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BORIS JOHNSON IS “absolutely focused on the job” despite having to answer the questions of police investigating alleged lockdown breaches in Downing Street, a UK Cabinet minister has said.
Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis insisted the British Prime Minister will “fight” and will win the next general election as he faces the prospect of Conservative MPs forcing a vote to oust him as leader.
Johnson said he will take a trip out of London to Scotland and northern England this week, as he strives to avoid a fine by answering a legal questionnaire from Scotland Yard.
Calls for his resignation will only grow if Johnson is found to have broken his own Covid laws, and if Sue Gray’s subsequent inquiry reveals further damaging details.
But Lewis told told Sky’s Trevor Phillips On Sunday: “The investigation is a matter for the police, I’m not going to put time frames on them, they’ve got to be able to do their job independently, autonomously and see that through.
“I have to say in the dealings I’ve had with the Prime Minister he’s absolutely focused on the job in hand, about what he’s doing for the British people.”
Lewis added: “He has my absolute 100%-plus loyalty.
“I think this a Prime Minister is doing things for our country, he’s got the big decisions right.
“I think he will fight and he will win as a result of the next general election.”
The Prime Minister’s new chief of staff, Steve Barclay, was pledging it is now a “priority to restore a smaller state” as the threat from the coronavirus pandemic lessens, in a bid to keep backbenchers on side.
Barclay, who was handed the role as part of the shake-up of No 10 in response to the partygate scandal, said he would “make the centre of Government work like the best-run companies”.
He wrote in The Sunday Telegraph: “Now, it is a priority to restore a smaller state, both financially and in taking a step back from people’s lives.
“It’s time to return to a more enabling approach.
“To trust the people, return power to communities, and free up business to deliver.”
No 10 said the Prime Minister is to start the week with a visit to a manufacturing site in Scotland before heading to an oncology centre tackling coronavirus backlogs in the north west of England.
In a statement, Johnson said: “I’m getting out of London this week and taking a simple message with me, this Government is getting on with the job of uniting and levelling up the country.”
But travelling north of the border will present its own challenges, with his ally Jacob Rees-Mogg having accused Douglas Ross of being “lightweight” after the Scottish Tory leader called for Johnson’s resignation.
The calls for the Prime Minister to go will only grow louder and more widespread if he cannot convince police he was not in breach of regulations at up to six events.
As he employs the help of personal lawyers, the Telegraph cited Johnson’s allies in reporting he plans to argue he was working in his official Downing Street flat on the night of the alleged “Abba party” in November 2020.
The Times said that even if he is fined he will not resign, in a move that would be likely to trigger Tory MPs to force a vote of confidence in his leadership.
Scotland Yard says the questionnaires ask for an “account and explanation of the recipient’s participation in an event” and have “formal legal status and must be answered truthfully”.
Fifteen Tory MPs have publicly called for Johnson to quit, while more are thought to have privately written to the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories calling for a no-confidence vote.
More are poised to do so if the Prime Minister is found to have broken his own coronavirus laws, or further damaging details emerge from the Sue Gray inquiry.
He will face a vote of no confidence if 54 Conservative MPs write to 1922 Committee chairman Graham Brady, and would be ousted if more than half of his MPs subsequently voted against him.
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fair play Bob. massive respect.
“Were people dying in the United States, in France, and in Germany and in England”.
Yet when people were dying in Northern Ireland, “Sir” Bob was happy to pal around and accept titles from Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative nutters.
you begrudging good-for-nothing. You’re not fit to walk in his shadow. What have you ever done for mankind except begrudge those who try to do something worthwhile?
Sir Bob is a dude! he’s been witness to a lot of tragedy including personal tragedy and he just keeps plugging away. With his money he could easily fade into the background and live a handy life but he chooses to campaign and raise money. Some man for one man!
Eh… just Bob… not a real sir….
Brian,
People call him ‘Sir Bob’ as a nickname because he got some kind of knighthood – KBE, I think – from the queen.
If you were pedantic though, you could technically say ‘he’s not actually Sir Bob’.
And if you knew what you were talking about you’d know he received an honoury knighthood… just like Tony o Reilly. … you also know that they are given to non UK or commonwealth people and that the title Sir does not go along with it…. I doubt very much Geldof refers to himself as sir just the wannabe idiots spouting on about it
Yes, a KBE …and we call him Sir Bob because it’s his nickname.
Don’t worry about it anyway, Brian – that’s the main thing.
Well put Elaine
Ah, come off it, Journal. My comment was fair comment. Why delete it?
All I said was, if he focused on his own immediate family instead of trying to save the world, would both he, and they by extension, be better off?
He said as much himself ffs.
If your focus was eleswhere we would all be better off Niall
Why would he need to be “focusing” on a grown adult daughter who has a husband to look after he and plenty of money?
@niall I imagine he’s the kind of guy who looks at the bigger picture not his immediate personal issues. And to be fair what can he do when his grown up married children do drugs in secret? The world as a whole is better off with Sir Bob doing what he does!
Well, Neal, his now tragically deceased daughter is on the record as saying – to paraphrase – he never bothered much with the grand kids.
….its another case of bob the builder so…….Leave it to bob we don’t have to think for ourselves or consider inacting anything he proposes…he is saying that ending these constructed paradigms that a billion people face today is possible and within reach….Elaine…..is there something that you could manifest to carry his words or is the blade on his sholder just a division of power?
So what? You don’t have to bother with your grand kids, they’re your kid’s responsibility.
That’s true. So by your logic …..he certainly doesn’t have to bother with aids.
No I don’t suppose there is but at least you can sit back behind one of your latest anonymous profiles and feel really super intelligent after that comment. So I guess in a roundabout way I helped one person today…. No need to thank me ;)
I don’t know why he is attacking Australians as the video says.
They topped the World Giving Index a few years ago, while he dodges his tax in Britain.
I would have though with his life experiences and all his millions and all the good advice he dishes out he’d have made his family and home bomb proof before saving the world. If anyone could have saved that child from her self he could.
Bob should marry Sinead O Connor —- they both are so alike it’s uncanny, between the 2 of them they could save a lot of people. If they need any more help good old Bono could save the day. We are lucky in Ireland to have the 3 of them — they seem to know everything and know how everything should be done. Did they go to the same school or are they just typical Irish People ? They could be called the Holy Trinity or I can’t think of an appropriate neme just now.
Peaches was lucky she had sterile needles twitch or no twitch. Would the 100 experts or so who perished on the Malaysian flight consider their work as you can do this shit!!!!
have your say