Boris Johnson’s claim that he thought he was attending a work event when he spent 25 minutes at a drinks party in No.10′s garden has set Twitter ablaze.
The prime minister faced a brutal PMQs on Wednesday shortly after the story about his principle private secretary organising a party on May 20, 2020 – when everyone else was under lockdown rules.
Johnson said he was offering a “heartfelt apology” to the public about attending the party of 30 to 40 people, but claimed he thought it was a work event and therefore not in breach of the then-Covid restrictions.
He accepted that he should have called everyone inside and found another way to thank his staff for their hard work in the early weeks of the pandemic.
The prime minister added that he should have seen millions would be infuriated at the gathering, even though it was technically inside the rules at the time.
Despite his apology, his online critics were not in a hurry to forgive him.
Here are some of the best reactions to Johnson’s statement:
There have been other attempts at defending the prime minister’s actions too.
Tory backbencher Michael Fabricant alleged that party would not have been spreading the virus because “these were people who were already working closely together”, so “going into a secure garden is actually more safe than working in small, cramped offices”.
Both Johnson and his senior cabinets have called for top civil servant Sue Gray to be able to continue with her investigation into the parties to see if any Covid rules were breached.