Martin Reynolds, Private Secretary to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, invited over a hundred people to a private party at the Prime Minister’s official headquarters, number 10 Downing Street, on May 20, in full confinement by the coronavirus.
According to an email published Monday by the British press, Reynolds invited the recipients to a party in Downing Street Gardens and he arranged to bring his own drink.
“After this incredibly busy period, we thought it would be good to take advantage of the good weather and have a few drinks while maintaining social distance this afternoon in the garden of Number 10. Come from 18.00 and bring your own drink!” email, published by ITV News.
Among the guests, more than a hundred workers from the prime minister’s official residence who received the invitation at a time when it was forbidden to meet with more than one person who does not live together in public spaces.
Between 30 and 40 people attended the party, where there was food and wine on tables. Some workers questioned the convenience of the party at a time when the official discourse warned that meetings could be held but only outside and only with a non-living person.
At the moment neither Johnson nor his press office have commented on these events, but the controversy is added to previous ones, such as the photograph in which Johnson appears with part of his cabinet in the same room without a mask or a party of ” wine and pizza “on May 15, in which the ministers partied until late.
“Boris Johnson has shown that he has no respect for the standards that he imposes on others. He tries to get other public officials to accept his mistakes, but it is he who sets the tone with which Downing Street and the rest of the Government work” , has affirmed the ‘number two’ of the opposition Labor Party, Angela Rayner. Several voices from Johnson’s own Conservative Party have also criticized the prime minister.
