/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/larazon/FJIYKB2KPZGHVBN4DCBY7DASQI.jpg "Johnson and his wife were at another party with more than 100 guests in full confinement")
Pressure grows against British prime minister, Boris Johnson, after the ITV television channel revealed that both the prime minister and his wife participated on 20 May last year in a party in the Downing Street gardens to which more than a hundred of employees when social restrictions due to covid-19 were still in force.
It was a party where each participant had to “bring their own bottle”, as Johnson’s private secretary Martin Reynolds specified in an email.
The message Reynolds sent to Downing Street employees urged them to “take advantage of the good weather” while having “drinks with social distance.” That email, obtained exclusively by television, encouraged all recipients to “join in at 6pm and bring their own alcoholic beverage”.
Some 40 people participated in the meeting, in which picnic snacks were eaten and alcohol was consumed. At that time, Confinement regulations allowed only one person to meet outdoors and respecting a distance of two meters.
The leak of this celebration, the existence of which was already suggested on Friday on his personal blog by former Johnson super-advisor Dominic Cummings, adds to recent reports about Playful celebrations in Downing Street during the months of lockdown and restrictions in 2020.
Until now, the prime minister’s office has not denied that he was present.
Johnson, in low hours
The Tory leader’s popularity is at its most delicate both outside and within his own ranks. On December 20, the newspaper “The Guardian” published a photo of the prime minister and his wife chatting amicably and having glasses of wine in the gardens of his residence with collaborators.
Still more anger provoked the images of the press team of Johnson joking about hiding a supposed Christmas party from the public that had taken place at the government headquarters on December 19, 2020.
The internal investigation being led by a senior British official, Sue Gray, into the holding of alleged parties in Downing Street is expected to examine the new evidence pointing to the social gathering that Johnson’s own secretary invited.
The “number two” of the Labor opposition, Angela Rayner, stressed today in statements to “ITV” that it is “vital” that Gray have access to all the information necessary to carry out your investigation, even if it involves interviewing the prime minister himself.
“It’s awful. Many people, seeing the evidence now, not only will you think that Boris Johnson is getting caught by his own liesBut they will see that it is despicable that when they were being told to follow the rules, Johnson and his team were violating them, ”Rayner said.
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