UK Politics Thread

[Jimbuna]

Aye, I sometimes think the world would be a much better place without politicians but the problem is, who or what do you replace them with

[mapuc]

Saw some picture in our news at nine

It's not my job as an outsider to point finger or tell your politician what they should do, 'cause I would have said

If your Prime Minister had some ounce of dignity he would resign.

Markus

[Jimbuna]

Dignity? Boris Johnson doesn't know the meaning of the word.

[Jimbuna]

Insiders who attended events at Downing Street during lockdown have told the BBC how staff crowded together and sat on each other's laps and how party debris was left out overnight.

For the first time, insiders who were at some of the events have told BBC Panorama in detail what they saw.

They describe arriving for work the morning after a get-together to find bottles lying around parts of the building, bins overflowing with rubbish and empties left on the table.

They also tell of events with dozens of staff crowded together, and parties going so late that, on occasion, some ended up staying in Downing Street all night.

And they say staff mocked others who tried to stop what was going on.

The prime minister's official spokesman said that Boris Johnson took revelations about what happened in Downing Street during lockdown "very seriously".

He said that the interim report by Sue Gray "raised some of these challenges" and that "wholesale changes" in how No 10 operated were made as a result, adding there were "further changes to come".

The accounts come a day before the senior civil servant Ms Gray is expected to deliver her report on lockdown parties in No 10.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61566410

[Jimbuna]

Boris Johnson has again apologised after the long-awaited report by Sue Gray into rule-breaking parties in and around Downing Street during the pandemic.

Sue Gray found that many of the events "should not have been allowed to happen" and that staff who raised concerns were not treated with respect.

The 37-page document includes details of wine spilled down walls, vomiting, and parties lasting until 4am

Senior leadership at Downing St must bear responsibility for this culture, Gray says.

Johnson has argued that he believed the gatherings he attended had been work events.

Labour's Keir Starmer says the Gray report shows how No 10 treated the sacrifices of the public with contempt.

WhatsApp messages reveal Martin Reynolds, a former top aide to the PM, was warned of "comms risks" around parties.

He also suggested in a different message that officials had "got away with" a large event in the No 10 garden on 20 May.

[Jimbuna]

[Skybird]

Der Spiegel etches:

Maybe it's time to come to Boris Johnson's defense. Now that everyone is picking on him again, just because there were lavish parties at his place of work and residence during the strictest British lockdown. Because in the British government headquarters, people were drinking, puking and fighting, while in the next room, ministers were explaining to the 65 million other Britons why, unfortunately, they can no longer visit their terminally ill grandmother.

Unpalatable, all that. And, yes, also unlawful. But what can Johnson do about it?

He discussed it only on Wednesday again in the mother of all parliaments: that he was present with the one or other illegal sundowner, perhaps also emptied a glass of bubbly. But only briefly! And when all subordinates could still look halfway straight ahead.

Then he always left quickly. To govern. Or sleep. And didn't notice the rolling suitcases full of alcohol and the karaoke party a few meters away from his desk or bedside table.

How could he? He knows he doesn't know anything.

That's why he didn't lie when he affirmed over the past six months that Downing Street always "fully complied with all policies" or that there was "no party" or that there may have been a party after all, but that he himself certainly "didn't break any rules" or that he may have violated his own pandemic law, but still - if anything - only "because no one told me that was something that was against the rules."

That's the way it's always been with Johnson. He means well with us. And himself. But the others don't mean well enough with him. It started when he was a reporter, after all. If someone had told him back then that you can invent quotes as a novelist, but not as a journalist - what might he and the world have been spared?

[Jimbuna]

Two more Tory MPs have revealed they have submitted letters of no confidence in Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Former health minister Steve Brine and Newton Abbot MP Anne Marie Morris join the six backbenchers who have publicly called on him to quit as party leader.

The news comes in the wake of senior civil servant Sue Gray's inquiry into lockdown parties in Downing Street.

The BBC is aware that about 20 Tory MPs have submitted letters - short of the 54 needed to force a vote on the PM.

However, only Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers, knows the exact number, which could be more.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61608738

[mapuc]

Since he, as you said to me earlier, doesn't know dignity I foresee a scandal in your Parliament-He will refuse to step down despite Labour and some of his own demands it.

Markus

[Jimbuna]

He would have to be dragged kicking and screaming out of his parliamentary office.

[Cyborg322]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

He would have to be dragged kicking and screaming out of his parliamentary office.

Image of him after being dragged out


.................................................. ....

Party Political Broadcast. It wasn't me





She caught me red handed

[Jimbuna]

"My hunch is it's in the high 40s."

So says a Conservative MP to me, as we indulge in a spot of guesswork about how many Tory MPs might have formally requested a vote of confidence in the prime minister.

What we are witnessing right now are the aftershocks, the tremors provoked by the publication of the report into pandemic parties on Boris Johnson's watch.

For Conservative MPs to try to topple a leader, 15% of them have to write to the chair of the party's 1922 Committee, which represents backbench Tory MPs.

Fifteen percent of the current number is 54 MPs. And the chairman of the committee in question is Sir Graham Brady.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61627796

[mapuc]

I wanted to know so I made a search

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1922_Committee

Is it correct what it says in this wiki info about the 1922 committee ?

Markus

[Jimbuna]

Yes, that is an accurate article Markus.

Meanwhile...

Former Attorney General Jeremy Wright has become the latest Conservative MP to call for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resign.

Mr Wright said the controversy over lockdown parties in Downing Street had done "lasting damage" to the party.

The scale of Covid rule-breaking within government was laid bare in a report by senior official Sue Gray last week.

Nine Tory MPs have publicly urged the PM to quit since it was published, bringing the total number to 25.

Most of the 25 have submitted letters of no confidence in Mr Johnson's leadership. Others may have done so without without making this known publicly.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61636151

[mapuc]

Do you have a Vice Prime minister ? Or do you have an extra election when Boris resign ?(I'm convince he sees no other way than leave number 10)

Markus