Emily Thornberry told BBC Question Time’s audience that Sue Gray’s report into Partygate is not necessary on Thursday night in a brutal rant about Boris Johnson.
The shadow attorney general had a scathing take of the ongoing saga surrounding the alleged parties Downing Street held when the rest of the country was in lockdown and called for the prime minister to resign.
While the prime minister has apologised for the parties, he continues to claim that it was all “technically” within the rules in place at the time – and deflected any other criticism onto top civil servant Sue Gray’s investigation.
Yet, Thornberry said: “We don’t need to have Sue Gray’s review.
“I don’t think the prime minister needs to have it either.
″He knows he broke the rules, he knows they used to have wine Fridays, he knows what was going on and he knows that their attitude was that the rules didn’t apply to them.”
She added: “And it is insulting to us that he doesn’t just show a little modicum of humanity and humility and just go.”
She also pointed out that “the rules apply to everybody, whoever you are, that’s the rule of law”, even though “the prime minister and his friends in government have more than given the impression that the rules don’t apply to them”.
Thornberry continued: “The prime minister is more than prepared to look you in the eye and lie to you.
″And lie to you again and again.
“First of all he says I haven’t broken the rules, there wasn’t a party, and then he says there wasn’t a party and then he says if there was a party it wasn’t against the rules, and so on and so on and so on.
“It’s nonsense.
“Up and down the country people are being prosecuted for this.
“Just think how difficult it is for magistrates at the moment applying these rules and yet it doesn’t seem to apply to the government.”
Thornberry also dubbed No.10 “pathetic” last week over ministers’ claims that the lockdown rules were “too difficult” to abide by.