Boris Johnson skips heatwave crisis meeting to ‘host Chequers party’ | Prime minister ‘missing in action’ again – after skipping vital Cobra gatherings on Covid at start of premiership
Boris Johnson skips heatwave crisis meeting to ‘host Chequers party’ | Prime minister ‘missing in action’ again – after skipping vital Cobra gatherings on Covid at start of premiership
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Boris Johnson is skipping a crisis meeting on the looming life-threatening heatwave to host a party at his luxury Chequers rural retreat.
Ministers and experts are gathering in the Cabinet Office on Saturday afternoon, for a Cobra meeting to prepare for temperatures hitting an unprecedented 40oC on Monday.
But the prime minister will be 30 miles away in Buckinghamshire at a party for friends and family, ahead of being kicked out of his country retreat at the start of September.
It is going ahead after Mr Johnson and his wife Carrie had to abandon an earlier plan to use Chequers for a delayed wedding reception after heavy criticism.
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said: “Boris Johnson has gone missing in action again. He’s back to his old tricks of skipping important Cobr meetings.
“The public will have no confidence in this zombie Conservative government responding swiftly and decisively to this national emergency as this disgraced prime minister prepares to party while Britain boils.”
A Downing Street source told The Independent it is “not unusual” for other members of the cabinet, in this case Cabinet Office minister Kim Malthouse, to lead Cobr meetings.
Mr Johnson’s absence mirrors the controversy at the start of his premiership when he missed a string of meetings on the Covid pandemic, as he arranged his divorce and penned a book on Shakespeare, it is believed.
Chequers, a Grade one 16th Century mansion and the official country residence of British prime ministers since 1921, boasts an indoor swimming pool and hundreds of acres of gardens.
Formal invitations went out earlier this week to the party, it is thought. A Tory source told Sky News: “It is their farewell bash at Chequers this weekend. Partners and children are all invited.”
It is the second Cobr meeting Mr Malthouse has led on the threat posed by the heatwave in Mr Johnson’s absence, after an earlier one last Thursday.
Meteorologists estimate an 80 per cent chance of the mercury topping the UK’s record temperature of 38.7C set in Cambridge in 2019, when the hot spell peaks on Tuesday.
The Met Office issued its first red warning for extreme heat, covering a swathe of England from London to Manchester and York on Monday and Tuesday.
Sadiq Khan, the London Mayor, has hosted a special meeting to ensure the NHS, the Met Police, London Fire Brigade, London Ambulance Service, councils and Transport for London have a robust plan for the capital.
Ms Rayner added, of Mr Johnson’s absence: “Where’s the plan for the delivery of essential services and how people will be kept safe at work, on transport, in schools, hospitals and care homes?”
The prime minister is also believed to be preparing to miss next Wednesday’s prime minister’s questions in the Commons, which would have been his last.
He is expected to attend a memorial service for the assassinated former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in the middle of the week.
He’s going to get boozed up and party whilst people die.
Again.
Fiddling whilst Rome burns
Why would he change now?
There’s a lot of misunderstanding about what COBRA meetings actually are for. It’s quite common for COBRA meetings to be chaired (and attended by) relevant ministers, they’re not automatically meetings where the PM needs to be in attendance, but the PM will likely need to know the outcome of the meetings.
Think of the PM like a CEO in a company. All sorts of critical meetings go on at businesses, and the CEO might need to know what happens in them but they don’t necessarily need to be in attendance at every one (or even most of them).
According to the Institute for Government (from [here](https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/cobr-cobra)):
> The composition of any COBR meeting will depend on the situation being discussed. It will be a mixture of officials and agency personnel, alongside ministers, from relevant departments and agencies. The meetings are often chaired by the most senior minister in the room, and the prime minister if he or she is attending, but not always.
I really don’t see that Johnson would be able to add much here.
He has nothing left to lose, hard to see any reason why he wouldn’t stage a balls-out booze up at our expense
Good?
Better if someone more competent covers for him. Maybe we can organise a party every week between now and 5th Sept?
Totally inept and a waste of space. Get him out now
Why would people think he’s likely to start caring now?
Criminal negligence.
Old habits die hard.
He’s resigned. He’s not gonna do anymore work now.
He’s finally been given a ‘powerful mandate’ to do absolutely fuck all. I can’t believe anyone is surprised by this.
