BORIS Johnson has admitted he attended a garden party during the peak of lockdown. 

The Prime Minister made the admission today following days of pressure for him to ‘come clean’ about the event on May 20, 2020.

Before questions began in the Commons, Mr Johnson told MPs he had been at the garden party and believed it was a work event.

As the admission came, MPs from the opposition benches ‘resign’ and ‘shame’. 
Mr Johnson said he admitted there were things the government had done wrong during the pandemic.

Boris Johnson told the Commons: “I want to apologise. I know that millions of people across this country have made extraordinary sacrifices over the last 18 months.

“I know the anguish they have been through – unable to mourn their relatives, unable to live their lives as they want or to do the things they love.”

 

He added: “With hindsight I should have sent everyone back inside. I should have found some other way to thank them.

“I should have recognised that even if it could be said technically to fall within the guidance, there are millions and millions of people who simply would not see it that way, people who have suffered terribly, people who were forbidden for meeting loved ones at all inside or outside, and to them and to this House I offer my heartfelt apologies.

“All I ask is that Sue Gray be allowed to complete her inquiry into that day and several others so that the full facts can be established.”

Labour leader Keir Starmer asked the Prime Minister if he is now “going to do the decent thing and resign”.

Sir Keir said: “There we have it. After months of deceit and deception, the pathetic spectacle of a man who has run out of road. His defence … that he didn’t realise he was at a party is so ridiculous that it’s actually offensive to the British public.

“He’s finally been forced to admit what everyone knew, that when the whole country was locked down he was hosting boozing parties in Downing Street. Is he now going to do the decent thing and resign?”

Boris Johnson said: “I appreciate the point that he’s making about the event that I attended. I want to repeat that I thought it was a work event and I regret very much that we did not do things differently that evening.

“I take responsibility and I apologise. But as for his political point, I don’t think that he should pre-empt the outcome of the inquiry. He will have a further opportunity, I hope, to question me as soon as possible.”

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford urged Boris Johnson to “do the decent thing” and resign.

He said at Prime Minister’s Questions: “The Prime Minister stands before us accused of betraying the nation’s trust, of treating the public with contempt, of breaking the laws set by his own Government.

“A former member of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces, Paul, wrote to me this morning. His father died without the love and support of his full family around them because they followed the regulations, Prime Minister.

“Paul said ‘as an ex-soldier, I know how to follow the rules but the Prime Minister has never followed any rules. He does what he wants, and he gets away with it every time’. The Prime Minister can’t get away with it again. Will the Prime Minister finally do the decent thing and resign or will his Tory MPs be forced to show him the door?”

Mr Johnson replied: “I want to offer my condolences to his constituent who wrote to him and just to remind him of what I’ve said earlier, and with the greatest respect to him, I think that he should wait until the inquiry has concluded.”

More follows.