THE Prime Minister was asked to defend Boris Johnson being given a "taxpayer-funded handout" to pay for lawyers to defend his "partying through Covid."
According to reports yesterday, the Cabinet Office has renewed a contract with a law firm to support the former prime minister as he faces a Commons probe into claims he misled parliament over Partygate.
The privileges committee investigation is moving slowly. Oral evidence sessions due to begin last month have been moved back until mid-January.
Ministers have previously said public money is being used to defend Mr Johnson, even though he is no longer a member of the Government, because the inquiry “has potential implications for all future statements by ministers of the crown in current and future administrations”.
During Wednesday's Prime Minister's Questions, Kirsty Blackman, the SNP MP for Aberdeen North told the Commons: "Across these islands people are suffering because of the woefully inadequate policies of this UK Tory government.
"They've crashed the economy, left millions in fear of the cold this winter, and are stoking division over striking workers rather than negotiating fair pay deals.
"Why is it that the only people that can rely on this Prime Minister are questionable PPE suppliers in the House of Lords, bankers and former prime ministers getting taxpayer funded handouts to defend their partying through Covid?"
Mr Sunak said the "only people stoking division in our United Kingdom" were the SNP.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel