Jeremy Wright, the former secretary of culture and attorney general, has become the last Conservative MP to call for Boris Johnson’s resignation, arguing that while he wasn’t sure the prime minister was cheating MPs, he was best of all, “negligent” in how he approached. the question.
In a lengthy statement on his personal website, the Kenilworth and Southam MP said Johnson could have been more careful before assuring the Commons that there were no parties to break the blockade on Downing Street and correct the record sooner.
The statement did not say whether Wright had formally sent a letter to the 1922 Committee of Conservatives from the back bank asking for a vote of confidence in Johnson, which will happen when he does 15% of his number, with a total of 54. Currently, almost 20 are confirmed to have done so, although others have also done so.
Wright harshly criticized senior officials, particularly Johnson’s former private personal secretary Martin Reynolds, for apparently planning events they knew were not allowed by the blockade rules, and said the prime minister was ultimately to blame.
“If leadership is, in part, about setting the right tone for the organization you lead, the tone represented by the usual contempt for the spirit, and often the lyrics, of the Covid rules that Sue Gray describes betrayed at best a casual and, at worst, an attitude of contempt for the sacrifices made and the anguish felt by many who strictly observed both the spirit and the letter of these rules, “he wrote.
“It seems impossible to accept that the Prime Minister should not take any personal responsibility for this tone.”
It is likely that the events “would have done real and lasting damage to the reputation not only of this government, but of the institutions and authority of government in general,” Wright wrote.
“This is important because it is very likely that a government will have to ask the people of this country again to follow rules that will be difficult to comply with and to make sacrifices that will be difficult to bear in order to serve or preserve the greatest good. ”
Wright concluded: “It now seems to me that the Prime Minister who remains in office will hinder these crucial goals. Therefore, I regret to conclude that, for the sake of this and future governments, the Prime Minister should resign.”
The statement briefly disappeared from Wright’s website shortly after it appeared, but was later reinstated.
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Much of Wright’s statement was resumed with an examination of whether he could be sure that Johnson had deliberately deceived Parliament when he repeatedly said that the blocking rules had not been breached, arguing that, as Johnson was not fined for attending the drinks, he could have guessed they were. legal.
Wright, however, argued that Johnson had not been careful enough. .
“If at any time he discovered or concluded that they were not, he could and should have come to the House of Commons to correct the record, before the public revelations of others made it inevitable.
“It also seems inconceivable to me that senior officials and advisers would have tolerated, facilitated and even encouraged non-compliance with Covid’s rules if they believed that the Prime Minister would have been horrified and outraged by what was happening on Downing Street when he was not there. . ”