UK’S JOHNSON ACCEPTS ‘PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY’ FOR ‘VERY DISAPPOINTING’ BY-ELECTION DEFEAT

Fri 17 December 2021:

Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, accepted “personal responsibility” for the ruling Conservative Party’s stunning defeat in the North Shropshire parliamentary by-election on Thursday, which saw the party lose a traditional stronghold in central England.n as a lawmaker to lobby for two firms that paid him more than 100,000 Pounds ($133,000) per year.

Speaking during a visit to a vaccination centre in Hillingdon, the Prime Minister said: “Clearly the vote in North Shropshire is a very disappointing result.

“I totally understand people’s frustrations. I hear what the voters are saying in North Shropshire. In all humility I have got to accept that verdict.

“I understand that what voters want us as the Government to be doing at all times is to focus on them and their priorities.”

Asked if he took responsibility for the loss, he said: “I am responsible for everything the Government does, and of course I take personal responsibility.”

He suggested the Tories lost the seat because focus had been on “talking about ourselves and those issues – seeming to be focused on those issues at the expense of the things that really matter to people”.

Helen Morgan, a Liberal Democrat, defeated Conservative rival Neil Shastri-Hurst by nearly 6,000 votes in Thursday’s by-election in North Shropshire, a district that has only voted for non-Conservative candidates twice since its creation in 1830.

The resignation of Conservative lawmaker Owen Paterson sparked the election after it was revealed that he was using his position as a lawmaker to lobby for two firms that paid him more than 100,000 Pounds ($133,000) per year.

The result, which Liberal Democrat Party leader Ed Davey described as a “watershed moment in British policy,” comes as Johnson’s authority is under threat after nearly a third of his lawmakers defied him on Tuesday over the introduction of mandatory COVID-19 passes in nightclubs and large venues.

His popularity has also been tarnished by allegations that a number of Christmas gatherings were held last year during the COVID-19 lockdown, as well as a new investigation into the refurbishment of his Downing Street apartment with money from party donors.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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