Boris Johnson jokes about Ian Blackford's weight as he refuses to resign over partygate

Tory ministers are willing to sacrifice the union to save Boris Johnson, Labour leader Keir Starmer has said. 

The claim came during a rowdy Prime Minister Questions, with a bullish Johnson pushing back on multiple calls to resign over the Downing Street parties. 

He refused to answer questions about the so-called partygate affair, saying that investigations by the Metropolitan Police and the civil servant Sue Gray meant it would be inappropriate for him to comment.

He went on the attack, even making a “fatphobic” joke about SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford. 

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s integrity was thrown into question yet again, when an email published just after noon appeared to show he had lied about prioritising animals over human beings in August’s evacuation from Afghanistan.

During the session, Starmer started by asking Johnson if he agreed with the ministerial code, that any minister who misled parliament should resign. 

“Of course," the Prime Minister said, before saying the investigation meant he could not comment. He then told MPs his government was focused on driving economic growth and leading the Western response to the crisis on the Ukrainian border

Starmer persisted: “I think the Prime Minister said yes, he agrees the code does apply to him. Therefore, if he misled Parliament he must resign.

“On December 1, the Prime Minister told this House in relation to parties during lockdown: ‘All guidance was followed completely in Number 10’, from that despatch box.

“On December 8 the Prime Minister told this House: ‘I have been repeatedly assured since these allegations emerged there was no party’. So since he acknowledges the ministerial code applies to him, will he now resign?”

Johnson replied: “No, Mr Speaker. Since he asked about Covid restrictions, let me just remind the House, and indeed remind the country, that he has been relentlessly opportunistic throughout.

“He has flip-flopped from one side to the other, he would have kept us in lockdown in the summer, he would have taken us back into lockdown at Christmas.

“It is precisely because we didn’t listen to Captain Hindsight that we have the fastest-growing economy in the G7 and we have got all the big calls right.”

Starmer said the Prime Minister and his cabinet had “done immense damage to public trust.”

He added: “When the leader of the Scottish Conservatives said the Prime Minister should resign, the Leader of the House called him a lightweight.

“English conservatives publicly undermining the Union by treating Scotland with utter disdain. How much damage are the Prime Minister’s cabinet prepared to do to save his skin?” he asked.

During his question, Blackford said the Prime Minister was lingering in office, and that “every nick in this death by a thousand cuts is sucking attention from the real issues facing the public. Tory cuts, Brexit and the soaring cost of living has pushed millions of families into poverty.

"The impending national insurance tax hangs like a guillotine, while they eat cake. This is nothing short of a crisis and the only route out, the only route to restore public trust is for the Prime Minister to go.”

Johnson responded by saying he didn’t know “who’d been eating more cake”.

Taking to Twitter after the exchange, the SNP MP Kirsty Blackman slammed the Prime Minister for making “what seems to be a fatphobic joke”. 

As the session continued, the Commons foreign affairs committee released an email that seemed to show the Prime Minister personally authorised the evacuation of 173 dogs and cats from Afghanistan. 

The communication, which was sent by 25 August 2021 by a foreign office official said that “the PM has just authorised their staff and animals to be evacuated”.

Johnson had previously said on 7 December last year that it was “complete nonsense” that he had intervened to have the animals evacuated and that he had “no influence on that particular case”. He added: “Nor would that be right.”

Whistleblowers in the foreign office have long claimed the Prime Minister prioritised cats and dogs during the airlift, diverting limited resources.