Partygate scandal may be tipping point for Johnson
Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologised yesterday for attending a garden party during Britain’s first coronavirus lockdown, but brushed aside demands that he resign for breaching the rules his own government had imposed on the nation.
The apology, which stopped short of admitting wrongdoing, was Johnson’s attempt to assuage a tide of anger from the public and politicians over accusations he and his staff repeatedly flouted pandemic restrictions by socialising when it was banned.
The ‘‘partygate’’ scandal could become a tipping point for a leader who has weathered a series of other storms, with some members of Johnson’s governing Conservative Party saying he must quit for breaking the rules.
Douglas Ross, the leader of the party’s Scottish wing, said Johnson’s position was no longer tenable, and ‘‘I don’t think he can continue as leader of the Conservatives’’.
Trying to calm the furor, Johnson acknowledged for the first time yesterday that he went to a May 2020 garden party at his Downing Street office, though he said that he had considered it a work event to thank staff for their efforts during the pandemic.
‘‘I want to apologise,’’ Johnson told lawmakers during his weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session. ‘‘With hindsight, I should have sent everyone back inside.’’
An invitation to ‘‘bring your own booze’’ to a ‘‘socially distanced drinks’’ gathering was emailed to about 100 government staff by a senior prime ministerial aide – though Johnson’s office says he did not receive it.
Opponents and allies alike have been demanding Johnson come clean about the party, held when Britons were banned by law from meeting more than one person outside their households to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The gathering happened as millions were cut off from family and friends, and even barred from visiting dying relatives in hospitals.
Johnson said he understood the rage of people who ‘‘have made extraordinary sacrifices over the past 18 months . . . at the thought that people in Downing Street were not following those rules’’ – though he didn’t explicitly admit that he had broken any regulations, and said the gathering might have been ‘‘technically’’ within the guidelines.