Boris Johnson deflected a jibe from Ian Blackford about his own birthday party by seemingly making a joke about the SNP MP’s weight.
Johnson reportedly attended a surprise birthday party for himself with 30 attendees in June 2020 when it was against Covid rules to have more than two households met together inside. It’s been said that his wife presented him with a Union Jack cake and everyone sang him happy birthday.
This report has triggered further public backlash, as this is just one of many parties which may have been a serious breach of restrictions. It is now part of both an internal investigation by Sue Gray and a Met Police probe.
During Wednesday’s PMQs, Blackford said: “Mr Speaker, every moment this prime minister lingers, every nick is a death by a thousand cuts, is sucking attention from the real issue facing the public.
“Tory cuts, Brexit and the soaring cost of living have pushed families into poverty. The impending National Insurance tax hike hangs like a guillotine while they eat cake.
“This is nothing short of a crisis. And the only route out, the only route to restoring public trust, is for the prime minister to go.
“How much longer will Tory MPs let this go on for? How much more damage are they willing to do? It is time to get this over with. Show the prime minister the door.”
Johnson replied, “well, I don’t know who has been eating more cake” to jeers from his peers.
He then said behind the scenes he “co-operates well” with Blackford, and suggested he was not going anywhere any time soon.
When later asked how appropriate it was for Johnson to making such jokes, his spokesman said: “You’ve heard how seriously the prime minister takes this whole issue.
“He is 100% focused on delivering for the public and on their priorities.”
Labour’s spokesman said the jibe against Blackford was “the type of schoolboy humour that you see from Boris Johnson” and “another use of his inappropriate use of language in parliament, which we have seen repeatedly”.
The SNP referred to the comments as “body shaming”, with the party’s equalities spokesperson Kirsten Oswald MP saying: “Boris Johnson has proven, yet again, that he is completely unfit for office.
“Whether it’s his body shaming jokes, his homophobia, or his wider misconduct in public office, Mr Johnson is giving people another telling insight into his odious character.”
She added that these “frequently offensive remarks” will have a “damaging” effect on young people and so need to be addressed.
Oswald continued: “He is sending an appalling message to society, the most powerful person in the UK government thinks it’s OK to mock people because of their bodies, race, sexual orientation and religion.”
People on Twitter couldn’t quite believe Johnson had made a joke about weight either, especially as he was responding to such a long list of serious allegations from Blackford.
One person said even “eight-year-old children wouldn’t do that” while others believed it showed how “he’s really in deep trouble”.
Johnson received further backlash for his attempts to deflect the line of questioning about partygate by talking about the ongoing situation in Ukraine, his Brexit success and the vaccine rollout.
He also called leader of the opposition Keir Starmer a “lawyer not a leader”, which went down like a lead balloon.