Boris Johnson’s Christmas party ‘lies’ betray virus victims and destroy trust – The Yorkshire Post says

As the Prime Minister sanctioned an inquiry into the party that he says didn’t exist, appeared to promise to pass relevant papers over to the police and accused Labour of playing politics, the dignity of the bereaved contrasts with the arrogance of the PM’s aides who laughed at the country in their now infamous mock press conference.

After all, their adherence to the Government’s lockdown laws, while those in the heart of power appeared to abuse them at a frivolous gathering, is the most serious breach of trust – and there are no shortage of examples – since Mr Johnson took office.

And Labour MP Dr Rosena Allin-Khan – herself a hospital doctor – moved the nation to tears when she described at how she wept behind her mask as three children begged, through an iPad, for their dying mum to wake up before asking Mr Johnson: “How does the Prime Minister sleep at night?”

It was a question that was as damning as the near-silence of Tory MPs as Mr Johnson gave yet another unconvincing answer to a scandal that would already have been consigned to history by now if he had been honest at the outset.

Instead Mr Johnson’s weak leadership is now questioned by respected senior Tories such as Sayeeda Warsi and Ruth Davison while the lies, obfuscation, deception, mocking, cover-ups and contempt of Downing Street put at risk the response to the Omicron variant ahead of Christmas. No amount of bluster will mask the public’s anger and the PM only has himself to blame if voters neither forgive him, nor forget his complicity, over an indefensible scandal that, for a great many, will never be a laughing matter.

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