Wycombe MP Steve Baker attacked Boris Johnson over a communications campaign to “bully, shame and terrify” people into “compliance” with Covid restrictions – amid mounting pressure on the Prime Minister to resign over “Partygate”.

Mr Johnson defended himself in the Commons on Monday against allegations he broke lockdown rules by attending parties during coronavirus restrictions, after civil servant Sue Gray published her long-awaited report.

Mr Baker, who has fiercely opposed lockdowns and Covid restrictions, asked the Prime Minister what his message would be to those who “meticulously” followed all the rules while these supposed Downing Street parties were going on – even to the detriment to their own mental health.

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The former minister asked: “Millions of people took seriously a communications campaign, apparently designed by behavioural psychologists to bully, to shame and to terrify them into compliance with minute restrictions on their freedom.

“What is (Mr Johnson’s) central message to those people who meticulously complied with all of the rules and suffered terribly for it, including, I might say, those people whose mental health will have suffered appallingly as a result of the messages his government was sending out?”

Mr Johnson replied: “I want to thank all those people for everything that they did, because together they helped us to control coronavirus and I think thanks to their amazing actions in coming forward to get vaccinated, we’re now in a far better position than many other countries around the world.

“So I have a massive debt of gratitude to all the people that he describes.”

 

Mr Baker later added on Twitter that fear and shame had been "weaponised" during the pandemic, saying: "No government can ever do this again."

Meanwhile, Chesham and Amersham MP Sarah Green said the release of Sue Gray’s report this week will “only reinforce the anger and frustration” felt by millions of grieving families and key workers across the UK.

She said on Monday: “The report points to ‘failures of leadership and responsibility in Number 10’. As the leader of the Government, Boris Johnson must accept full responsibility for those failures.

“People from across Chesham and Amersham have been contacting me to tell me about the challenging times they have been through over the past two years.

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“The Prime Minister should be ashamed that while the rest of the country were following guidance and making incredible sacrifices, he and his staff were breaking their own rules.

“Boris Johnson not only knew these events were taking place, but he also attended several. He broke the rules and, adding insult to injury, lied to the country about it.

“The empty apology he gave in the chamber this afternoon has done little to dull the pain and resentment felt by the British public.”