A suitcase full of alcohol and dancing until the end of the night, as Elizabeth II was about to bury her husband: new revelations about parties held at the heart of British power conclude a disastrous week for Boris Johnson , now openly contested within its majority.
Members of staff working in the UK Prime Minister’s office Boris Johnson at 10 Downing Street organized a party on April 17 in full confinement and on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral, said Thursday The Telegraph.
While the country was in mourning, advisers and civil servants gathered to celebrate the departure of two members of the Prime Minister’s team, the Director of Communications James Slack and one of the personal photographers of Boris Johnson, on two separate evenings.
These two very drunk pots bringing together around thirty people, including one organized in the basement of the building where a manager was the DJ, had joined in the gardens of the official residence, according to the daily close to power .
At the same time, the rules enacted in Downing Street specified that indoor gatherings were prohibited. Only six people were allowed to converge outside.
Boris Johnson has apologized
These scenes of jubilation also contrast with the funeral ceremony organized the next day in tribute to Prince Philip. The images of Queen Elizabeth II, sitting alone in the front row in the church, due to restrictions linked to Covid-19, then symbolized the rigors of confinement in the United Kingdom.
“The queen sat alone, grieving, like so many others at the time, affected by personal trauma and sacrifice, in order to respect the rules in the national interest”, denounced on Twitter Angela Rayner, the chief. deputy of Labour, the main opposition party.
In a statement, UK government spokesman James Slack on Friday apologized “unreservedly for the anger and pain caused”. “This event should not have happened at the time,” he added, saying he took “full responsibility.”
These new revelations are published at a time when the Prime Minister is fighting to remain at the head of the government. The 57-year-old Tory leader on Wednesday apologized to parliament for attending a party on May 20, 2020 in the gardens of his official residence, saying he then thought it was a business meeting.
The event, for which an invitation had been sent by his secretary to around 100 people with the suggestion that they bring their bottles, took place during a traumatic time for Britons. In the midst of the first wave of Covid-19, only two people were allowed to meet outside and many Britons were unable to say goodbye to their dying loved ones.
The opposition calls for his resignation
Immediately, the opposition parties, Labor in the lead who accused him of lying, demanded his resignation, while the members of his government in their majority gave him their support, on Twitter or in the media.
“The Prime Minister has done well to apologize and I support his request to be patient” pending the results of the internal investigation by senior civil servant Sue Gray, soberly declared his finance minister Rishi Sunak, perceived as a potential candidate for the post of Prime Minister.
Expected at best next week, the conclusions of this internal investigation now promise to be decisive for the fate of Boris Johnson. This scandal comes on top of accusations of corruption and favoritism against the Prime Minister.
Boris Johnson, who triumphantly came to power in July 2019 with the Conservative Party, has since seen his long-lasting popularity plummet in the polls. One, produced by YouGov for the Times ahead of its apology, gives Labor a wide ten-point lead, the first in nearly a decade. On Thursday, the head of government escaped the cameras and questions from the media: Covid contact case, he canceled a planned visit to a vaccination center.