By Ben Kerrigan-
A leaked video obtained by ITV showing senior No 10 staff joking about holding a Christmas party during lockdown period questions how seriously government officials considered the seriousness of the virus.
Revelations that ministers ignored social distancing rules and were mixing freely has led to suggestions that the governments did not believe the virus was that contagious or that social distancing was as necessary as they said it was.
The footage which shows ministers clearly defying coronavirus rules without concern will be the subject of much scruntiny by analysts and commentators over the coming days and weeks.
There are concerns that restrictions imposed by the government will no longer be taken seriously because of the conclusion that the government themselves don’t take their own seriously, and therefore must have a secondary agenda why they were imposing those rules.
One obvious reasons for restrictions has always been to control the spread of the virus, but some analysts assessing the implications of the video now think the main reason for restrictions in the Uk was to toe the line of the U.S, and be seen to be taking the pandemic seriously, even if the government didn’t really see it as seriously as that.
A senior Nhs worker who insisted on anonymity told The Eye Of Media.Com:
”The leaked video is kick in the teeth to all those who lost loved ones to covid-19. But there have always been many people who have questioned the death statistics, but there is no argument that many people died with Covid-19.
This leak will simply lend credibility to the idea that the government did not consider the lives of those who died as a result of the virus as being that important or valuable”.
Another analyst Amber Smart, said: ”the leaked footage featuring govenment ministers partying simply shows that ministers either did not believe the virus spreads as quickly as scientists claimed, or they believed that because only mainly those with underlying issues were being hospitalised or dying, th lockdown and social distancing wasn’t really warranted.
They must have simply been playing politics in imposing restrictions.Ministers could not be seen to be doing nothing, but did not really believe our lives should stop in the same way they were announcing”.
Rehearsed News Press Conference
In the footage, which has now been seen across the Uk and abroad, PM’s then-press secretary Allegra Stratton was featured asking colleagues about reports of a party, as they rehearse a news conference in December last year.
In jovial exchanges, she says: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.”
Boris Johnson is expected to face tough questions about the party and the video -from Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions later. Jognson himslef wasn’t present at the party, but would have been aware of it taking place.
Downing Street has previously said Covid restrictions were followed at all times, denying the existence of the party or covid breaches.
Sajid Javid, the health secretary has pulled out of Wednesday morning’s broadcast interviews, following the revelations, as the government faced a furious Tory and public backlash against their behaviour.
No ministers were available to be interviewed on the BBC, Sky, ITV and other new outlets, despite Javid having been due to appear for the one-year anniversary of the vaccination campaign.
Conservative MPs have expressed deep anger about the situation that No 10 had got into by holding a party, denying one had taken place, and then maintaining that denial despite the video obtained by ITV.
Sir Roger Gale, a longstanding backbench Tory MP, told the BBC that Johnson must explain what happened properly at prime minister’s questions later on Wednesday and warned him that “to mislead the House of Commons deliberately would be a resignation matter”.
Senior Tory Sir Roger Gale said “the buck stops at the top”, and called for Mr Johnson to give definitive answers over what happened when he appears in the Commons at 12:00 GMT.
And former chair of the Conservatives, Baroness Warsi, said every employee at the party should resign, “no ifs, no buts”.
But that won’t happen otherwise it would have happened already when the news of the party first broke out.
The government will also be wary of setting a precedent for all employees to be sacked every time they are caught breaching covid rules, even though that’s the right thing to do.