Tue 25 January 2022:
Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, is facing rising pressure after his office confirmed another Downing Street celebration, this time to celebrate his birthday in 2020.
Johnson’s wife, who brought in a cake, organized the birthday celebration on the afternoon of June 19, according to ITV News.
According to the broadcaster, some 30 individuals attended the event, including Lulu Lytle, an interior designer who was heading a contentious refurbishment of Johnson’s flat and was not a member of staff. The party lasted between 20 and 30 minutes, and included the group singing Happy Birthday to Johnson.
“A group of staff working in No 10 that day gathered briefly in the Cabinet Room after a meeting to wish the Prime Minister a happy birthday. He was there for less than ten minutes,” Downing Street said in a statement in response to the report.
ITV and the Independent also reported that a group of family and friends also celebrated later that evening in Johnson’s flat.
“This is totally untrue,” the prime minister’s office said.
Johnson is already facing a barrage of claims that he hosted ‘boozy’ parties during the lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, in violation of the government’s own pandemic standards. This week, an official investigation of the incidents, which have sparked widespread public outrage in a country with the greatest number of COVID-19 deaths in Europe, will be released.
Does a cake make a party?
Does singing happy birthday qualify as a party?
The point for many people is… it was more of a party than millions had, including many who sadly wouldn’t see another birthday.
— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) January 24, 2022
Johnson’s government has been marred by a series of scandals, notably Lytle’s lavish restoration of his Downing Street townhouse and ongoing charges of ministerial corruption while he was in office.
Johnson is also facing new accusations of Islamophobia within his own party, when Nusrat Ghani, who was fired as a junior transport minister in February 2020, told the Sunday Times that a “whip” – a parliamentary discipline enforcer – told her that her “Muslimness” was a factor in her dismissal.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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