UK PM Johnson Faces Backlash Over Christmas Lockdown Party

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has faced severe criticism after a video surfaced showing his staff laughing and joking over how to explain a gathering in Downing Street during a Christmas COVID lockdown last year when such festivities were banned.

Johnson and his ministers have repeatedly denied any rules were broken by the gatherings in late 2020, though the Mirror newspaper said Johnson spoke at a leaving party and that his team had a wine-fuelled gathering of around 40 to 50 people.

However, in a video aired by ITV, Allegra Stratton, who was then Johnson’s press secretary, was shown at a 2020 Downing Street rehearsal for a daily briefing laughing and joking about the gathering.

Reaction to the video was sharp with many people on Twitter expressing disgust that Downing Street appeared to be laughing about breaking rules. Some questioned whether or not the public should obey Johnson if he imposes more COVID restrictions.

At the time of the Downing Street gathering, tens of millions of people across Britain were banned from meeting close family and friends for a traditional Christmas celebration or even from bidding farewell to dying relatives.

Nearly 146,000 people have died from COVID in the United Kingdom and Johnson is weighing up whether to impose tougher restrictions after the discovery of the new Omicron coronavirus variant.

The leader of the opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer, said the video was an insult to those who had followed lockdown rules when it meant being separated from their families over Christmas.

In a statement, Starmer said People had a right to expect that the government was doing the same but to lie and to laugh about those lies is shameful, adding that the prime minister now needs to come clean, and apologise.

Johnson has faced intense criticism in recent months over his handling of a sleaze scandal, the awarding of lucrative COVID contracts, the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat and a claim he sought to ensure pets were evacuated from Kabul during the chaotic Western withdrawal.

Ian Blackford of the Scottish National Party, the second-biggest opposition party in parliament, called for Johnson to step down.