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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at a health center in Somerset
Photo: Andrew Matthews/AP
In the scandal surrounding lockdown parties at 10 Downing Street, a statement by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson could once again prove untenable - because of an e-mail, according to the British broadcaster ITV.
According to this, Johnson's private secretary Martin Reynolds was asked by a senior government official by email to prevent a controversial garden party at the Downing Street official residence on May 20, 2020.
The email is said to be available to investigator Sue Gray, who is leading the internal investigation into the "Partygate" affair.
According to ITV, the mail warned Reynolds that the party was better off not happening.
Johnson's former adviser, Dominic Cummings, recently said he and at least one other adviser emailed Reynolds in an attempt to shut down the party.
They warned that the meeting would break corona rules - exactly those rules that the Johnson government had set.
The PM, however, agreed, according to ITV.
If the report is correct, Johnson would have a problem.
He had recently repeatedly apologized for various parties during the Corona lockdown.
However, he insisted that he had not lied.
He is currently claiming that nobody had informed him that the party had violated corona requirements.
Many loyal Tory MPs don't even believe Johnson - and the email should rather strengthen this assessment.
»There are no exceptions to this rule«
Health Secretary Sajid Javid acknowledged that Johnson would have to resign if Senior Official Sue Gray's report found the PM wrong. The rules are clear. "Of course, if a member of the cabinet, starting with the prime minister, breaks the law, he should no longer serve in the cabinet," Javid said. "There are no exceptions to this rule."
Johnson himself has so far avoided questions about the consequences of the report. On Wednesday he had shown himself combative at a question time in parliament and announced extensive relaxation of the corona virus. An attempt by a group of Tory MPs to initiate a vote of no confidence against him, dubbed the “pork pie plot”, initially failed. So far, the hurdle of 54 supporters has not yet been reached. So many Conservative MPs would have to distance themselves by letter from Johnson to bring about a vote of confidence.
Nevertheless, more and more Tories are opposing their party leader.
A Tory MP accused Johnson's government of blackmail tactics.
Conservative members of parliament suspected of disobeying the prime minister have been threatened by government officials with publishing compromising material in the press.
Speaker of Parliament Lindsay Hoyle expressed concern.
According to Hoyle, anyone who tries to use threats to prevent MPs from doing their jobs is guilty of contempt for Parliament.
Johnson promised to look into the allegations but said he has not seen any evidence.
mrc/dpa/Reuters