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THERE IS NOT “a chance in hell” that Boris Johnson will stand down voluntarily, a Tory peer has said, as a former UK Conservative Pary leader warned it would be a “very difficult task” to win back the trust of the public.
Gavin Barwell, who served as chief of staff to Theresa May and now sits in the House of Lords, said there was a “strong case for change” at the top of the UK government.
But he said Johnson would not leave office of his own accord.
Speaking on Sky’s Trevor Phillips On Sunday programme, Barwell said: “My inclination is that the Conservative Party would be better making a change and I also think, for the good of the country in terms of trust and faith in our politics, there’s a strong case for change.
“But it’s not up to me to make a decision. Ultimately, this is a decision that, up until the next election at least, is one for Conservative MPs.”
He added: “I don’t think there’s a chance in hell that the Prime Minister is going to voluntarily resign.
“He’s going to stay there unless Conservative MPs remove him or unless he loses an election. And so, you know, I don’t see any prospect of him voluntarily standing down.”
Meanwhile, former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said the Downing Street partygate saga and its aftermath had been “hugely damaging” and the public were “very angry”.
Asked whether it was possible to recover the reputation of the party with Boris Johnson remaining as Prime Minister, he told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme: “None of us know the answer to that question… Respect and trust you have to earn, and when you lose it, it’s very difficult task to get it back across the board.
“And so that’s going to be a huge task. The Government and the Prime Minister have set out to try and do that.”
It comes as the UK Prime Minister attempts to reset his premiership by bringing in two allies to Downing Street in senior roles.
Johnson has appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Steve Barclay as his chief of staff, and journalist Guto Harri as his director of communications.
But questions have been asked about how much time Barclay will be able to commit to the role while also being a Cabinet minister and an MP.
Comments made by Harri criticising the Prime Minister in recent weeks have also surfaced.
Barwell said Barclay would have to find “a different way” to do the job than he did “because he’s combining it with being a Government minister and an MP at the same time, so he’s going to have to find a way of doing the job in a different way”.
He told Sky’s Trevor Phillips On Sunday: “And then the second challenge, and I think probably the key one, is whether the Prime Minister is going to listen to the good advice that he will give.”
He added: “There’s only so much different advisers can make if the person at the top is not actually listening to the advice that we’re giving.”
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said it was “absolutely right” for the Prime Minister to “try and get the Cabinet Office and No 10 working more cohesively together” with his new appointments.
He told Trevor Phillips On Sunday on Sky News that this was recommended in Sue Gray’s report into parties held across Whitehall during Covid-19 measures, and that it had been “very difficult to see where the accountability was”.
He said the “ongoing focus on partygate is not helping anyone”, telling the BBC: “We’ve got a serious agenda, we’ve got a potential war situation in Ukraine… Russia developing… we’ve got cost of living issues to deal with, there are very serious concerns about how we bounce back from the pandemic.
“So I don’t think focusing on the parties is necessarily the best way for us to get through this.”
Some 15 Tory MPs have now publicly called for Johnson to resign but not all have sent letters of no confidence to 1922 Committee chairman Graham Brady.
Privately, the numbers are expected to be higher, but Kwarteng told Times Radio: “My own view is that we’re probably not that near the letters [threshold] but I don’t know – until we reach that point I think it’s idle speculation.”
Charles Walker, a former vice-chairman of the 1922 Committee, told The Observer Johnson’s departure was an “inevitable tragedy”.
But Kwarteng said this was not the case.
He told Trevor Phillips On Sunday: “He’s entitled to his view, as I’m entitled to mine.
“And I have to say Trevor, you know this, lots and lots of people have said things are inevitable and they never happened over the last few years, and I just want to wait and see.”
Iain Duncan Smith said he still thought Johnson was the right person to lead “at the moment”.
“My sense right now is that if we go and plunge ourselves into a leadership election, vote of confidence – which in the end always damages leaders even if they win it – and then maybe a leadership election, internecine warfare, in the midst of which we’re facing a big cost of living crisis.. [getting the cost of living crisis] sorted, that is our number one priority,” he said.
He said other political players who may be vying for a leadership bid should “temper their ambition” for now.
“Ambition is a thing that exists in all of us, but it’s ambition at the right time. I would say to people, ‘temper your ambition’,” he said.
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Why not call it what it is “a petrol station”
Maybe a gas station?!
Bob’s place…..?
Stay classy Moneygall.
And theres those in Wexford still living off JFKs visit. Opening some new centre or something the other day. Fair play and good luck to both places.
