Boris Johnson joked about being at the ‘most unsocially distanced party in UK’
Boris Johnson joked to Downing Street staff that “this is the most unsocially distanced party in the UK right now” at a leaving do held during the Covid pandemic, it has been claimed.
ITV said the former prime minster made the remark at a “boozy” party in No 10 while coronavirus restrictions were in place.
The comments have been put to Mr Johnson and Downing Street.
The broadcaster said that when it put the quote to Mr Johnson, who was pressured by his party into announcing his departure from No 10 in the summer, the former Conservative leader “did not deny saying it”.
The claim is part of a number of new allegations made in an ITV podcast, Partygate: The Inside Story.
It reports that a source said: “I was working late – some music came on, the mumbling sort of rose, and there were loads of people stood around, but this time I came out because I heard the prime minister speaking and that’s when I heard the quote: ‘This is the most unsocially distanced party in the UK right now’ and everyone was laughing about it.”
Fined
Mr Johnson was fined as part of a police investigation into gatherings held in Downing Street while social distancing restrictions were in place.
However, he was fined for attending his own birthday party in the Cabinet Room in Downing Street in June 2020 rather than for the alleged party the ITV source mentions.
He is still due to appear before the Commons Privileges Committee over comments he made to MPs from the despatch box about so-called “partygate”.
Among other claims, ITV reports that whistleblowers told the podcast that staff “corroborated their stories” before filling out Metropolitan Police questionnaires about their potential involvement in rule-breaking gatherings.
The podcast also reports that only half of the parties that occurred were ever investigated by Sue Gray, the senior Cabinet Office official who investigated the partygate claims, or the Met.
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‘Fatshanks’ a nasty piece of work. ‘The Little Emperor’ another nasty piece of work…
If the Tories want public servants to guarantee “Minimum Service Levels” how will they define those when we can’t get an ambulance, a policeman or similar in normal times thanks to 13 years of Tory misrule?
Will those exemplars of public service, our MPs have to obey this law? They never have yet and Johnson is one of the worst.
Johnson is not only unfit to hold any public office, he’s unfit to clean a public lavatory.
They will bring Bozo back as leader in an attempt to win the election only to find the voters of Uxbridge getting rid of him for being in the Caribbean when he should have been working for them. Oh how I’ll laugh.
Crooked Conservative Boris Johnson’s morals are in the gutter. He has the blood of over 200,000+ Covid victims on his sweaty hands. But to joke about such a thing is beyond crass makes my blood boil. It shows you what happens when you elect populists like Boris Johnson, Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro and other far-right loons… who when in office cause irrevocable damage. And I blame the intellectually void electorate who were stupid enough to vote these criminals into power should hang their sorry heads in shame. 😐
This begs the question, apart from Fatshanks, how many on the Government payroll were infected by Covid? One could also seek an answer as to the numbers over all the Parliamentary Estate, mp’s and their staff and the hundreds of workers who serve them…