Britain cannot function as a country if it is led by a prime minister who does not tell the truth, Labour’s Lisa Nandy has told The Take With Sophy Ridge.
The shadow secretary of state for levelling up was speaking after a fiery PMQs in which Boris Johnson and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer clashed over the partygate scandal.
“We cannot function as a country if we have a prime minister who doesn’t tell the truth,” she told Sky News.
Politics Hub: Prospect of another partygate inquiry looms for Johnson
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“We can’t function, as we saw during COVID, unless we all pull together and that’s why this matters.
“It’s not a question of what happened two years ago in a closed room in Downing Street – it’s a question about whether the prime minister of this country, that makes the rules, feels that he’s above the rules and the rules only apply to some of us and not all of us.
“What we’ve heard over the last few days suggest this is a prime minister who has real contempt for those rules.”
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Her comments came on the second day of pressure from MPs on Mr Johnson over partygate, after he apologised to the Commons on Tuesday following his fine last week for breaking lockdown rules.
And the heat will be turned up on Mr Johnson for a third day as he faces a vote on a motion tabled by opposition parties calling for parliament’s privileges committee to investigate whether he misled the House with his initial claims no rules were broken during partygate.
The motion, tabled by leading figures from seven opposition parties, said the committee’s inquiry should not begin in earnest until the Metropolitan Police have concluded their own investigation into alleged lockdown-busting parties in Downing Street and Whitehall.
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But the government has tabled an amendment stating the vote on the inquiry itself should not take place until after the police investigation has come to an end and the Sue Gray report has been published.
This will allow MPs “to have all the facts at their disposal” when they make a decision, it said.
It is understood that all Tory MPs will be whipped to support the amendment.
However, a number of Conservative backbenchers have already called for the Prime Minister to quit.
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One of those, Craig Whittaker, told The Take: “The prime minister who made the laws broke the laws, so he should resign.
“I want the prime minister to take responsibility for his actions.”
