Beleaguered BoJo Battles With Opposition at Weekly PM's Questions

© AP Photo / Matt Dunham / A protester holds a sign outside the Houses of ParliamentA protester holds a sign outside the Houses of Parliament
A protester holds a sign outside the Houses of Parliament - Sputnik International, 1920, 06.07.2022
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Boris Johnson is fending off a palace coup led by former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who both resigned within minutes of each other on Tuesday evening over the Chris Pincher groping affair.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has faced the toughest parliamentary questioning of his prime ministership over the latest sexual misconduct scandal to hit his government.
"BoJo" began his weekly parliamentary joust in his usual jolly mood, boasting of the rise in the National Insurance tax threshold that he said would leave families £330 better off.
But opposition Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer immediately sought to score points against Johnson over claims he lied about when he knew about allegations of sexual assaults against disgraced former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher.

Starmer tried to corner Johnson on rumors he had privately admitted Pincher was "too handsy" and dubbed him "Pincher by name and pincher by nature" — and said the word "arse" in Parliament as he read out allegations against him.

Johnson replied that Pincher had now been sacked and had the whip withdrawn himself.

The Labour leader asked if the spate of ministerial resignations over the Pincher affair was the "the first recorded case of the sinking ships fleeing the rat?”

Johnson fell back on his stock retorts that Starmer had served in left-wing former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's shadow Cabinet, and had voted repeatedly against the European Union withdrawal agreement and other Brexit legislation.

Going On and On?

Starmer called the Tory front bench a "Z-list of nodding dogs," adding: "In the middle of a crisis, doesn't the country deserve better?"

Calling the Ukraine conflict the "biggest war in Europe for 80 years," Johnson insisted: "That is exactly the moment that you'd expect a government to continue with its work, not to walk away."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson waits for the start of a round table meeting at a NATO summit in Madrid, Spain on Wednesday, June 29, 2022 - Sputnik International, 1920, 06.07.2022
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Scottish National Party Westminster leader Ian Blackford managed to get through his first of two questions without demanding another independence referendum for Scotland, instead asking whether Johnson was drafting his resignation letter right there in the House of Commons.

Backbench Rebellion

But Johnson also faced attacks from his own backbenches, where a second rebellion is brewing. East Worthing and Shoreham MP Tim Loughton drew laughter when he asked if the PM thought there were "any circumstances in which he should resign?"
Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle told off MPs for clapping — against parliamentary rules, unlike cheering and heckling — when Birmingham Northfield MP Gary Sambrook said there was "nothing left for him to do but take responsibility and resign."
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