Boris Johnson was a ‘key worker' justifiably having drinks with his ‘work bubble’, argues caller
22 March 2023, 15:07 | Updated: 22 March 2023, 18:52
Caller refuses to believe Boris Johnson's gatherings at No.10 should be labelled as 'parties'
Caller who hopes Boris Johnson will be cleared of his party allegations claims “he was at work” and thus his breaking of “proximity boundaries" was justified.
Nick Ferrari At Breakfast had to question a caller on whether they “are confusing business with pleasure” after they defended Johnson’s lockdown partying on the grounds that he was a "key worker" at work.
This comes as Boris Johnson appears today before the Parliamentary Privileges Committee investigating whether he misled parliament over his lockdown partying.
The caller told Nick, “I hope he’s completely cleared” adding “when they did the lockdown there was two categories created… those who went into work and those who were locked down”. The prior he named as “key workers.”
Similarly to Johnson, “I was one of them key workers I went into work with my work bubble” he said, “we had drinks together, worked together, ate together.”
The caller elaborated: “No one said to us if you break the proximity rules when you go to work your going to be done, it was understood you wouldn’t be done because you are a key worker” and had to go into work and do your job.
Objecting to this Nick said: “Rules still apply to you John” repeating “rules still apply to key workers when you’re not in the workplace.”
This prompted the caller to illuminate the grey area in Johnson’s case: “He was at work!”
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The committee scrutinising Johnson today is chaired by the Labour MP Harriet Harman, although it has a Conservative majority. In a statement released earlier this month, they said that breaches of lockdown guidance were "obvious" to him at the time.
However, this claim has been refuted by Johnson who on Tuesday released a 52-page document defending his actions.
Nick asked the caller: “When you consider that the met deme that he has committed a crime what does that inform you of that situation?”
To which he gave the swift response: “It informs you that the Met are a very confused political organisation” who he argued “would have broken the proximity rules left right and centre.”
He concluded I don’t like to see an artificial political attack.
Downing Street staff parties during lockdown came to light at the end of 2021, later becoming known as the Partygate scandal we know today.
On several occasions after news of the parties broke, Johnson told the House of Commons that Covid rules had been followed in Downing Street. A report by senior official Sue Gray later revealed that rule-breaking had taken place at multiple events, and police issued fines to 83 people, including Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak.
