Fleur Anderson Describes Government as 'Utterly Farcical'
Putney MP says Boris Johnson has undermined standards in public life
Boris Johnson announces he is standing down
Putney MP Fleur Anderson has described the current state of government in Westminster as ‘utterly farcical’.
Boris Johnson resigned on Thursday (7 July) afternoon as Conservative Party Leader but has stated that he intends to continue as ‘care-taker Prime Minister’ until a new leader is in place.
Several Conservative MPs and former leader Sir John Major have called for consideration to be given to Johnson being immediately removed as Prime Minister. Under normal circumstances, a departing party leader would remain in place until his or her successor is named, but many are arguing that, given the reasons for the resignation, an interim Prime Minister should be appointed. Johnson was forced to go after a historically unprecedented number of resignations from his government with many of the 59 ministers giving Johnson’s lack of integrity and honesty as the reason for their unwillingness to serve in his government. Labour Leader, Sir Keir Starmer is saying that he will move a vote on No Confidence in the government, if Johnson remains in post.
Fleur Anderson MP said, “I am glad to see that Boris Johnson has finally done the decent thing and resigned. But it should have happened a long time ago. Boris Johnson has never been fit to lead our country. He has brazenly misled the public time and again. On the doorstep, residents in Putney tell me they are furious about Boris Johnson’s behaviour. He has utterly undermined standards in public life.
“It is important to emphasise that Boris Johnson was enabled and supported by the entirety of the Conservative Party. Tory MPs did not resign over Covid deaths and missing five COBRA meetings, benefit cuts, crony contracts, Brexit failure, the appalling treatment of refugees or Partygate. They resigned when they thought Boris Johnson would stop them from being re-elected.
“The situation in Westminster is now utterly farcical. The business of governing the country has descended into chaos. The Conservatives have overseen 12 years of economic stagnation, declining public services and empty promises. Here in Putney, families have rising bills and a housing crisis leading to more people being evicted. I’m angry that the Government are not doing their job and will spend the summer in crisis. We don’t just need to change the Tory at the top – we need a complete change of government.”
The Conservative Party will now run a leadership race to find his replacement. Questions are now being raised as to whether given the historic number of ministerial resignations, the functioning of government will be severely impacted.
MPs have this morning in Parliament even questioned whether national security is at risk, due to the scale of currently unfilled posts in government.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |
July 7, 2022