Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak. Photo: Andrew Parsons,10 Downing Street/CC

Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak. Photo: Andrew Parsons,10 Downing Street/CC   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

The proverb ‘do as I say, not as I do’ could have been written by Tory PM Boris Johnson during the course of the Covid pandemic.

His latest disgrace concerns the drinks soiree in the garden of 10 Downing Street during the most severe lockdown restrictions on gatherings in May 2020. He was pictured enjoying a glass of wine surrounded by his partner and party apparatchiks. But Johnson steadfastly denies flouting the then social-distancing rules which prohibited mixing with multiple households.

However, it now transpires that a close aide to Johnson, Martin Reynolds, issued an invite to 100 staff to “make the most of the lovely weather” with “some socially distanced drinks”. In the event, some 40 turned out for the picnic and booze-up.

At the time hundreds of people every day were dying from Covid infections. This motley crew of ‘rulers’ has no shame.