The deputy leader of the Labour party has called on the Prime Minister to go after last night's vote of no confidence. Ashton-under-Lyne MP, Angela Rayner, says Boris Johnson is now 'mortally wounded' despite winning the vote among Conservative MPs, calling him 'arrogant, dismissive, a liar'.
Tory MPs voted by 211 to 148 to keep him as party leader and prime minister. The vote of no confidence was triggered after more than 54 MPs submitted letters of no confidence to Altrincham and Sale West MP, Sir Graham Brady, who chairs the 1922 committee of Conservative MPs.
A number of Greater Manchester's Tory MPs threw their support behind the Prime Minister before the vote, with deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, saying the party must 'move forward' following the vote.
However, Labour is still calling for Boris Johnson to step down as Prime Minister, as the government continues to receive criticism for the partygate scandal as well as the cost of living crisis. Deputy Labour leader and Ashton-under-Lyne MP believes the PM is 'mortally wounded' after 148 Conservative MPs voted that they had no confidence in Mr Johnson.
Ms Rayner told Kay Burley on Sky News that Boris Johnson is “arrogant, dismissive, a liar” and is “mortally wounded" after surviving a confidence vote. She said: "No I don’t want Boris Johnson to stay in post because as you know many of the public see politicians in general as untrustworthy – Boris Johnson is pulling down standards in public life which is why we’ve got the motion today to uphold them.
"I think he is doing a disservice to the country and it is pretty clear now that the British public have lost all confidence in Boris Johnson, I mean, if you can’t have a prime minister that follows his own rules and doesn’t lie to Parliament and lie to the British public then where is the standards, we have lowered the tone so bad that he could get away with just about anything.
“I don’t think it is a good day. I think he is mortally wounded now and I think he has only got an 80-odd majority within Parliament and therefore he is pretty clear 70-odd percent of his backbenchers didn’t back him so I think he should have done the right thing by now and resigned already, but this Prime Minister doesn’t really consider himself to follow rules.”
She added: “Number 10 was the most heavily fined house in the whole of the United Kingdom when it came to the Covid rules, cleaners were having to clean up vomit and wine off the walls, it wasn’t a one-off, this was serial partying going on in Number 10 when people couldn’t see their loved ones… I think every day that Boris Johnson is prime minister is damaging the standards in public life and it damages us all.
“I don’t think it is a good thing he continues, I think he is arrogant, I think he is dismissive, I think he is a liar and I don’t think he should hold the office of Prime Minister.”
Ms Rayner also said her party would “consider all options” when asked if they would table a vote of no confidence in Mr Johnson in Parliament. Ms Rayner told BBC One’s Breakfast show: “Well we will consider all options but to be honest I think the Prime Minister is just once again making it very difficult to deal with the issues that people face today.
“The cost-of-living crisis, the chaos that we have seen around the transport and our NHS that needs vital support, so therefore we do need to get on to those issues but we can’t do that while the Prime Minister continues to limp on because he has no confidence of his backbenchers, he has no confidence of any other political party and he has lost the will of the British people, so he should do the right thing and resign."
She added: "The British people deserve the best from our politicians not worst so the bar should be set at a reasonable level which says if you lie to the British public, if you get a fixed-penalty notice because you broke the law whilst in office by your own rules, then you shouldn’t be Prime Minister of this country."
