Downing Street party: Boris Johnson taking public for fools, bereaved daughter says

A woman whose father died a few days before the Downing Street drinks party has accused Boris Johnson of "taking the British public for fools".

The prime minister apologised for going to the "bring your own booze" event.

Shaun Brady, 55, from Hindley in Wigan, died four days before the No 10 event in May 2020, having contracted Covid on the way to his job as a key worker.

His daughter Hannah Brady said the prime minister was "a walking public health hazard".

"Key workers like my dad who died during the pandemic because he went to work to serve this country did not break the rules and paid the ultimate price," she said.

"If [Boris Johnson] announces a lockdown because a new variant comes out, no-one will listen to him and why should they?"

Mr Brady died on 16 May 2020.

His daughter said his death certificate was signed on 20 May, the day of the Downing Street party.

At a stormy Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Johnson apologised for attending the party and said he regretted his actions.

He told MPs he believed the event was work-related.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the prime minister must now quit over his "pathetic" excuses and "ridiculous" lies.

He told him about Ms Brady losing her father to Covid "just days before the drinks trolley was being wheeled through Downing Street".

Mr Starmer asked Mr Johnson what he had to say to her, to which the prime minister replied he "sympathises deeply" with those who have suffered and offered Ms Brady his reassurance he had been doing everything he could to protect her and her family.

He said government work had produced "the fastest vaccine rollout in Europe" and "one of the fastest growing economies in the G7".

Ms Brady, from Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, said if Mr Johnson did not step down then Conservative MPs had a "moral duty" to remove him.

She said the prime minister was "now a walking public health hazard who has lost the trust, respect and good faith of the public".

"Not content with kicking bereaved families like mine in the teeth by breaking the rules he set and then lying to us about it, he's now taking the British public for fools by pretending he 'didn't know it was a party'," she added.

"Every time he lies to us, he pours more salt into the wounds of those who have already lost so much to this pandemic, but that doesn't stop him."

Ms Brady was among bereaved relatives who met Mr Johnson in the Rose Garden at Downing Street last year, where she said the prime minister looked her in the eyes "and told me you had done everything you could to save him".

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