LONDON (Parliament Politics Magazine) – PM Boris Johnson is expected to apologise for violating his own laws during the lockdown when he gives the first statement to the MPs after he was fined by the police.
At a 2020 birthday party at No. 10, the PM is expected to explain he did not wilfully break the rules.
He has been accused by the opposition party of lying to Parliament after he previously stated there had been no violations of the regulations.
When he speaks to MPs at around 3.30 p.m., Mr Johnson has promised to put the record straight.
However, he is anticipated to push MPs to instead focus on concerns such as rising costs and the Ukraine conflict.
He hadn’t just broken the rules, he had lied to the public and he had lied to Parliament about it, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said on ITV.
He further accused the Prime Minister of using the Ukraine war as a “shield” to preserve his post, calling such a move “pretty offensive.”
He would try an apology, and then he would quickly go into excuses, Sir Keir said.
Labour and the other opposition parties are considering a censure motion, which is simply a slap on the wrist, or a vote of no confidence to hold the prime minister accountable.
However, Emily Thornberry, shadow attorney general, claimed that removing the prime minister would require a Tory MP coup.
Whatever means they adopted, the challenge they would always have was that, since the election of 2019, the Conservatives had an 80-seat majority when there was a vote, she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
They would not get the sort of result that they should obtain until Conservative MPs examined their consciences and voted the correct way, she added.Â
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the House of Commons, is expected to decide about lunchtime whether or not to hold a vote on the prime minister’s impeachment.
Mr Johnson, together with his wife Carrie and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, became the first serving UK prime minister to be penalised for breaking the law when he was fined last week for attending a birthday celebration for him in the Cabinet room in June 2020.
After the emergence of the first reports of parties last year, the PM was accused of lying to MPs when he said Covid guidelines were followed in No 10 at the time.
Ministers are required by government rules to resign if they willfully mislead MPs, and to set the record right as soon as possible if they inadvertently misled Parliament.
Mr Johnson has now stated that it “did not occur” to him at the time of the gathering that it may have violated Covid lockdown guidelines.
Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said on Monday that what transpired wasn’t right but that Mr Johnson did not “knowingly” mislead MPs.
