British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was yesterday under fire after a video emerged of his senior aides joking about holding a Christmas party at Downing Street last year when social gatherings were banned under COVID-19 rules.
The government has been repeatedly accused of hypocrisy over breaches of lockdown rules and in a major scandal then-British secretary of state for health and social care Matt Hancock resigned in June after revelations that he broke COVID-19 restrictions during an affair with an aide.
The video, obtained by broadcaster ITV News, shows then-Downing Street press secretary Allegra Stratton, Special Adviser to the Prime Minister Ed Oldfied and other staff joking about “a fictional party” during a rehearsal news conference on Dec. 22 last year, with no media present.
In the leaked footage, Stratton is seen answering questions about a Downing Street Christmas party the previous Friday — when the alleged rule-breaking gathering took place.
“This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced,” she laughs over joking exchanges about “cheese and wine.”
At that time, London was under strict COVID-19 restrictions and indoor social gatherings of two or more people were banned.
In response to the video, Downing Street said: “There was no Christmas party. COVID rules have been followed at all times.”
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer blasted the government for its “shameful” actions at a time when the UK was under lockdown.
“People across the country followed the rules, even when that meant being separated from loved ones. They had a right to expect the government was doing the same,” Starmer wrote on Twitter, with a link to the video.
“To lie and to laugh about those lies is shameful. We have a Prime Minister who’s socially distanced from the truth,” he wrote.
Scottish National Party leader Ian Blackford said that the prime minister could not be trusted and called for him to resign.
“Here we have Number 10, a government in London, breaching its own COVID rules and then joking about it on a video,” Blackford told STV News. “It really isn’t acceptable and I have to say, unfortunately, that on the basis of this behavior ... he should go, and he should go now.”
Some lawmakers from Johnson’s Conservative Party also wanted answers.
“The No. 10 party has all the hallmarks of another ‘Barnard Castle’ moment,” British lawmaker Roger Gale wrote on Twitter, referring to an incident last year when Johnson’s then-chief aide Dominic Cummings drove hundreds of kilometers during a lockdown, triggering outrage over perceived hypocrisy by the government. “No. 10 clearly has some serious questions to answer. Fast.”
During the mock news conference, Oldfield mentions reports about a Downing Street party and asks: “Would the prime minister condone having a Christmas party?” to which Stratton says: “What’s the answer?”
Oldfield says he does not know as a Downing Street staffer says to laughter that “It wasn’t a party ... it was cheese and wine.”
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