Since the Partygate scandal broke in December, everyone from Ant and Dec to Rylan Clarkehas had an opinion on the Downing Street gatherings. And this week, Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield couldn’t resist making a joke about Boris Johnson’s feeble apology for breaking lockdown rules during a segment on This Morning.
The Prime Minister apologised to MPs on Wednesday during his first appearance in the Commons since he was fined £50 by the Met Police for breaking Covid measures, saying: 'Let me also say not by way of mitigation or excuse - but purely because it explains my previous words in this House - that it did not occur to me then or subsequently that a gathering in the Cabinet room just before a vital meeting on Covid strategy could amount to a breach of the rules.'
Labour leader Keir Starmer called the excuse-filled apology ‘a joke’ and it seems Phil and Holly completely agreed. ‘Following the Prime Minister's... apology in Parliament for breaking his own lockdown laws, forgiveness is the subject of our phone-in today,’ Phil said, as he broke into a grin before raising his eyebrow at Holly. ‘Boris could call, couldn’t he?’ Phil suggested, as Holly agreed: ‘Yeah, Boris give us a call!’
The show’s agony aunt Deirdre also got in on the joke when she told the presenters: ‘Yeah, we're talking about forgiveness…sorry can just be so hard, can't it? And maybe you think someone owes you an apology and you really want them to say sorry before you can move on from that….Or maybe someone has apologised by they didn't seem sincere, it's more about a gesture, and you don't really think they're sorry and you can't really forgive them.’
A lot of people, meanwhile, have been asking whether the Queen can make Boris resign after he was found guilty of breaking lockdown rules while the public followed them closely, many missing family birthdays and funerals for the good of the nation. But, while it would be a long and difficult process to make Boris resign, it doesn’t seem the UK’s MPs are letting the PM get away with a seemingly insincere ‘sorry’.
In a move announced on Thursday, the Commons have now ‘nodded through’ Labour’s plan to launch an investigation (another job for Sue Gray?) into whether Boris misled the House about the lockdown parties he adamantly denied attending for weeks.
As it stands, the PM still claims he didn’t mislead Parliament and is apparently ‘very keen for every possible form of scrutiny’.