Prime Minister Boris Johnson should “come clean” about a lockdown party, East Antrim MP Sammy Wilson has said.
About 100 people were invited to a “bring-your-own-booze” event in Downing Street’s garden in the first lockdown in May 2020, the BBC understands.
Mr Johnson has so far declined to say whether he attended, but witnesses have told the BBC both he and his wife, Carrie Johnson, attended the event.
Mr Wilson said the prime minister needs to “get this story killed”.
Boris Johnson is due to appear in front of MPs at Prime Minister’s Questions later on Wednesday.
On Monday, ITV published a leaked email from Mr Johnson’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, inviting staff to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on 20 May 2020 – when lockdown rules in England banned large outdoor gatherings.
The invitation encouraged people to “bring your own booze” and “make the most of the lovely weather”.
Mr Johnson has said it is a matter for Sue Gray – the senior civil servant investigating a series of reported parties in Downing Street and in Whitehall in 2020 – to determine what happened.
Ms Gray is a former permanent secretary at Stormont’s Department of Finance.
The prime minister’s official spokesman has also refused to confirm whether Mr Johnson attended the May 2020 Downing Street gathering.
IMAGE SOURCE,EPASpeaking to BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster Programme on Wednesday, Mr Wilson said if the prime minister does not answer questions over his attendance it will be “disastrous for himself and for public confidence”.
“As one senior MP said to me yesterday, look the prime minister, as it’s not the first allegations of parties, he must know the full extent of what happened in Downing Street over the lockdown period,” he said.
“Rather than to allow this drip-feed of information to come out that something happened on the 20th May and another one happened some other time – he should come clean.
“He must make it quite clear these things happen, they shouldn’t have happened, what was his involvement in it was and to get this story killed so you don’t have every week some new revelation.
“People will then make a judgement on the basis of that situation and his honesty about this what his future should be.”
On Tuesday, Mr Wilson’s party colleague Jim Shannon broke down in tears in Parliament while questioning the government about fresh revelations that it broke lockdown rules.
Mr Shannon, MP for Strangford, cried as he said his mother-in-law had died alone with Covid during the pandemic.
Mr Wilson believes if Mr Johnson does not answer whether or not he attended the gathering at Prime Minister’s Questions then “he will be in even greater trouble”.
“It will be for his own party and for himself whether his credibility is so shot that he cannot carry the job which he is meant to do,” Mr Wilson said.
The DUP MP said that the issue of alleged Downing Street parties “is distracting from all the good work the government is doing and are not getting credit for”.
IMAGE SOURCE,PA MEDIAThe leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), Doug Beattie, has called on Mr Johnson to resign.
“Whether the prime minister comes clean or doesn’t, his credibility is destroyed,” Doug Beattie told the BBC’s Nolan Show.
“If it’s proven that he attended in that investigation or he comes clean to say he did [attend] then there is no way out and he has to resign.
“We have to think of the thousands of families who listened to him, listened to his administration, people who adhered to the rules and all the time he was ignoring that himself.
“There is no way back from this, he needs to step down and he has to do this quickly to keep continuity in government and start dealing with the issues we still face today.”
In December, the prime minister asked for an independent inquiry to investigate a series of allegations about events taking place in government buildings in 2020 despite Covid-19 restrictions being in force.
Ms Gray’s probe is investigating specific events including a leaving drinks for a No 10 aide on 27 November, a Department of Education gathering on 10 December and a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff on 15 December.
It is also examining the Downing Street Christmas party on 18 December, and on Tuesday, Ellis said drinks events held in the Downing Street garden on 20 and 15 May 2020 would also be added to the inquiry.
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