Dominic Cummings, who is a former aide to Boris Johnson has accused the British Prime Minister of lying to parliament. He on Monday said that Johnson knew a party was being held at his residence during the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown in the country.
Johnson apologised on Wednesday for attending a “bring your own booze” gathering at his official residence during Britain’s first coronavirus lockdown. But added that he had thought it was a work event.
Now, Cummings tweeted that the prime minister had agreed that the drinks party should go ahead. “Not only me but other eyewitnesses who discussed this at the time would swear under oath this is what happened,” he said on his blog.
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Last week ITV News published an email invitation from Johnson’s Principal Private Secretary Martin Reynolds to a May 20, 2020 event, asking attendees to “bring your own booze”.
Commenting on that, Cummings said that after Reynolds was told to cancel the invite by at least two people Reynolds checked with Johnson if it should go ahead. “The PM agreed it should,” Cummings said in his blog.
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In response to the claims, Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister, Dominic Raab, on Tuesday said the accusations that Johnson lied to parliament were not true. “The prime minister and Number 10 have been very clear that that account is not true,” Raab said during an interview.
As per the reports by British media, at least 11 gatherings took place at Downing Street between May 2020 and April 2021.
It was the time when COVID-19 rules limited how many people could meet socially.
