UK’s Boris Johnson faces 2020 lockdown anniversary allegation: report – National

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Britain’s Boris Johnson was battling to cement his post as prime minister on Monday after his office said his birthday in 2020 was marked by a rally in Downing Street, adding fuel to an investigation into government parties during COVID lockdowns -19.

Johnson, who won the biggest Tory majority in more than 30 years in 2019, faces a series of accusations that he and his staff partied during the worst pandemic in a century, as well as a complaint racist discrimination within his party.

The new allegation comes just days before a formal investigation by Cabinet Office official Sue Gray into the lockdown parties is due out later in the week.

ITV News said up to 30 people attended the June 2020 anniversary event, during the first COVID-19 lockdown, at 10 Downing Street, Johnson’s office and residence in central London.

Indoor social gatherings were banned at the time.

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Read more: Boris Johnson battles to build support against leadership challenge at lockdown parties

The Prime Minister was reportedly given a cake as his wife led staff in a happy birthday chorus, according to the ITV News report.

Johnson’s office disputed it was a party, telling ITV: ‘A group of staff working at No 10 that day met briefly in the Cabinet Room after a meeting to wish the prime minister a happy birthday.”

“He was there less than 10 minutes,” he said.

ITV said there was another rally in Downing Street the day before his birthday.

Johnson’s office said that was “totally untrue.”

2:11Briton Boris Johnson apologizes for attending lockdown party, faces calls to quit Briton Boris Johnson apologizes for attending lockdown party, faces calls to quit – January 12, 2022

Johnson gave various explanations for the parties’ previous allegations: First, he said no rules had been broken, but then he apologized to the British people for the apparent hypocrisy of such gatherings.

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Police officers guarding Downing Street were questioned by Gray and gave “extremely damning” evidence, the Telegraph newspaper reported, citing an unidentified source.

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Read more: UK lawmaker says government is using ‘blackmail’ to keep Johnson in power

“Johnson has completely lost his authority,” Nick Timothy, who served as Downing Street chief of staff for Johnson’s Tory predecessor, Theresa May, wrote in the Telegraph.

“The collapse of Johnson’s authority is causing widespread political dysfunction and further danger to conservatives,” he said. “Johnson is no longer popular, he is no longer powerful.”

Johnson has denied an allegation that he was told a “bring your own booze” lockdown rally on May 20, 2020, which he believed was a business event, was inappropriate.

His former senior adviser Dominic Cummings – now a harsh critic – said on Monday he was responding in writing to Gray’s questions.

Boris Johnson’s government is also the subject of a complaint

Toppling Johnson would leave Britain in limbo for months as the West deals with the Ukraine crisis and the world’s fifth-largest economy grapples with a once-in-a-generation inflationary wave.

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To trigger a leadership challenge, 54 of the 359 Tory MPs in Parliament must submit letters of censure.

The main rivals within the Conservative Party are Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, 41, and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, 46.

Johnson on Monday ordered an investigation into allegations of a lawmaker who said she was fired from a government cabinet post in part because her Muslim faith made her colleagues uncomfortable.

Nusrat Ghani, 49, who lost his job as junior transport minister in February 2020, told The Sunday Times that a ‘whip’ – a parliamentary discipline official – told him his ‘Muslimness’ had been raised like a problem. in his dismissal.

Read more: UK lawmaker says she was sacked as minister because of her ‘Muslimness’

Chief Government Whip Mark Spencer said he was the person at the center of Ghani’s allegations.

He said they were completely false and defamatory.

“I never used those words attributed to me,” he said.

Johnson met with Ghani to discuss the “extremely serious” allegations in July 2020, a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office said on Sunday.

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Downing Street said when the allegations were first made, Johnson recommended that she make a formal complaint to Conservative campaign headquarters.

“She did not accept that offer,” Downing Street said.

Ghani’s allegation came after a fellow Tory said he would meet with police to discuss accusations that government whips tried to ‘blackmail’ lawmakers suspected of trying to force Johnson to leave office.

1:44UK Prime Minister grilled as more evidence emerges from staff parties during lockdown UK Prime Minister grilled as more evidence emerges from staff parties during lockdown – 11th January 2022

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