‘There actually wasn’t a cake’
No sooner had Conor Burns spawned a thousand memes from The Thick of It than he was then to be found rowing back from his claims about birthday-themed baked goods.
“I am told, under some authority, indeed from him [Johnson], that there actually wasn’t a cake,” Burns told The Telegraph on January 27.
The question then follows, the reporter asked, that what is a birthday party without a cake? “A meeting,” came the reply.
So you can’t be ambushed by a cake if there was no cake to begin with, and there was no party if there was no cake. Clear?
Let’s just forget that The Times reported in the summer of 2020: “Boris Johnson celebrated his 56th birthday yesterday with a small gathering in the cabinet room. Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, and a group of aides sang him Happy Birthday before they tucked into a Union Jack cake.”
‘He’s not robbed a bank’
Romford MP Andrew Rosindell’s strategy on Sky News was to point out that Johnson’s alleged misdeeds pale in comparison to, say, armed robbery.
He said: “I’m sure there are ministers that get parking tickets and speeding fines. Lots of people break the law in small ways, and sometimes unintentionally. He’s not robbed a bank. This is getting out of control.”
A penny for Chris Huhne’s thoughts.
Subscribe to The Big IssueFrom just £3 per week
Take a print or digital subscription to The Big Issue and provide a critical lifeline to our work. With each subscription we invest every penny back into supporting the network of sellers across the UK.
A subscription also means you'll never miss the weekly editions of an award-winning publication, with each issue featuring the leading voices on life, culture, politics and social activism.
‘The government is going from strength to strength’
With the PM facing daily calls to resign, a Tory MP defecting to Labour for the first time in two decades, and the police now investigating alleged law breaking in Downing Street, it could be easy to think the current moment is a low point for the government.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, however, assures us otherwise. He told reporters outside Number 10 that “the government is going from strength to strength.”
‘The prime minister doesn’t really own his own diary’
Defence minister James Heappey went out to bat for the PM on Radio 4 on January 19, declaring that “the prime minister doesn’t really own his own diary”.
“He spends his day bouncing from high level meeting to high level meeting,” Heappey said, so Johsnon really wouldn’t have known where he was going or what he was doing next. How’s that for restoring trust and authority in the country’s leader.
‘If that’s the kind of parties you go to, they’re not much fun, are they?’
Peter Bone, in a classic bit of 11pm Newsnight argy-bargy, claimed the parties are “not an issue on the doorstep” on January 24.
He added “I don’t recognise this as a party” – getting so close to realising that people are angry because they were criminalised for doing the kind of things now being passed off as trivial.
Bone rounded off the exchange by telling presenter Kirsty Wark: “If that’s the kind of parties you go to, they’re not much fun, are they?”
Today For TomorrowJoin our Today For Tomorrow campaign
The Big Issue’s Today for Tomorrow Campaign aims to tackle the climate crisis, poverty and pandemics with the Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill. Support the Bill and email your MP today!
‘Even a serial killer gets his day in court’
Martin Vickers, the MP for Cleethorpes, rushed to the PM’s defence by saying “even a serial killer gets his day in court.”
Not a lot you can say about that one really.
