I believe that this Conservative Government has continually lied to the public and now it’s been proven they broke the law. The positions of some of the most senior Government figures are completely untenable, how they can believe they can legislate from a position of authority when they themselves are unwilling to follow those same laws is utterly astounding.

I note that the Police are investigating at least 12 parties in Downing Street over the past 18-months, each in contravention of COVID-19 public health regulations in force at the time. I think it is unacceptable that those who made the rules were not following them in private on multiple occasions. I believe that people feel let down, lied to and laughed at. Even Government MPs acknowledge the real public anger about this. I have communicated consistently on my social media regarding my feelings on this important issue (see one example here). And now it has, unsurprisingly, turned out that rules were indeed broken as fines have begun to be issued by the Met it is clear that the PM continuously lied to Parliament.

As well as the evidence that the Government has not been transparent about the parties, there are also accusations Prime Minister may have misled his own Adviser on Ministerial Interests about the renovation of his Downing Street flat. Finally, Mr Johnson sought to protect his former colleague Owen Paterson, who was found to have repeatedly broken the MPs Code of Conduct, by preventing Mr Paterson’s 30-day suspension from the House of Commons from taking effect (see my Parliamentary contribution on this here and here). Although the Prime Minister later performed a U-turn, in light of criticism of his actions, I believe that this episode raised serious questions about his judgement and motivations.

For these reasons, the Leader of the Opposition has argued that Mr Johnson is the worst possible Prime Minister at the worst possible time for our country and has expressed concern that Mr Johnson is too weak to lead us to meet the challenges the United Kingdom faces. He has called on the Prime Minister to therefore take time to look in the mirror and ask himself whether he is the right person to lead this country.