQs he was virtually bouncing with confidence, maybe at the thought of taking on Johnson and the ERG, and his put down of Starmer when Starmer raised Sunak's FPN was perfect
What was it, Big G?
Starmer referred to Sunak's FPN and in his reply Sunak said he wanted to address it directly by saying he arrived at the scheduled meeting and accepted the FPN and apologised, but we all now know that the leader of the opposition was being advised by Sue Gray at the time
How can she have been advising Starmer at the time? She hasn't got the job yet. If Sunak wants to do Johnson's dirty work for him by trashing a dedicated public servant that's not a great endorsement of the idea that he represents a break from Johnsonian sleaze. Still, he got the lolz from the Tory fanbois.
Chill. It was a good joke. Oh if only people didn't take obvious jokes so seriously on PB.
Jokes on PB are different from the PM speaking in the House of Commons and trashing government employees, aren't they?
Jokes are good because there is an element of truth in them. As was the case here.
It was just trashy BS, pure Johnsonian bilge and a sign the Tories haven't moved on from his era. The FPN was issued by the police, Sue Gray had nothing to do with it.
Hansard is out and, lo and behold! Sunak didn't say she did.
Let me just address the issue that the right hon. and learned Gentleman raised, because I said at the time that I respected the decision that the police reached, and I offered an unreserved apology. For the avoidance of doubt, at the moment that that happened, there was a full investigation by a very senior civil servant, the findings of which confirmed that I had no advance knowledge about what had been planned, having arrived early for a meeting. But he does not need me to tell him that; he has probably spoken to the report’s author much more frequently than I have.
Facts, who needs 'em?
To be fair, I think Big G added his commentary but OLB assumed that it was original content.
I can summarise the Boris defence as follows ... "Er ar oo ar er Mrs. You're a rotter."
Every word, he finally gets out, shows a very shallow man. Embarrassing. If he hadn't been a former PM, I'd be laughing, but it's no laughing matter. He should be wearing clown facepaint and having a stream of water coming from his eyes.
Everybody who was in an office during lockdown knows you were not allowed to have leaving drinks. Everybody. And that means everybody in Downing Street, including Boris Johnson. It is that simple.
Break: ERG number crunching shows @RishiSunak needed opposition MPs to get his Northern Ireland deal passed. There were 48 Conservative abstentions which they say = 24 no votes. Add that to 22 actual No votes and you have 46 No votes which = loss of government majority
Are we absolutely sure that those who didn't vote actively abstained on the grounds that they don't approve of the deal?
Another classic distraction move - late introduction of arguments and evidence which could have been raised earlier, so you can argue evidence was dismissed unfairly, even if you gave no time for verification.
Break: ERG number crunching shows @RishiSunak needed opposition MPs to get his Northern Ireland deal passed. There were 48 Conservative abstentions which they say = 24 no votes. Add that to 22 actual No votes and you have 46 No votes which = loss of government majority
No, "Abstentions" aren't "No" votes......pretty desperate stuff from the ERG (who? - ed.)
If residential REIT share prices are a decent forward indicator of house prices, then PRSR down ~30% since last summer indicates there may be more pain ahead for the housing market.
Or alternatively REITs have been oversold, and are now good value.
Possibly.
PRSR strikes me as an excellent holding for any non-homeowning younguns with a lifetime isa.
I haven’t looked into their accounts, or anything, though. Could be toxic for all I know.
I think a problem for Johnson is that - presumably as advised by Pannick - he's adopting a very specific, careful interpretation of the guidelines and rules. But it just does not accord with how he publicly explained them at the time, as prime minister
A genuine non-denial denial. Johnson claims it is “unlikely” that he said, at a particular leaving do, that it was the “the most unsocially distanced gathering in the UK right now”.
What else does everyone have on their bingo list ?
Break: ERG number crunching shows @RishiSunak needed opposition MPs to get his Northern Ireland deal passed. There were 48 Conservative abstentions which they say = 24 no votes. Add that to 22 actual No votes and you have 46 No votes which = loss of government majority
Thats a super-f**king leap to assume all abstentions would be no votes.
