Good Morning Britain presenter Ben Shephard grilled Tory MP Peter Bone on Thursday’s ITV show, amid his defence of scandal-embroiled Boris Johnson.
The MP for Wellingborough appeared alongside former Tory minister Rory Stewart to discuss the hotly anticipated Sue Gray bombshell report into the alleged No 10 parties during the Covid pandemic.
ITV presenter Ben asked Peter in the studio whether he feels the public has started “to see through the bluster, the storm, the character and the personality” of Boris Johnson.
Peter disagreed with the assertion and pointed to the coronavirus response as a clear success of the Prime Minister’s government.
He said: “The poor man nearly lost his life fighting to get us through Covid, but we got the first vaccination in the world.
“That’s gone to 2.7 billion people across the world, saving millions and millions of lives.
“We went through Covid and wasn’t it nice having Boris on the screen keeping us happy during that period?”
He concluded: “On the big issues, I think he’s done exceptionally well.”
But Ben picked up on the daily coronavirus press briefings held by Johnson and his cabinet as an example of his “underhand” leadership.
Ben said: “When he gets asked about why he did something, he says no one told me that was against the rules - he was the one that was telling us all the rules.
“All these excuses - these bizarre comments that have come out that he was ambushed by cake - what do you make of that? Because from the outside looking in, that just undoes any credibility that he has.”
Peter offered a dismissive reply, saying: “If you’re saying we should bring down a Prime Minister because work colleagues brought in some cake and he ate it, talked about business and they all disappeared after less than ten minutes, you’re having your toast this morning here.”
He went on to describe the canvassing he has done in his constituency in the last week, saying that members of the public are not bringing up party-gate on the doorstep.
Presenters Ben and Kate then turned to former Tory MP Rory Stewart who appeared on the show remotely and heavily criticised Johnson, describing him as “probably the best liar we’ve ever had as Prime Minister”.
The former Tory MP said: “The problem is that he cannot be clear. He’s in a muddle all the time. He says what he thinks is going to please one person, contradicts another.”
He went on to describe working with the PM in the Foreign Office as Johnson’s deputy while he was the Soreign Secretary, saying he saw this behaviour “consistently”.
He said: “It was impossible for us to have consistent policies, because one moment we would all agree with the Foreign Office that we were going to criticise the Kenyan government and the next moment Boris would be texting the Kenyan Foreign Secretary congratulating them on the election.”
Earlier in the programme he launched a blistering attack on the PM, saying: “Boris Johnson lies all the time. You can document hundreds of lies he’s told, so I don’t think we’re waiting for the Sue Gray report to find out whether he lies.
“He lies to his wife, he lies to his employers, he lies to his colleagues, he lies to Parliament.
“And often, he does it in different ways - sometimes he does it by pretending to be ignorant, sometimes he does it with a joke, sometimes he does it by avoiding a question. He’s probably the best liar we’ve ever had as Prime Minister - he knows a hundred different ways to lie.”
