Boris Johnson has faced two more calls to quit from Tory MPs, as his attempt to move on from the Partygate scandal after Sue Gray’s damning report unravelled.
Backbenchers John Baron and David Simmonds, who is the prime minister’s constituency neighbour in west London, said they had lost confidence in him after an investigation that confirmed a string of lockdown-busting parties took place in Downing Street.
No 10’s chief of staff, Steve Barclay, insisted on Thursday it was only a “small minority” of people working in the building who had broken the rules, and added Johnson was not aware of many of the more debauched details that emerged on Wednesday, including wine being spilled up walls, vomiting and a fight.
He said there was a distinction between the alcohol-fuelled leaving dos Johnson attended in No 10 and some of the more raucous events that took place, including the night before Prince Philip’s funeral, that went on until 4am.
“There is a difference between the work exemption that applied that enabled people to work very long hours in Downing Street – and we’re talking about the behaviour of a small minority of people, often when the prime minister wasn’t in the building or late at night,” Barclay told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
He said Johnson thought the leaving dos were permissible because staff were working “closely together for long hours” and that the prime minister was “going to events for a short period of time during the working day”.
Barclay defended Johnson’s decision not to quit in light of the report or being fined by police, saying the prime minister had already “taken action” by making “significant changes” to the structure of No 10, including bringing him in as chief of staff.
Asked on LBC why Johnson didn’t investigate the parties after it was discovered some attenders broke his child’s swing in the Downing Street garden, Barclay said it was a “good question”.
But John Baron, the Conservative MP for Basildon and Billericay in Essex since 2001 and a former shadow minister, said he did not believe Johnson was unaware of the “shameful pattern of misbehaviour during the pandemic as the rest of us kept to the Covid regulations”.
“A bedrock principle of our constitution is that we can trust the responses we receive in parliament to be truthful and accurate,” Baron said in a statement.
“Parliament is the beating heart of our nation. To knowingly mislead it cannot be tolerated, no matter the issue. Whether or not the prime minister is an asset to the party or the country is of less importance.”
The MP added that the prime minister “no longer enjoys my support” but did not say if he had submitted a no-confidence letter, 54 of which are needed to trigger a vote on Johnson’s leadership.
Simmonds, the MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, said it had become clear that “while the government and our policies enjoy the confidence of the public, the prime minister does not”.
He added: “It is time for him to step down so that new leadership can take forward the important work of the government in ensuring that our people and country prosper.”
Their intervention follows the call of another Tory backbencher, Julian Sturdy, which brings the number of those publicly calling for Johnson to quit since Gray’s report was published to three.
Labour argued the Partygate scandal demonstrated more fundamental issues of trust.
Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling-up secretary, told BBC Breakfast: “The reason why Partygate matters, the reason why the prime minister’s behaviour matters, is because if you cannot trust him on this, if you cannot trust a word that he says – and that is abundantly clear from yesterday – how can you trust him when he says that he’s going to step in and help people with what is now a crisis for most businesses and families?
“How can you trust him when he says that he’s going to stand up to Russian aggression in Ukraine?
“Trust is the glue that holds up the political system together, and when that trust is gone the whole system collapses, and that is why what is happening at the moment with Partygate is so devastating for most people in this country.”
Johnson still faces an investigation by the Commons privileges committee into whether he misled parliament by denying on multiple occasions that any rules were broken in No 10.
Chris Bryant, a Labour MP who recused himself from leading the investigation, said the committee would be able to gather evidence, including from cleaners and security staff who were mentioned in the Gray report as having cleaned up wine stains or stumbled across late-night gatherings.
English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish