TEES Valley mayor Ben Houchen has defended Boris Johnson’s leadership after receiving a Covid fine by declaring “we all make mistakes”.

Speaking to LBC Radio on Wednesday morning, Mr Houchen admitted Boris Johnson has “clearly made a very serious and grave mistake”, but said he continues to back the Prime Minister.

Mr Houchen added: “I think as with everything in life, the Prime Minister has apologised.

“Obviously, it’s a very, very serious issue. He has clearly made a very serious and grave mistake, but I’m a big believer in life, as we all should be, (that) we all make mistakes.

“We have all done things that we regret. We have all done things that we get wrong, but I’m a big believer of looking at people in the round and judging them in the context of all of their actions, and not just on a single action.”

Read more: Boris Johnson apologises after accepting Covid fine

His comments followed the news that Prime Minister and the Chancellor Rishi Sunak will both be issued with fines for breaches of Covid-19 regulations.

Calls for their resignations swelled in the hours after the announcement on Tuesday afternoon, with local Labour MPs among those calling for them to step down.

But Tories in the region defended continued to back the pair, despite the controversy.

When contacted by The Northern Echo on Tuesday, Mr Houchen declined to comment. But he also appeared on Times Radio this morning to defend Boris Johnson.

The Northern Echo:

“We only need to look back at history over the last 30, 40, 50 years of governments of both colours, and the lack of investment, the lack of interest and the lack of focus, not just on places like Teesside but places across the north of England,” he said.

“The only prime minister who's taken a real interest and is now injecting huge amounts of focus, finance and investment into the region, is this prime minister.

“So to put that at risk seems nonsensical to me.

“If we can start to deliver on things like levelling up, I think the prime minister can win back that trust.”

 

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