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Forest of Dean MP Mark Harper tells Boris Johnson to quit

Forest of Dean MP Mark Harper has told Boris Johnson to quit as Prime Minister.

Speaking this morning, he said his Conservative colleague had broken the Covid laws he wrote and lied to the House Of Commons about it.

He has submitted a letter of no confidence in Mr Johnson to the chair of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservatives, Sir Graham Brady.

In it Mr Harper said the Prime Minister was "no longer worthy of the great office he holds" and he had fostered a "toxic culture" in 10 Downing Street which led to "systematic law breaking".

Speaking on Radio Gloucestershire this morning, the former Tory whip said he felt the need to act after Mr Johnson received his own fine for attending a party during a Covid lockdown.

He told Steve Kitchen: "The Prime Minister asked us to judge him on the evidence. Last week the Metropolitan police concluded that in at least one case the Prime Minister had broken the Covid laws that he told us all to follow.

"The Prime Minister accepted that verdict and paid the fine and hasn't contested it.

"Because we now know he broke the law I don't think the things he said to the House of Commons about all rules having been followed and no events taking place that didn't follow the rules can possibly be true when he said that.

"That's a very serious charge, not being truthful in the House of Commons. For those reasons I thought it was right to send my letter to Sir Graham."

In the letter Mr Harper said: "It is especially at times of international crisis and tension that our country needs a Prime Minister who commands trust, obeys the law and exemplifies the very values that we are trying to defend."

He said the ministerial code made it clear how Mr Johnson should be punished for lying to MPs.

He told the BBC: "If ministers knowingly mislead Parliament then they must tender their resignation. I think for both breaking the law and not being truthful in Parliament, I don't think he should remain as Prime Minister."

Mr Harper went up against Mr Johnson as a candidate for leadership of the Conservative leadership in 2019. But he squashed the notion this was part of his bid to replace the Prime Minister: "This isn't about me. This is about the Prime Minister and whether he should continue."

Her added: "I'm not going to run this time, I've made that clear."

In a statement to MPs yesterday Mr Johnson repeatedly apologised for breaking the law but denied deliberately misleading the house. MPs are due to vote tomorrow on whether Mr Johnsob should be investigated for misleading parliament.

Mr Harper said instead of taking the weight of blame on his own shoulders the PM was expecting his colleagues to "defend the indispensable".

He added: "It's no good saying you didn't understand the rules. These were his rules. He told us over and over again in Parliament they had to be followed and if they weren't followed you would be putting people's lives at risk.

"If you mess up and you are the team captain you should take responsibility for what's gone wrong. You shouldn't ask all the people you lead to defend the indefensible.

"What he is asking all my Conservative colleagues to do is come out and make increasingly ridiculous excuses for him and I didn't think that is right."

He said there had been no command from the party to block the inquiry as reported in some newspapers and he would not be voting to do that.

But he said the right solution would be for Mr Johnson to take action himself.

"If Boris genuinely believes he didn't break the rules and he can back that up then I think it would be better if he referred himself to the committee which would then avoid all Conservative MPs having to make this difficult decision themselves."

Cotswold MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown has said he wanted to wait to see if Mr Johnson received any more fines from police.

"I would take into account that new evidence and make a decision based on that evidence. There are a lot of variables in all of this, to speculate until we get the actual evidence. Let's hope he doesn't have any more tickets. That would be the best situation."

Mr Harper said it was "perfectly reasonable" that other MPs wanted to wait until police had concluded their investigations and they all had to make their own decision in their own time.

He added: "For myself having one case of law breaking means the PM hasn't been straight with the House of Commons and that was enough for me."

His move to oust Mr Johnson has seen him labelled a traitor by some of the public but Mr Harper said he had the "strong support" of the local party leadership and while this was a personal decision he was doing what he thought was right for his constituents.

"In politics you have to do what you think is the right thing, explain why you are doing it and hope that more people agree with you then not. But ultimately you have to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and tell voters you will use your judgement to do the best job you can."

Meanwhile he said Mr Johnson's own reputation had been "very badly damaged" and he was no longer the man for the top job.

"I have been in the Conservative party since I was 17 and probably will be until the day I die. I think the party has an enormous amount to offer our country in the future but I don't think it can do it under Boris Johnson's leadership. Which is why I'm calling for a change."

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