Completely at odds with standard practice, not least because there are surely some pairs amongst the "abstentions".
Break: ERG number crunching shows @RishiSunak needed opposition MPs to get his Northern Ireland deal passed. There were 48 Conservative abstentions which they say = 24 no votes. Add that to 22 actual No votes and you have 46 No votes which = loss of government majority
Thats a super-f**king leap to assume all abstentions would be no votes.
It's a bit sad to not make a 'the principle is important regardless of numbers' argument but instead seek to inflate things like Trump about his rally attendances.
Is Boris Johnson relying on legal advice tendered by . . . wait for it . . . Rudy Giuliani?
My late grandmother used to run a ladies outfitters in Felixstowe, Suffolk called Four Seasons. Maybe they could have a press conference there, although I think the building is a Ladbrokes today.
Johnson’s defenestration today paves the way nicely for the return of Truss.
Who
Liz Truss. The greatest political mind of this or any other generation whose return to power will fund my retirement.
It’s a brave statement to suggest the return of Liz Truss would benefit you financially, given what she did to the economy last time…
I’ve got a six figure sum on her as next leader with a betting exchange I cannot mention or you’ll all be rushing in. When, inevitably, she regally pulls up in front of No 10, waives, and you all realise this was all part of her plan, I shall be with the captain of my mega yacht planning my next Caribbean destination.
Break: ERG number crunching shows @RishiSunak needed opposition MPs to get his Northern Ireland deal passed. There were 48 Conservative abstentions which they say = 24 no votes. Add that to 22 actual No votes and you have 46 No votes which = loss of government majority
Are we absolutely sure that those who didn't vote actively abstained on the grounds that they don't approve of the deal?
Break: ERG number crunching shows @RishiSunak needed opposition MPs to get his Northern Ireland deal passed. There were 48 Conservative abstentions which they say = 24 no votes. Add that to 22 actual No votes and you have 46 No votes which = loss of government majority
Thats a super-f**king leap to assume all abstentions would be no votes.
He is not saying they are no votes but saying 48 abstentions is equivalent to 24 no votes when it comes to the count. That is an abstention is worth half of going through the opponents lobby.
Break: ERG number crunching shows @RishiSunak needed opposition MPs to get his Northern Ireland deal passed. There were 48 Conservative abstentions which they say = 24 no votes. Add that to 22 actual No votes and you have 46 No votes which = loss of government majority
Are we absolutely sure that those who didn't vote actively abstained on the grounds that they don't approve of the deal?
Or were some of them otherwise engaged and didn't need to bother voting?
36 Labour including several front benchers, so there's definitely either some pairs or they didn't bother pairing formally because the result was not in question.
Essentially, Scotty repeating the shit stirring of - of all things! - the ERG is risible and we'd be best off not giving it any further airtime.
A genuine non-denial denial. Johnson claims it is “unlikely” that he said, at a particular leaving do, that it was the “the most unsocially distanced gathering in the UK right now”.
What else does everyone have on their bingo list ?
That many words in a row without an err or an umm. I concur, most unlikely.
Johnson now trying to explain why wife and interior designer were at absolutely necessary work birthday party in Number 10 - didn’t reflect it was against the rules.
I think a problem for Johnson is that - presumably as advised by Pannick - he's adopting a very specific, careful interpretation of the guidelines and rules. But it just does not accord with how he publicly explained them at the time, as prime minister
Pannick shouldn’t be coaching a witness like that.
Break: ERG number crunching shows @RishiSunak needed opposition MPs to get his Northern Ireland deal passed. There were 48 Conservative abstentions which they say = 24 no votes. Add that to 22 actual No votes and you have 46 No votes which = loss of government majority
Thats a super-f**king leap to assume all abstentions would be no votes.
He is not saying they are no votes but saying 48 abstentions is equivalent to 24 no votes when it comes to the count. That is an abstention is worth half of going through the opponents lobby.
I think a problem for Johnson is that - presumably as advised by Pannick - he's adopting a very specific, careful interpretation of the guidelines and rules. But it just does not accord with how he publicly explained them at the time, as prime minister
Pannick shouldn’t be coaching a witness like that.
