There Can be No More Excuses the Prime Minister Must Go Says Green Party Co-Leader. By Adam Colclough
Green Party members in North Staffordshire have joined party co-leader Adrian Ramsay in calling for Boris Johnson to resign following details of illegal ‘gatherings’ held at Downing Street during the two national lockdowns.
The call comes after the publication of the report by senior civil servant Sue Gray into the breaking of lockdown rules by Downing Street staff, this uncovered sixteen ‘parties’ that it was ‘difficult to justify’ given the restrictions imposed on the public at the time.
A separate investigation by officers from Scotland Yard has uncovered three hundred photographs and five hundred pages of documents relating to rule breaking. The Gray report identifies what she describes as “failures of leadership and judgement” on the part of the Cabinet Office and the prime minister himself.
In an appearance in the House of Commons where he was criticized from both sides of the house Boris Johnson repeatedly rebuffed questions about his own conduct, but promised an overhaul of how his office is structured saying, “I get it and I will fix it”. Speaking in the debate Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said “The prime minister is certainly a bad apple, but the whole tree is rotten and the whole country wants reform”.
Adrian Ramsay said that the report ‘confirmed what we already knew’ and that Boris Johnson was “only a symptom of the much deeper problem of corruption at the top of the Conservative Party. Our political system is so broken that it breeds politicians who think they can get away with anything. It is long past time for an overhaul to end the culture of entitlement and lack of accountability in Parliament.”
Speaking about the ‘gatherings’ at Downing Street Adrian Ramsay said, “Despite his insistence in Parliament that he had no awareness of any parties in Downing Street, we know that while the vast majority of people were following the rules to try and keep their loved ones safe, the Prime Minister and his mates were partying in direct defiance of the safety measures”.
Adding that, “Not only has the Prime Minister undermined public trust in the coronavirus safety measures, his desperate attempts to cling onto power are a distraction from urgent issues that are spiralling out of control - the cost of living, potential war in Ukraine, the climate crisis”.
He concluded saying, “There can be no more excuses, no more distractions, no more pretences. Boris Johnson must go”.
A spokesperson for North Staffs Green Party said, “it is absolutely unacceptable that while we the public were, quite rightly, staying home to stop the spread of COVID staff at Downing Street were partying into the night. Following the rules put a huge strain on everybody’s wellbeing and meant some people couldn’t hold the hands of their dying relatives one last time”.
The Spokesperson added, “however much he twists and turns the end of the road is fast approaching for Boris Johnson. We join the national leadership in calling for him to resign.”