THE Prime Minister’s absurd attempts to justify, deflect from or trivialise the Downing Street party are an insult to the electorate. 

They betray the contempt with which Boris Johnson and his slimy chums view the people of this country and have always viewed us.
It is one rule for us and no rules for them.

This arrogance has a human cost. Social media is full of stories of those who have lost loved ones to the pandemic, stories like this one:
“When I think that my Grandma died with none of us able to properly visit her and that I didn’t go to her funeral to follow the rules. That I had to cancel my Christmas plans and leave mum in tears to follow the rules. And these absolute f**kers were partying and laughing about it.”

Or this one: “This is the face of the people let down. My mother in law. Volunteering into her 80s. Three months in hospital alone and died alone. Nine at her funeral. They are not fit to breath the same air as her.”

Their anger is real and justified.

Meanwhile, our Prime Minister has been walking around hospitals with no mask on, shaking the hands of coronavirus patients and, seemingly, hosting parties at his official residence at the height of the pandemic, in contravention of the rules.

This arrogance is the underlying thread throughout the government’s shambolic mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic. 

It is this combination of ineptitude and a complete distain for the majority of the population that has led to many thousands more deaths from Covid.

Even now, the government has failed to introduce a plan B for schools and colleges, as unions are demanding. 

Educational institutions, referred to less than a year ago by the Prime Minister as “vectors of transmission” are once again being allowed to play this role, as the new strain of Covid rages unchecked by basic mitigations which would help stop the spread.

Of course, it is not just managing the pandemic where this government has proved its complete incompetence, with disastrous human consequences. 

We are still hearing details of the dysfunctional evacuation of Kabul, where the operation headed by ex-foreign secretary Dominic Raab failed thousands in Afghanistan and left people to die at the hands of the Taliban.

Meanwhile, Priti Patel is proceeding with the draconian Nationality and Borders Bill which will make it even more difficult for those fleeing torture and murder to seek sanctuary, while giving the government the power to strip people of their citizenship without informing them.

In this context, the response by the leader of the opposition — to call for an apology — seems more than a little underwhelming. 

What difference will an apology make to those who have lost loved ones to the Prime Minister’s incompetence? What difference will it make to those working in unsafe environments today as Covid rates continue to rise? What difference to those forced to continue working and avoiding getting tested due to the inadequacy of sick pay in Britain?

170,000 are dead.

This government has blood on its hands and our demand should be simple — that they resign. Every last one of them. Every politician who attended that party. Everyone who was aware. Everyone, including the Prime Minister, who is trying to conceal what happened rather than coming clean to the British people. Every single one of them should go.

We need an opposition that is not afraid to say so. Labour doesn’t have the numbers to make the Tories go — but Tory MPs too are feeling the anger on the streets. 

An opposition that worked with popular forces — including its own party members — to force out the PM could succeed. And that would be a heavy blow to this Tory government.