Boris Johnson can bounce back from hatchet job, says Staffordshire MP
Michael Fabricant has given his backing to Boris Johnson after suggesting the PM had been the victim of a hatchet job.
The Lichfield MP has jumped to the defence of the Prime Minister, who is under fire over sleaze and allegations of Downing Street lockdown breaches.
He said Mr Johnson was being deliberately targeted by political opponents and insisted he had the "boldness and imagination" to lead the country through the pandemic.
Mr Fabricant told GB News: "The drip, drip, drip is so artificial and so mechanical, all these exposes of so-called parties and whatever... there's obviously somebody or some people who are doing it deliberately.
"The point that I would make is look what's going on as well, and that is we have the strongest economy of any large country in Europe, and we've also got by far the very best vaccine programme in Europe.
"Some European countries don't even have a booster programme."
Top civil servant Sue Gray is leading the probe into claims of gatherings at Downing Street after former head investigator Simon Case stood down following reports an event had been held in his own office.
Mr Fabricant said it was questionable whether any laws had been broken, but said he wondered if "all of the people at Number 10 were as adult as they should be".
He added that "any Prime Minister" would be having problems at the moment, and defended tax rises as "inevitable" as the Government had spent £400 billion during the pandemic to prevent mass unemployment.
Mr Johnson faces a further clash with his backbenchers this week over the prospect of tighter Covid restrictions.
