ONE of the few Tory MPs to take to the airwaves to defend the embattled Prime Minister erupted at a journalist during an interview.
Peter Bone, a Boris Johnson loyalist, is one of an increasingly small number of Conservatives willing to defend the Prime Minister during a wave of resignations which could end his time in Government.
The MP reacted furiously when interrupted by a female BBC News interviewer when interviewed on Wednesday afternoon.
He said his constituents were concerned about illegal immigration, “the cost of living, the terrible cost of living”.
Did… did Peter Bone just pretend his connection had dropped? pic.twitter.com/bYeK4LQrCb
— Tories That Are Helping (@RalphWiggumMP) July 6, 2022
“But they don’t talk about the Prime Minister,” he added.
The interviewer interjected: “Sorry to interrupt you Mr Bone but that hasn’t been borne out by recent by-election results has it, where you had Conservative candidates actively not putting the Prime Minister’s face or references to the Conservatives, barely, on their literature?”
Bone replied: “Well I would say you would want to interrupt me because you don’t want to know what people in my constituency think and they don’t agree with the BBC’s view and the bash Boris corporation continues to interrupt people when they’re trying to make their point.
“You just interrupted me about it.”
The interviewer interjected: “Well I guess it’s part of the interview process, interviewers sometimes … ”
An increasingly agitated Bone responded: “No, you’re supposed to what the person wants to say, not what you want to say.”
The MP, who yesterday accused Labour and LibDem MPs of only showing up at the Commons to “bash Boris”, is a member of the deeply conservative Cornerstone Group of Tory parliamentarians, and has voted in the past for restriction access to abortion and against abolishing the offences of blasphemy.
He also voted against gay marriage.
Defending the Conservative Party, which has been plunged into chaos due to the Prime Minister’s handling of the Christopher Pincher scandal, he said Johnson’s critics were unable to criticise his policies because “he got the big calls correct”.
He added: “To be just a few points behind in the polls is a good position to be.
“It seems to me this is a case where people are playing the man not the ball.”
Asked whether the decision to promote Pincher despite being aware of substantial concerns about his conduct, which the Prime Minister has admitted was a “mistake”, was a “big call”, Pincher replied: “The Prime Minister said with hindsight he shouldn’t have been appointed.
“Well of course with hindsight, he shouldn’t have been.
“But I think originally he was appointed deputy chief whip by the former Prime Minister Mrs [Theresa] May and I don’t remember anyone in the media ever coming up to me and saying, ‘I don’t think Chris Pincher should be the deputy chief whip’.
“Boris was overseas on important business and a member of parliament does something outrageous and stupid and he lost the whip and is no longer a Conservative MP.
“But to say that this is Boris’ fault is extraordinary.”
It has emerged that Johnson promoted Pincher – suspended from the Tory party pending a probe into allegations he recently sexually assaulted two men – despite knowing he had previously had a sexual misconduct complaint upheld against him in 2019.
The revelation triggered the resignation of Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid from Cabinet and a further wave of other resignations, believed to be the biggest walk-out of ministers in as short a time in UK political history.
The Conservatives were handed two devastating by-election defeats this year in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton.
