People in the North East have slammed Boris Johnson's "flimsy excuses" after he was grilled on live TV over whether he lied to MPs over Partygate in a hearing that will determine his future in politics.
The former PM has accepted that he misled MPs but said his comments were made "in good faith" based on what he "honestly" knew at the time. Mr Johnson was ousted from office last year after a string of scandals, faces being a potential suspension if MPs decide he deliberately misled them.
However Mr Johnson has insisted there is "no evidence at all that supports an allegation that I intentionally or recklessly misled the House". And more than 44,000 members of the public have reacted to Johnson's defence through campaign group 38 Degrees, who sent a van with a revolving selection of the questions the public wanted Boris Johnson to answer this afternoon to Westminster.
Many of those respondents are from the North East, including Carol Westall from Hexham lost her brother to Covid aged 67. She said: "He died in a care home with progressive secondary MS. I lived four hours away by train.
"Do you know what it was like for me, who ended up being the sole serving member of our families unit, being able to visit so infrequently, then at a safe distance? You were partying, I was grieving."
John Hutchinson, from Newcastle, said: "Unless you consider us all fools how do you expect any of us to ever trust you ever again? You insulted the very people you were elected to protect. Please do the only honourable option available at this stage and withdraw from all future political activity."
Bruce McFarlane, also from Newcastle, said: "How did the Queen feel, and King Charles feels about what you were doing during Prince Phillip’s funeral? Why should you not be expelled from Parliament, after all that you have done?"
Ian Slee, of Sunderland, asked: "Why do you think that as a law maker you can be a law breaker? Is this one rule for them and another rule for you?, adding: "You let down the entire country, you should be ashamed and never allowed to hold a position of power ever again."
In his defence on Wednesday, Boris Johnson said that gatherings at Downing Street while the UK was under strict restrictions were "critical to function of Government" and that MPs should exonerate him as there is "not a shred of evidence against him".
However, a spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, a campaign group of more than 6,000 people who lost relatives and friends to the virus, disagreed and said Wednesday marked “a new low” for Boris Johnson amid the Privileges Committee hearing investigating his denials surrounding Partygate.
Becky Kummer, spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, said: "It’s obvious that Boris Johnson deliberately misled Parliament and should resign as an MP. Far worse though is the lies he deliberately told to families like mine, after failing to protect our loved ones.
"His claim that he did so in “good faith” is sickening.
"Boris Johnson will be remembered for partying whilst overseeing the UK having one of the highest death tolls in the world from Covid-19 during the first and second waves. Like many thousands of others, my family followed the rules and will have to live with the consequences of not being with our loved ones at the end, for the rest of our lives.
"The disrespect the Prime Minister showed us, both in breaking those rules himself and then lying to our faces about it, is something we’ll never forgive. In 2021, Boris Johnson looked bereaved families in the eye and told us he’d done everything he could to protect our loved ones.
"That wasn’t true and he’ll have to live with the knowledge of the harm he did and the lies he told for the rest of his life. He isn’t fit for public office and the fact he still thinks he can lie his way out of it tells you all you need to know about his character."
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