LONDON – The Downing Street party scandal re-emerges and the circle tightens around the British Prime Minister. Both Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie have been fined by the police for breaking the lockdown rules in place during the pandemic. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, was also fined for attending an illegal party.
The opposition parties and the associations of the families of the victims of Covid have asked for the resignation of the premier, declaring it unacceptable that the premier has violated the laws he himself imposed on the population. According to the leaders of Wales and Scotland, both Johnson and Sunak should leave office because it has never happened in history that a premier and a chancellor have violated the law.
Equally serious is the suspicion that the premier lied to Parliament when on 8 December, after the first revelations had emerged, he assured deputies that he had not attended any party and that no rules on Covid had ever been broken in Downing. Street.
It later emerged from an investigation conducted by official Sue Gray in December and January that the premier had attended at least three rallies, but according to Johnson only because he was convinced they were business meetings as Downing Street is both his office and residence. private. If it were proved that Johnson lied to Parliament, the rules require the premier to resign immediately.
Several of his supporters have declared that in a time of serious international crisis it is irresponsible to ask for the replacement of the premier, who has an excellent relationship with the Ukrainian president and has shown determination and commitment in supporting Ukraine’s resistance against the Russian invasion. His resignation would be “a gift for Putin”, according to a conservative deputy.