Video piles pressure on UK’s Johnson in lockdown-party saga

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — A leaked video that shows staff members in British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office joking about holding a lockdown-breaching Christmas party last year is adding fuel to allegations that government officials flouted coronavirus rules they imposed on everyone else. The prime minister’s office has been trying for days to rebut reports about the office party allegedly held in December 2020. It was at a time when most social gatherings were banned under coronavirus rules. But a video aired late Tuesday by broadcaster ITV showed then-press secretary Allegra Stratton appearing to joke about an illicit party at the prime minister’s Downing Street office. Opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said Johnson should “come clean and apologize.”