Fresh 'partygate' details imperil Johnson comeback
Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson has made no secret of his hopes of a dramatic political comeback – but the enduring "partygate" scandal threatens that, as graphic new revelations emerge. Contradicting his later denials that any lockdown rules were broken, Johnson allegedly joked at a boozy 10 Downing Street event in November 2020 that it was "the most unsocially distanced party in the UK". Staff shredded documents when civil service and police investigations loomed, and some had sex at one riotous party the night before Prince Philip's funeral, according to aides interviewed for an ITV podcast. "As the disgraced former prime minister plots his comeback, he reminds us all yet again why he's totally unfit for office," Angela Rayner, the opposition Labour party's deputy leader, responded. "While people were unable to say goodbye to loved ones or mourn with their families, he was breaking his own rules with reckless abandon and then lying to the British people." The ITV podcast came out this week just as a parliamentary committee is due to open an investigation that could see Johnson suspended or even expelled from the House of Commons. The "privileges" committee is looking into whether he lied to the Commons, starting in December 2021 after one damning video emerged, when he told MPs that "the rules were followed at all times". "We all watched it live and we were just gobsmacked," one Downing Street source who attended parties told ITV. "We were all just shocked that he would even deny it. He was there. We were there. We were all there together." Johnson – along with his eventual successor Rishi Sunak – was fined by London police for another Downing Street event in June 2020 that violated his own government's rules on social distancing. Sunak's spokesman said on Thursday: "At all time staff were given clear guidance to retain any relevant information and cooperate with the investigation." (AFP)