Christmas party, farewell drink, wine and cheese in the sun, … Boris Johnson’s government and circles of power are singled out for a dozen parties organized in the midst of a pandemic when the British had to drastically reduce their contacts. Latest episode, the apologies of the Prime Minister’s services to the Queen, for a party on the eve of the funeral of her husband, Prince Philip, in full confinement.
Franceinfo picks up the thread of these controversial feasts.
May 15, 2020:
A photo published in the press shows the Prime Minister, his wife Carrie (then his fiancée) and aides sharing cheese boards and glasses of wine in the Downing Street garden. While such moments of sociability were prohibited during the first confinement, Boris Johnson spoke of “people at work, talking about work”.
May 20, 2020
A hundred people are invited, in an email sent by the chief private secretary of Boris Johnson, Martin Reynolds, to come “enjoy the nice weather” for a jar “with social distancing” in the gardens of the Prime Minister’s residence. The British could then only legally meet one person outside, in a public place. About forty people would have finally participated, including Boris Johnson and Carrie. The leader admitted to having made an appearance, maintaining that he had then believed “implicitly” it was a business meeting.
November 13, 2020
The media report a party with collaborators in the apartment of Boris Johnson. The leader ensures that “the rules were always respected”. A second confinement was then underway in the United Kingdom.
November 27, 2020
A farewell drink would have been organized for an employee of 10 Downing Street, during which Boris Johnson would have made a speech despite the confinement. About fifty would have been massed in a room.
December 10, 2020
The Ministry of Education confirmed the holding of a party where around twenty people had gathered on December 10 around a few “glasses and canapes”. After the confinement, restrictions were then in force in London which prohibited different households from meeting indoors.
December 14, 2020
After a photo appeared in the press, the Conservative Party acknowledged an unauthorized party at its London headquarters, organized by the team of then London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey. The latter has since resigned from the presidency of the police and crime committee of the assembly of the British capital.
December 15, 2020
the Sunday Mirror publishes a photo of the Prime Minister, flanked by two aides, taking part in an online quiz. Downing Street admitted the leader had “briefly” participated in the event, stressing that it was virtual.
December 16, 2020
The Ministry of Transport issued an apology for a Christmas party “inappropriate” organized on its premises.
December 18, 2020
A Boris Johnson adviser has resigned after joking, in a video that went viral, about a party that would have brought together around 40 people that day in Downing Street. saying to themselves “mad”, the Prime Minister affirmed that he had “been assured several times” since the beginning of the case that“there was no party” and that’“no rules” had not been violated.
April 17, 2021
A watered starting pot, in full confinement and national mourning. Until the early morning of April 17, 2021, Downing Street collaborators – without the Prime Minister – celebrated the departure of two members of the team, according to The Telegraph, communications director James Slack, since deputy editor of the tabloid The Sun, and a personal photographer for Boris Johnson. The partygoers, about thirty, had joined in the gardens of the official residence, according to the daily close to the power. A person had been sent to a supermarket to buy bottles of wine which they brought back to Downing Street in a suitcase, he said. At the same time, Elisabeth II was preparing to bury her husband in a small committee, because of the restrictions against the Covid-19.