The Prime Minister has failed to uphold the standards expected in public life, Sir Keir Starmer has suggested, on the day that the Sue Gray report was published.
Labour leader Sir Keir told MPs: "Number 10 symbolises the principles of public life in this country. Selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, leadership.
"But who could read this report and honestly believe the Prime Minister has upheld those standards?"
Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
House of Commons
A Labour backbench MP could be heard to say: “Nobody.”
Sir Keir added: “The reason the British public have had to endure this farce was his refusal to admit the truth or the decent thing when he was found to have broken the law.”
He went on: “I have been clear what leadership looks like. I haven’t broken any rules and any attempt to compare a perfectly legal takeaway while working to this catalogue of criminality looks even more ridiculous today.
“But if the police decide otherwise, I will do the decent thing and step down. The public need to know that not all politicians are the same. That not all politicians put themselves above their country. That honesty integrity and accountability matter.”
Labour leader Keir Starmer responds to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's statement to the House of Commons, London, following the publication of Sue Gray's report into Downing Street parties in Whitehall during the coronavirus lockdown.
House of Commons
He added: “Members on the opposite benches now also need to show leadership. This Prime Minister is steering the country in the wrong direction. They can hide in the backseat, eyes covered, praying for a miracle or they can act. Stop this out-of-touch, out-of-control Prime Minister from driving Britain towards disaster.
“We waited for the Sue Gray report. The country can’t wait any longer. The value symbolised by the door of Number 10 must be restored. Members opposite must finally do their bit, they must tell the current inhabitant, their leader, that his has gone on too long. The game is up. You cannot be a lawmaker and a law breaker.”
Responding to the Labour leader, Mr Johnson told the Commons: “After months of his, frankly, sanctimonious obsession, the great gaseous Zeppelin of his pomposity has been permanently punctured and irretrievably by the revelation that he is himself, he didn’t mention this, he is himself under investigation by the police. And yet, I am not going to mince my words, I am going to say this.
“Sir Beer Korma is currently failing to hold himself to the same high standards that he demanded of me. He called for me to resign when the when the investigation began. Why is he in his place?”
Mr Johnson added: “He is still there and so is the shadow deputy leader. I apologised when the revelations emerged. I continue to apologise, I repeat that I am humbled by what has happened and we instituted profound changes throughout Number 10. But I think in view of the mess that he has found himself in, it would now be a sensible thing for him too to apologise so that we can all collectively move on. That I think is what the people of this country want to see above all.”