Problem for Johnson is he clearly believes his behaviour was justified to boost staff morale but there was NO exception for that and many others in workplaces across the country wished for similar events - which they did not hold. 'One rule for us...' is a dangerous area
Johnson's line on parties/gathering: basically his only concern about them was optics, not legality - he was just worried that the plebs wouldn't understand how vital it was for No 10 to party/gather/say goodbye to one another while no one else could
He now seems to be arguing that he couldn't have possibly broken the rules because it if he had been at an event it must have been one were the rules weren't broken, because he didn't break the rules.
This is going to be hours and hours of "the dog ate my homework" concluding with the finding that the dog in question doesn't like the taste of paper, isn't it?
The staff in Downing St under Boris must have been mega fucking snowflakes if they couldn’t function without essential thanks with added drinks and speeches for their work. Nurses got Thursday night clapping to motivate them, No 10 staffers got booze and a speech from the PM.
As someone who has fairly consistently criticised Johnson during his PMship, I would like to add a few grams to counter the tonnes of weight in the chorus of negative comments below:
I have never had to make such weighty decisions, potentially affecting the imminent health and wellbeing of hundreds of thousands of people, as Johnson had during the Covid crisis. I have only once been seriously ill in hospital (and then, I don't think it was as ill as he was) and then it took me months to recover), I did not need to come out and run the country.
I daresay this comment will get pounced on by the BDS squad, the Boris-was-useful-for-Brexit-but-not-now group, or the I-hate-everyone-in-power-who-does-not-wear-my-coloiur-rosette Neanderthals, but he was under tremendous personal and public stress at the time. I doubt any PM has been under such pressure for seventy years.
Yes, it's Boris. Yes, he's a liar. But Boris, like all of us, is human.
Matron has just caught (let's call him) schoolboy J. inflagrante with his fag in the vestibule. Matron has photographs and a video. Johnson's testimony would make a decent textbook defence for schoolboy J.'s interview with the Headmaster.
I think a problem for Johnson is that - presumably as advised by Pannick - he's adopting a very specific, careful interpretation of the guidelines and rules. But it just does not accord with how he publicly explained them at the time, as prime minister
Pannick shouldn’t be coaching a witness like that.
Er, is he only a witness?
In this context he is. He's a witness in his own defence.
Boris Johnson wants us to believe that Downing St was too cramped and narrow to facilitate social distancing but so vast that it was impossible for him to hear piss-ups going on in the next room
Terribly incompetent questioning. Surely they could have some more forensic individuals on this committee?
mmm, when I used to chair (council) scrutiny committees, I'd plan out the order I'd call members to ask questions, and make sure the best ones were towards the end. And I think Harman is probably better at this than me.
As someone who has fairly consistently criticised Johnson during his PMship, I would like to add a few grams to counter the tonnes of weight in the chorus of negative comments below:
I have never had to make such weighty decisions, potentially affecting the imminent health and wellbeing of hundreds of thousands of people, as Johnson had during the Covid crisis. I have only once been seriously ill in hospital (and then, I don't think it was as ill as he was) and then it took me months to recover), I did not need to come out and run the country.
I daresay this comment will get pounced on by the BDS squad, the Boris-was-useful-for-Brexit-but-not-now group, or the I-hate-everyone-in-power-who-does-not-wear-my-coloiur-rosette Neanderthals, but he was under tremendous personal and public stress at the time. I doubt any PM has been under such pressure for seventy years.
Yes, it's Boris. Yes, he's a liar. But Boris, like all of us, is human.
(dons flameproof suit)
I do agree that he was in charge at a very difficult time and I am in no doubt that it wasnt easy.
But it doesn’t excuse him the p*ss poor handling of the situation from his end. He literally had one job on this front - be transparent and follow the rules. The fact that he couldn’t do either speaks volumes for who he is as a person.
As someone who has fairly consistently criticised Johnson during his PMship, I would like to add a few grams to counter the tonnes of weight in the chorus of negative comments below:
I have never had to make such weighty decisions, potentially affecting the imminent health and wellbeing of hundreds of thousands of people, as Johnson had during the Covid crisis. I have only once been seriously ill in hospital (and then, I don't think it was as ill as he was) and then it took me months to recover), I did not need to come out and run the country.
