The Loose Women studio erupted into heated debate over Boris Johnson’s refusal to resign after he was fined over a lockdown birthday bash in No10.
The PM apologised for the lockdown-breaching party, which was reportedly organised for him by his wife, and confirmed he had paid the fine after previously saying he had 'followed the rules'.
Loose Women panelists Kaye Adams, Sunetra Sarker, Nadia Sawalha and Linda Robson turned to the topic at the beginning of Thursday’s instalment of the ITV daytime show.
Nadia immediately pushed back at fellow presenter Denise Welch’s comments on the previous day’s show that Boris Johnson should not have to resign as a result of the police fine.
Linda replied by stressing that the PM did not organise the party himself, adding: “He nearly died a couple of weeks before, he’d been in hospital with Covid. He made a mistake.”
Kaye was quick to respond as the atmosphere became tense, saying: “Linda, this is a man who’s a leader. Leader's should lead. They should not make excuses for getting it wrong. Leaders should show an example, have integrity, do what they say.”
Linda replied: “They were meeting everyday to discuss what was going on in the country anyway,” to which Kaye quickly questioned: “Why do you want to make excuses?”
Linda continued, defensively, saying: “There’s nothing we can compare this to. Nothing like this has ever happened to us in all these years.”
Sunetra then weighed in, telling Linda: “That’s why it’s so serious. This has never happened to us before. Lockdown was brand new. So, it was that serious.”
Nadia added: “This has hurt a lot of people and for the Tories to keep telling us we’ve just got to get over it because it was two years ago is not on.”
After getting some stick from her co-stars, Linda replied saying that she “totally understands” that people lost loved ones during lockdown, but again returned to the fact that Boris Johnson had not organised the party himself.
She said: “They just brought in a cake for him and said happy birthday. It was the people around him that organised it.”
Nadia then said: “What do you think about all the times he stood in the Houses of Parliament and said no rules were broken? The rest of the world will look at our dishonest government and wonder how we put up with it. It’s embarrassing.”
Linda replied: “He just went in for a meeting. He thought he was going to talk about what was going on in the country. He didn’t bring the cake, he didn’t organise the party.”
Linda then noted the PM has paid the £50 fixed penalty notice yesterday that was issued for a June 2020 birthday bash in his honour.
Sunetra then simmered down the heated conversation, saying: “We can’t pile this all on Linda. I get what you’re saying in some respects because the party itself sounds petty. But he’s been caught over and over again.”
Loose Women airs weekdays at 12.30pm on ITV
