Boris Johnson: "I do not give up, I thought the parties were for work"

A storm broke out against the British Prime Minister in Parliament, while late last night he was expected to be served with the result of the investigation into the "party-gate" scandal.

The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday rejected the opposition's calls to resign due to his participation in a party during the quarantine, but accepted that the same rule applies according to which members of the government should be removed if they have misled Parliament.

Late yesterday, he was expected to receive the findings of an investigation by top civil servant Sue Gray, who investigated the circumstances under which rallies and parties were held at the prime minister's residence while the whole country was in Lockdown.

Johnson, who won the Conservative Party in 2019 with the highest turnout in three decades, said in a speech to parliament that no rules had been broken and that he might have attended rallies, but thought they were about work and it's not a party…

A government spokesman has announced that Johnson himself will decide which excerpts from Gray's investigation will be made public, at a time when police have begun their own investigation.

Opposition Labor leader Kir Starmer called on Johnson to "resign immediately" in parliament, saying the prime minister's ongoing efforts to save his career were "causing huge damage to public confidence". There was a lot of unrest and controversy in the House of Representatives, with the result that at some point the Speaker of the Parliament, Lindsay Hoyle, was forced to threaten the deputies that if they did not calm down, he would remove them from the area. Starmer stressed that the decision of the police to launch an investigation into the so-called "party-gate" meant that the weight of the evidence was now clear.

Johnson declined to discuss both the police investigation and Sue Gray's report, but agreed with Starmer that any government official found to have misled Parliament should resign.

The official opposition leader then reminded Johnson of statements in Parliament in December in which the prime minister stated that the instructions for COVID-19 "They were completely respected at No. 10 Downing Street" and that his associates had "repeatedly assured him" that there were no parties. Analysts believe that Johnson will try to shed the burden of irregular gatherings on some of his associates, whom he will remove.

So far, Johnson has given various explanations for the parties: first he said that no rules were violated, but then he apologized to the British people for the obvious hypocrisy of such gatherings. He denied that he had been warned of a rally in the middle of a lockdown where guests were invited to bring their own drinks on May 20, 2020, and said he thought it was a business meeting. Just the day before yesterday, another rally was unveiled, at the prime minister's birthday in June 2020, which was attended by at least 30 people, while a complete ban on rallies prevailed.

Yesterday's particularly tense debate in Parliament shows, according to political analysts, that the prime minister's goal was not so much the citizens as primarily to maintain the support of the Conservative Party MPs. It is very likely that the conclusion of Sue Gray's report will provoke a vote of no confidence from the Tories themselves. That is why, say experts, his speech yesterday, where he stressed the importance of the country having a stable leadership at a time when the crisis with Ukraine must be dealt with, was like a rehearsal for the speech he will give to a possible motion of censure.

in.gr