BORIS Johnson appeared rattled in an interview with Sky’s political editor as he comes under more pressure to step aside as Prime Minister after breaking lockdown rules.
Beth Rigby was questioning Johnson about partygate and a now impending investigation into whether he misled Parliament over the matter in Gujarat, India, while he was on a trip to the country.
But the Prime Minister started to crack and his tone became aggressive as the reporter tried to draw a reaction from him in response to an investigation being agreed.
On Thursday it was agreed by MPs that Johnson should be referred to the Commons Privileges Committee for an inquiry into whether he lied to Parliament about his attendance at Downing Street gatherings.
And during the interview it was clear he was feeling the heat in more ways than one as he started shouting at Rigby for questioning him on the subject.
He said to Rigby: “Beth, you’re going to have to wait until the conclusion of the report and in the meantime you promised to get onto the subject of this trip.”
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After Rigby argued she hadn’t spent as much time on partygate questions as other broadcasters, Johnson spoke over her and said: “This isn’t a competition. Why don’t you get on with the subject of the trip? And since you now come to the point of the trip, thank you very much.”
Not a good look. Boris Johnson getting quite angry with Sky News’s political editor @BethRigby pic.twitter.com/r50uw5FyHl
— Ian Fraser (@Ian_Fraser) April 21, 2022
Letting his emotions slip perhaps comes as no surprise given that during the course of Thursday, Tory MPs including former minister Steve Baker turned their backs on their leader.
Leading Brexiteer Baker, deputy leader of the Tories’ Covid Recovery Group, called for Johnson to quit for failing to obey his own Covid rules and said he should be “long gone”.
Meanwhile, Tory MP Tobias Ellwood said the onus is on his party's MPs to force a change in leadership.
He said “we must stop drinking the Kool-Aid” by supporting Johnson as leader.
Ellwood added it was clear that more and more MPs are privately believing it’s the time that the "leadership baton is actually passed on".
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