Calls Grow For Boris Johnson To Resign After UK Surpasses 100,000 COVID-19 Deaths

Calls Grow For Boris Johnson To Resign After UK Surpasses 100,000 COVID-19 DeathsPA Images

Calls for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resign are mounting after the UK’s COVID-19 death toll surpassed 100,000. 

The country has seen more than 3.67 million confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 100,162 deaths linked to the virus within 28 days of a positive test. The UK is the first European nation to pass this number.

While the Conservatives have faced constant criticism over the course of the pandemic, whether it’s for Eat Out to Help Out or the Dominic Cummings scandal, Johnson’s ‘apology’ has led to an eruption of resignation calls on social media.

Yesterday, January 26, after a further 1,631 people were confirmed to have passed from COVID-19, Johnson said at a press briefing that it’s ‘hard to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic’ and the ‘appalling and tragic loss of life’.

He added: ‘I think on this day I should just really repeat that I am deeply sorry for every life that has been lost and, of course, as I was prime minister I take full responsibility for everything that the government has done.’

Johnson said: ‘We truly did everything we could, and continue to do everything that we can, to minimise loss of life and to minimise suffering in what has been a very, very difficult stage of a very, very difficult crisis for our country.’

The last comment lit the fire online, with people taking aim at the failures of the Tories in fighting the pandemic. Piers Morgan tweeted: ‘But that’s a lie. He didn’t. He avoided doing what he should have done, time and again.’

Tens of thousands of tweets have seen #ResignJohnson join Twitter’s trending topics, with one user writing: ‘There was once a time in British politics when ‘taking responsibility’ meant tendering your resignation.’

Another user wrote: ‘100,000 people are dead on your watch… you’ve failed the people, time to #ResignJohnson.’

A Change.org petition, titled ‘#Borisout – Public vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson & profit over people party’, has racked up nearly 100,000 signatures.

The petition reads: ‘In light of the COVID-19 outbreak it is clear that Boris Johnson is not the person to be Prime Minister. Through his lack of action and catastrophic promotion of herd immunity, he has failed to contain or slow down the outbreak. Nor has the government listened to the World Health Organisation and facilitated widespread testing.’

Labour MP Angela Rayner wrote on Twitter: ‘We can’t allow ourselves to become numb to these figures. Every death is an absolute tragedy, and we should simply not be in this situation.’

David Lammy, another Labour MP, also wrote: ‘100,000 deaths from coronavirus is a national tragedy. But it was not inevitable. The government must learn the lessons of its mistakes on test and trace, on being too slow to lockdown, on cronyism and on care homes, so it cannot be allowed to repeat them ever again.’

If you’ve been affected by coronavirus and want up to date advice, visit the Gov.uk help page here. If you need medical help call NHS 111 or visit online.

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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BJTC-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and taken up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.