London, Jan 18, (PA Media/dpa/GNA) – British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has denied lying to Parliament about a garden party at his Downing Street office during the first lockdown.
Johnson was refuting a claim made by his former top aide-turned-critic Dominic Cummings.
Cummings said he would swear on an oath that he warned the prime minister it would be a rule-breaking drinks party.
In remarks on Tuesday, Johnson said he had told the government inquiry into the allegations that to the “best of my recollection” ahead of the May 20, 2020 event “nobody told me that what we were doing was against the rules.”
Johnson said that he does “humbly apologise to people for misjudgments that were made” after facing calls to resign over the partygate affair, including from six lawmakers from his own Conservative party.
The drip feed of reports about alcohol-fueled socializing at Downing Street during Britain’s coronavirus lockdown has caused a furore in Britain and poses a major threat to Johnson’s political future.
Asked if he had lied to Parliament over the parties during a visit to a north London hospital, Johnson said: “No. I want to begin by repeating my apologies to everybody for the misjudgments that I’ve made, that we may have made in No 10 and beyond, whether in Downing Street or throughout the pandemic.
“Nobody told me that what we were doing was against the rules, that the event in question was something that was not a work event, and as I said in the House of Commons when I went out into that garden I thought that I was attending a work event.”
Johnson said he “could not imagine why on earth it would have gone ahead, or why it would’ve been allowed to go ahead” if he had been told it was not a “work event.”
“I do humbly apologise to people for misjudgments that were made but that is the very, very best of my recollection about this event, that’s what I’ve said to the inquiry,” he said.
GNA