Pressure on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson continues to mount, this time with the ITV News broadcast on Monday (24) of a party to celebrate his birthday during the first lockdown in June 2020, when social gatherings indoors were prohibited to contain the spread of Covid-19.
The report claims that the prime minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, allegedly helped organize the celebration on the afternoon of June 19. Up to 30 people would have participated in the event in the Cabinet Room, which is in his official residence.
Boris would have been presented with a cake, taken by Carrie along with the team, who sang happy birthday in chorus. The channel also adds that one of those present was interior designer Lulu Lytle, who was renovating the prime minister’s apartment in the building, in another episode that generated controversy.
The prime minister’s office responded that “a group of officials working at number 10 [da Downing Street, residência oficial] that day they quickly gathered in the Cabinet Room after a meeting to wish the prime minister a happy birthday. He was there for less than ten minutes.
Also according to ITV, close friends were at the residence the night before. The claim was also denied by the government. “This is totally false,” said a spokesperson. “In line with the rules at the time, the prime minister had a small number of family members outside that night.”
Opposition leader Keir Starmer reacted to the release of yet another party. “This is even more evidence that we have a prime minister who believes the rules he made don’t apply to him,” he said. “We cannot continue with this chaotic, aimless government. The prime minister is a national distraction and he needs to leave.”
The episode increases the pressure on Boris due to a series of events on Downing Street that breached Covid-19 restrictions and prompts calls for resignation. Parties have already been announced on different dates, including on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral.
If at first the government denied the realization while promising an investigation into the case, when it was still just a celebration for Christmas 2020, the revelation of a series of events prompted a series of apologies on the part of the prime minister.
Boris went to Parliament on January 12 to ask for “sincere apologies” for participating in an event by his team that broke the country’s confinement rules. He then addressed the same words to Queen Elizabeth II at cabinet parties on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral, when the United Kingdom was in mourning.
Last week, the prime minister once again apologized for the events that could cost him his job. “I deeply and bitterly regret what happened, and I can only renew my apologies to Her Majesty and the country,” he told reporters.
In addition to the new lament, Boris took the opportunity to try to deny statements by Dominic Cummings, who was once his main adviser and left office in November 2020, amid a series of internal disputes.
Cummings published a text on his blog last Monday (17) in which he claims that the prime minister not only knew about the party in Downing Street, to which guests were instructed to bring drinks, but also gave the go-ahead for the event to proceed. He also says he alerted the prime minister’s head of security, by email, that the event broke the rules against Covid and should not happen.
The claim contradicts what Boris told Parliament. In his version, the meeting would be a work meeting, since the garden of the official residence works, according to him, as an extension of the office. The prime minister said he stayed there for 25 minutes to thank the officials and then returned to his office.
The Briton is fighting to stay in office, but co-religionists are already studying who can occupy the official residence in Downing Street.
Last Wednesday (19), former minister David Davis, who led the government’s actions to leave the European Union between 2016 and 2018, dramatically called for the Prime Minister’s resignation, resuming Lord Oliver Cromwell’s 1653 speech to condemn the Parliament of the time.
“I will remind you of a quote very familiar to him. ‘In the name of God, go [embora]'” he said. “I hope my leaders take responsibility for the actions they take,” Davis told Boris.
In order to open a process to remove the prime minister from office, it is necessary that at least 54 of the 360 parliamentarians in the party write a motion of no confidence to a party body called the 1922 Committee. In the document, they must express doubts that Boris can stay in charge. As of last Wednesday, 11 Conservative lawmakers had already sent their letters, according to The Telegraph.
Also last Wednesday, a lawmaker left the Conservative Party, the same as the prime minister, and joined the opposition Labor Party, in protest at what he called the disgraceful behavior of the British leader.
Justice incumbent Dominic Raab tried to defend the chief saying that accusing the prime minister of lying to Parliament is absurd. But on BBC radio last week, he added: “If he is deliberately lying, in the way he describes himself, if that is not corrected immediately, normally under ministerial code, it would be a matter of resignation.”
Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, tipped as a possible successor, also said last week that he believed the prime minister’s version. Asked about a hypothesis in which Boris is proven to have lied, he said: “The ministerial code is clear on these matters. But, as you know, Sue Gray is conducting an investigation into this situation. I think the right thing is that we allow her to conclude this work”.
Gray is the second cabinet secretary and took over the lead of the investigation after Simon Case, who had been assigned responsibility, stepped down when the press pointed out that one of the irregular events had taken place in his office.
The conclusion of the inquiry, scheduled for this week, should be the final incentive for lawmakers to question the prime minister’s leadership, in the opinion of members of Boris’ own party, who are already openly discussing who can replace him. There are doubts, however, about the name capable of occupying the position. Among the main names discussed by conservatives are, in addition to Sunak, finance minister, Liz Truss, the country’s foreign secretary.
The government has been betting on a positive agenda to overshadow the crisis, and Boris announced this Wednesday the end of restriction measures imposed to contain the advance of the omicron, responsible for new peaks in Covid cases in the country.
Among the measures announced by Boris are the end of the mandatory use of masks and vaccination passports, in a nod to the conservative electorate, in addition to the release of the return of face-to-face work. Other impact decisions have also been made public in recent days to try to divert attention from the frying that dominates the news, such as the end of public funding for the British network BBC.
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