Boris Johnson Must Resign in National Interest, Says Keir Starmer

THE GUARDIAN: Labour leader increases pressure on PM as more Tory politicians join calls for him to quit

Keir Starmer said ‘self-indulgent’ Tories were ‘having a fight about a leader who they should have known from the start is not fit for office’. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA
Keir Starmer has ramped up the pressure on Boris Johnson as the prime minister fights to save his job, arguing that it is in the “national interest” that he steps down as he is “unable to lead”.

In a speech to the Fabian Society conference, the Labour leader accused the Conservatives of running the NHS into the ground because they are “too preoccupied defending his rule breaking”. Stressing that “waiting times were the shortest on record” when Labour left government 12 years ago, he said: “Rather than concentrating on getting through the pandemic and bringing down waiting lists, this self-indulgent Tory party is instead having a fight about a leader who they should have known from the start is not fit for office.”

“We are witnessing the broken spectacle of a prime minister mired in deceit and deception, unable to lead,” Starmer said, adding that it was “very important that the Tory party does what it needs to do and gets rid of him”. » | Clea Skopeliti | Saturday, January 15, 2022