PHOTOGRAPHS of Boris Johnson making a toast surrounded by booze at a leaving do in Downing Street are “quite astonishing” and “I would love him to go”, Scotland’s public health minister has said.
Damning pictures of the Prime Minister emerged on Monday ahead of the widely anticipated Sue Gray report into lockdown rule-breaking in Number 10 and Whitehall while the rest of the country was in lockdown.
In the images reportedly from November 13, 2020, released by ITV News, eight days after England was put back into lockdown due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases, at least six bottles of wine, two bottles of prosecco and a bottle of spirits can be seen on the table between the PM and the blurred guests.
The gathering was reportedly a leaving party for departing communications director Lee Cain.
Speaking after the images were released, Scottish public health minister Maree Todd said that despite hearing reports of what happened in Downing Street at the time, she was still “shocked” by the pictures.
Todd told The National: “I actually find it almost unbelievable and I find it hard to say that because we’ve known all along that this is what happened.
“We heard about the suitcases full of alcohol, we’ve heard about it being party central like a frat house as they say. There’s been more fines levvied in 10 Downing Street than any other address in the whole of the UK, but despite all of that background I still found it quite shocking.”
When the photographs were taken, England had just been put into a full lockdown due to rising cases on November 5. In Scotland, numerous council areas were in level 2 and level 3 restrictions due to the number of Covid cases. Angus, Fife, and Perth & Kinross council areas were put into level 3 from 6am on Friday, November 13, the same day the photographs were taken.
Todd said: “I just can’t comprehend how in the midst of a global pandemic when the country was told to stay at home and stay apart those scenes unfolded and it’s hard to believe that he’s denied it in Parliament.
EXCL: @ITVNews has obtained pictures of Boris Johnson drinking at a No10 party during lockdown in November 2020. The photos cast fresh doubt on the PM's repeated claims he was unaware of rule-breaking in No10 during the pandemic. See all images here:https://t.co/sUJiWpxqmm pic.twitter.com/iXopuPIQu7
— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) May 23, 2022
“It’s also quite hard to understand the decisions that were made around whether he should be fined or not by the police, all of these things are hard to understand but the pictures are shocking, a picture speaks a thousand words and it’s quite hard to roll back from those photographs.
“As Public Health Minister, absolutely full of drink as well on the tables, quite astonishing, and at work.”
Asked if she believes Johnson should resign, and if she thinks he will, Todd said: “I genuinely think we are in really challenging times, we’re coming through and out of a pandemic that has tested us to our limits, we have a war in Ukraine, we have a cost of living crisis, these are absolutely times when you need good, honest leadership, and we don’t have that in the UK at the moment.
“At the very worst of times, we have the very worst of leaders and I would love him to go.”
It comes as three Downing Street insiders have detailed to the BBC allegations of chaotic parties in Downing Street during lockdown.
On the Cain leaving do the Prime Minister has been pictured at, one staff member said “there were about 30 people, if not more, in a room. Everyone was stood shoulder to shoulder, some people on each other’s laps…one or two people”.
