Jeff Overs/BBC/PA
Well, that’s one way to mark your first day as leader of the opposition. Kemi Badenoch has made her disdain for the furore surrounding Partygate clear, and she told Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday that the public response was ‘overblown’.
Anger swept across the country in towards the back-end of the COVID-19 pandemic, when it was revealed that senior Conservative figures – including former Prime Minister Boris Johnson – were regularly hosting parties in Downing Street during the stricter lockdowns.
While millions of Brits faced legal punishments if they did the same, the ex-PM and his colleagues blatantly flouted the rules they imposed on the public, with gatherings taking place on a weekly basis. Johnson and Rishi Sunak eventually received Fixed Penalty notices for attending.
Given the dire situation lockdown regulations left citizens in, the parties put the government and their staff above the law. It turned out to be a disaster for the Tories, with Johnson being forced out of office in 2022. Kemi Badenoch, however, appears to see things differently.
According to the new Tory leader, the response to Partygate was completely over the top. She also lashed out at the imposition of Fixed Penalty Notices for her colleagues who broke the rules, and stated that the party was ‘wrong’ to criminalise certain activities.
Kemi Badenoch did, however, show some faint signs of contrition. When pushed by the host of the BBC’s flagship political show, she conceded that the public ‘was not wrong’ to be upset over Partygate, and instead directed her vitriol towards the regulations themselves.
“We have suffered from perception issues, from a lot of the stuff that happened around Partygate… but that’s not why I resigned [from Cabinet in 2022]. I thought that was overblown, and they should have never created Fixed Penalty Notices for it.”
“The public was not wrong to be upset about Partygate. But we should not have criminalised everyday activities. People were getting Fixed Penalty Notices for going out on walks. The way we created those regulations ended up entrapping us.” | Kemi Badenoch
