Sky’s Burley taken off air after party broke rules
KAY BURLEY was taken off air by Sky News yesterday after she admitted breaking Covid restriction rules during her 60th birthday celebrations.
The news anchor apologised for an ‘error of judgment’ following a party with nine friends – including her Sky colleagues Beth Rigby and Inzamam Rashid – at the swanky Century Club in London’s West End on Saturday.
A smaller group then broke London’s Tier 2 ban on household mixing with a trip to Soho’s Folie restaurant, whose owner Guillaume Depoix was a guest on her show earlier in the week.
It is not known if they ate a ‘substantial meal’ in both restaurants before four of them finished the celebrations at Ms Burley’s west London home.
The presenter apologised on Twitter but was sent home yesterday as she was about to front the channel’s morning coverage of the first coronavirus vaccinations in Coventry.
She tweeted: ‘ On Saturday night I was enjoying my 60th birthday at a Covid compliant restaurant.
‘I am embarrassed to say that later in the evening I inadvertently broke the rules. I had been waiting for a taxi at 11pm to get home. Desperate for the loo, I briefly popped into another restaurant to spend a penny. I can only apologise.’ Sky said: ‘ We place the highest importance on complying with the government guidelines on Covid, and we expect all our people to comply.’ All employees at the party were now under investigation, it added. Burley (pictured) is now off air until next year. Other presenters will cover for the rest of the week and then she will be on annual leave.
Last night, she tweeted: ‘Lovely people, whatever else you read be safe in the knowledge I was always heading to my beloved Africa on Friday to sit with lions. They kill for food not sport’.
Burley was accused on social media of hypocrisy after grilling politicians over lockdown breaches, including the road trip to Barnard Castle by Boris Johnson’s ex chief adviser Dominic Cummings.