Majority of Welsh Tory MPs and MS never distanced themselves from Johnson says shadow Welsh Secretary
A majority of Welsh Conservative MPs and MS never publicly distanced themselves from Boris Johnson, even when his administration was collapsing, the shadow Welsh Secretary has said.
Cardiff Central MP Jo Stevens said only six of 13 Welsh Conservative MPs and two of 16 Conservative MSs directly called for the Prime Minister to go prior to his resignation statement yesterday, with the rest keeping their heads down or supporting him.
Only MPs Craig Williams, Fay Jones, James Davies, Simon Hart, Stephen Crabb and Virginia Crosbie, and Senedd Members Gareth Davies and Peter Fox called on Boris Johnson to resign.
“After so many months of lies, sleaze and chaos, the fact that over half of Welsh Tory MPs did not directly call for Boris Johnson to resign tells the Welsh public everything about the rot right through the Conservative party,” Jo Stevens said.
“We don’t need to change the Tory at the top – we need a change of government. We need a fresh start for Britain.”
‘Very sorry’
Of the other MP and MS, Monmouth MP David TC Davies welcomed his resignation but stayed on as Welsh Office Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales, only sharing Simon Hart’s resignation statement.
Clwyd West MP David Jones, Aberconwy MP Robin Millar and Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies MS said that the Prime Minister needed to consider his position but did not explicitly call on him to resign.
Sam Rowlands MS and Jamie Walli MP shared Andrew RT Davies’ statement.
Natasha Asghar MS put out a statement post-resignation supporting the decision.
Alun Cairns MP, as well as MS Darren Millar, James Evans, Janet Finch-Saunders, Joel James, Laura Anne Jones, Mark Isherwood, Paul Davies, Russell George, Samuel Kurtz and Tom Giffard did not comment at all.
Simon Baynes MP meanwhile expressed regret at Boris Johnson’s decision to resign.
“I am very sorry about the resignation of the PM: I am a strong supporter and he has achieved a great deal for Wales and the UK,” he said.
“It is a great honour to be the MP for Clwyd South, a seat which he stood for in 1997 and has continued to visit and take a great interest in ever since.”
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That’s because they liked Johnson… All Tories secretly wish they had the courage of their nasty ideology that Boris Johnson had, yes, he is a scumball, yes he is possibly the worst Prime Minister of all time, yes he is selfish, egocentric, a liar, a corrupt player of evil games, dangerous to national security and embarrassment BUT he has done so blatantly, without hiding his true self with anything more than the most gossamer-thin pretence of otherwise, he has looked the nation in the eyes and not only lied to it but also taken the nation for mugs (and in… Read more »
They all left it so late to be meaningless, they all knew what johnson was like, there have been several times when a resignation would have been appropriate, spineless tory scum.
The guy is a rotter, we’ve known that for ages. We’ve known that most of his supporters and fellow M.P’s were/are no good. Now is the time to articulate the alternative way forward not dwell on their collective lack of merit. State clearly what priorities need to be addressed and convince the electorate to sign up for it. Clue – Labour Party not likely to offer much different in reality, same old table tilted slightly different.
Yes, what we really need is a Non-Tory Alliance to fill the vacuum being left by Kier Starmer which has a real programme of steps to sort out the energy crisis and the whole problem of the impoverishment of the 99%. Perhaps this is where Plaid could lead the way. From the comments I have seen elsewhere there are going to be a large number of Labour folk who would vote for an Alliance candidate standng on that sort of platform.