Johnson apologises to Queen over parties

LONDON • British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's office apologised to Queen Elizabeth yesterday after it emerged that staff had partied late into the night in Downing Street on the eve of Prince Philip's funeral, at a time when mixing indoors was banned.

Mr Johnson, 57, is facing the gravest crisis of his premiership after almost daily revelations about a series of social gatherings during Covid-19 lockdowns, some held when ordinary people could not bid farewell in person to dying relatives.

After building a political career out of flouting accepted norms, he is now under growing pressure from some of his own lawmakers to quit.

Opponents say he is unfit to rule and has misled Parliament by denying that Covid-19 guidance was breached.

Mr Johnson has so far tried to weather the storm of public and political outrage, apologising in Parliament this week for attending one of the events in May 2020.

But the report by the Daily Telegraph that drinks parties were held in Downing Street on April 16 last year - the day before Prince Philip's funeral - takes the scandal to another level.

"It is deeply regrettable this took place at a time of national mourning and No. 10 (Downing Street) has apologised to the Palace," a spokesman for Mr Johnson told reporters.

Mr Johnson was at his Chequers country residence that day and was not invited to any gathering, the spokesman said.

Such was the revelry in Downing Street, the Telegraph said, that staff went to a nearby supermarket to buy a suitcase of alcohol, spilled wine on carpets and a swing used by the Prime Minister's young son was broken.

The next day, Queen Elizabeth bade farewell to Prince Philip, her husband of 73 years, following his death at the age of 99. Dressed in black and in a white-trimmed black face mask, the 95-year-old Queen Elizabeth cut a poignant figure as she sat alone, in strict compliance with coronavirus rules, during the funeral service for Prince Philip at Windsor Castle.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, seen as a possible successor to Mr Johnson, said "real mistakes" were made.

"We need to look at the overall position we're in as a country, the fact that he (Johnson) has delivered Brexit, that we are recovering from Covid... He has apologised," she said, adding: "I think we now need to move on."

To trigger a leadership challenge, 54 of the 360 Conservative Members of Parliament must write letters of no confidence to the chairman of the party's "1922 Committee". The Telegraph said that as many as 30 such letters had been submitted.

Mr Johnson faces a tough year ahead - beyond Covid-19, inflation is soaring and his party faces local elections in May.

British police said on Thursday that they would not investigate gatherings held in Mr Johnson's residence during a coronavirus lockdown unless an internal government inquiry finds evidence of potential criminal offences.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE