Poll: Give us your verdict on the Prime Minister’s ‘partygate’ affair
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Do you believe that Prime Minister Boris Johnson broke the law when he attended a so-called work event held at Downing Street in May 2020?
Scottish Legal News is asking readers for their verdict on Mr Johnson’s behaviour. There are three options in our poll:
- Guilty
- Not guilty
- Not proven
Former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer has tweeted: “No doubt from PM’s statement he broke the law. His ‘technical’ defence is it was work not a party. It wasn’t. Invitations sent out at beginning of day. Refreshments on tables. Bring your own bottle. A serious apology would not involve a jaw droppingly hopeless defence.”
Boris Johnson
On May 10, 2020, Mr Johnson said people should “obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. At the time, legal restrictions in England and Wales stated that people could not leave their homes without a reasonable excuse. Government guidance permitted people to meet one person outside while exercising.
On May 20, about 100 people were invited for “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” in an email sent by Mr Johnson’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Some 30 people attended – Mr Johnson was one of them.
Yesterday, he apologised and claimed he understood the public’s “rage”. He said: “With hindsight I should have sent everyone back inside. I should have found some other way to thank them, and I should have recognised that – even if it could have been said technically to fall within the guidance – there would be millions and millions of people who simply would not see it that way.”
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