As Boris Johnson faced the Commons today over the shock findings in Sue Gray’s interim report, it fell to Tory backbencher Aaron Bell to deliver the most painful blow. The MP for Newcastle-Under-Lyme told the House that he didn’t hug his parents at his grandmother’s funeral.
“Am I a fool?” he asked the Prime Minister.
The windows in the chamber are too high for the Prime Minister to be able to see out to the River Thames. But across that river, the sea of red hearts painted on the south side of the river are visible from Parliament’s terraces.
Every heart represents a life lost during the pandemic to the pain of Covid-19. And now, 16 parties later, every heart represents a reproach. A reminder that while those in No 10 partied, everyday people died alone.
Last summer, I walked the length of the Covid Memorial Wall with two of the bereaved young people behind it, Hannah Brady and Matt Fowler.
On May 20, 2020, when No 10 was holding a Bring Your Own Bottle party, Hannah was registering her beloved father Shaun’s death. Later, as part of a Covid-10 Bereaved Families delegation to Downing Street, Hannah sat in that back garden. A few days later, the infamous suitcase full of booze was once again being wheeled into position for yet another party.
Hannah and Matt have shown nothing but dignity in their fight for justice. The contrast with today’s bombastic performance by the Prime Minister in the Commons could not be more shameful.
Boris even stooped so low as to fling false conspiracy theories at the Labour leader, accusing Sir Keir Starmer of having failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile, a claim he knows is false.
So Trumpian was the performance, Johnson only just stopped short of dancing to YMCA.
But Starmer, at least, did something important. He spoke to those of us who may have questioned why we all didn’t bend the rules, like those in high office clearly did.
The people of Britain have been so gaslit by our Prime Minister, some have begun to wonder – were we wrong not to have hugged our loved ones or let our kids see their friends?
Sir Keir told us: “People shouldn’t feel guilty. They should feel pride in themselves and in their country. Because by abiding by those rules, they have saved the lives of people they will probably never meet. They have shown the deep public spirit and the love and respect for others that has always characterised this nation at its best.”
One of the allegations is that the Prime Minister’s wife Carrie Symonds’ friends held a victory party on the night Dominic Cummings resigned, playing Abba’s ‘The Winner Takes It All.’
Tonight, it’s ‘SOS’ the couple should be playing up in the Downing Street flat. Because the question is, after today, how can he... even try... to go on?
