A CONSERVATIVE candidate in a by-election said most voters viewed the Partygate scandal as “left-wing propaganda rubbish”.
In an interview with The Argus, Lynda Hyde – the Tory candidate in the Rottingdean Coastal by-election this week, said the scandal of Tory politicians and staff hosting parties at a time when public health restrictions prohibited such gatherings had not been significant. problem during the campaign.
More than 50 fixed penalty notices have been issued by police for gatherings held while Covid restrictions were in place, including to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his wife Carrie and Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Ms Hyde said the scandal had only been raised on the doorstep ‘very very rarely, but I think they’re probably not our constituents anyway’.
She said: “People saw the pictures – they were in the garden, they were working together anyway.
“It actually motivated these ‘real blues’ to go vote, because they’re sick of this fucking Partygate that they consider meaningless.”
Ms Hyde also accused Labor and Keir Starmer of ‘holding on to straws’ over the scandal.
“He doesn’t have a politics of his own, so he’s looking for personal vendettas,” she said.
“I would say the majority of people think this is just leftist propaganda garbage.”
Prime Minister Johnson repeatedly apologized during his first appearance in the House of Commons after being fined for a party in Downing Street in June 2020.
In a speech last month, he said: ‘I take this opportunity on the first available sitting day to repeat my sincere apologies to the House as soon as I received the notice, I acknowledge the pain and anger.
“I repeat that it was my mistake and I apologize unreservedly.”
He insisted, however, that he would not step down and would fight the next general election – due to be held in 2024.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday Morning show last month, Labor leader Keir Starmer said the Prime Minister himself was to blame for the focus on Partygate.
He said: “No Prime Minister in the history of our country has ever held this office before.
“His moral authority, his authority to lead, is being undermined and his people are now tired of defending him.”
Six candidates are running in the May 5 by-election. The full list of candidates is as follows: Libby Darling (Green), Lynda Hyde (Conservative), Robert Mcintosh (Labour), Stewart Stone (Liberal Democrats), Stephen White (Independent) and Alison Wright (Independent).
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Source: www.theargus.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-05-02 04:00:00
