IAN Blackford stopped short of again accusing the Prime Minister of being a liar after he was warned by the Speaker.
The SNP leader said he found it “hard to reconcile” Boris Johnson’s version of events around partygate – while accepting the House of Commons does not allow him to describe another MP as a liar.
Referring to fresh revelations of another Downing Street party – this one on November 13, 2020 – Blackford said the Prime Minister could be “questioned under caution and fined in office.”
He added: “If he is questioned, he must go. If he is fined, he must resign.”
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon attacks Boris Johnson over Jimmy Savile-Keir Starmer 'fake news'
Before Prime Minister’s Questions began, Speaker Lindsay Hoyle warned MPs against accusing each other of lying – explicitly referring to the SNP. He told MPs if they wanted to change the rules, they could but as it stood he had to enforce the laws of the House.
Blackford was ejected from the House of Commons after he said Johnson had misled the House.
Asking where Johnson was on the date in question, the SNP leader said: “Surely he doesn’t need an investigation”.
When Johnson would not answer the question, Blackford said it was “ridiculous” the Prime Minister would not tell MPs where he was, blasting his “disgraceful response”.
Gavin Newlands, the SNP MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North, told the Prime Minister “no one believes” his version of events regarding lockdown-busting parties at Downing Street.
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He demanded to know why Allegra Stratton resigned if no rules were broken, as the Prime Minister has insisted. Johnson insisted he had previously explained the “sad matter” of his former press secretary’s resignation.
Meanwhile, Keir Starmer told the Prime Minister his approach of “lots of bluster, no answers” would not “work with the police” – referring to the ongoing Metropolitan Police investigation into Johnson’s rule-breaking parties during lockdown.
Criticising planned Tory tax rises, the Leader of the Opposition claimed the government was raising rates because of “low growth”.
He compared Johnson and his Chancellor Rishi Sunak to Thelma and Louise saying they were “hand in hand as they drive the country off the cliff and into the abyss of low growth and high tax”.
Johnson, in an apparent reference to Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner, replied: “I think (Starmer) is Dick Dastardly and Muttley – both of them pulling in different directions, we know they have different views.”
He went on to insist the Government is “getting on with the job” as he defended his record in power.
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