I daresay this comment will get pounced on by the BDS squad, the Boris-was-useful-for-Brexit-but-not-now group, or the I-hate-everyone-in-power-who-does-not-wear-my-coloiur-rosette Neanderthals, but he was under tremendous personal and public stress at the time. I doubt any PM has been under such pressure for seventy years.
Yes, it's Boris. Yes, he's a liar. But Boris, like all of us, is human.
(dons flameproof suit)
Maybe. But he certainly wasn't under such pressure when he allegedly lied to Parliament. Which is what this hearing is about. Not about the rule breaking per se. If he'd come out and said "I was under pressure, I knew people were breaking the rules, sorry" he wouldn't be before this committee.
I think a problem for Johnson is that - presumably as advised by Pannick - he's adopting a very specific, careful interpretation of the guidelines and rules. But it just does not accord with how he publicly explained them at the time, as prime minister
Pannick shouldn’t be coaching a witness like that.
Er, is he only a witness?
In this context he is. He's a witness in his own defence.
@paulwaugh Flash of anger from Johnson: those who say we were partying "do not know what they are talking about". Garden drinks party in No.10 was at end of a "very difficult day, the Cabinet Secretary just resigned". NB doesn't mention resignation followed briefing against Mark Sedwill.
@ProfJaneGreen Breaking. Covid rules applied to people not having very difficult days.
Comments
Saved by the bell 🔔
This is excruciating to watch. It’s like observing a hermit crab without a shell trying to talk a seagull out of eating it. #Partygate #BorisJohnson #PrivilegesCommittee
The flamenco perhaps.
It's like adding allegedly to a defamatory statement, I'm sure that totally covers you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lCI63H1neY
First moment of laughter in the room as Boris Johnson draws on evidence from Sue Gray’s report.
“We’re not relying on Sue Gray, which is ironic”, says Sir Bernard Jenkin.
They may still get their revenge by taking over the Tory Party again in opposition (I very much hope not) but any chance of a pre-election comeback now is negligible.
If Sunak had good sense he’d spend some political capital and shore up his position by telling them to quit the party.
The trajectory for closer alignment with Europe is set. Everyone should welcome this, even those who wanted to leave. We still have an interest in maintaining good relations with our closest neighbours and trading partners.
We had a cold, and rather miserable small gathering outside the crematorium for my father.
After arguing for weeks that Sue Gray’s report is now under question, Boris Johnson is now peuce with incredulity that he’s not allowed to rely on it as evidence to the Committee.
Jenkins is completely taking him apart
Furthermore with just 22 rebels today I expect a free vote in the house may well end his political career
Break: ERG number crunching shows @RishiSunak needed opposition MPs to get his Northern Ireland deal passed. There were 48 Conservative abstentions which they say = 24 no votes. Add that to 22 actual No votes and you have 46 No votes which = loss of government majority
for any of this material to be verified by the witnesses concerned. You have not done that and
you have not asked the Committee to do that.
The Committee takes its obligations of confidentiality and to junior civil servants very
seriously. You only asked to rely on material that is not evidence at 3.21 pm on Monday this
week, less than 48 hours before the evidence session.
This inquiry does not finish with today’s evidence session. You are entitled to obtain witness
statements which we will consider. You have all the material in the master bundle and you
can refer the Committee to that without prejudicing confidentiality.
Every word, he finally gets out, shows a very shallow man. Embarrassing.
If he hadn't been a former PM, I'd be laughing, but it's no laughing matter. He should be wearing clown facepaint and having a stream of water coming from his eyes.
Everybody who was in an office during lockdown knows you were not allowed to have leaving drinks. Everybody. And that means everybody in Downing Street, including Boris Johnson. It is that simple.
https://votes.parliament.uk/Votes/Commons/Division/1504#notrecorded
Or were some of them otherwise engaged and didn't need to bother voting?
PRSR strikes me as an excellent holding for any non-homeowning younguns with a lifetime isa.
