London. Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologized yesterday for having “attended” a party in the gardens of the official residence in Downing Street during one of the stages of the strictest confinement that Great Britain has experienced. The invitations were sent from your personal secretary’s email.
The premier ignored a cascade of calls to resign from the opposition and from the ranks of his own Conservative Party.
At the start of his weekly session with Parliament, Johnson admitted to “attending” the party “for 25 minutes” before going back inside to work at the residence at 10 Downing Street. He claimed it was a “work meeting” and acknowledged that, in hindsight, he should have ended the party.
The press published an email dated May 20, 2020, yesterday in which Johnson’s private secretary, Martin Reynolds, invited a hundred employees to “enjoy a good time” having “a few drinks keeping social distance” in the gardens of Downing Street and added: “bring your own drinks.”
The newspaper The Independent He mentioned that about 100 workers were invited, but only about 30 attended.
Johnson implied that he had nothing to do with the organization of the party: “when I went, at 6:00 p.m. on May 20, 2020, to meet with groups of employees for 25 minutes and then return to my office to continue working, I thought it was a labor act, “he said.
He did not explain how he failed to find out that his secretary had sent out invitations to a “working” party in Downing Street, which is not only the state house but also his family residence.
He insisted that “technically” no anticovid protocol was violated because the meeting was outdoors, but he offered “sincere apologies” to the British, who at that time were “totally prohibited from meeting their loved ones.”
The apology did not satisfy the opposition leader, Labor Keir Starmer, who accused him of lying, and argued that he should resign as his collaborators did in the past who violated the restrictions due to the pandemic. He was also called to resign by the Liberal Democrat Party and the Scottish National Party.
But the strongest demands came from the Conservative Party. MP William Wragg, chairman of Parliament’s Public and Constitutional Affairs committee, called Johnson’s position “indefensible.” He added that “a series of avoidable errors have been deeply damaging to the perception of the political group.”
The Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, said he had a “difficult conversation” with the premier, hours before his appearance before Parliament, in which he informed him that he would ask the 1922 Committee, which organizes the elections for the party’s leader, to record your “lack of trust” in Johnson.
Conservative MP Caroline Nokes called on the premier to resign because “he has tarnished the image of the Conservative Party.”
A survey by the YouGov organization revealed that 56 percent of 5,391 adults believe that the head of government should resign.
The leadership challenge could be triggered if 15 per cent of Conservative MPs write letters asking for a vote of confidence to the chairman of the party’s 1922 Committee, which represents lawmakers who do not hold government positions.
The Conservatives have 360 deputies, so 54 letters would have to be written for a vote of confidence to be called.
But as of yesterday, no one has yet said publicly that they have written to the 1922 Committee chairman, Graham Brady.
The letters are confidential, so Brady is the only person who knows how many have actually done it.
All Conservative MPs could vote for or against their leader. If Johnson wins, he will remain in office and cannot be challenged again for 12 months. If he loses, he will have to resign and will not be able to stand in the next elections.
If he were to lose there would be a process to decide who replaces him. However, a general election would not automatically be called and his replacement would become premier.
The two deputies who are considered favorites to replace Johnson are his economy minister, Rishi Sunak, who has played a leading role in state aid to the economy during the covid-19 pandemic, and foreign secretary Liz Truss. , who is popular with rank and file members of the party.
The Independent reported that the London Metropolitan Police faces lawsuits for failing to report the celebration in Downing Street.
“The police must be questioned, as their agents were surely able to see the meeting through the security cameras. They were aware of the confinement and had orders to break up any illegal meeting”, stressed the member of the House of Lords, Jenny Jones, of the Green Party, who stated that she will demand explanations from the security body.
A high-ranking police officer refused to comment for the newspaper The Independent.
Johnson “treats the British as idiots by pretending that he ‘didn’t know it was a party,'” reacted Hannah Brady, spokeswoman for an association of relatives of those killed by covid-19.
“We are saddened and angry to hear this,” Tony Cook told the newspaper. County Press, of Wright Island. “Boris Johnson was partying while I couldn’t see my mother,” he recounted.
In another order, the British Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the government acted illegally when it used a so-called “VIP lane” for the direct award of millionaire contracts to suppliers of personal protective equipment during the first wave of covid-19 in 2020.
Two groups brought the legal action against the Department of Health and Social Care, alleging that the use of the “high priority lane”, reserved for referrals from legislators and senior officials, gave some providers an unfair advantage “thanks to whom they knew , not what they could deliver.”
The contracts include one worth more than $464 million for pest control company PestFix and another worth $344 million for hedge fund Ayanda Capital.
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