Boris Johnson under increasing pressure for alleged Christmas party during lockdown

The British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, announced on Wednesday an investigation into an alleged Christmas party held in Downing Street last year when anticovid rules prohibited it and apologized in Parliament for his team’s jokes about it.

SIGHT: A video proves that the British Government threw a party despite restrictions

“I have asked the cabinet secretary to investigate (…) and there will be consequences if the rules are violated,” he said, reiterating that “they were repeatedly assured that there was no party.” Johnson He apologized “without reservation” for the “offense and impression” caused by the jokes of some of his collaborators in this regard, in a video leaked to the press.

The controversy over that supposed night meeting on December 18, 2020, in which according to the press, up to 50 members of the office of Johnson, with food, drink and games, has been shaking the executive for more than a week. There is also talk of another meeting, a farewell party for a collaborator, in which Johnson himself gave a speech.

• UK sees signs that new omicron variant is “more transmissible” than delta
• King Juan Carlos I claims immunity in England from accusation of harassment by his ex-lover Corinna Larsen
• I was accused of trying to kill my mother … until I was diagnosed with PMS

He has repeatedly denied having violated the rules that at that time prohibited all social encounters indoors, even between two people who did not live together. But the video, released on Tuesday night by the private channel ITV, seems to contradict this version.

In it he goes to Allegra Stratton – the then newly hired spokeswoman for Johnson– Special Counsel Ed Oldfied and another aide preparing on Dec. 22 for compromising questions in a rehearsal for the new White House-style televised press conferences that Downing Street wanted to set up but ended up canceling.

There were no reporters present and Stratton responds to a question from Oldfied about an alleged Downing Street Christmas party the previous Friday. “This imaginary party was a business meeting” with “cheese and wine” and “without social distances,” he jokes.

“Would the prime minister approve a Christmas party?” Asks Oldfied, to which Stratton reacts by asking: “What is the answer?”

The video has once again put the executive in trouble when he studies applying new restrictions, such as the return to telework or vaccination passes, to fight against the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. And politicians of the left and right say they fear that the population will skip the new rules if they interpret that their leaders do not respect them.

For their part, the London police claimed to be examining the video in relation to “alleged breaches” of anti-virus legislation at the time.

– “Socially distanced from the truth” –

Quickly the leader of the Labor Party, Keir Starmer, denounced that Johnson and his team “are treating the public with contempt.” “Now we know that the government broke the rules, they had a party and now they laugh at it,” he said. “The prime minister has to step up, accept what happened and apologize,” he added.

Like every Wednesday, Johnson must appear in the House of Commons at noon to answer questions, beginning with those of the opposition leader. Although even in its conservative ranks some deputies have expressed great disgust at this apparent violation of the rules.

And everyone was waiting for the prime minister’s response, some even remembering that lying in the House of Commons would be grounds for calling for his resignation.

“We have a prime minister who has socially distanced himself from the truth,” insisted Starmer before the session.

For its part, an association of families of fatal victims of Covid-19 denounced “the behavior of people who believe they are above us.”

“There are no words to describe how annoying and embarrassing it is to listen to the team Boris Johnson joking about the breach of the rules that they themselves established, while others (…) could only say goodbye to their loved ones through a screen, “lamented the association in a statement.

The issue is so compromising for the executive that on Wednesday morning none of his ministers volunteered to participate in the usual daily round of morning television and radio programs. And Health Minister Sajid Javid canceled his scheduled interviews at the last minute.

With 66 million inhabitants, the United Kingdom is one of the worst hit countries in Europe by the covid-19, which has registered more than 145,500 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, and his government was very harshly criticized for the erratic policies applied at the beginning of the crisis.

• Next pandemic could be “worse or deadlier,” warns Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine creator
• How the new Super Green Pass complicates social life for the unvaccinated in Italy
• Flight MH370: can one of the great mysteries of aviation finally be solved?
• Plumber finds money hidden in the wall of a megachurch (and could have solved a mysterious robbery from 2014)
• They find dead a young Brazilian who was missing and was forced to dig her own grave
• US Congressman Releases Christmas Family Photo With Guns, Days After School Shooting

.

Deshawn