Boris Johnson Doubles Down On Claim That He Didn’t Know He Was Breaking Covid Rules

Boris Johnson has doubled down on his claim that he didn’t know he was breaking coronavirus rules by attending a gathering at Downing Street during lockdown. 

The PM has faced calls for resignation after admitting to taking part in the ‘bring your own booze’ party during the height of lockdown in 2020, but he continues to stand by his claim that he was unaware of any wrongdoing.

Hear his claims below:

He commented:

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.

Johnson went on to claim that his memory of the gathering, which he ‘implicitly thought was a work event’, involved him ‘going out into the garden for about 25 minutes’ and ‘talking to staff, thanking staff who’d worked on COVID’ before he ‘then went back to [his] office and continued [his] work.’

The prime minister has made the same claims in the inquiry being conducted by top civil servant Sue Gray.

In hindsight, the prime minister admitted he ‘should have looked around’ and told people to go back indoors after realising it was not a work event.

He added: ‘I apologise for that but I hope that people will understand the circumstances we were operating in. I’ve just got to ask people to wait for Sue Gray to report.’