Jeremy Wright, a former culture minister and attorney general, became the last Tory MP to call on Boris Johnson to resign, arguing that while he is not sure the prime minister has misled MPs, he is at best was “careless” in the way he approached the problem.
In a long statement on his personal website, the MP from Kenilworth and Southam said that Johnson could have been more careful before assuring Commons that there were no parties in Downing Street to break the blockade and correct the recording earlier.
The statement did not say whether Wright had formally sent a letter to the 1922 Tory MPs’ committee seeking a vote of confidence in Johnson, which will happen when 15% of them do so, a total of 54. Currently it has been confirmed that nearly 20 have done so, although others may have done so.
Wright strongly criticized senior officials, particularly Johnson’s former personal secretary, Martin Reynolds, for apparently planning events they knew were not allowed under the blocking rules – and said the prime minister was ultimately to blame.
“If leadership is partly about setting the right tone for the organization you lead, the tone presented by routine disregard for the spirit and often the letter of Covid’s rules that Sue Gray describes betrays, at best, careless and at worst contemptuous. attitude towards the sacrifices and suffering experienced by many who strictly observed both the spirit and the letter of these rules, “he wrote.
“I find it impossible to accept that the prime minister is not personally responsible for this tone.
The events probably “caused real and lasting damage to the reputation not only of this government, but also of the institutions and the authority of the government as a whole,” Wright wrote.
This is important because, unfortunately, the government is likely to have to ask the citizens of this country again to follow rules that will be difficult to follow and to make sacrifices that will be difficult to bear in order to serve or to keep the greater good. “
Wright concluded: “It now seems to me that remaining prime minister will hamper these key goals. I therefore regretfully concluded that, for the good of this and future governments, the Prime Minister must resign.
The statement briefly disappeared from Wright’s website shortly after it appeared, but was later reinstated.
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Much of Wright’s statement was about checking whether he could be sure that Johnson had deliberately misled Parliament when he repeatedly said that the blocking rules had not been violated, arguing that because Johnson had not been fined for visiting leaving drinks, he might assume they were made.
However, Wright said Johnson did not take enough care: “I believe he could and should have done more to make sure that the assurances he was given and that he in turn gave to Parliament were indeed correct.
“If at some point he found or concluded that they were not, he could and should have come to the House of Commons to correct the recording before public revelations from others made it inevitable.
“I also find it unthinkable for senior officials and advisers to tolerate, facilitate and even encourage violations of Covid’s rules if they believe the prime minister would be horrified and outraged by what is happening on Downing Street when he was not there. ”
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