Sir Gerald Howarth, a former Conservative MP and Christian, has confirmed that he's still backing Boris Johnson following parties at Downing Street during lockdown.
He argues that the public should maintain a sense of perspective on the situation, considering the current conflict in Ukraine, and extend some sympathies – at least until the Sue Gray report is released in-full.
He said: “I would be broadly in in favour of his remaining because of the pressures that the world faces at the moment, particularly Ukraine.”
MPs have voted for a second investigation into the Downing Street parties, to discover whether the Prime Minister deliberately misled Parliament when he stated he had not broken any rules.
When asked what his reaction was, Sir Howarth said: “There are many people who are that who are both disillusioned and angry, and I understand that, particularly amongst those who were bereaved as a result of this dreadful plague.
“We've all lost friends - we've lost friends in our village - who were taken by Covid-19.
"So we therefore feel an overwhelming sense of a sense of sorrow, deep sadness for them."
“However, we have to move on. Everybody can see what is going on in the world.
“Today, we face the prospect of potentially a third world war in Europe, we see our fellow Christians in Ukraine being mercilessly butchered by atrocities committed by a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, Russia.
“Without the efforts that he [the Prime Minister] made, and the people that he chose to help him in those efforts, we would not have been the leading nation in the world - not only to develop new vaccines, but also to get rid of this awful plague, which has so benighted our economy as well as, of course having taken our loved ones from us."
However, Sir Howarth states that – if the Prime Minister has deliberately lied to Parliament, then he would support further discussion into his resignation:
“It is a cardinal sin to deliberately lie to the House of Commons.
“What the Prime Minister has said all along, is that he was assured that the rules were being obeyed.
“If the Prime Minister is found deliberately to have lied, then I think that that is there has to be a resignation matter.”