A birthday event was thrown for Boris Johnson in No 10 during the first coronavirus lockdown, Downing Street has admitted, further straining the prime minister’s bid to cling to power ahead of the publication of an inquiry into claims of rule-breaking parties.
Up to 30 people attended the gathering in the Cabinet Room just after 2pm on 19 June 2020, where the prime minister’s wife Carrie Johnson presented him with a cake, ITV News reported, also alleging that family friends were hosted later that evening in the PM’s official residence.
No 10 conceded that staff had “gathered briefly in the Cabinet Room after a meeting to wish the prime minister a happy birthday”, with Mr Johnson in attendance “for less than ten minutes”. But it said claims of an indoor gathering later that evening were “totally untrue”, insisting the PM had “hosted a small number of family members outside”.
The fresh allegations come as Mr Johnson’s party faces a new Islamophobia row, after Tory MP Nusrat Ghani accused an unnamed government figure of telling her in 2020 that she was losing her ministerial position due to her “Muslimness”.
