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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Lucy John

We asked people if Boris Johnson should resign and they had some strong opinions

We asked people in Wales to share their opinion on whether Prime Minister Boris Johnson should resign - and most agreed on the answer. On Monday Mr Johnson won the backing of a majority of Tory MPs in a confidence vote despite a significant number voting against his leadership.

The PM won 59% of the vote, meaning he is now immune from a Conservative leadership challenge for a year. Altogether 211 Tory MPs voted they had confidence in his leadership while 148 voted against him. Following the vote, Mr Johnson said his confidence vote win was "decisive".

It came after Sue Gray's report released last month heavily criticising the Prime Minister and other officials for a series of lockdown rule-breaking parties at Mr Johnson's office. The confidence vote was triggered after 15% of Conservative lawmakers submitted letters of no-confidence.

Read more: The reasons why petrol and diesel are so expensive right now

We spoke to people in Cardiff city centre to see whether they thought Mr Johnson should now resign. Although the response was mixed, one opinion prevailed: maybe he should consider standing down.

Averil Williams was in support of Mr Johnson (WalesOnline/Rob Browne)

Averil Williams said: "No, I don't think he should resign. I think he's done the best that he could do in a situation that we were all faced with at the time."

She added: "What he did during lockdown, I don't think anyone else could have done anything better. I think he's been castigated for things and he shouldn't be. He should stay where he is. There's no good alternative."

Holly Davies didn't hold back (WalesOnline/Rob Browne)

However, Holly Davies said: "Yes, I think he should because he broke literally every Covid rule that there was and he's an idiot - that's that!" Ellie Harman agreed: "Yes he should resign because he doesn't set a good example to the public. The public don't have a lot of faith in him, they don't trust him. If he was to make any laws in the future, people would be way less likely to follow what he says and he's just an embarrassment to the country in general."

"He's done a good job so far." (WalesOnline/Rob Browne)

Another thought Boris should carry on leading the country. Pamela Lewis said: "He's done a good job so far. I mean, he hasn't had it easy. First of all, it was Brexit, then Covid, and now the war in Ukraine as well. He hasn't had it easy. I don't think Keir Starmer could have done any better. I know there's this fuss about Partygate, but we all broke the rules at some time or the other. So, leave him alone and let him get on with his job."

"If he's going to break the rules himself then there's no point in him telling us what to do any longer." (WalesOnline/Rob Browne)

However, Patrick Comerford-Davies said: "Yeah, I think he should reign because of breaking the Covid rules. I think he tried, obviously, but if he's going to break the rules himself then there's no point in him telling us what to do any longer so he may as well resign." Get the latest news from across Cardiff by signing up to our newsletters.

Charlie Blood had mixed opinions (WalesOnline/Rob Browne)

Another appeared to be on the fence. Charlie Blood said: "I reckon he should, but at the same time I think it's just situational since we've had Covid. I reckon until we have the re-election, then we should truly decide, but at the moment I reckon he's better than what we have option-wise. I reckon at the moment he's fine."

"He's dishonest, he's a liar, he's just a despicable human being." (WalesOnline/Rob Browne)

Dan Evans said: "He should resign because he's dishonest, he's a liar, he's just a despicable human being. That's just my opinion. But I don't know who they'd replace him with. Probably someone worse. So we'll just keep going like purgatory forever, I think."

You can keep up to date with the latest politics news by subscribing to our Wales Matters newsletter here.

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