Lucy Powell tells GB News public have 'had enough' of 'lying' Boris Johnson after Partygate allegations

Lucy Powell tells GB News public have 'had enough' of 'lying' Boris Johnson after Partygate allegations
DIGITAL Lucy Powell on Johnson s lockdown
George McMillan

By George McMillan


Published: 17/01/2022

- 08:57

Updated: 17/01/2022

- 09:06

Lucy Powell MP has told GB News in an exclusive interview that the public have "had enough" of the Prime Minister.

The Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport responded to questions from Isabel Webster and Eamonn Holmes about an image that has resurfaced of Keir Starmer drinking during lockdown.


The Labour MP reiterated: "He was very clear about what happened there. He was working, he was campaigning, he was in the constituency office of a colleague having been out on a visit.

"They broke from making those phone calls to have something to eat in the kitchen and then went back to work.

"I don’t think you can compare that in any way at all to the industrial scale of partying and gatherings that we’ve seen in Downing Street.

"And subsequently the cover up and lies that we’ve seen in not fessing up about that.

"The fact is we’ve just had allegation after allegation… that's why he's now lost that authority and lost that trust of the public to continue governing"

The image, which was taken several days before the Hartlepool by-election, was captured through the window of a building in Durham and shows Sir Keir drinking a bottle of beer and standing close to two people while another pair can be seen in the background.

The country was at that time in step two of the road map out of the third lockdown, and indoor mixing between different households was not allowed except for work.

It comes after The Sunday Times reported that the Prime Minister is devising a policy announcement blitz and a cull of his inner circle as he looks to survive the publication of senior civil servant Sue Gray’s report into so-called partygate.

Martin Reynolds, his principal private secretary who sent an email inviting staff to “bring your own booze” in the No 10 garden during the first coronavirus lockdown, and Mr Reynolds’ deputy Stuart Glassborow are likely to be forced out of Downing Street, according to the newspaper.

No 10 chief of staff Dan Rosenfield’s position could also be at risk, it suggested.

It comes as a sixth Conservative MP called for Mr Johnson to quit, arguing that a change of senior officials would not reverse the “terminal damage” done to the Prime Minister’s reputation by the allegations.

Former children’s minister Tim Loughton, in a post published on Facebook on Saturday, said: “It is not down to a simple Government policy change or a sacking of ministers or officials to put things right.

Asked if Keir Starmer will he be able to challenge Boris Johnson this week at PMQs, Powell told GB News: “Absolutely he will. This is a tactic seen before from this government.

“Trying to tar all politicians with the same brush that the Prime Minister has tarred himself and his colleagues with.

"That’s why his colleagues are so particularly cross with himself as well.

"The vast majority of parliamentarians like the vast majority of the public went to great lengths to ensure we were following the rules.

"We went to great lengths and made great personal sacrifices like everybody else as well.

"We’re not all going to be tarred with the same brush because that’s not what’s happened here.

"Right at the heart of government the people who were setting rules, the people who were making the rules were systematically and frequently at best pushing the boundaries of those rules but clearly on occasion were breaking those rules on their own admission.

"On an industrial scale and have then spent months and months trying to lie and cover up what they were doing.

"That’s why people have had enough of the Prime Minister, what you need is someone who can govern the country."

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