Chancellor Rishi Sunak admits attending Downing Street lockdown party

Team Udayavani, Feb 6, 2022, 10:16 AM IST

AFP photo

London: Britain’s Chancellor of Exchequer Rishi Sunak has reportedly admitted to attending Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s lockdown birthday party in 2020 but refused to say what happened when he entered the room and claimed that he was in the Cabinet Room for a Covid meeting.

Johnson’s five aides, including longstanding policy chief Munira Mirza, chief of staff Dan Rosenfield, principal private secretary Martin Reynolds, and communications director Jack Doyle, resigned from their posts within hours of each other on Thursday, after a damning investigation revealed that multiple parties took place at Downing Street while the rest of the United Kingdom was living under strict Covid lockdown rules.

Sunak, who lives next door to the Prime Minister in Downing Street, is also reported to have attended a surprise birthday party for Johnson in No. 10’s Cabinet Room in June 2020.

He acknowledged that the scandal surrounding parties during lockdown at Downing Street had damaged the public’s trust in the government, reports the Mirror.

But, the Indian-origin Chancellor said, he believed his plans to deal with the cost of living crisis would help restore it.

Officers from the Met Police are investigating a total of 12 Downing Street parties.

It is believed that as many as six of those could have been attended by the Prime Minister.