UK PM's 'accidental' Booze party

London, Jan 13: UK PM Borris Johnson on Wednesday displayed a weak defense of his alleged party in the 10 downing street during Covid Lockdown. Apparently, the PM of Britain did not realize that it was a party, he mistook it for a working affair.

 

 

 

 Boris Johnson apologized on Wednesday for attending a garden party during Britain’s coronavirus lockdown in 2020, saying there are things his government “did not get right.”

 

Johnson is facing a tide of anger from the public and politicians over claims he and his staff flouted pandemic restrictions by socializing when it was banned. Some members of his Conservative Party say he should resign if he can’t quell the furor.

 

 

 

Johnson acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that he went to the May 2020 garden party at his Downing Street office, though he said that he had considered it a work event to thank the staff for their efforts during the pandemic.

 

“I want to apologize. … With hindsight, I should have sent everyone back inside,” Johnson told lawmakers in the House of Commons.

 

Opponents and allies alike have been demanding Johnson come clean about the “bring your own booze” party, held when Britain was under a strict lockdown imposed by Johnson to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

 

An invitation to the “socially distanced drinks” gathering was emailed to about 100 people by a senior prime ministerial aide. At the time, people in Britain were barred by law from meeting more than one person outside their household.

 

Johnson’s lunchtime appearance at the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session in the House of Commons was his first public appearance since details of the party emerged.

 

The prime minister struck a tone of contrition but urged people to await the conclusions of an investigation by senior civil servant Sue Gray into several alleged parties by government staff.

 

Opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said Johnson’s statement was “the pathetic spectacle of a man who has run out of road.

 

“His defense … that he didn’t realize he was at a party is so ridiculous that it’s actually offensive to the British public,” Starmer said. “He’s finally been forced to admit what everyone knew, that when the whole country was locked down he was hosting boozing parties in Downing Street. Is he now going to do the decent thing and resign?”

 

The scandal dubbed “partygate” has become the biggest crisis of Johnson’s two-and-a-half years in power. During the U.K.’s first lockdown, which began in March 2020 and lasted for more than two months, almost all gatherings were banned. Millions of people were cut off from friends and family and even barred from visiting dying relatives in hospitals. Thousands were fined by police for breaking the ban on gatherings.