Politics / Halcro-Johnston says it is time for Prime Minister to resign
HIGHLANDS and Islands Conservative MSP Jamie Halcro-Johnston has added his voice to a growing number of calls for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resign from office.
Amid revelations that a succession of parties were held at 10 Downing Street in breach of Covid-19 rules and regulations, the Scottish Tories’ leader Douglas Ross earlier this week called for Johnson to resign.
In December the Prime Minister told parliament he was shocked to learn about revelations of parties going on at Number Ten.
But Johnson was eventually forced to admit this week that he had attended at least one such event, with more than 30 people present, in May 2020. At that time members of the public were only legally permitted to meet up with one other person outdoors.
On Thursday night it emerged that staff had been drinking and partying into the early hours in Number Ten the day before Prince Philip’s funeral in April 2021. The Queen sat alone at his funeral due to Covid restrictions.
List MSP Halcro-Johnston said there had been “a great deal of uncertainty” in recent months over what had or had not happened inside Number Ten, but there had been “increasing clarity” in recent days.
“You have to follow the rules and you’ve certainly got to follow the rules if you’ve made them,” he told BBC Radio Shetland on Thursday.
The Metropolitan Police has persistently refused to launch a criminal investigation.
Senior civil servant Sue Gray is currently investigating several events in 2020 and 2021 and Tory ministers have urged others to withhold judgement until her work is complete.
But Northern Isles’ Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael said the idea Johnson thought he was at a “work event” was risible: “My toes are curling inside my shoes with embarrassment listening to that,” he told Talk Radio earlier this week.
“He’s lost the authority in his own party, he’s lost the authority in the country and I think as a consequence he can’t stay in the job.”
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