Boris Johnson is facing fresh questions after photos showing the prime minister drinking at an event during a Covid lockdown were published.
The pictures, released by ITV News, are believed to show the prime minister at a leaving party on 13 November 2020.
The BBC has been told that at least one person who attended the event was fined, but the PM was not.
The Metropolitan Police are facing calls to explain why Mr Johnson did not receive a fine.
A government source told BBC News the photos may have been taken by the official No 10 photographer and proved Mr Johnson was there in a work capacity.
The police investigated two events in Downing Street on 13 November. Asked in Parliament by a Labour MP whether a party had taken place on that date, Mr Johnson said “no”, adding that “I’m sure…all the rules were followed”.
Responding to the leaks, Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth said it would be difficult for the PM to reconcile his statement to Parliament that no party had taken place with the pictures and called on Tory MPs to remove him from office.
The peer and former leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth Davidson, said the prime minister had lied to Parliament and his position was now untenable.
Senior Conservative Tom Tugendhat was also critical telling the BBC that: “Seriousness in government matters. It costs us all. And I’m afraid this just doesn’t look serious.”
Former justice secretary Robert Buckland told BBC Radio Wiltshire that: “If there’s a deliberate lie, I can’t see how anybody, including this prime minister, can continue.”
“There are things we say honestly and genuinely at the time that we believe to be true… now that’s one thing. Going and deliberately saying X is Y knowing that is the case is, of course, beyond the pale.”
But Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that while he found the picture “difficult to look at”, he suggested the presence of the PM’s ministerial red box “suggests he was probably on his way through”.
“I think he’s popped down there to raise a glass and say thank you to a long term member of staff who is leaving,” he said, adding that the police would have “thoroughly investigated” the event.
He also said the prime minister was “mortified”.
IMAGE SOURCE,ITV
A No 10 spokeswoman said the prime minister would address Parliament “in full” after senior civil servant Sue Gray published her report into the gatherings “in the coming days”.
There was support for the PM from Conservative backbench MP Sir Desmond Swayne, who said he believed it was a “work do”, adding “that’s what people do at work”.
He told BBC Newsnight: “Now I understand entirely the public anguish at a time when they were locked down and they were not supposed to be together, but there clearly was a distinction between the workplace – where people work together and are effectively in a bubble – and what was taking place outside.”
BBC
