WORCESTER’s former Labour MP Mike Foster has called for the Prime Minister to resign, labelling his behaviour as ‘appalling’.
Mr Foster launched the scathing attack as both Worcester and Malvern’s MPs urged patience ahead of the result of an inquiry into the alleged May 2020 gathering and several other Downing Street events held during the pandemic.
After urging city MP Robin Walker to ‘consider his integrity’ in any response, Mr Foster slammed Boris Johnson and called for him to go.
“He has behaved appallingly as a human being, forget his politics for a moment, he has partied while others couldn’t mourn as they wished,” he said.
Mr Foster spoke as Boris Johnson admitted at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday he had joined colleagues at the event for around 25 minutes to ‘thank groups of staff’ for their hard work during the pandemic, but had ‘believed implicitly’ it was a work event.
Ministers have urged MPs to wait for the outcome of an investigation by senior civil servant Sue Gray into alleged Covid-rule breaking at Downing Street parties, which is expected be published next week.
Mr Walker, who serves as Schools Minister in Boris Johnson’s Government, said he wouldn’t be drawn into a ‘running commentary’ on the ongoing investigation into events at Number 10 during the pandemic.
“I think the PM has an important job to do leading the country in the response to the Omicron variant and it is right he focuses on that and of course there is an inquiry ongoing led by Sue Gray,” he said.
“I think he should provide all the information about the various gatherings which have been reported on and it is right that goes through the official channels and I don’t think it would be right as local MP to comment while the inquiry is ongoing”
Malvern’s MP Harriett Baldwin said: “Local people have made extraordinary sacrifices over the last two years and my experience is that the vast majority of people followed the rules on order to protect the NHS and to save lives.
“I welcome the fact that there is a full internal inquiry into the activities of Downing Street staff in mid-2020 and I’ll be closely studying the report like many others.
“I encourage everyone ensuring to get their first, second and booster shots to combat the spread of the latest variant.
“And by encouraging local people to do that, we can lift restrictions sooner and get back to all of us doing the things that we have missed out on over the last two years,” she added.