Wexford has never had a JFK plaza. There’s a beautiful park in New Ross, the odd housing estate, but nothing as well fookin’ klassy as chipper and petrol station!
Does Supermacs still get its staff for free from Jobbridge?
Constriction????
How will Barack Obama contain his excitement???
By pumping a few gallons of gasoline one presumes=)
Read the entire article assuming it was some kind of civic/market square. Plaza is a bit misleading for a service station. Good jobs news I guess, but weird article.
Moneygall has a population of about 300 people. Jobs for 60 people (20% of the population) is fantastic for the village. Well done Pat and Una Mc Donagh.
Barack will be happy when he returns to see a nice big plaza station for his entourage of cars. Enda could do with more ideas for jobs like this around the country.
Did I read it right when it said “the only major purpose built motorway service facility on the new M7 route between Dublin and Limerick”, what about Mayfield?
aah where’s mayfield?
Is it really between dublin and limerick?
There is also a service station and services planned for Exit 27 at Birdhill. Planning pending. So it’s not altogether correct to say it’s the only one between Limerick and Dublin
I thought mayfield was in cork – I wouldn’t stop there if I were you !!!!
Yeah, I questioned that last part of the article there too, what makes it more surprising is the Junction 14 ‘Plaza’ also has a Supermacs, so this wont even be Supermac’s first service facility on the M7?
@patrick the one in Birdhill will never happen its too close to limerick to work
The title is misleading, it’s a petrol station. A plaza suggests that it may be a square or an open area built in the village itself. I’m sure he will be honoured :0/
Weird.
Barak O’ Plaza?
Tasty and tempting food at ….. O’Baraks ?
BaraCk, even!!
Hang on, what makes Obama so great that we are naming a plaza after him. I wish the America loving brigade would just look around and start to realise what the American dream really is. World domination most likely, and bomb the bejaysus out of anyone that steps in there way.
The Fall of the Republic explains it all , I won’t be visiting that petrol station !
haha, ‘we’ are not naming a petrol station after him, a businessman has decided to commemorate the visit of a popular presidents visit to his ancestral village. Makes sense seeing as everything else in the town is named after Obama, if you are serious in your point, maybe you should be questioning the Irish Government having a ‘JFK50′ celebration moreso than one businessman choosing a name for his business that you apparently dont like?!
Yes – he is popular in wall st – and with the Financial Industry [ Robbery Industry ] . He should be on trial for war crimes .
As for JFK – same goes – another war criminal – and aslo a great admirerer of Adolf hitler . No wonder we are in Finacial trouble . Our apparent heroes – the Yanks are the worlds biggest Terrorists – and more corrupt than FF – The biggest gangssetrs in History . Look up JFK admires Adolf Hitler on U tube .
What a pompus statement. Where do you get world domination from? Why not speak to the Chinese raping of Africa, or the European slaughter of the Amazon, or maybe the Russian stranglehold of fuel to Eastern Europe. Hate the U.S. because it’s cool to do so. Or maybe you could see this for what it is; A business venture latching on to a FREE UN -TRADEMARKED BRAND NAME. Its a way of making money and people like you with blind, badly researched points of view do nothing but fuel the buzz.
I never criticised the idea. I admire pat Mcdonagh as a business man. He seldom puts a foot wrong. I don’t hate America and had no idea it was cool to do so. But I cannot support any of their overseas mission over the past ten years in their so called war on terror. Even the title stinks of propaganda and how best to sell all this to gullible masses. Been to the states a few times and loved it. Now just where are those weapons of mass destruction?
You might want to remember that the US has been a haven for Irish immigrants. These immigrants played a major role in the building of the railroads, canals and much of the infrastructure of many a large US city. They have been fully integrated into American society achieving prominence in ensuing generations. We American Irish have never been denigrated, with the exception of the Anglophile, Hurst newspapers during the late 1800′s, Remember that many an Englishman refer to the Irish in the UK as “our Puerto Ricans.” What a disgusting slam both at us and the Puerto Ricans. Ok, so I may be dragging the point but you have bought into, as Hurst did, the English perception of the States. Yes, the US has played the role as the world’s policeman. But tell me why the Europeans hold the coat of the States behind their backs while decrying US over-involvement?
I wish they would not call it job creation when it is job relocation. Fuel, food etc sold here will be lost by some other station or restaurant somewhere else. It may be a great development but it will not create jobs.
Were it not for the name Barack Obama being used, I doubt ‘big service station in Offaly’ would be national news.
