Hello..Had A Hard Week? Letting Off Some Steam? Great

How Boris Johnson let his staff break lockdown rules

- Pippa Crerar

PRIME Minister Boris Johnson encouraged his staff to socialize and let off steam at Downing Street drinks bashes during lockdown, it has been claimed.

The Prime Minister is braced for more fines for attending lockdown parties, including the leaving bash for his former director of communications Lee Cain in November 2020.

That event began with the press office having drinks to round off the week, but turned into a party once Mr. Johnson arrived and started pouring drinks for everyone.

Sources confirmed to the Daily Mirror that the official taxpayer-funded photographer was present throughout - taking pictures of the PM breaking his own lockdown rules.

The photos were later handed to police.

Downing Street insiders have also told the Mirror how the PM would often see staff sitting there drinking” as he went to his flat.

Even though indoor socializing was forbidden under lockdown rules at the time, the Prime Minister did nothing to break up the gatherings.

The source said: He would come in and say, 'Hello everyone, had a hard week? Letting off some steam? Oh great'. The idea that he didn't know there were drinks is total nonsense. If the PM tells you to 'let off steam', he's basically saying this is fine.

One of Britain's most respected constitutional historians yesterday branded Mr. Johnson a “rogue Prime Minister unworthy of the Queen”.

Peter Hennessy, who sits in the House of Lords, said the Prime Minister was “sweeping aside all the conventions” in an “assault on the institutions of the state.

The usually mild-mannered cross-bench peer accused Mr. Johnson of “sullying his office like no other, turning it into an adventure playground for one man's narcissistic vanity”.