Boris Johnson, the previous prime minister of Britain, has once more been referred to the police by a authorities workplace to evaluate claims that he might have additional violated coronavirus laws, the Cupboard Workplace mentioned in a press release on Tuesday.
Mr. Johnson, who’s at present visiting Texas to foyer for Republican help for Ukraine, was fined final yr whereas nonetheless in workplace for breaking Covid guidelines in 2020, certainly one of a collection of scandals throughout his tumultuous time period that ultimately led to his resignation final summer time.
He had confronted a barrage of criticism over gatherings held at his residence and authorities places of work throughout strict coronavirus lockdowns, which his authorities carried out in 2020 and 2021 whereas the nation was struggling by way of the worst of the pandemic.
The scandal quickly got here to be often known as “partygate.” An investigation into quite a lot of the gatherings discovered that members of his workers had held events that violated pandemic restrictions, and the police fined Mr. Johnson this spring for having damaged lockdown guidelines at Downing Road.
At a parliamentary listening to in March over whether or not he lied to lawmakers about lockdown-busting events, Mr. Johnson denied being untruthful however struggled to justify among the deceptive statements he made. Parliament has not but issued a report on the matter.
However The Instances of London has reported that the most recent referral to the police is linked to new allegations about his conduct in Downing Road in addition to a number of visits to the prime minister’s nation residence, Chequers, that got here to gentle throughout preparations for a public inquiry into the pandemic.
Britain’s Cupboard Workplace didn’t make clear the precise circumstances however mentioned in a press release on Tuesday that it had referred the main points of a possible breach “to the related authorities and it’s now a matter for them.”
London’s Metropolitan Police and the Thames Valley Police, which oversee the realm together with the prime minister’s nation home, have each had the case referred to them to research.
The Metropolitan Police mentioned they have been assessing data they’d obtained from the Cupboard Workplace final week that “pertains to potential breaches of the Well being Safety Laws between June 2020 and Might 2021 at Downing Road.”
A spokesman for Mr. Johnson informed the BBC that the previous prime minister denied any wrongdoing. However the newest allegations have already drawn swift condemnation from his political opponents and from the members of the family of those that died of the coronavirus, lots of whom had lengthy been essential of Mr. Johnson’s method to the pandemic.
Covid-19 Bereaved Households for Justice, a bunch that represents those that died from the coronavirus and that goals to carry public officers concerned within the nation’s response to account, mentioned the brand new revelations “make a grim mockery of Boris Johnson’s claims that he didn’t break his personal lockdown guidelines.”
“His legacy is certainly one of mendacity, full contempt for the bizarre folks he was supposed to guard, and above all presiding over the deaths of practically 200k folks,” the group mentioned in a press release posted to Twitter. “If he had any respect he’s quietly step again from public life and replicate on the ache and struggling he has inflicted.”
