A FORMER attorney general has called for Boris Johnson to resign.
Jeremy Wright, the MP for Kenilworth and Southam, posted a statement on his website today, saying the partygate scandal had done “lasting damage” to the Tories.
He said there had been a “contemptuous attitude” shown by people in Downing Street who chose to break the rules, and called for Mr Johnson to quit.
Mr Wright said he found it "inconceivable that senior officials and advisers would have tolerated, facilitated and even encouraged the breaking of Covid rules if they believed that the Prime Minister would have been horrified and outraged by what was happening in Downing Street when he was not there" and added that he could not accept that the PM did not "bear some personal responsibility" for setting a "tone" of rule-breaking and contempt within No.10.
A trickle of letters have been sent to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee, following the pubication of Sue Gray's report into lockdown breaking in No.10 during the pandemic.
Mr Wright, also a former culture secretary, added: "I fear too that these events have done real and lasting damage to the reputation not just of this Government but to the institutions and authority of Government more generally.
"That matters because it is sadly likely that a Government will again need to ask the citizens of this country to follow rules it will be difficult to comply with and to make sacrifices which will be hard to bear, in order to serve or preserve the greater good.
“I have therefore, with regret, concluded that, for the good of this and future governments, the prime minister should resign."
He later deleted the statement from his website.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel