Shapps – ‘the world has moved on’ from Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson’s explosive resignation letter has produced further turmoil in the Conservative party this week, with allies supporting his claims that the privileges committee was part of a ‘witch- hunt’ against him. The Secretary for Energy Security Grant Shapps is clearly not part of that group, and was fairly biting in his remarks to Sophy Ridge, telling her the world had moved on from Johnson, and people did not miss the ‘drama’ that came with him.
Guto Harri – Johnson has ‘taken charge’ of the situation
The former Downing Street communications director came to Johnson’s defence, saying he could understand why Johnson felt aggrieved at being pushed out of politics. He expressed his frustration that the Partygate scandal had overshadowed the accomplishments made during Johnson’s time in office, and made the case that many voters might be unhappy that the prime minister they voted for was now no longer a member of parliament.
David Lammy – the honours system is operating in ‘bad faith’
More Boris Johnson drama involved accusations that a member of Sunak’s team may have removed names from the former prime minister’s honours list, although Grant Shapps denied this to be true. Labour’s David Lammy took issue with the integrity of some of the people being rewarded, but told Kuenssberg that Labour would continue with the honours system, despite agreeing that it was Labour policy to look at scrapping the House of Lords.
Farage – ‘there is a bigger gap for an insurgency today than before’
In a typically controversial interview, Nigel Farage criticised Sunak for not repealing EU law, claiming there were many in power trying to subvert Brexit. He said Johnson’s role in the Conservative party was over, but suggested there was a bigger gap for a new insurgency party on the right than there was when UKIP came to prominence, and that several members of parliament would be interested in joining.
‘Independence is not the consistent settled will of the Scottish people’
Finally, Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf told Kuenssberg he was confident he would be the leader that delivers independence, despite the recent chaos in the Scottish National Party. He said that support for independence was ‘rock solid’, although when Kuenssberg pointed out that the numbers had been falling back, he admitted that there wasn’t a consistently settled majority in favour.
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