The prime minister is under pressure to resign over multiple parties held at Downing Street and Whitehall while the country was under lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.
Boris Johnson has said “nobody told me” the Number 10 garden party during lockdown was “against the rules”.
The prime minister said he “humbly apologizes” to people for “misjudgments” that were made, but he would not have gone ahead with the event, to which 100 people were invited, on 20 May 2020 if he thought it broke the rules.
He said: “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.”
Mr Johnson’s comments come following claims from his former top adviser Dominic Cummings that the prime minister knew in advance about the Downing Street drinks party – which Number 10 has denied.
Mr Johnson said: “My memory is going out into the garden for about 25 minutes, which I implicitly thought was a work event, and talking to staff, thanking staff.
“I then went back to my office and continued my work.
“I carry full responsibility for what took place, nobody said to me ‘this is an event that’s against the rules, in breach of what we’re asking everybody else to do’.”
He added that is exactly what he has told the inquiry into several Downing Street lockdown events by top civil servant Sue Gray, who is due to report back next week.
Meanwhile in the loo of 10 Downing… A Terror just took place!
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