Boris Johnson faces backlash: Outcry over Downing Street parties

Former PM Boris Johnson faced fierce criticism for his comments about lockdown parties held in Downing Street during his testimony to the COVID inquiry on Thursday. 

B oris Johnson’s defence of lockdown parties held in Downing Street during his testimony to the COVID inquiry on Thursday has sparked outrage among bereaved families and others.

The former PM said that while he was sorry for the parties, his staff had been unfairly maligned. He argued that the breaches of COVID rules were largely inadvertent because staff did not properly understand the rules and were working under intense pressure.

“The version of events that has entered the popular consciousness about what is supposed to have happened in Downing Street is a million miles from the reality of what actually happened.
“I speak on behalf of hundreds and hundreds of hard-working civil servants who thought that they were following the rules. Some of the media coverage, the dramatic representations, that we’re now having of this are absolutely absurd.
“I think that the characterisation, the representation that has been of what civil servants and advisers were doing in No 10 has been a travesty of the truth. They thought they were working very, very hard, which they were.”

— Boris Johnson, during the COVID inquiry