The British Opposition is leading the charge to pile pressure on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday as a picture of a boozy culture at the heart of Downing Street emerges, with new reports of so-called “wine-time Fridays” by the staff during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Opposition Labour Party leader, Keir Starmer, used a major speech to say the so-called “partygate” scandal shows that Boris is guilty of “deceit and deception” and unable to lead the country.
Starmer’s latest salvo comes as Times poll found that seven out of 10 British voters think Boris has not been honest about his account of attending a lockdown breaking party in Downing Street.
The YouGov survey found that 70 per cent of voters, including over half of those who voted for Conservative in the 2019 election, did not believe Boris’s account to the Commons. Eight out of 10 said they did not think the gathering, as described by the Prime Minister in Parliament earlier this week as a work event, was acceptable under lockdown rules.
“We are witnessing the broken spectacle of a Prime Minister mired in deceit and deception, unable to lead,” Starmer said in an address to the Fabian Society conference.
As the Opposition attacked the Prime Minister, Boris is said to have gone into hiding this weekend amid a near-mutiny from many of his own MPs. Sky News said there are reports that he is plotting a fightback to save his premiership, which he is calling “Operation Save Big Dog”.
Meanwhile, the Daily Mirror claims Boris encouraged his aides to “let off steam” despite being banned from socialising in big groups under his own lockdown rules at the peak of the pandemic. It is even claimed that the regular events were so popular that staff invested in a £142 drinks fridge to keep their bottles of white wine, prosecco, and beer cool for so-called “wine-time Fridays”.
It is alleged that Downing Street aides took turns on Fridays to visit a local supermarket with a wheelie suitcase to fill up the 34-bottle fridge. It was this suitcase that was used on the night before Prince Philip’s funeral on April 16 last year.
It was followed by another damaging revelation, with the former head of the government’s Covid Taskforce apologising for having farewell drinks in the UK cabinet office when she left the civil service on December 17, 2020.