Boris Johnson says he didn’t know the parties were illegal in his first speech to the parliament after he was fined. Among the concerns of parliament members was that it was Mr. Johnson who announced these rules. There were also claims from former senior aides that he was informed that it was violating COVID policies.
He began by offering a “wholehearted apology” and added it “did not occur to me then or subsequently” that the gathering “could amount to a breach of the rules.” He was addressing lawmakers for the first time since being fined by police on April 13 for attending a birthday party thrown for him in Downing Street in June 2020, when large indoor gatherings were banned.
Other parties held at No. 10 Downing street are currently being investigated. The series of parties were dubbed “Partygate,” which became the rallying call for the PM to resign.
Labour leader Keir Starmer said “The public has made up their mind; they don’t believe a word the prime minister says. They know what he is.”
Conservative MP Mark Harper joined calls for Johnson to resign. “I regret to say that we have a Prime Minister who broke the laws that he told the country they had to follow, hasn’t been straightforward about it,” said Harper, the former whip. “I’m very sorry to have to say this, but I no longer think he is worthy of the great office that he holds.”
An internal inquest, separate from the ongoing police investigation, has uncovered multiple parties, a culture of excessive drinking, and a “failure of leadership” in Johnson’s government while the rest of the country was living under strict rules on social mixing.