I haven’t looked into their accounts, or anything, though. Could be toxic for all I know.
I think a problem for Johnson is that - presumably as advised by Pannick - he's adopting a very specific, careful interpretation of the guidelines and rules. But it just does not accord with how he publicly explained them at the time, as prime minister
Johnson claims it is “unlikely” that he said, at a particular leaving do, that it was the “the most unsocially distanced gathering in the UK right now”.
What else does everyone have on their bingo list ?
Essentially, Scotty repeating the shit stirring of - of all things! - the ERG is risible and we'd be best off not giving it any further airtime.
Johnson now trying to explain why wife and interior designer were at absolutely necessary work birthday party in Number 10 - didn’t reflect it was against the rules.
Please do not indict/arrest Donald Trump today.
Boris Johnson deserves all the attention today.
He clearly absolutely loaths and disdains Sir Bernard (and the feeling is quite mutual) lol...
Problem for Johnson is he clearly believes his behaviour was justified to boost staff morale but there was NO exception for that and many others in workplaces across the country wished for similar events - which they did not hold. 'One rule for us...' is a dangerous area
@jennirsl
Johnson's line on parties/gathering: basically his only concern about them was optics, not legality - he was just worried that the plebs wouldn't understand how vital it was for No 10 to party/gather/say goodbye to one another while no one else could
I hope Rishi has arranged drinks with outdoor screens in the Downing st garden to watch this today. With a big Union Flag cake and lots of popcorn.
He now seems to be arguing that he couldn't have possibly broken the rules because it if he had been at an event it must have been one were the rules weren't broken, because he didn't break the rules.
Boris Johnson publicly burns two officials who were promised anonymity.
This is unbearable to watch.
Johnson: "He was concerned about the optics, not about the rules."
Fovargue: "If the event was within the rules, why would he be concerned about the optics."
Johnson then concedes that it might look as if the BYOB garden party broke the rules. ~AA
I have never had to make such weighty decisions, potentially affecting the imminent health and wellbeing of hundreds of thousands of people, as Johnson had during the Covid crisis. I have only once been seriously ill in hospital (and then, I don't think it was as ill as he was) and then it took me months to recover), I did not need to come out and run the country.
I daresay this comment will get pounced on by the BDS squad, the Boris-was-useful-for-Brexit-but-not-now group, or the I-hate-everyone-in-power-who-does-not-wear-my-coloiur-rosette Neanderthals, but he was under tremendous personal and public stress at the time. I doubt any PM has been under such pressure for seventy years.
Yes, it's Boris. Yes, he's a liar. But Boris, like all of us, is human.
(dons flameproof suit)
Boris Johnson wants us to believe that Downing St was too cramped and narrow to facilitate social distancing but so vast that it was impossible for him to hear piss-ups going on in the next room
Harriet Harman: Is your name Boris Johnson?
Boris Johnson: No
But it doesn’t excuse him the p*ss poor handling of the situation from his end. He literally had one job on this front - be transparent and follow the rules. The fact that he couldn’t do either speaks volumes for who he is as a person.
(puts on second layer of flameproof coat. I'm about ready to get samples from an active volcano...)
Flash of anger from Johnson: those who say we were partying "do not know what they are talking about".
Garden drinks party in No.10 was at end of a "very difficult day, the Cabinet Secretary just resigned".
NB doesn't mention resignation followed briefing against Mark Sedwill.
@ProfJaneGreen
Breaking. Covid rules applied to people not having very difficult days.
This is not going to go down well (again).
Harriet Harman is the current Chair of the Privileges Committee.
A lot of people are about to see just how badly behaved Johnson gets whenever he is questioned by a woman.
(Anyone who used to watch his horrific behaviour in Mayor's Question Times already knows this)
https://twitter.com/garius/status/1638435051808456705 To be fair, that's not news. The golden rule is that Everyone Who Deals With Boris End Up Regretting It, and that's been known for a while.
But having him shrivel so pathetically and so publicly is satisfying. Shame it's taken so long and allowed him to do so much damage on the way.
Wonder if/when the Mail + Telegraph will dump him?