PMQs RECAP: Boris Johnson grilled in fiery PMQs amid leadership crisis
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Mr Johnson will face off with Sir Keir Starmer and other MPs for Prime Minister’s Questions and will also seek to boost his position with Tory MPs and the public by announcing an easing of England’s coronavirus restrictions.
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Hide AdSo far, seven Tory MPs have publicly called for Mr Johnson to go, far short of the 54 required to submit letters of no-confidence to the backbench 1922 Committee – but privately, many more believe the Prime Minister’s time is up.
You can follow live updates in our blog.
PMQs LIVE: Boris Johnson to face MPs amid leadership crisis
Boris Johnson hits back following the defection of Christian Wakeford saying: “As for Bury South, let me say to the Rt Hon Gentleman, the Conservative party won Bury South for the first time in generations… we will win again in Bury South”
Loud cheers from the Tory benches...
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer asked Prime Minister Boris Johnson when he first became aware that any of his staff had “concerns” about the gathering in the Downing Street garden on May 20, 2020.
Sir Keir said: “Not only did he write the rules, but some of his staff say they did warn him about attending the party on May 20, 2020.
“Now, I have heard the Prime Minister’s very carefully crafted response to that accusation. It almost sounds like a lawyer wrote it. So, I’ll be equally careful with my question. When did the Prime Minister first become aware that any of his staff had concerns about the May 20 party?”
Mr Johnson replied “it is for the inquiry to come forward with an explanation of what happened”, adding: “I am afraid he simply must wait.”
Keir Starmer says that the country deserves so much better than Boris Johnson
He says the PM is “out of touch, out of control, out of ideas and soon to be out of office.”
Boris Johnson says that the Conservatives have been cutting the cost of living, cutting taxes and increasing payments...
The word rattled comes to mind...
Boris Johnson seems to have found a little bit of confidence - listing party achievements when in government, with the Tory MPs lapping it up.
Sir Keir Starmer told the Commons: “Last year Her Majesty the Queen sat alone when she marked the passing of the man she’d been married to for 73 years, she followed the rules of the country that she leads.
“On the eve of that funeral, a suitcase was filled with booze and wheeled into Downing Street, a DJ played and staffed partied late into the night.
“The Prime Minister has been forced to hand an apology to Her Majesty the Queen. Isn’t he ashamed that he didn’t hand in his resignation at the same time?”
Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, intervening, said: “We normally would not, quite rightly, mention the royal family. We don’t get into discussions on the royal family.”
Boris Johnson added: “Well in that case, Mr Speaker, I must ask (Sir Keir) to withdraw it.”
Sir Lindsay said he had dealt with it before Mr Johnson got back to his feet but was pulled back to his seat by Chancellor Rishi Sunak tugging on the Prime Minister’s jacket.
Ian Blackford: “Operation Save Big Dog has become Operation Dog’s Dinner”
He lists the stances of Boris Johnson calling his defence of “nobody told me” absolutely “pathetic”
“Over the past few days we’ve had more damaging revelations about Downing Street rule-breaking, more evidence that Parliament has been misled and an even longer list of ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous, excuses from the Prime Minister.
“First he claimed there were no parties, then he wasn’t present, then he admitted he was at them but he didn’t know it was a party and then the latest sorry excuse is really them most pathetic of them all, nobody told me … nobody told the Prime Minister he was breaking his own rules. Absolutely pathetic.
“The Prime Minister laughing once again, laughing at the British public. The Prime Minister is taking the public for fools, nobody believes him. Will the Prime Minister finally take responsibility, resign, go, Prime Minister.”
Boris Johnson replied: “No, but I thank him for his question again and let me just remind him that there’s an inquiry that is due to conclude. I believe he is wrong in what he asserts, but we’ll have to wait and see what the inquiry says.
“The most important thing from the point of view of the UK Government is that we’re coming out of the restrictions that we’ve been in. I’m delighted to see that that’s happening in Scotland as well.”
Mark Pawsey MP asks Boris Johnson to back plans for a car battery gigafactory in Coventry that will create 6,000 jobs.
Jessica Morden asks why it is so hard for the PM to understand his own rules saying that if you make the rules you obey the rules. She calls for Boris Johnson to go, the PM once again says to wait for the report next week.
Labour MP Dame Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) said: “When a Prime Minister is spending his time trying to convince the great British public that he’s actually stupid rather than dishonest, isn’t it time that he goes now?”
Boris Johnson said: “I’ve made my point. I think that the British public have responded to what this Government has had to say in the most eloquent way possible.
“They have beaten Covid so far. They have helped to defeat Covid so far, with the steps they have taken, by getting vaccinated and implementing Plan B, and I thank them.”
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, reacting to the defection of Red Wall MP Christian Wakeford to Labour, said: “Sadly, @Christian4BuryS has yet to realise that the Union Jack mask he is wearing to cross the floor to Labour, is not welcome on that side of the house.”
David Davis in an absolute skewering of the PM tells Boris Johnson: “in the name of God, go!”
Mr Davis told Boris Johnson he had spent weeks defending him from “angry constituents”, including by reminding them of the “successes of Brexit”.
He said: “I expect my leaders to shoulder the responsibility for the actions they take. Yesterday he did the opposite of that. So, I will remind him of a quotation which may be familiar to his ear: Leopold Amery to Neville Chamberlain.
“You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. In the name of God, go.”
Responding to Conservative former minister David Davis’s calls to resign, the Prime Minister said: “I must say to him, I don’t know what he is talking about.
“What I can tell him – I don’t know what quotation he is alluding to – what I can tell him is and I think have told this House repeatedly, I take full responsibility for everything done in this Government and throughout the pandemic.”
Stephen Kinnock asks “Does the Prime Minister agree with the leader of the house that the leader of the Scottish Conservatives is a lightweight?”
The PM responds “The Conservative approach to the union is one that I think is right for our country, we want to keep it together and Conservatives in Scotland do an excellent job.
Their stout defence of the Union was repaid in the last election, and Labour is increasingly endangering our Union”
Boris Johnson has confirmed that Plan B measures to control the spread of coronavirus in England will be allowed to expire.
He adds the legal requirement on people with coronavirus to self-isolate will be allowed to lapse when the regulations expire on March 24, and that date could be brought forward.
Boris Johnson told MPs in the House of Commons more than 90% of over-60s across the UK had now had booster vaccines to protect them, and scientists believed the Omicron wave had peaked.
He said the Government had taken a “different path” to much of Europe and the “data are showing that, time and again, this Government got the toughest decisions right”.
People will no longer be told to work from home and, from Thursday next week when Plan B measures lapse, mandatory Covid certification will end, Mr Johnson said.