Tory backbencher claims government is ‘knackered’

Boris Johnson makes a speech to Conservative Party supporters. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA. - Credit: PA

A former Tory minister has claimed that his party is ‘knackered’ from government, just six months after Boris Johnson and the Tories won the general election.

Tim Loughton, MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, blamed Boris Johnson’s rush to return to work after contracting coronavirus, as well as the overall pandemic, for that feeling.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour: ‘The last few weeks the government has taken a bit of battering and I think it’s proving more challenging to come out of lockdown than it was to go in to lockdown.

‘I think frankly, just remember it’s only a few weeks ago that the prime minister was in intensive care and for him to come back so quickly at the helm I think is slightly concerning. He’s looking in good form but he took one hell of a pounding…

‘I think the government’s a bit knackered and I’m not surprised with what they’ve had to contend with.’


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Earlier this month it was claimed Johnson is taking daily ‘power naps’ of up to three hours to deal with the repercussions of the coronavirus.

But reports also suggested that the prime minister was hitting the tennis courts to get himself back into shape after hospitalisation.

Shortly after the election Johnson was accused of limiting the amount of work he did at weekends, and taking a number of holidays as the Covid-19 outbreak arrived in the UK, long before he contracted the illness.