Journalist rips into Boris Johnson on Sky News for telling 'conveyor belt of lies'

A journalist has accused Boris Johnson of telling a "conveyor belt of lies" which are "libel against our intellect" over his Partygate defence.

After the prime minister was handed a fixed penalty notice for illegally mixing indoors on his birthday in June 2020 in Downing Street, he claimed he didn't realise he was breaking the Covid rules that were in place at the time.

But speaking to Sky News, i columnist Ian Dunt expressed skepticism - to put it mildly - about Johnson's defence.

"There is no way you can take any of this stuff seriously, we knew exactly what we were going through at the time," he said.

"No-one was under any illusions as to how the rules operated it was the subject of conversation everyday."

Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Johnson was forced to pay £50 for his breach when colleagues including Rishi Sunak and his wife Carrie Johnson sang happy birthday and presented him with a Union flag cake on his birthday two years ago.

The fine came as part of the police's investigation into 12 alleged events in Downing Street when Covid restrictions were in place but Johnson said "in all frankness at that time it did not occur to me that this might have been a breach of the rules".

Dunt continued:

"No-one thought that you could have a birthday party with your partner and your work colleagues and cake whenever you liked, let alone the person who wrote the law, so for him to say it now isn't just morally abysmal but is like a libel against our intellect. He's treating us like absolute fools."

"Its like this endless conveyor belt of lies", he added.

Whether you agree with him or not, it looks like Dunt won't be receiving an invite to any of the prime minister's birthday parties in the future (not that he would want to go anyway).

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.