Angela Rayner has hit out at the Prime Minister's new staffing appointments - describing the move as 'frantically rearranging deckchairs'.
18.01.2022 - 18:46 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Boris Johnson has denied lying to Parliament over allegations of lockdown rule-breaking parties in Downing Street.
Last week the Prime Minister told MPs he believed the get-together in the No 10 garden during the first lockdown in May 2020 was a 'work event'.
But the PM is coming under increasing pressure after his former chief adviser Dominic Cummings claimed Mr Johnson knew in advance about the party and agreed that it could go ahead.
Asked today if he had lied to Parliament, Mr Johnson said: "No. I want to begin by repeating my apologies to everybody for the misjudgements that I’ve made, that we may have made in No 10 and beyond, whether in Downing Street or throughout the pandemic."
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Speaking during a visit to a hospital in north London, his first public appearance since last week, Mr Johnson insisted he was not warned in advance that a drinks party in Downing Street in May 2020 was against Covid rules.
He added: "Nobody told me that what we were doing was against the rules, that the event in question was something that … was not a work event, and as I said in the House of Commons when I went out into that garden I thought that I was attending a work event.
"What I remember is going out into that garden for a short time and for 25 minutes thanking staff who’d worked on Covid, who were continuing to work on Covid, and then going back to office.
"If I had my time again, I would not have allowed things to develop in that way."
In a post on his Substack page, Mr Cummings said he raised his concerns about the event in the Number 10 garden in May 2020 directly with the PM and would 'swear under oath
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Professor Green has taken aim at Prime Minister Boris Johnson with his new single ‘Dance Like A Tory’ – listen below.The London rapper – real name Stephen Manderson – released the satirical song today (January 27) in response to the recent parties scandal that’s engulfed Downing Street and led to calls for Johnson to resign.‘Dance Like A Tory’ is described as “a playful prod at the privileged politicians who believed that they’re too important to follow the very rules that they made”. It arrives with a tongue-in-cheek video in which Pro Green takes on the role of Johnson at a coronavirus press conference.“It’s popping off on Downing Street / My favourite restaurant just closed down / The doors to 338 are closed / While Number 10 gets down,” Green raps in the single.
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Boris Johnson has claimed that he wasn’t informed that a Downing Street garden gathering that’s been alleged to have been party was against COVID rules at the time.The Prime Minister said in a new interview that he “humbly apologises” to people for “misjudgements” that were made, but that he wouldn’t have attended the gathering on May 20, 2020, if he thought it broke the rules.He told Sky News today (January 18): “I’m saying categorically that nobody told me, nobody said this was something that was against the rules, doing something that wasn’t a work event because frankly, I can’t imagine why it would have gone ahead, or it would have been allowed to go ahead if it was against the rules.”"I carry full responsibility for what took place, but nobody said to me that this was an event that is against the rules."Boris Johnson recalls what he remembers about an alleged party in the Downing Street garden during lockdown.Latest: https://t.co/lE3sSg2vbt pic.twitter.com/k50uWKeYmD— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 18, 2022Under the rules that applied at the time of the alleged party, which dozens of Downing Street staff were invited to in an email sent by principal private secretary Martin Reynolds, people in England were subject to “not meeting up with any more than one person from outside your household” [via FullFact].The law in May 2020 said “no person may participate in a gathering in a public place of more than two people” unless it was for one of a number of stated reasons. These included when the gathering was “essential for work purposes” or “all the persons in the gathering are members of the same household”.
Boris Johnson – check it out below.For their latest release, the satirical duo repurposed Rage Against The Machine‘s 1991 protest anthem ‘Killing In The Name’ in response to recent allegations that Downing Street hosted various parties during lockdown.The clip begins with the PM asking the British public to “limit contact with other people” during a coronavirus press conference. “Now you do what I tell you,” Johnson adds over an instrumental of the classic Rage single.“As you comply, I socialise/ With cheese and wine, and forty guys/ From ‘Next slide please’ to wine and cheese/ The rules you see, don’t apply to me,” Johnson says in the style of the original track.
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