Barnsley Council leader on Boris Johnson’s resignation: “the country is getting ready for change”

Sir Steve Houghton CBE, who has held the council leader position in Barnsley since 1996, said Boris Johnson has “lost the confidence of Parliament and he’d lost the confidence of the country, so he was faced with no other option.”

Number 10 announced the PM’s decision to resign this morning, following a record number of resignations from his party in the last 24 hours.

Sir Steve Houghton added: “He should have gone before, as soon as MPs start having votes of no confidence, even if you struggle through, it means your time’s up – no one’s ever escaped that.”

Sir Steve added that Mr Johnson “still holds some popularity” in red wall seats, adding that his resignation may make the next election harder to win for the Conservative party.

He added that his is a “huge opportunity” for Labour to “get a message across”.

“There’s no doubt the country is getting ready for change, Labour’s got to have a strong message to put across as an alternative and that’s what we need.”

When asked if he thought Kerr Starmer was the right man for the job, Sir Steve said: “I do, I think he’s pulled it back in the right direction over the last wo or three years.

“Now, we’ve got to step up.

“We’ve got to take that next step and show the country what we’ve got to offer.

“If not, there’s a danger this is a ’92 moment where people had enought of the Tories, but didn’t quite want Labour.

“We don’t want hat happening, we want Labour now to step up with a big message and make sure we get a big majority at that next election.”