Boris Johnson denied he was warned not to go ahead with a party in his office garden during the first pandemic lockdown in May 2020, after his former aide accused the U.K. prime minister of lying over the affair.
“I can tell you categorically that nobody told me and said that this was something that was against the rules, that was a breach of the COVID rules or you’re doing something that wasn’t a work event,” Johnson said in a pooled interview broadcast Tuesday. “Frankly I can’t imagine why on earth it would have gone ahead anyway, or why it would have been allowed to go ahead.”
Johnson is battling to save his political career, with members of his ruling Conservative Party furious over allegations Johnson and his staff broke the pandemic rules they had set for the British public to follow. The issue has dominated front pages for weeks, while support for the Tories has slumped.
The prime minister’s former senior aide Dominic Cummings, who was forced from his post in acrimonious circumstances 14 months ago, has played a central roll in the fallout. It was his blog post this month about a Downing Street party on May 20, 2020 that left Johnson clinging to his job.
Late Monday, Cummings significantly upped the ante by writing that he would “swear under oath” that the premier both was aware of and allowed the drinks party to go ahead. If true, would suggest Johnson misled Parliament with his account and apology last week — a breach of the ministerial code.
On Tuesday, two of Johnson’s most senior cabinet ministers pointedly said breaches of the code should lead to resignation.
“The ministerial code is clear on these matters,” Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said in a pooled broadcast interview, when asked if Johnson should resign if he had misled Parliament.
“If it’s lying, deliberate in the way you describe, if it’s not corrected immediately, it would normally — under the ministerial code and the governance around Parliament — be a resigning matter,” Dominic Raab, who is both justice secretary and Johnson’s deputy, told BBC radio.
In his interview, Johnson declined to say if he would step down if was found to have broken the code. He reiterated his call for people to wait for the report of a government inquiry to be published.
