Boris Johnson has been told he ‘must resign’ as Prime Minister after he admitted celebrating his birthday with a party inside No 10 during the first lockdown in 2020.
At that time - June 19, 2020 - social mixing of more than two people indoors was banned under lockdown restrictions.
Downing Street confirmed that staff "gathered briefly" in the Cabinet Room to wish the Prime Minister a happy birthday, but it has also been reported that the get-together, organised by Mr Johnson's wife Carrie, included M&S nibbles and a cake.
READ MORE: Live updates at Boris Johnson told 'he must resign' as Prime Minister
It follows numerous reports of parties in Downing Street during lockdown and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the latest revelations were "yet more evidence that we have got a Prime Minister who believes that the rules that he made don't apply to him".
He tweeted: "The Prime Minister is a national distraction and he's got to go."
It follows revelations earlier this month that the Prime Minister was also present at a garden party at Downing Street on May 20, 2020 - when England was under its first national lockdown.
In the week in May 2020 that staff from No 10 attended the party, 75 people from across the Liverpool City Region died with Covid.
Here, we look at the stories of families from Merseyside who lost loved ones to covid and other illnesses around the time of Downing Street parties in April and May 2020, as well as alleged parties that Christmas.
Jamie Mawson, from Southport, lost his dad Richard to covid-19 in April 2020
Richard's funeral was held in May 2020 - around the same time as the Downing Street garden party which came to light earlier this month - and just 10 people were allowed to attend.
Speaking to the ECHO , Jamie said: "This just adds insult to injury. It feels like another knife going in.
"For us and thousands of families in mourning and grieving for our loved ones whilst they were having a booze up is the ultimate insult. I hope this is brought up in the inquiry."
Read the family's story here
Philip Carmichael, a popular dad of two who lived in Wirral, died of cancer in April 2020
Strict covid lockdown rules at the time meant members of Philip's family were unable to hug him or be with him in his final moments.
Just a handful of people were allowed to attend his funeral, which came just two days after dozens of Downing Street staff attended a party.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was one of around 40 people who attended the 'Bring Your Own Booze' event at a time when everyone in the country was restricted to meeting just one other person outdoors.
Philip's sister, Pauline McPartland, said that news of the government party left her enraged and brought back the 'haunting' memories of her brother's death.
After she was forced to say goodbye to her dying brother through a window pane, Pauline described news of the Downing Street party in May 2020 as 'the ultimate betrayal.'
Read the family's full story here
Liverpool University student Isabel McEgan died just seven days before her twentieth birthday
The mum of a teenager who died with just her parents by her side called the government "shameful" after reports of one of the Downing Street parties emerged earlier this month.
Amanda McEgan said her 19-year-old daughter was "isolated" in her final weeks as she fought a rare form of cancer while the government reportedly held boozy garden parties.
Isabel, a philosophy student at the University of Liverpool, was diagnosed with an incurable cancer called Papillary Renal Cell Carcinoma after a tumour was found in her mouth while she was at Camp America.
Upon returning home, stage four, secondary tumours were found in Isabel's liver, adrenal glands, jaw, spine and pelvis.
Isabel was being treated at Aintree Hospital but one of her consultants tested positive for covid-19 during the first lockdown.
To keep her safe, the decision was made to bring Isabel home where Amanda and dad Paul trained themselves to administer her treatment.
But due to only having appointments with the consultant over the phone, no one realised how quickly Isabel was deteriorating.
Isabel died at home away from family and friends, apart from her mum, on May 10, 2020. It was seven days before her twentieth birthday.
Read the family's heartbreaking story here
Former Marine and firefighter Alan Connolly died of Covid days before Downing Street garden party
Runcorn man Alan Connolly would have turned 89 on Wednesday, January 12 - the day of J ohnson's apology for attending a party in his back garden during the first lockdown. A former Royal Marine, Alan also served as a firefighter in Liverpool for 26 years.
Grandaughter Sophie Connolly said: "He was always very protective. Looking at him, he was six foot two, he was big built, but then he was just a cuddly grandad.
"He loved all the grandkids."
A fall in March 2020 put him into Warrington Hospital where he was diagnosed with covid-19.
During those six weeks, the family spoke to him over a hospital phone, unsure he'd ever leave.
Sophie was "over the moon" when the hospital discharged her grandad into the care of a nursing home after he tested negative for coronavirus.
But the damage done by the virus to his lungs was too much for his body to overcome.
Alan died in the company of three of his children, in the room two at a time, on May 18, 2020, two days before the boozy garden party at No 10.
On the day of Alan's funeral that June, neighbours lined the street to pay their respects and an airplane flew from Blackpool to Runcorn carrying a banner saying, 'ALAN CONNOLLY MARINE 9430 OUR HERO' and a love heart.
Read the family's full story here
Mum's 'biggest fear' came true as she died alone in hospital over Christmas
Jenny Minnis, 30, spoke of how her grief has been fuelled by the alleged parties that took place in Downing Street over Christmas 2020.
Tracey Minnis, from Wallasey, Wirral, was just 53 when she died of lung cancer in Arrowe Park Hospital without her family on Christmas Eve 2020 - just two days after the Prime Minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton had been recorded laughing and joking about a party in Westminster.
Jenny said: "We were getting the worse news of our lives while those that ran the country were laughing at us behind our backs.
"This has fuelled my grief. My mum's biggest fear was that she would die alone, and she did because we followed Government guidelines while they carried on. I didn't even get to tell her I love her one last time - it is an absolute joke."
Speaking before Christmas last year, Jenny added: "Christmas was mum's favourite time of year, so I do not know how I am going to cope this year.
"I am not really looking forward to it but just going to take each day as it comes and raise a glass to her on Christmas Day, and her empty chair at the dinner table."
Read the family's full story here
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