The Minister for Exports has refused to be drawn on Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s position in Downing Street.
On a visit to three Leicestershire businesses Mike Freer said the PM was getting on with the job of helping the economy and the NHS, and dealing with the international tensions on the Russia/Ukraine border.
Speaking before the findings of the Sue Gray report into allegations of lockdown parties in Downing Street, he refused to say if he felt the PM’s job was safe.
Asked if the Prime Minister had his full support he told BusinessLive: “The Prime Minister is focusing on the issues that face the country, which are getting our economy back post-Covid.
“It’s also that we’re making sure that we are dealing with the international crisis and ensuring that we are dealing with things like the NHS – so we are focusing on the bread and butter issues of getting this country motoring now that we are coming out of the pandemic.“
Asked if Mr Johnson’s position was safe and if he should continue as PM, Mr Freer said: “I know, because we have these constant conversations, he is putting his energy into getting the British economy going and that means helping me get exports policy right and I have to say the Prime Minister is wholly behind our policy of getting British exports booming.”
The minister spoke during a visit to Stilton maker Long Clawson Dairy, near Melton, and on his way to visiting to anti-bacterial products exporter Micro-Fresh and Loughborough medicines manufacturer Morningside Pharmaceuticals.
The so-called “Partygate” report by senior civil servant Sue Gray could be make or break for the PM’s leadership.
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Legal and human resources officials are understood to have been scrutinising it before sending it to Downing Street for publication.
The announcement of a Scotland Yard investigation into some of the alleged lockdown-busting parties in No 10 and Whitehall, based in part on the evidence uncovered in the Gray inquiry, is thought to have complicated the process.
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries became the second Cabinet minister to warn that ousting the Prime Minister could trigger a general election.
Such talk has been seen as a warning to Tory MPs – particularly those in the Red Wall of former Labour heartlands won in Mr Johnson’s 2019 landslide – to back the PM now or face the danger of losing their seats in a public vote.
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