British PM faces fresh accusations of lying over 'partygate'

LONDON • British Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday faced renewed accusations of lying, after photos emerged of him raising a glass at a Downing Street party during lockdown in 2020.

The revelations came as a senior civil servant was expected to publish her long-awaited full report into the "partygate" scandal, despite claims that Mr Johnson was trying to have it dropped.

A slew of revelations earlier this year about lockdown-breaking parties caused widespread political and public anger, and put Mr Johnson's position in jeopardy. But the heat was taken out of a potential mutiny from his own MPs by the war in Ukraine, and his support for President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The photos published late on Monday by ITV News were taken during a leaving party for Mr Johnson's communications chief Lee Cain on Nov 13, 2020, just days after the government ordered a second lockdown and banned mixing by households.

The photos show Mr Johnson raising a glass and chatting with several people around a table strewn with bottles of wine and food. Police have investigated the event as part of their probe into "partygate" and fined one person, but not Mr Johnson. When he was asked in Parliament last December about the gathering, he insisted there was no party on that date and that no rules were broken.

Mr Johnson has been fined over a surprise birthday party he attended at Downing Street in June 2020, but was not fined for any other event.

The deputy leader of the main opposition Labour Party, Ms Angela Rayner, said it was "astonishing" that Mr Johnson was not fined for the November gathering."He knew he broke the rules, and he's known it all along and yet he's tried to get away with it," she added.

But Transport Secretary Grant Shapps sought to defend Mr Johnson, saying yesterday that the new pictures showed he was "clearly not" partying.

"It looks to me he was asked to go and thank a member of staff who was leaving, raises a glass to them and I imagine comes in and out pretty quick, which is presumably why the police have not issued a fixed-penalty notice to the Prime Minister," Mr Shapps told the BBC.

The Times newspaper reported yesterday that Mr Johnson had put pressure on civil servant Sue Gray to drop her report. Sky News quoted sources as saying Mr Johnson had questioned what more would be left to say after the police concluded their work.

Ms Rayner joined a chorus of opposition voices calling for the Gray report to be published "as soon as possible".

Mr Johnson is due to address the influential 1922 Committee of Conservative Members of Parliament today, according to a person familiar with the matter, a sign that his office expects the report to be published on the same day.

London's Metropolitan Police last Thursday said they had completed their "partygate" probe, issuing 126 fines related to multiple gatherings in and around Downing Street. Those fined include Mr Johnson and his wife Carrie, and finance minister Rishi Sunak.

Mr Johnson's fine - the first for a sitting British prime minister - prompted calls for him to resign or be forced out. He has apologised for the breach of Covid-19 regulations but has refused to quit.

He is also facing a probe by a parliamentary committee into his past denials of lockdown lawbreaking to the House of Commons.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BLOOMBERG