Johnson says ‘responsible’ action is to stay in office

Boris Johnson has defended his attendance at farewell parties in Downing Street during lockdown, saying it was necessary to boost morale among staff. But in an interview with the website Mumsnet, he suggested that he considered his future as prime minister but decided it would be wrong to resign.

“I’m still here because we’ve got huge pressures economically, we’ve got to get on, you know, we’ve got the biggest war in Europe for 80 years, and we’ve got a massive agenda to deliver which I was elected to deliver,” he said.

“I have thought about all these questions a lot as you could imagine, and I just cannot see how actually it would be responsible right now given everything that is going on.”

Mr Johnson could face a vote of no confidence in his leadership next week as more Conservative MPs have voiced criticism of him since the publication of senior civil servant Sue Gray’s report on the Downing Street parties. But when asked by a questioner on Mumsnet if leaving drinks for his colleagues was more important than people being able to attend funerals, he defended his behaviour.

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“All I can say is everybody who is here, we’re in the building where everyone is working blindingly hard. They were all under the rules meant to be here. What I thought I was doing was simply doing what is right for a leader in any circumstances, and that’s to thank people for their service,” he said.

“If you don’t do that people feel underappreciated and undermotivated. This was a time when we had to keep morale high, when the whole place was under a huge amount of pressure.”

Some 30 Conservative MPs have said publicly that they no longer support Mr Johnson remaining in office, and a further 14 have criticised his leadership. It takes 54 letters to the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee to trigger a vote of no confidence and 180 MPs would have to vote against the prime minister for him to be forced to resign.

Simon Fell, who captured the seat of Barrow and Furness from Labour in 2019, on Wednesday became the latest MP to criticise the prime minister, saying it was not enough to apologise for the Downing Street parties.

“To many of us, these findings are a slap in the face. The culture that Ms Gray’s report details is unforgivable, and I certainly will not be defending it. There were no exceptions in the rules for the activities that took place, and there is no excuse whatsoever for them,” he said.

Culture secretary Nadine Dorries claimed that the move against Mr Johnson was being orchestrated by “one or two individuals” driven by personal ambition. She said the prime minister’s critics were undermining the Conservatives’ electoral position.

“The people who most want to get rid of Boris Johnson are Keir Starmer and the SNP,” she said. “I would just ask my colleagues to reflect on that, and do we really want to do the opposition’s work. And do we really believe the public will vote for a party that they think is divided?”