Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak should not plunge this country into total crisis by resigning, says Dan Wootton

Cue complete and utter hysteria.

All of a sudden, the war in Ukraine – including the possible use of chemical weapons – doesn’t matter one jot.

Neither does the confirmation that David Amess was killed by a homegrown Islamist terrorist. That conversation will be avoided, yet again.

So too will the criminal damage inflicted by the eco-terrorists of the Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil, wreaking havoc in our cities and on our oil supplies.

Not to mention the all important once in a generation cost of living crisis, threatening to cripple many ordinary hardworking Brits financially.

Nope, today and for the rest of the week and probably much longer, the mainstream media and the political establishment are going to insist there is only one story in this country that means anything: Whether Boris Johnson broke his own lockdown rules in the scandal now known as Partygate.

In actual fact there hasn’t been silence from No10 because Boris apologised for the infringement this evening AND paid his fine, but this will not matter one bit to those who've had the PM in their sights from the very beginning.

This evening, Boris appeared contrite as he gave a reasonable account of that fateful day, June 19, when after a 7am start, eight government meetings and a visit to a school, he stopped to acknowledge his birthday with colleagues for all of 10 minutes. Hardly the crime of the century is it?

Let me be very clear: I remain disgusted that the government imposed these lockdown rules on citizens, stopping us from visiting dying relatives, attending to abused children, and making important decisions for ourselves in a so-called freedom-loving society.

Those in power who were successfully managing to terrify the population with the most devastating propaganda campaign in recent history were never scared themselves.

This rag tag bunch of toffs were downing rose and champagne at Number 10 Downing Street, often with Carrie Johnson it seems.

They weren’t locking themselves up at home like we had to because of a mortal dread of the virus.

To me, that’s what matters.

And it concerns me deeply that in an exclusive interview on GB News at the weekend Boris would not rule out the possibility of lockdowns in the future.

Have they learnt nothing? It’s not their right to control healthy people in this manner.

Surely, these fines teach them that. Because they couldn’t even follow the ludicrous restrictions!

But I believe in democracy and I believe in process.

Increasingly, the media elite in this country believe it is in their power to drive out a Prime Minister elected in a landslide, as evidenced by the handwringing about his so-called refusal to resign, as if he's barricaded himself in No 10.

We’ve seen the same tactic employed by the BBC, ITV News, Sky News, Channel 4 and many newspapers over the past week too when it comes to Rishi Sunak and his wife’s totally legal financial arrangements.

Attack a story mercilessly. Cover it infinitum. Convince Tory MPs it’s the only story that matters and the only way for it to go away is for Sunak to quit.

We’ve seen cancel culture sweep through society in recent years and it’s taking away our ability for people to make mistakes, repent for them and then recover.

Did the PM make a mistake by implementing inhumane lockdown rules he could never follow himself?

That his very social wife couldn’t be bothered to follow, either?

Absolutely he did!

The rules disgust me. The damage to this country thanks to lockdowns will take a generation from which to recover.

But should the PM and Chancellor plunge this country into total crisis right now by resigning? Absolutely not.

There’s a European war, for God’s sake. There’s an energy crisis. The NHS is spiralling out of control.

Just imagine the impact of a lame duck Prime Minister or an acting Prime Minister trying to manage this bonfire in the middle of a divisive Tory leadership election.

Conservative MPs have to make some tough choices over the weeks to come.

And many Brits will get to voice how they feel in a democratic manner at the local elections on May the 5th.

That’s how democracy works.

So do not allow the vile cabal of the BBC, the London liberal media establishment, the Labour party and the SNP to undermine your vote.

Was what happened wrong? Absolutely.

But does a fixed penalty notice – basically the equivalent of a speeding ticket – mean we should boot from office a PM elected in a landslide currently dealing with a war, pandemic recovery and economic crisis? I say absolutely not.

Think about what’s best for this United Kingdom!