With the exception of him being the 1st African American president I truly don’t understand the adoration of that guy. His signing of the National Defense Aithorisation Act on New Years eve 2011 alone is enough to make me sick. That’s not even going into his governments treatment of corporate whistle blowers and continuing the ridiculous cruel wars America are running on a credit card. Oliver Stone described him as a wolf in a Sherpa cloak, a very accurate description from a once great filmmaker. And here we are naming a glorified petrol station after him.
Sheep’s clothing….auto spell and bad fingers!
Liked Sherpa’s better, deeper analogy.
Good man carlin. Well said
Sherpa cloak…sounds lovely and warm , where can I get one?
The Sherpa Shop in Moneygall have them… Cant miss it, Its beside the pub/shop/bookies/b&b/barbers building near Maggie Murphys house beside the village pump, where that cat sits all day. who belongs to that foreign guy from Nepal who owns the shop.
Dump
The constriction phase?
If it sells petrol at American prices…..that would be fantastic, you could call it bin laden unleaded for all I care.
moneygall is now more sickening than ballyporeen………
maybe they should twin…
This has been mooted before, but was shelved….
Merica. We’re kind of a big deal.
Utter rubbish
will have to stop and try the O’bama burger..
Another 15 minutes for yer man Henry. He might even get another spot on the late late
For 60 jobs who gives a shit what it’s called.
True, call it what u like as long as people are being employed. 75 or so to build it too
Credit due to owners of Supermacs,€6m investment in a small town, bringing much needed jobs and yet the trolls on the journal , you can read their comments! Some obviously don’t live in the real world. Fair play to Supermacs and Moneygall!
The could call it the black sheep off the family
Black irish
It works obviously. But really will Barack Obama go as low as them?
If there were a place with his name on it in Ireland that yoke would probably be meriting of it.
Junction 14 in mayfield is some spot I doubt moneygall will b like it best of luck do and shor birdhill exit has a site for sale for petrol station 2 with planing pending I tink can’t see the sign for it cos storm blew it down few mths ago
Pity it’s no a McDonald’s. So much nicer than slobber macs !
*not
Jeasus every country in the world should nowadays invest in their own citizens to go over to state and invest in their education and all that, you never know we might have some let me think… God knows Brzezowski’s landfill area. Maybe that president will visit it too. Other countries should really learn this. Milking fat cow’s, it’s all about that.
“a range of other options”, Barack Obama has said. What other options? So many innocent people killed, so much waste so that Obama, Bush etc. could keep their Jewish paymasters happy. Not that Mr. Obama has ever had much interest in the welfare of innocent people. They don’t come more innocent than a baby just about to be born and yet: “In 1997, Obama voted in the Illinois Senate against SB 230, a bill designed to prevent partial-birth abortions. In the US Senate, Obama has consistently voted to expand embryonic stem cell research. He has voted against requiring minors who get out-of-state abortions to notify their parents. The National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) gives Obama a 100% score on his pro-choice voting record in the Senate for 2005, 2006, and 2007.”
This wonderful medical procedure goes as follows:
“The abortionist pulls the baby into breach position (feet first) and sequentially pulls out the baby’s legs and arms, leaving only the head inside the mother while the rest of the baby’s body is outside of the mother and even moving around. The abortionist then reaches in with a pair of scissors and cuts a hole in the back of the baby’s neck, and then sticks a suction tube into the hole. When the suction machine is turned on, the baby’s brain is sucked out, crushing the skull, at which point the now dead baby can be removed with ease.”
Of course Mr.Obama would justify this by saying the ‘welfare’ of the mother is all important. Please, please inform me how, in God’s name, the above procedure helps the mother in any way.
And then his beloved wife Michelle chips in with a letter, speaking of the partial-birth abortion ban, claims:
“The fact remains, with no provision to protect the health of the mother, this ban on a legitimate medical procedure is clearly unconstitutional and must be overturned.”
To think we welcomed these vermin into our country. I never thought a ‘first couple’ in the White House could make Bill and Hilary look good. I hope the chicken tastes good in Moneygall.
That guy standing behind Obama to the left looks very like the garda who was shot yesterday. Bit weird
This is so ridiculous it’s almost surreal. What is it that the man has done to call a plaza after him? He’s a suck up to the
bankers and private industry, like every other politician. How about naming it after someone who, without the incentives of being slapped on the cover of every magazine, has worked selflessly for their community. It’s not just this country that has it all wrong, this celebrity crap is everywhere.
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