Professor Pippa Catterall, Professor of History and Policy at the University of Westminster, was interviewed by BBC Radio Berkshire and BBC Radio Scotland about parties at Downing Street and the Prime Minister’s options.
Talking about the Prime Minister’s options in the interview, Professor Catterall said: “There are a number of possible options which are going to appear before him but in a sense the ball is not entirely in his court because the jury that he is under consideration from is that of the parliamentary Conservative party. In the end, it’s they rather than we the public or indeed parliament as a whole who will be able to punish him or not for these kinds of things.”
She added: “Of course if he is deemed to have lied to parliament then that is, as was said, a resigning matter. On the other hand, lots of people say he has already made a habit of lying to parliament or at least telling terminological inexactitudes to parliament on numerous occasions and therefore the question is, well when is a lie a lie?...So I think in that sense he could sit things out, he can continue to deny the problem, but the problem is that denying in itself has lots of risks attached to it.”
She said: “…Whatever the Prime Minister says or does to deny it [the party], with the result that lots of people can make their own judgements and the Prime Minister’s reputation becomes even more damaged.”
Listen to the full interview on BBC Sounds from approx. 2:45:00s.
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