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UK PM Johnson apologizes to parliament for breaking COVID-19 lockdown laws
Updated 00:31, 20-Apr-2022
CGTN
Europe;UK
Boris Johnson pictured leaving Downing Street to make his statement to parliament, April 19, 2022. /Toby Melville/Reuters

Boris Johnson pictured leaving Downing Street to make his statement to parliament, April 19, 2022. /Toby Melville/Reuters

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has apologized to parliament "in all humility" for his part in the breaches of COVID-19 lockdown laws at Downing Street, breaches for which he, his wife Carrie and his finance minister Rishi Sunak were fined by police. 

"I offered the British people a full apology and I take this opportunity on the first available sitting day to repeat my apology to the House," Johnson said.

At parliament's first session following the Easter break, Johnson said "it did not occur to me then or subsequently" that the gathering for which he was fined could break the law – but opponents have accused him of lying to Parliament when he told them no rules had been broken.

"What a joke," responded opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer. "Even now, as the latest mealy-mouthed apology stumbles out of one side of his mouth, a new set of deflections and distortions pour from the other. But the damage is already done: the public have made up their minds. They don't believe a word the prime minister says."

Starmer went on to call the prime minister "dishonest," which he withdrew at the request of the House of Commons Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, after sustained objections from government benches.

Hoyle said he would allow the Labour party to put forward a motion for debate on Thursday related to whether the prime minister misled parliament. 

Hoyle said it was not for him to determine whether Johnson had committed a contempt of parliament in his statements over lockdown gatherings at his Downing Street residence and office.

"My role is to decide whether there is an arguable case to be examined," Hoyle said. "Therefore, (the leader of the opposition) may table a motion for debate on Thursday."

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