UK prime minister Boris Johnson will face his first PMQs on Wednesday since the publication of a report that found “failures of leadership” over COVID lockdown parties in Downing Street.
_You can watch Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in the video player above, from 13:00 CET. _
The scandal dubbed Partygate caused a significant public uproar, forcing Johnson to apologise to MPs on Tuesday, saying, “I get it, and I will fix it”, and promising to reform his office.
But that might not be enough to rally an acrimonious Conservative party, with more MPs demanding his resignation as the scandal drags on.
Some Tories felt that, despite promising to change, Johnson showed a lack of remorse and a failure to understand the anger felt at the Partygate revelations by millions who put up with loneliness or worse to follow the rules.
Keir Starmer, leader of the main opposition party, and Ian Blackford, the Westminster leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), both renewed their call for Johnson to step down.
In her partial report, senior civil servant Sue Gray found that “failures of leadership and judgment” allowed events to occur that “should not have been allowed to take place”.
She probed a dozen gatherings between 2020 and 2021, including the “Bring Your Own Booze” party held on May 20, 2020, a Christmas quiz, a Christmas party as well as several leaving-dos for advisers and officials.
Gray only released her findings on four of 16 events being probed, while police are investigating the other dozen that took place amid measures leaving millions of UK residents banned from socialising as the country attempted to curb the spread of COVID-19.