British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has apologized for attending a party during the first period of lockdown in Britain to limit the spread of the Corona virus in the country.
He told members of the House of Commons that the event at 10 Downing Street was “technically within the rules” but he had to understand what it would look like to the public.
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer said the prime minister must now resign over what he called his “ridiculous” lies and excuses.
Johnson is also under pressure from lawmakers in his party over the May 2020 party.
He toured the break rooms of the House of Commons as MPs gathered to rally support for him.
If he sends 54 of them to the 1922 Committee (the influential Conservative party that has ruled disputes over the leadership of a party) it will be a major challenge for Johnson.
The House of Commons was silent at the start of the Prime Minister’s questioning, with Johnson admitting that he attended the event for about 25 minutes, so he could “thank staff groups” for their hard work, before returning to his office.
“I tacitly believed this event was work related,” he said.
But, he added, “After that was done, I had to ask everyone to go back inside.”
“I had to find another way to thank them, and I had to realize that – even if it could technically be said to fall within the guidance issued – there would be millions and millions of people who simply wouldn’t see it that way,” he said.
The Prime Minister concluded his statement by offering his apologies to the House of Representatives and those who were unable to see their loved ones at the time.
Opposition MPs called on Johnson to resign as prime minister, and MPs in his own party called on him to step down. The prime minister faced a total of eight calls to step down during the House of Commons questioning session.
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “After months of deception, the pathetic sight of a man who has gone off the right path.”
He added: “His defense … that he did not realize it was a party, is so ridiculous that it is in fact offensive to British citizens.”
“He has finally been forced to admit what everyone knows, that when the whole country was shut down, he was hosting drunken parties in Downing Street. Is he now going to do the right thing and quit?”
Johnson, for his part, said he understood the “anger” of people who “have made tremendous sacrifices during this pandemic” at the idea that “people in Downing Street are not following those rules”.
He urged MPs to wait for the outcome of an investigation by Sue Gray (a high-profile civil servant in Britain) into the alleged breach of Covid lockdown rules in Downing Street, which he said would be finished and results announced “as soon as possible”.
“I am sorry for the way this event that I have described was handled. I am bitterly sorry. I wish we had done things differently,” he added.
BBC political editor Laura Koensberg said she did not think Johnson’s comments would ever end the matter.
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She added that his confession may have given him some time, but he is essentially asking his party to wait for the investigation to finish before they make their decision.
Ian Blackford, chair of the SNP group of MPs in the House of Commons, said that if Johnson had “no sense of shame” then Tory members “should work to remove him”.
The leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Sir Ed Davy, also called on the prime minister to resign.
Sir Christopher Chubb of the Conservative Party said he was “very relieved” that the Prime Minister had answered the “fundamental question” of whether or not he was at the party.
He told BBC Politix Live that the prime minister had been “really sincere” in his apology and that he “realized he had done the wrong thing”.
Anger escalated after witnesses said the prime minister and his wife were among about 30 people at the party in May 2020.
Another 379 deaths from Covid-19 were recorded in the United Kingdom on Tuesday, as well as 120,821 new cases.
What are the rules that suspected of breaching؟
England’s special government guidance on 20 May 2020 stated that public gatherings in the workplace should only take place if they are necessary and that “employees should attempt to minimize all meetings and other gatherings in the workplace”. They also had to “reduce the number of people you spend time with in the work environment.”
In addition to the party’s violation of these guidelines, there were also a number of legal restrictions in place.
At that time, people were not allowed to leave their homes (or be outside where they lived) without providing a reasonable excuse, and this included work, ie the impossibility of working from home.
Therefore, while anyone who came to the party center may have broken the law, it may be argued that this does not apply to the Prime Minister himself. This is because the Prime Minister lives in Downing Street and therefore technically never left his home to attend the party.
The law also prohibits gatherings in public places of more than two people, unless they are members of the same family or the gathering is “necessary for business purposes.” However, lawyers said Downing Street is not a public place.