Downing Street has been forced to deny reports the prime minister broke lockdown rules last Christmas, after it was claimed his wife’s friend spent the day with them while Covid-19 restrictions had been tightened to outlaw most household mixing.
Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said: “The prime minister and Mrs Johnson have followed the coronavirus rules at all times.”
But many are furious about reports which say Mr Johnson and his wife Carrie spent Christmas day with her friend Nimco Ali in 10 Downing Street.
Ms Ali has insisted “I did not break any rules” after Harper’s Magazine claimed she “spent Christmas with the couple at No 10 despite pandemic restrictions on holiday gatherings”.
While Mr Johnson’s spokesperson insisted the couple followed lockdown rules, he did not deny that Ms Ali did indeed spend the day with them.
Household mixing was banned for many over Christmas last year under the previous tier system which said anyone living in an alert level four area, which London was included under, could only see one person from outside their social bubble, and the meeting was only allowed to take place between individuals in an outdoor public setting.
The PM brought in the emergency measure in a bid to stop coronavirus cases from spiralling, but there was an exception to provide childcare for those with young children, like Mr and Mrs Johnson’s son Wilfred.
It is understood Ms Ali was able to spend the day with them as Mr and Mr Johnson took advantage of the exception which allowed one person to mix with a new household under a childcare bubble.
I agree Summer! If people paid more attention to looking after their own families, instead of trying to find what others had done wrong, they would all have more time to deal with more important matters!
A lot of the population are behaving more like kids in the playground, trying to get other kids into trouble!
Omah, we were attacking the post !
When politicians or celebrities do something wrong there is always somebody that wants to get them into trouble.
In this case you were kind enough to post it and let us know it has happened again!
On first reading, that was how I understood the posts … on re-reading after replying, I realised that I’d got the wrong end of the stick and amended my response.
It seems that the “incident” was initially disclosed in the magazine Harper’s, in an article written by Lara Prendergast, executive editor of The Spectator, the magazine that Boris Johnson used to edit, which first reported Ali’s presence at Downing Street over Christmas:
One of Carrie Johnson’s best friends, Nimco Ali—a thirty-eight-year-old activist who campaigns against female genital mutilation—is regularly sent out to fight for Carrie in the press. Ali has described Boris as a “true feminist.” She was made an adviser to the Home Office, given an Order of the British Empire award, and supposedly asked to be Wilfred’s godmother. A confidante reports that she also spent Christmas with the prime minister and his wife at the Downing Street residence last year, despite pandemic restrictions on holiday gatherings. (“The prime minister and Mrs. Johnson follow coronavirus rules at all times,” a spokesperson told me, without denying the claim; Ali did not respond to repeated requests for comment.)
Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie needed a friend to form a “childcare bubble” with them over Christmas because of the challenges of parenting while prime minister, a cabinet minister has insisted.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan said it was “absolutely the right thing” for them to have son Wilfred’s godmother, Nimco Ali, at No 10 while lockdown restrictions in London largely prevented household mixing.
Swathes of people had their festive plans cancelled last year when Mr Johnson placed the capital and much of the south east under Tier 4 restrictions amid soaring coronavirus cases.
But the international trade secretary argued it was right for the Johnsons to have their friend over to help with childcare at the time when Wilfred was eight months.
“It’s hard enough for the rest of us, when you’re having to run a country as well and have the challenges of difficult pregnancies, having a supportive friend to be there in your bubble is absolutely the right thing to do,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Describing her as a “passionate and adoring godmother”, Ms Trevelyan also insisted the Johnsons had followed the restrictions in place at the time.
To be honest, I can’t even remember the exact details of last Christmas lockdown restrictions.
After nearly ten months, it does strike me that whoever wrote and published the original article are raking over some old coals.
I wonder why.
Sorry, my mistake. I got the articles mixed up and was talking at cross purposes there - I read the article in the original Opening Post and the Independent article but only read the extract from the Harper’s magazine and the first few sentences of the original article - the rest was hidden behind a “log in or subscribe” paywall.
