A Conservative MP today announced she has quit her government job, citing “deep disappointment” with Boris Johnson’s handling of the Partygate scandal.
Guildford MP Angela Richardson said she had stood down as parliamentary private secretary to Michael Gove in order to be able to “hold the government to account as a critical friend”.
She said that Mr Johnson’s comments on the lockdown-breaching gatherings at 10 Downing Street “ring hollow” with nurses who had served in NHS intensive care units through the Covid-19 pandemic.
And she said that the process of rebuilding voters’ trust will only be possible once Sue Gray’s report into the 16 events has been published in full.
It is the second time Ms Richardson – who entered parliament in 2019 as part of the new intake swept into the Commons by Mr Johnson’s landslide victory – has left the PPS post.
She was fired as Mr Gove’s PPS in November last year after abstaining in a vote to overhaul the Commons standards rulebook to save Owen Paterson from punishment for paid lobbying. But she was reinstated the following day when Mr Johnson U-turned on the issue.
In a statement setting out her decision to quit now, she said that constituents had sent her many moving stories of family tragedies and struggles with mental and physical health resulting from the tough lockdown rules imposed by Mr Johnson.
And she said: “Any request for a sense of perspective from those around No 10 rang hollow with the ITU (intensive care unit) nurse that I spoke to while out knocking doors at the weekend.
“Frontline NHS workers like her had also been working hard through the pandemic, putting their health and lives on the line to save others.
“Sue Gray’s report published today clearly states that there were failings at No 10 Downing Street that let us all down. The prime minister again apologised for those.
“I share the deep disappointment that it has taken so long to get to this stage when there could have been an early acknowledgement and apology.
“It also seems as though there are further questions to which we do not yet have the answer because of the Metropolitan Police investigation.”
