Sunday 29 May 2022 10:19 AM Lord Hague warns Partygate is a 'distraction' from 'biggest period of crisis in ... trends now
Lord Hague has warned that Partygate is a 'distraction' from the 'biggest period of crisis in our lifetimes' as he ridiculed Rishi Sunak's fine for 'turning up to a meeting on time'.
The former foreign secretary raised concerns that politicians might not have the 'bandwidth' to focus on Ukraine, looming food shortages, and the aftermath of Covid.
Arguing most mistakes in government are made because senior figures are 'concentrating on something else', Lord Hague dismissed the idea that the Chancellor should have quit for inadvertently stumbling into a Cabinet Room birthday celebration for Boris Johnson in June 2020.
But he appeared to take a veiled swipe at the PM by noting that some politicians will never resign because they 'think they can get out of anything'.
The comments came on an interview with former No10 spin doctor Andy Coulson's Crisis What Crisis? podcast.
Lord Hague has warned in a podcast that Partygate is a 'distraction' from the 'biggest period of crisis in our lifetimes'
Both Boris Johnson (left) and Rishi Sunak (right) received fines from police for breaching Covid lockdown rules
The former foreign secretary raised concerns that politicians might not have the 'bandwidth' to focus on Ukraine (pictured, Donetsk region yesterday) looming food shortages, and the aftermath of Covid
Asked to rate the geopolitical crisis on a scale of one to 10, Lord Hague said: 'I'm very concerned. We're on a scale of seven or eight out of 10 historically speaking I would say. This is certainly the biggest period of crisis in the lifetimes of most of us alive today.
'Particularly when you add so many things together, when you add the Covid crisis we've been through, the Ukraine crisis we are living through now, then there's a food crisis on top of that, all the gathering problems in relations between the United States and China.
'This is more of a historical norm of course… we have been through the illusion that history had ended and that problems in the world had been largely abolished the last 20-30 years.
'That's why I say it is a 7-8 it's not a 10. Previous generations lives through the First World War, Second World War.'
The Tory former leader said the Ukraine war was 'top of the list' and 'could
