An hour or so before Boris Johnson was due to fly back to the UK from Delhi on Friday evening – after a two-day trade mission to India – some electrifying news broke on Twitter. Anushka Asthana, ITV’s deputy political editor, had tweeted that “fines are landing into people’s inboxes relating to the garden event on May 20th 2020 – the BYOB [bring your own bottle] event – that Boris Johnson did go to”.
The trip to India had already been overshadowed by Partygate. The Tories had endured a terrible week in parliament and Johnson was facing a third inquiry into parties at No 10. Now British journalists who had accompanied the prime minister to India seized on the latest bombshell – and wanted responses.
