WATCH: MP Demands ‘Pathetic’ Boris Johnson Resign Over Lockdown Party Lies During Fiery Parliament Debate
Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the British Labour Party, laced into Boris Johnson during Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions session, mocking the PM for claiming he didn’t know he attended a party during a government-decreed lockdown and demanding his resignation.
For those unfortunately unaware of how the British Parliament works, the Prime Minister regularly takes questions from Members of Parliament, where he faces fierce confrontation like he did in this instance from the leader of the opposition party.
Johnson opened the session with an apology for attending a “Pandemic Party” which the New York Times described:
Facing a potentially lethal threat to his leadership, Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain on Wednesday offered a contrite apology in Parliament for attending a garden party at 10 Downing Street while the country was under lockdown. He acknowledged that he had deeply offended the public, even as he claimed that he had not breached his government’s regulations on gatherings during the early days of the pandemic.
“I want to apologize,” Mr. Johnson said during an extraordinarily tense session of Prime Minister’s Questions. “I know there are things we simply did not get right, and I must simply take responsibility.”
The prime minister said that he viewed the party, on May 20, 2020, as “implicitly a work event,” an opportunity to thank Downing Street staff members for their efforts during the initial phase of the coronavirus pandemic. But he said he understood that the British public, who were being told not to meet more than a single person outside their households, would view it as a double standard.
“With hindsight, I should have sent everybody back inside,” Mr. Johnson said. “I should have found some other way to thank them.
That wasn’t good enough for Starmer, who mocked Johnson for “not realizing he was at a party,” to laughs from Parliament.
“He’s finally been forced to finally admit what everyone knew, that when the country was locked down, he was hosting boozy parties at Downing Street,” Starmer said.
Starmer concluded with the rhetorical question: “Is he now going to do the decent thing and resign?”
Johnson reiterated that he “thought it was a work event,” amid demeaning howls from Labour members in attendance, adding “I regret very much that we did not do things differently.
Read Johnson’s full apology here:
I want to apologize. I know that millions of people across this country have made extraordinary sacrifices over the last 18 months.
I know the anguish they have been through – unable to mourn their relatives, unable to live their lives as they want or to do the things they love.
I know the rage they feel with me and with the government I lead when they think in Downing Street itself the rules are not being properly followed by the people who make the rules.
And though I cannot anticipate the conclusions of the current inquiry, I have learned enough to know there were things we simply did not get right and I must take responsibility.
No 10 is a big department with a garden as an extension of the office which has been in constant use because of the role of fresh air in stopping the virus.
When I went into that garden just after six on 20 May 2020, to thank groups of staff before going back into my office 25 minutes later to continue working, I believed implicitly that this was a work event.
With hindsight I should have sent everyone back inside. I should have found some other way to thank them.
I should have recognized that even if it could be said technically to fall within the guidance, there are millions and millions of people who simply would not see it that way, people who have suffered terribly, people who were forbidden from meeting loved ones at all inside or outside, and to them and to this house I offer my heartfelt apologies.
All I ask is that Sue Gray be allowed to complete her inquiry into that day and several others so that the full facts can be established.
Watch above via BBC.
