Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has reiterated his calls for prime minister Boris Johnson to resign, after the Metropolitan Police’s probe into ‘Partygate’ uncovered what he called “widespread criminality” in Downing Street while the Covid lockdown was in force.
Sir Keir was speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday, after the Met confirmed this week that 20 initial fixed penalty notices would be issued to people who attended the gatherings for breaches of lockdown laws.
The Met’s investigation, known as Operation Hillman, is ongoing. The probe is looking into 12 gatherings, of which the prime minister is known to have attended at least three.
The PM urged the Commons to let the police get on with the probe as the government sought to get on with the job of addressing the cost-of-living crisis. However, referring to comments previously made by the PM that lockdown rules had been followed in Downing Street “at all times”, Sir Keir accused Johnson of misleading the Commons and questioned why he had not resigned.
It has not been disclosed at the time of writing whether Johnson was among the initial 20 to be handed a fine, but more fixed penalty notices are expected to follow.
Sir Keir addressed the chamber: “He [the prime minister] told the House no rules were broken in Downing Street during lockdown. The police have now concluded there was widespread criminality.
“The ministerial code says that ministers who knowingly mislead the House should resign. Why is he still here?”
Johnson responded by accusing Sir Keir of inconsistency, after he had told Sky News earlier in March that the prime minister had “lost the moral authority to lead” but that the emphasis needed to be on addressing the war in Ukraine rather than ousting Johnson.
Johnson himself said: “We do at least expect some consistency from this human weathervane - it was only a week or so ago he [Sir Keir] was saying that I shouldn't resign. What is his position?"
Sir Keir hit back at Johnson, saying that in allowing the lockdown gatherings to go ahead he was “trashing the ministerial code or claiming he was repeatedly lied to by his own advisers, that he didn't know what was going on in his own house and his own office”.
The Labour leader continued: “He [the prime minister] really does think it's one rule for him and another rule for everyone else, that he can pass off criminality in his office and ask others to follow the law.”
Sir Keir also attacked the government over the chancellor’s Spring Statement, criticising higher taxes being imposed on the British public amid the cost-of-living crisis, before offering what he called a “small tax cut” before the end of the Parliament.
The Labour leader was referring to Rishi Sunak’s pledge to reduce the basic rate of income tax by one per cent before the next general election in 2024.
Sir Keir’s shadow cabinet colleague, the shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, had already criticised Sunak for pressing ahead with the 1.25 per cent National Insurance hike and for failing to introduce a windfall tax on energy companies to help subsidise household bills in his mini budget.
However, the PM defended his colleague’s policies, telling MPs that the raising of the National Insurance payment thresholds and his 5p reduction to fuel duty constituted a tax cut for most workers.
Image taken from Wikimedia Commons
