British PM Johnson denies he lied about lockdown party

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson denied on Tuesday an accusation by his former adviser that he had lied to parliament about a lockdown party, saying nobody had warned him the “bring your own booze” gathering might contravene COVID-19 rules.

Johnson faces the gravest crisis of his tenure after revelations about gatherings during COVID-19 lockdowns, some when British people could not even bid farewell in person to dying relatives and the Queen was mourning her husband.

Propelled into the top job to “get Brexit done”, Johnson won his party’s biggest majority in more than 30 years but now faces calls to resign rom opponents and even some of his own lawmakers.

Asked if he had lied to the public and parliament, Johnson told reporters: “No. Nobody told me that what we were doing was, as you say, against the rules, that the event in question, was, something, that we were going to do something that wasn’t a work event … I thought that I was attending a work event.”

Johnson sidestepped several questions about whether or not he would resign if it was proven that he had misled parliament.

via Reuters