U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologized for attending a “bring your own booze” event in the back garden of his official residence in 2020 when the country was locked down, CNN reported.
Johnson admitted to being present at the gathering for 25 minutes before going back inside to work, and he said he believed it to be a work event, CNN reported. Johnson acknowledged that, in hindsight, he should have sent attendees back inside.
“I know the rage they feel with me over the government I lead when they think that in Downing Street itself the rules are not being properly followed by the people who make the rules,” Johnson told Parliament, Reuters reported.
“There we have it: After months of deceit and deception, the pathetic spectacle of a man who has run out of road,” opposition leader Keir Starmer said, CNN reported. Starmer said he found Johnson’s excuse that he “did not realize he was at a party” to be “ridiculous” and “offensive.” (RELATED: REPORT: Cocaine Evidence Found Near UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Private Office)
“Is [the PM] going to do the decent thing and resign?”
Labour leader Keir Starmer says Boris Johnson is a “pathetic spectacle of a man who ran out of road”
The PM says “I have apologised” for attending No 10 party, “I thought it was a work event”#PMQs https://t.co/cXM9HUgeXn pic.twitter.com/Z3x8cXNGIi
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) January 12, 2022
It was revealed on Monday that Johnson’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, emailed more than 100 staffers to “socially distanced drinks in the No. 10 garden,” CNN reported. The email, which Reynolds said Johnson did not see, told invitees to “bring your own booze” and “make the most of the lovely weather.”
The event occurred during the U.K.’s first lockdown of the pandemic when people were banned from meeting with more than one person outdoors, CNN reported. The strict guidance for workplaces specified that in-person meetings should only take place if “absolutely necessary.”
Leaders of all opposition parties have demanded that Johnson resign, Reuters reported. “It sounds to me, I’m afraid, very much as though politically the prime minister is a dead man walking,” fellow Conservative Roger Gale, who had called for a leadership change, told the outlet.
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