Senior Powys Tory expresses disappointment in Boris Johnson
A senior Powys Tory has expressed his disappointment in former UK prime minister Boris Johnson, who has been found to have misled Parliament over lockdown parties.
The Privileges committee of MPs, which has a Conservative majority, was asked to investigate whether Mr Johnson had misled MPs over what he knew about parties held in Downing Street during Covid-19 lockdowns.
The committee’s report concluded that Mr Johnson made multiple deliberately misleading statements to Parliament about events at number 10 Downing Street,
On Monday night (June 19) MPs voted overwhelmingly in support of the report, by 354 to seven.
If he had still been an MP, the suspension would have triggered a by-election in his constituency.
Mr Johnson had resigned before the report was published and branded the committee a “kangaroo court.”
Powys County Council’s Planning committee chairman, Cllr Karl Lewis took to social media to air his views on the issue and said that he had once been a “big admirer” of the former prime minister.
Cllr Lewis said: “As a member of the Conservative party I cannot hide my disappointment in Boris Johnson.
“I had been a big admirer of Boris in 2019 in his determination to see through the biggest political decision the UK voting public has ever made.
“More people voted to leave the EU in 2016 than they did for John Major who won the 1992 General Election.
“Many on the Labour and Lib Dem benches wanted (to) undermine that political decision the British people made in 2016, but Boris got it done.”
Cllr Lewis continued: “In 2020 we were thrust into a pandemic when we all had no idea how it would end, or even what the next week would bring.
“During this time while many of us were clapping for the NHS, it turns out some members of the House of Commons decided that the lockdown restrictions did not apply to them.
“When Boris spoke in Parliament and said that he had not broken any rules, I believed him, so did many others, we took his word for it.
“Like I say, I am very disappointed.”
In the debate on Monday night, former Conservative prime minister Theresa May said that backing the report would be a “small but important step in restoring trust” in Parliament.
On Thursday, July 20 a by-election will take place in Mr Johnson’s former constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip which is on the outskirts of London.
By BBC LDRS
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