Situation Normal
Tbf that’s how I work if I’ve handed my notice in. Big BoJo’s on the cool-down.
Boris “Got all the Big Calls Right” Johnson. Irredeemable cunt.
He’s still the Prime Minister, surrounded by staff, using tax payers money to get from place to place, with a schedule that is mostly filled up months in advance. He should be forced to be at meeting like this, why does the Prime Minister even get a choice whether to attend vital meetings?
“What can they do? Sack me lol”
Can we ship him off to a different country? That would help to significantly reduce the amount of hot air plaguing the country.
Just get him out of Downing Street! He has no right to be there now…the game is up.
for Johnson, his removal from office is a mistake and a tragedy for the country. So of course, instead of doing his actual job for the last few days that remain to him, he’s going to fuck around and enjoy himself. Good riddance.
Tbh what is a cabinet meeting going to achieve anyway.
We should have a long term energy and climate change plan ready to roll out for such instances. We probably don’t. We’ll just rely on the NHS.
Blame lies on all Tory MPs and voters. He’s an amalgamation of the last 50 years of Tory attitudes and policy.
True to form
Poshoes being poshoes. Whatever will it be next?
Hang on a second, he promised to cancel that party 8 days ago.
I’m so surprised its gone ahead.
[https://uk.news.yahoo.com/boris-carrie-johnson-cancel-chequers-094255974.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmluZy5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFdDoRwi505_vNMMiWP8iRrObKZqyaWNsyjd92NhMIMjj2XaWzsAUr00-ctkfA2ny6CuUhB7BMLfJI2cODSYJimudBTmCJ1XHuzJkX7hLGHmxgH5OE11Wpit9V1–_eZRWNZpC9lvRe50ufJZfp-z41aOL3hQSIMalquLGHwcXkB](https://uk.news.yahoo.com/boris-carrie-johnson-cancel-chequers-094255974.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmluZy5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFdDoRwi505_vNMMiWP8iRrObKZqyaWNsyjd92NhMIMjj2XaWzsAUr00-ctkfA2ny6CuUhB7BMLfJI2cODSYJimudBTmCJ1XHuzJkX7hLGHmxgH5OE11Wpit9V1–_eZRWNZpC9lvRe50ufJZfp-z41aOL3hQSIMalquLGHwcXkB)
Where you expecting anything else? At the very beginning of the pandemic before it really hit the UK he was missing COBRA meetings.
It’s his modus operandi, he just ignores problem until they spiral out of control and increase to such an extent that he is finally forced to actually acknowledge and respond.
His own interests are always the top of his priorities.
He didn’t give a shit about us then, why should he give a shit about us now? This in of itself, should have him *immediately fucking booted from #10 right fuckin’ now*
He never gave a f*ck…he most certainly doesn’t now.
They would need to freeze him in ice over the weekend otherwise the fucker would die. I mean look at him
It’s the Tories who left him in charge. They could have easily removed him in favour of a caretaker PM or had Labour help them remove him via a vote of no confidence. But they blocked both preferring to keep him on in charge while also claiming to have lost confidence in him.
He’s in “I’m leaving a job so don’t give a fuck mode”.
But, you know, while being in charge of a country.
Well yeah, his own party basically fired him, and then just let him keep the job for several months, ofcourse he’s going to continue to take the piss, why wouldn’t he?
He’s not PM any more – he’s mentally checked out.
We should also ponder the wisdom of him going to a boozy party during a heatwave.
Wait, Boris Johnson doesn’t give a flying fuck about anyone but himself!? When did we discover this!? He seemed like such a jolly chap on Have I Got News For You.
As if Boris gives a shit.
He’s a Tory.
The only time they bother about people dying is if it’s their voters and only then if it’s near election time.
Otherwise, it’s party on, destroy public services and the NHS and lie, cheat and steal.
Double jobbing this with a wedding party I can almost guarantee it
What a sense of Duty. We can quite see why he wanted to stay in office while the rest of the disgusting shit shovellors scrap for the top spot in the trough.
“I already resigned, now I can be even more careless!”
Well this is why he’s staying on isn’t it, so he can host his birthday party at public property using the taxpayer’s money.
How else would you expect him to solicit offers to speak at private parties again after he leaves office? I bet he can’t wait to forget the punchline to the same joke, night after night, rather than having to come up with new material all the time.