Boris Johnson finally confesses to attending lockdown party

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The British Prime Minister has officially apologized and confessed his attendance at a lockdown party in Downing Street.

Calls for Boris Johnson to resign have been reported on Wednesday after a leaked email surfaced on Tuesday in which Johnson's principal private secretary Martin Reynolds invited more than 100 colleagues to "socially distanced drinks in the No. 10 garden," during the first lockdown in England.

Johnson said millions of Britons had made "extraordinary sacrifices" during the first Covid lockdown in 2020 and while the celebration seemed to be a business function, he expressed "heartfelt apologies."

Earlier, members of Johnson's own conservative party have called on Johnson to resign if he was found to be in attendance at the party in question.

A senior conservative lawmaker who spoke on condition of anonymity said his "survival is in the balance at the moment," adding that "He has got to make a clean breast. I usually find that if you make your apologies, it defuses the issue. Can't have it hanging on." 

According to ITV News, the Prime Minister and his partner Carrie chatted with roughly 40 staff members from Downing Street in the garden after his Principal Private Secretary Martin Reynolds extended an email invitation using the word "we."

Read more: Boris Johnson's latest scandal? Another lockdown party

Is the party over?

Labour party leader Keir Starmer urged the British PM to “do the decent thing” and resign following his admittance of attending the Downing Street party.

Starmer said “the party’s over”, stressing that the British public could see that Johnson had been “lying through his teeth”.

“His defence that he didn’t realise he was at a party is so ridiculous that it is actually offensive to the British public,” the Labour leader said.

“He has finally been forced to admit what everyone knows – that while the whole country was in lockdown, he was hosting boozy parties in Downing Street. Is he going to do the decent thing and resign?”

Earlier, the Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner expressed that Johnson's "position is untenable" if it is revealed that he had been lying about the party attendance.

"Many people who lost loved ones over that period and were not able to see them are devastated by this news that Number 10 was partying while their loved ones died alone. This is completely unacceptable."

Poll voters think PM Johnson should resign

Johnson has been at the center of a series of scandals recently, and last month a poll was released with a majority of respondents believing he should quit.

Johnson has come under fire in recent weeks for everything, from sponsoring the renovation of his Downing Street home to saying that he helped to guarantee the evacuation of pets from Kabul during the tumultuous western exit last August.

The most damaging reports have been that a party was held at Downing Street during a 2020 Christmas lockdown even when such celebrations were prohibited, with a video showing workers laughing and joking about it.