It will be a make-or-break week for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a report on Downing Street parties during lockdown is set to be released.
The British PM has been facing the heat over the past one week after it was revealed that his Downing Street hosted multiple parties during the Covid lockdown period.
Many opposition MPs, including some from Johnson’s own Conservative Party, have been asking Johnson to resign after his “half-hearted” apology failed to soothe the tempers of lawmakers and the public.
Last week, one Conservative MP defected to the opposition Labour Party and many newspapers have reported rumours of more lawmakers demanding Johnson’s exit.
All of them are said to be waiting for the senior civil servant, Sue Grayl, to release the report, which would have findings on lockdown-breaking parties at Downing Street and elsewhere in government.
However, UK’s Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said that it was unlikely that the report would be fully disclosed and added that the amount of detail released publicly will be a matter for Boris Johnson.
Asked whether the public would be able to see Gray’s report in full, Raab told BBC One’s Sunday Morning programme, “Quite the way, the process for it, will be for the prime minister to decide. But … there will be full transparency. He has said he will come back to the Commons and make a statement, so there will be full scrutiny.”
Asked whether this meant it would be fully published, Raab said: “I’m not quite sure the shape and the form it will come, but the prime minister has been clear there will be full transparency around this, so that people can see. We would welcome that transparency and we need to learn the lessons.”
When he was asked whether Johnson would resign if the report found the PM to be lying, he said, “The code of conduct for ministers is very clear, that if you mislead parliament it’s a resigning matter.”
Johnson had defended his attendance at the party saying that it was a “work-related event” and that he wasn’t aware of Downing Street holding any parties.
(With inputs from agencies)
