LONDON — A report into the allegations that U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the team around him have repeatedly broken COVID-19 protocols is due this week, according to The Guardian, with Johnson facing pressure to resign.
On May 15, 2020, legal restrictions stated people in England could not leave their house without reasonable excuse, but the prime minister and his staff were photographed with bottles of wine in the Downing Street garden, and five days later witnesses told the BBC that Johnson was among around 30 people who attended a separate drinks event.
On November 13, 2020, former Johnson adviser Dominic Cummings alleges that a boisterous party took place on the night he was fired, at Johnson’s Downing Street flat, before, days later, on November 27, sources say Johnson made a speech at a leaving event for a Number Ten aide in which people were drinking, according to Agence France Presse.
On December 15, Johnson was photographed sitting between two staff members holding a “Number Ten Christmas Quiz,” days after London moved to Tier 2 lockdown rules banning two or more people from different households meeting indoors unless “reasonably necessary” for work.
On December 16, London moved into the top tier of COVID restrictions, but The Daily Mirror alleges that on December 18 another party was held in Downing Street.
Finally, on April 16 2021, with socializing indoors with people from other households not allowed and meeting others outdoors limited to groups of six people or two households, two further Downing Street drinks parties were held the night before Prince Phillip’s socially distanced funeral, though Johnson did not attend, according to the BBC.
For his part, Johnson said the two alleged garden parties in May 2020 were work events.
A spokesperson for his wife denied the November 13 party at their Downing Street flat took place.
And Johnson denied any wrongdoing regarding the Christmas Zoom quiz.
