The Tories have made a big mistake - voters will punish them over Partygate: Marr
19 April 2022, 18:06 | Updated: 19 April 2022, 21:08
Andrew Marr gives take after PM's partygate apology in Commons
The Conservatives have made a "big mistake" in deploying excuses to defend Boris Johnson's breach of Covid rules, Andrew Marr has said.
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The Prime Minister apologised to MPs in the House of Commons on Tuesday before Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer described his speech as a "joke".
Speaking at the start of Tuesday's Tonight with Andrew Marr on LBC, Andrew said he believes voters will punish the Conservatives for their defence of the Prime Minister.
"The Commons was back today for the first time since MPs discovered that Boris Johnson is the first Prime Minister to have broken a law he wrote himself," he said.
"And the outcome so far has been a big so-what?
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"The Conservative Party in Parliament doesn't have the will - or, some might say, the basic courage - to force this prime minister out.
"They heard excuses. They found excuses. They keep finding excuses. I think they're making a big mistake – I think voters remember the rule breaking of the No10 parties during the pandemic and they'll punish Conservatives led by Boris Johnson when they get a chance – but that's just me. We'll see.
"Anyway, to remind us that everything in politics is unpredictable, the cabinet minister Brandon Lewis said only this morning, only this morning, he was proud to serve under Johnson because Britain had, arguably, the strongest economy in the G7.
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"It's a good word, arguably, because this afternoon came the latest IMF Forecast, putting Britain as the slowest growing economy in the G7 and indeed the second worst performing economy in the G20 behind only… wait for it… Russia.
"There may be, as the song goes, trouble ahead. But that's true of Paris as well as London. France is waiting to see whether it will elect Marine Le Pen, regarded by many as, frankly, a fascist and certainly a Putin supporter as their next president."
