NADINE Dorries claimed that “We’ve all broken the law” in an interview on Times Radio where she sought to defend interim Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Johnson, who made history as becoming the first ever prime minister to have been found to have broken the law, offered his resignation in July after a string of scandals led to a mass resignations among his party.
Presenter Cathy Newman grilled on the catalogue of failures of the UK Government during Johnson’s premiership.
She said: “Brexit is unravelling, isn’t it? The new PM has threated to trigger Article 16 to suspend the Northern Ireland protocol, and quite apart from that he’s the first prime minister to have been found to have broken the law in office.
“One of his key pledges, levelling up, is going backwards.”
In response, Dorries said: “Come on Cathy, you’ve broken the law, I’ve broken the law. It was a fixed penalty notice. We’ve all broken the law in that case."
Looking incredulous, Newman responded that she hadn’t broken the law, adding: “I’m not prime minister”.
Dorries started to respond, saying: “The vast majority of people –“, before her line promptly cut out.
"Come on Cathy, you've broken the law, I've broken the law ... we've all broken the law."@NadineDorries defends Boris Johnson to @cathynewman live on #TimesRadio Listen now https://t.co/xhUnEXLqj5 📻 pic.twitter.com/cMzLRO7BDh
— Times Radio (@TimesRadio) September 2, 2022
Many people reacted on Twitter to Dorries’ comments, with one person stating: “To be honest Nads to my knowledge I have never broken the law or indeed any of my friends and I definitely don't lie, what a state the UK is in to have a government minister saying things like this in public.”
The UK culture secretary’s gaffe is the latest in a string of chaotic media appearances and blunders.
Earlier this year, in response to a question from BBC presenter Charlie Stayt on whether Dorries had spoken to interim PM Johnson in the last 24 hours, she replied: “Why? Why are you asking me that question?”
Stayt simply replied: “I’d like to know”, later adding that he was “really confused” at her refusal to respond. He said: “Is that a difficult question?”
I can’t stop watching this 😂😂pic.twitter.com/DHtltLc0ep
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) February 5, 2022
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson is set to head to Scotland next week as Buckingham Palace announced the Queen would appoint the new prime minister at Balmoral in a break from tradition.
Either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak will be announced as the new prime minister on Monday, with their official appointment set to take place at Balmoral on September 6.
Truss is pegged as the most likely candidate to take over from Johnson.
