Wife of 'kind' paramedic who died from Covid calls for PM to resign

The wife of a paramedic from Nottinghamshire who died from covid says she thinks the Prime Minister should resign after he was fined for lockdown breaches. Due to lockdown restrictions, Julie Goodwin couldn't be with her husband Charlie when he died at Kings Mill Hospital in Sutton-in-Ashfield in April 2020.

Thinking back to losing her "kind" husband, who "gave 110% to his work and his family", Julie says the news of the PM being fined for breaking the rules has made her feel "numb".

"It's not nice having a sitting Prime Minister who has this hanging over him, getting fined for breaking his own rules while the rest of us were in lockdown making awful sacrifices," says Julie.

"When I think back 2 years what we were going through at the time. He was taken away in an ambulance, we couldn't go with him, we couldn't visit him."

"We had to stay in, I was sat in the house for 14 days with 2 special needs children."

"He couldn't even have a proper funeral. He got nothing. We had to organise his funeral on the garden while they were partying."

"I'm just a bit numb at the moment" adds Julie, "I'm glad he's been punished and I just hope he resigns now."

Will the PM resign?

Boris Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak were fined £50 for breaking Covid regulations by attending a birthday party for the PM at Downing Street.

However, both have pledged to stay in their roles as they said they wanted to 'get the job done'.

After becoming the first prime minister to be hit with criminal sanctions while in office, Mr Johnson said it “did not occur” to him that the gathering held on June 19, 2020, to mark his 56th birthday might be breaching Covid rules.

Meanwhile, Mr Sunak said he understood that “for figures in public office, the rules must be applied stringently in order to maintain public confidence”.

The PM's wife, Carrie Johnson, also confirmed she had been fined.

While opposition parties have all called for the PM and chancellor to resign, Cabinet ministers have come out in support of the PM, praising his leadership during Covid and Brexit and pointing to the war in Ukraine.

With no intentions to resign, Mr Johnson can only be forced from office if 53 Conservative MPs submit letters of no confidence, triggering a secret ballot.

But for Julie and others who lost loved ones during the pandemic, it's the wrong decision.

"They've got no sympathy," she says. "In fact, they've taken the mickey out of us all, they don't care about us. He shouldn't be in office now. He's not fit to run this country."