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Daily Record
Politics
Peter Davidson

Tory minister admits public doesn't trust Boris Johnson over Downing Street partygate scandal

A Tory minister has admitted the British public doesn't trust Boris Johnson over the number of lockdown parties held in Downing Street.

Armed Forces Minister James Heappey, who was sent out to defend the Prime Minister on the airwaves, said his constituents have made it clear to him that they have no trust left in Johnson.

During a frosty interview with Susanna Reid and Adil Ray on Good Morning Britain Heappey told viewers that all answers surrounding partygate will be answered in Sue Gray's investigation.

Reports on Tuesday night suggested MPs furious at Johnson's handling of the partygate scandal engulfing Westminster had been angered further by his insistence that nobody had told him a party at Downing Street would break rules he himself had set.

Conservative MP James Heappey was rolled out to defend the Prime Minister (PA)

And that especially those in the 2019 intake, many of whom have slim majorities after votes were "lent" to them during the last election, were preparing to submit their letters to the chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench MPs, Sir Graham Brady.

Bury South MP Christian Wakeford - who has a majority of just 402 - became the seventh Conservative MP to publicly call for Johnson to go on Tuesday, according to Yahoo News.

Host Adil Ray asked the minister: "Do members of the public and your constituents trust Prime Minister Johnson?"

He replied: "No, my mailbag tells me very clearly that they do not."

Ray then asked: "It's almost impossible if we don't trust the leader of this country, in the middle of a pandemic, when he's about to tell us about more restrictions or less restrictions.

"He's in charge of almost every every part of our lives. We don't trust him is what people are telling you. Where do we go from here?"

Heappey said: "I think what we have to do is firstly, if you don't take the Prime Minister, on the basis of what he said in the Commons, then the Sue Gray report will answer whatever questions you have.

"Everybody wants to see what that report concludes.

"I will also reflect that the Prime Ministe r is steering our country through a time of incredible insecurity and instability globally.

"There were missiles launched from Yemen at Abu Dhabi the other day and that is a concern for the security in the Gulf.

"There are hundreds of thousands of Russian troops massing on the borders of Ukraine, that is a grave concern for security in Europe."

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