Boris Johnson is under increasing pressure to resign as Prime Minister after Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak quit yesterday. It comes just three years after he won a strong majority in the 2019 general election, gaining seats from historically Labour areas.
One of these areas included Heywood and Middleton, which voted for a Conservative MP, Chris Clarkson, for the first time in its history. However, partygate and the cost of living crisis have led for increasing calls for the PM to resign.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid stepped down yesterday afternoon over the PM's handling of the Chris Pincher scandal. Yesterday, Mr Johnson apologised for appointing the Tamworth MP to the Whips office - which oversees party discipline and MPs' well-being - despite knowing about allegations of improper conduct against Mr Pincher.
Johnson faced the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, at Prime Minister's Questions today, where Tory colleagues once again called on him to resign. Johnson remained defiant, however, saying: "Frankly the job of a Prime Minister in difficult circumstances when he has been handed a colossal mandate is to keep going and that’s what I’m going to do."
In Heywood, this is the "final nail in the coffin" for some. "People have completely lost faith in him," said John Fisher.
"His time is up. There are things that really need sorting out, like energy prices and fuel, it's a disgrace, let somebody else get on with the job.
"He's been lying not only to his own people but the general public. I think this is the final nail in his coffin.
"He's always going to dig in, he's that kind of person. If he'd been truthful in the first place he might have survived, but people are just fed up of the constant having to apologise for mistakes now."
Craig Robinson agreed that Johnson does have a kind of "stickability", but that his time in office is over. "He doesn't care about his own party let alone the country.
"I don't think people were really bothered when some of the backbenchers stepped away but the big names like Sunak and Javid are big. Everyone knows who they are.
"To be honest I don't know how he got elected in the first place. A PM should care for the people and the whole country, he doesn't care at all.
"I don't know how anyone here (Heywood) voted Conservative, it looks very rundown at the moment. But the Tories don't care about helping people here. Labour really are doing something wrong if they can't get into power now.
"People liked him at first because he was funny, a funny and entertaining bumbling idiot. He was different. But he's got to go now."
Karen Buxton added: "It just baffles me really. Anybody else would have gone a long time ago. He's just coming off as a narcissist now. It's the lying that's just awful.
"During lockdown we were all being sensible and not seeing family properly, but they were just having a party and doing what they wanted when we couldn't.
"What's the other option though? I'm not convinced by the other one (Starmer). But Boris can't stay surely."
Some in Heywood were backing Johnson however, believing he's not been given a chance to lead with Covid getting in the way. Pat said: "No other PM has had to cope with what he has, he should be given a chance to lead and sort out what's going on now.
"I'd still much rather have Boris than the other guy (Starmer). Putting Labour in power was the worst thing we could do, he gets on my lip him.
"Boris can't do a thing right according to everyone, they just go on and on. He's still the strongest leader we could have at the moment."
Another woman, who didn't want to be named, also threw her support behind the embattled PM. She said: "They did the same thing with Churchill. He got us through the war and then got rid of him anyway. It's the same for Boris after getting us through Covid. I wouldn't want to have to do what he's doing, and he's doing his best."
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