5m ago
16:23
Starmer's speech saying Johnson is unfit for
office
Keir Starmer’s speech a few minutes ago was the most
withering and damning he has ever delivered about Boris Johnson, in the Commons
or elsewhere. This is what he said:
The prime minister repeatedly assured the House
that the guidance was followed and the rules were followed. But we now know
that 12 cases have breached the threshold for criminal investigation, which I
remind the House means that there is evidence of serious and flagrant breaches
of lockdown, including the party on May 20 2020, which we know the prime
minister attended, and the party on November 13 2020 in the prime minister’s
flat.
There can be no doubt that the prime minister
himself is now subject to criminal investigation. The prime minister must keep
his promise to publish Sue Gray’s report in full when it is available, but it
is already clear what the report disclosed is the most damning conclusion
possible.
By routinely breaking the rules he set, the prime
minister took us all for fools, he held people’s sacrifice in contempt, he showed
himself unfit for office.
His desperate denials since he was exposed have
only made matters worse. Rather than come clean, every step of the way he’s
insulted the public’s intelligence.
And now he’s finally fallen back on his usual
excuse: it’s everybody’s fault but his. They go, he stays. Even now he is
hiding behind a police investigation into criminality in his home and his
office.
He gleefully treats what should be a mark of
shame as a welcome shield. But prime minister, the British public aren’t fools,
they never believed a word of it, they think the prime minister should do the
decent thing and resign.
Of course he won’t because he is a man without
shame and just as he has done throughout his life, he’s damaged everyone and
everything around him along the way.
His colleagues have spent weeks defending the
indefensible, touring the TV studios parroting his absurd denials, degrading
themselves and their offices, fraying the bond of trust between the government
and the public, eroding our democracy and the rule of law.
[Margaret Thatcher said] ‘the first duty of
government is to uphold the law. If it tries to bob and weave and duck around
that duty when it is inconvenient, then so will the governed.’
To govern this country is an honour, not a birthright.
It’s an act of service to the British people, not the keys to a court to parade
to your friends.
It requires honesty, integrity and moral
authority. I can’t tell you how many times people have said to me that this
prime minister’s lack of integrity is somehow ‘priced in’, that his behaviour
and character don’t matter. I have never accepted that and I never will accept
that.
Whatever your politics, whatever party you vote
for, honesty and decency matter. Our great democracy depends on it, and cherishing
and nurturing British democracy is what it means to be patriotic.
There are members opposite who know that, and
they know the prime minister is incapable of it. The question they must ask
themselves is what are they going to do about it?
They can heap their reputations, the reputation
of their party and the reputation of this country on the bonfire that is his
leadership, or they can spare the country from a prime minister totally
unworthy of his responsibilities. It is their duty to do so.
They know better than anyone how unsuitable he is
for high office, many of them knew in their hearts that we would inevitably
come to this one day, and they know that as night follows day, continuing his
leadership will mean further misconduct, cover-up and deceit.
It is only they who can end this farce. The eyes
of the country are upon them. They will be judged on the decisions they take
now.
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