Pinocchio PM apologises, but is it finally time for him to go?
At this week’s PMQs – a welcomed return following the Easter break – the PM once again (he was in the Commons yesterday) apologised for breaking Covid lockdown rules.
Yesterday the PM was in the Commons to address becoming the UK’s first sitting prime minister to be sanctioned for breaking the law. The PM and his wife Carrie Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak all received fines for a birthday gathering in June 2020 – breaking the Covid laws the PM had set out.
Today marked the first prime minister’s questions since the Easter break, and unsurprisingly, Partygate was still top of the agenda.
The PM stated he did not knowingly break the rules or mislead MPs.
Labour, Lib Dems, SNP and SDLP have all called for Johnson to resign. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called the PM’s apology “a joke” and on Thursday we’ll find out how many agree with him as MPs will vote on whether the PM should be investigated for knowingly misleading Parliament over breaching Covid laws.
The UK national newspapers’ reaction to Partygate
The reaction from the papers this morning has not been surprising, with the front pages confirming their political allegiances – for left-leaning and central papers such as The Guardian, the Independent, the i, the Metro and the Daily Mirror are all calling for the PM’s resignation and expressing their disgust with the PM.
Whilst The Sun, the Daily Express and the Daily Mail either ignored the story on their front page or pushed the narrative that the British public should be more concerned about Ukraine and not Partygate – several papers claim the reaction has been blown out of proportion and the public need to get ‘perspective’ on the situation.
The Metro’s headline reads: “I’m Truly Sorry,” while the i quotes Tory backbencher Mark Harper who said Boris Johnson is “not worthy of great office.”
The Guardian chooses to reflect on the comments from Labour leader Keir Starmer after he called the prime minister “a man without shame”. The Daily Star calls the PM a ‘Klingon PM’ and features a mocked-up picture of the PM as a Star Trek villain on its front splash.
The Daily Mirror has a front-page appeal to Tory MPs to remove the prime minister from office. The paper says Conservative backbenchers can either “vote for integrity and decency … or for a liar and a cheat,” when a motion to refer the matter to the Commons privileges committee goes before MPs on Thursday.
The Daily Express comes to the PM’s defence, with its headline calling the issue a “waste of time” when “so much more is at stake”. Interestingly, the Daily Mail makes no reference to the story on its front page and instead reports on what it calls the ‘Road Revolution’ – which will see people using self-driving cars.
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