UK Prime Minister Johnson has been set on fire by Reuters over the Christmas blockade party

LONDON (Reuters) – UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was criticized for posting a video of his staff laughing and joking on Wednesday about how to explain a Downing Street rally during last Christmas’s COVID blockade, which banned such festivities.

Johnson and his ministers have repeatedly denied the rules were broken by the rallies in late 2020, although the Mirror newspaper said Johnson spoke at a party to leave and that his group had a wine-fed gathering of about 40 to 50 people.

But in a video he posted ITV (LON :), Allegra Stratton, then Johnson’s press secretary, was shown at a rehearsal on Downing Street 2020 in a daily talk about the encounter with laughter and jokes.

The conclusion is that the government is trying to deal with the new Omicron coronavirus variant, which is considering whether to impose new restrictions on its citizens.

Opposition politicians have accused the Johnson administration of plotting to assassinate and support the government and act as if it had failed to enforce the rules.

In the video, a Johnson consultant asks Stratton, “I just saw reports on Twitter (NYSE 🙂 that there was a Christmas party on Downing Street on Friday night; do you know those reports?”

Stratton, standing in front of the British flag on an official Downing Street lectern, laughed and said, “I went home.” Then he laughs and smiles.

“Hold. Hold. Um. Er. Arh.” He appears lost and looks up.

Newspapers were universally critical.

“A sick joke,” he read in the Daily Mail, the headline of a banner selling a British newspaper. “The 10th clown in the party,” Metro said. The Guardian said: “PM 10 has been accused of lying after filming jokes about the party.”

Conservative Party MP Roger Gale said that if he had deliberately deceived the House of Commons party he would have resigned.

Opposition Labor leader Keir Starmer said the video was an insult to those who followed the blockade rules when it meant being separated from their families at Christmas.

“They had a right to expect the government to do the same. It’s a shame to lie and laugh about these lies,” Starmer said in a statement. “The prime minister must clean up now and apologize.”

Ian Blackford of the Scottish National Party, the second largest opposition party in parliament, called on Johnson to step down.