Piers Morgan has summed up why accusations that Downing Street held parties when the country was under strict lockdown rules are so controversial.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sophie Raworth, he spoke specifically about the May 2020 drinks party that was organised over email by Martin Reynolds for some 100 members of staff, at a time in which people were only allowed to meet one other person. Johnson admitted he attended the event and apologised but said he believed it was a “work event” but it has damaged his position in the polls.
Explaining why, Morgan said: “The court of public opinion has come back and found [Johnson] guilty of the most brazen rank hypocrisy imaginable.
Piers Morgan - The court of public opinion has come back & found Boris Johnson guilty of the most brazen rank hypocrisy imaginable... public confidence has been destroyed... the govt makes these draconian orders & completely disregards them with impunity. #Phillips #goodmorning pic.twitter.com/eZ40z5omRg
— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) January 16, 2022
“This was the time when the entire country had been in lockdown for weeks on end. This was a time when you couldn’t go and see loved ones when they were dying in hospital from this virus.
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“This was... literally minutes after [Oliver Dowden] had the brass neck to stand there at the Downing Street press conference and order everybody ‘you’re allowed to only meet one person, outside, at two metre distance from another household’”.
Morgan said he met his son that day “for the first time in three months” and “wasn’t even able to shake hands” with him.
As well as that, he said: “I had a cousin who wasn’t able to see his dying father. I had a great school friend who couldn’t see her mother who died in a care home from Covid, had to say goodbye on FaceTime then had a funeral for a handful of people.
“I had a co-worker, Kate Garraway at Good Morning Britain, who couldn’t go and see her critically ill husband.
“All over the country, people have these kind of stories and they were horrific stories of separation and yet the very people who were telling the country to do this were having a massive knees-up in Downing Street that night and carried on having knees-ups throughout the entire pandemic and it’s a complete disgrace.”
Morgan added that Johnson “should go” because of these stories and said “public trust in the government has surely been completely shattered.
He added: “Every Conservative MP must be looking at all these stories and concluding surely that public confidence has been irrevocably destroyed by what’s happened here.
“I can’t think of a bigger breach, frankly, than a global health emergency, where the government make these draconian orders and completely disregard them with impunity.”
Reacting to his ideas, Morgan was praised on social media:
I hate it when I agree with Piers Morgan. However...
— Northerner (@grimnorth_0) January 16, 2022
Every Single Word!!
Today is a strange day… I agree with Piers Morgan for the first time ever. 🤷🏼♂️
— Nick Hounsfield (@WavemakerNick) January 16, 2022
OMG! I have never been a fan but Piers Morgan is absolutely spot on here https://t.co/QW3fWVLJrY
— Ronnie Morris 💙 (@VeronicaMorris2) January 16, 2022
Wow! Now that’s powerful reflection & delivery adding personable context to this whole abhorrent episode! #BorisJohnsonResign #ToryCovidCatastrophe https://t.co/PZekd5dDka
— Rob (@raso282) January 16, 2022
Like him or loathe him @piersmorgan is bang on here! This 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾 https://t.co/ppqhvGUlJN
— Nomie (@Nomie_Tweets) January 16, 2022
Partygate rumbles on.
