22 March 2023 , 22:17
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Boris Johnson’s feeble excuses on Partygate last night sparked fury among those who followed the rules he broke with boozy lockdown bashes in No10.
The shameless former PM claimed he was only at leaving dos because it was his job to boost morale and staff deserved drinks as it was “difficult times”.
But the sickening bid to justify his actions was branded an insult to hero NHS staff who risked their lives saving others in the pandemic with no booze parties to unwind.
Defending one leaving bash at which he was pictured raising a glass to spin chief Lee Cain on November 13, 2020, Mr Johnson told the Privileges Committee: “It’s customary to say farewell to people in this country with a toast.”
But families up and down the land were denied the chance to say goodbye to loved ones dying alone in care homes and hospitals.
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Boris Johnson raises a glass during lockdown in image that stunned Britain (ITV News)Lib Dem MP Layla Moran, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, said: “It is an insult to all those who lost loved ones, spent months in isolation and put themselves at risk on the frontline that he excuses breaking his own rules because of a difficult working day.”
Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice spokeswoman Rivka Gottlieb added: “He claims it was his job to say goodbye to colleagues.
“Did any of this apply when we couldn’t be with our loved ones for weeks as they suffered alone in care homes and hospitals, or hold their hands in their dying moments?
“Bereaved families found it painful to watch him pull his usual tricks of deflection, self-pity and blaming everyone but himself.
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“The fact that it appears he didn’t fully understand the rules he was setting and communicating to the nation is especially galling.”
In a 195-minute Commons grilling, blustering Mr Johnson outlined why he believes he did not lie to Parliament about knowing rules were being broken with lockdown get-togethers.
As protestors gathered outside with plackards branding him a liar, Labour MP Yvonne Fovargue asked: “Did you think exceptions applied in No10 to workplace rules and social distancing guidelines that didn’t apply to the hospitals and the care homes?
“Workplaces also operating under incredibly difficult circumstances?” He replied: “Of course not.”
A stressed Covid ward nurse at the height of the pandemic (Daily Mirror/Andy Stenning)Speaking of Mr Cain and former chief aide Dominic Cummings quitting, Mr Johnson said he attended the farewell party because “they left in very, very difficult circumstances”. He added: “It was to steady the ship, to show business was being carried on.
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“It was important for me to be there, to give reassurance.”
Speaking of the “bring your own booze” garden party on May 20, 2020, Mr Johnson said: “My purpose there was to thank staff and motivate them in what had been a very difficult time, on what was also a very difficult day in which the Cabinet Secretary had just resigned.” The Cabinet Secretary at the time did not announce his resignation for another month.
Senior Tory backbencher Sir Bernard Jenkin told Mr Johnson coronavirus guidance “does not say you can have a thank you party”.
But 58-year-old Mr Johnson, who is fighting to save his political career, insisted: “I believed this event was not only reasonably necessary but it was essential for work purposes.”
Back then, people were banned from visiting friends’ or family gardens. Mr Johnson added: “I know people will look at those events and think they look like the very kind of events that we, or I, were forbidding to everyone else. But I will believe until the day I die it was my job to thank staff for what they had done, especially during Covid, which kept coming back, and where people’s morale did, I’m afraid, begin to sink.”
Boris Johnson giving evidence to parliamentary committee (PRU/AFP via Getty Images)Part of the evidence used by the committee included written testament from Jack Doyle, Mr Johnson’s communications chief after our Partygate exclusive.
He was asked whether Covid rules were followed at all times in No10. Mr Doyle wrote: “This was the line we had issued to the Mirror.”
Mr Johnson, who was fined by police over Partygate, repeatedly denied it should have been “obvious” to him social distancing rules were being broken and gatherings should not be taking place.
He tried to draw a distinction between legally-binding rules and guidance. But he told the Commons in December 2021: “The guidance was followed and the rules were followed at all times.”
Committee chair Harriet Harman told Mr Johnson they were “dismayed about the flimsy nature” of the assurances he was given by advisers that rules had not been broken.