LAST UPDATE | 8 Jun 2022
BORIS JOHNSON PROMISED new measures to boost home ownership and defended his record in office as he faced MPs for the first time since being wounded by a revolt by Tories against his leadership.
The British Prime Minister insisted he is getting on with the job despite 148 of his own MPs saying they have no confidence in him.
Johnson said the Government will be “expanding home ownership for millions of people” and “cutting the costs of business”.
He is expected to use a major speech this week to set out housing plans, with speculation that the Right to Buy could be extended for housing association residents and a wave of modular or “flat pack” homes could also be built.
The move will form part of a plan by Johnson to reassert his authority after surviving Monday’s confidence vote despite the revolt by 41% of his MPs.
Johnson said his administration will create “high-wage, high-skilled jobs” for the country.
“And as for jobs, I’m going to get on with mine,” he told the Commons in a rowdy session of Prime Minister’s Questions.
The Prime Minister was greeted with cheers by supporters but, in the first question, Labour’s Angela Eagle said Johnson is “loathed” – including by his own party – and asked him to explain “if 148 of his own backbenchers don’t trust him, why on earth should the country?”
Johnson replied that he had “picked up political opponents all over” because “this Government has done some very big and very remarkable things which they didn’t necessarily approve of”.
“And what I want her to know is that absolutely nothing and no-one, least of all her, is going to stop us with getting on delivering for the British people.”
Labour leader Keir Starmer focused on the NHS during his exchanges with Johnson, seizing on the blue-on-blue spat between Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries and senior Tory Jeremy Hunt during Monday’s confidence vote.
'This week has demonstrated how loathed the PM is... if his own backbenchers don't trust him, why should the country?', asks Labour MP Dame Angela Eagle.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 8, 2022
Boris Johnson says 'I have picked up political opponents everywhere' #PMQs https://t.co/3QlJre8UfH
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602 pic.twitter.com/uTDmLcOVTd
Dorries, a Johnson loyalist, claimed that Hunt, a critic of the Prime Minister, had left the country “wanting and unprepared” for the Covid-19 pandemic during his long tenure as health secretary.
Opening the exchanges between the pair, Starmer responded to the noises heard as Johnson entered the chamber by saying: “I couldn’t make out whether that introductory noise was cheers or boos.
“The trouble is I don’t know whether it is directed at me or him.”
Monty Python
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford likened Johnson’s reaction to surviving the confidence vote to the black knight in Monty Python And The Holy Grail, who claimed his mortal injuries were just flesh wounds.
But Johnson appeared to shout “not even a flesh wound” in response to the jibe.
Blackford said: “Week after week I’ve called on this Prime Minister to resign. I’ve been met with a wall of noise from the Tory benches. I thought they were trying to shout me down… when all this time it turns out that 41% of them have been cheering me on.
“Let’s be clear, at least the numbers don’t lie. Forty-one per cent of his own MPs have no confidence in him. Sixty-six (%) of MPs across the House don’t support him, and 97% of Scottish MPs want the minister for the union shown the door.
“We now have a lame duck Prime Minister presiding over a divided party in a disunited kingdom. How does the Prime Minister expect to continue when even unionist leaders in Scotland won’t back him?”
The Prime Minister thanked Blackford for his “characteristic warm words”, adding: “The biggest and most powerful and effective advocate of the United Kingdom over the … time that I’ve been in … has been that man there.
“I don’t know how long he’s going to last here as leader of the SNP … long may he rest in place.”
The Ross, Skye and Lochaber MP replied: “The Prime Minister is acting like Monty Python’s black knight, running around declaring it’s just a flesh wound. And no amount of delusion and denial will save the Prime Minister from the truth: this story won’t go away until he goes away.”
"Prime Minister, it's over. It's done."
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 8, 2022
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford says Boris Johnson is acting like the confidence vote was just "a flesh wound" adding the "story won't go away until he goes away."
Politics hub: https://t.co/WZDsNVdSRf
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He asked: “Can the Prime Minister tell us how it is democratic that Scotland is struck with a Prime Minister we don’t trust, a Conservative Party we don’t support, and Tory governments we haven’t voted for since 1955?”
Johnson said: “We had a referendum, as I’ve told the House before, in 2014. I think he should respect the mandate of the people.
“He keeps saying he wants independence for his country. Our country is independent… and the only way that independence would ever be reversed would be if we had the disaster of a Labour-SNP coalition to take us back into the EU.”
Starmer also quoted from former minister Jesse Norman’s no confidence letter to Johnson in which he said the Government “seems to lack a sense of mission”.
‘He can’t change’
In a raucous Commons chamber, with Speaker Lindsay Hoyle forced to intervene to calm proceedings, Starmer told Johnson: “Pretending no rules were broken didn’t work. Pretending the economy is booming didn’t work. And pretending to build 40 new hospitals won’t work either.”
Referring to Tory MPs, Starmer said: “They want him to change, but he can’t.”
The Prime Minister defended his record, telling MPs: “We are making colossal investments in our NHS, we are cutting waiting times, we are raising standards, we are paying nurses more, we are supporting our fantastic NHS.”
He highlighted the “strength of the UK economy” and the “fiscal firepower” which enabled the money to be spent.
“We have the lowest unemployment now since 1974 and we are going to continue to grow our economy for the long term.”
His comments came on the day the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) slashed its UK growth forecast for this year from 4.75% to 3.64%, with inflation expected to peak at more than 10%.
The OECD said gross domestic product (GDP) growth will stagnate next year.
But Johnson defended his mission to “unite and level up” and “unleash the potential of our entire country”.
The range of issues which have caused discontent in the Tory ranks means there is no single response the Prime Minister can make to win over doubters.
The Protocol
While it was the Sue Gray report into lockdown parties in Downing Street which prompted the confidence vote, it also revealed deep unhappiness among MPs on different wings of the party across a range of issues.
They include promised legislation to override the Northern Ireland Protocol with the EU, as well as concerns over the high levels of tax and spend amid reports that rebel MPs could start staging “vote strikes” on policies they oppose.
Johnson is expected to publish the Protocol legislation next week.
The Protocol was agreed as part of the agreement between the EU and UK as the latter withdrew from the bloc, and means that goods can continue to flow between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in line with the Good Friday Agreement.
Instead, checks are carried out between Northern Ireland and Great Britain on trade across the Irish Sea.
Unionists argue that the arrangement is isolating Northern Ireland from Britain and Johnson’s government has threatened to override parts of the deal.
In an attempt to win over his critics, Johnson has pledged further tax cuts and is under pressure from MPs and ministers to show how he can ease the burden on households and businesses.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid added his voice to calls for tax cuts, saying he would “like to see us do more”.
He acknowledged the pandemic had resulted in “challenges to the public finances” but told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “I would like to see cuts where they’re possible.
“And I know that this is something the Government is taking very seriously and I know that it’s something that the Chancellor will look at.”
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