Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologized but defied calls to resign after being fined for breaking COVID lockdown rules by attending a gathering in his office to celebrate his birthday
Johnson said people had the right to expect better after he, his wife, and his finance minister Rishi Sunak were fined for breaching laws his government brought in to curb COVID-19.
"I understand the anger that many will feel that I, myself, fell short, when it came to observing the very rules which the government I lead had introduced to protect the public," he said in a televised interview from his country residence Chequers. Revelations about boozy Downing Street parties provoked resignation calls from lawmakers in his own Conservative Party earlier this year. However, that pressure has abated with the war in Ukraine in which he has sought to play a leading role in the West's response.Some of the gatherings took place when people could not attend funerals or say farewell to loved ones dying in hospital.
The COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK group said it was "still unbelievably painful" that Johnson had broken his own rules when they were unable to be with dying loved ones. The prime minister's immediate future will be determined by Conservative lawmakers, who can trigger a leadership challenge if 54 of the party's 360 parliamentary members demand a confidence vote.
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