Susanna Reid kicked off Tuesday’s edition of Good Morning Britain by taking down Boris Johnson amid more allegations of gatherings at Downing Street while the UK was still in lockdown.
On Monday evening, it was reported that a “surprise” birthday gathering was held in the Cabinet Room for Johnson when he turned 56 in June 2020, at a time when indoor gatherings between households were still forbidden.
Reacting to the news at the beginning of Tuesday’s live show, Susanna explained: “People are already getting in touch to talk about the events that they had to miss, the moments with family they had to miss, because of the rules that were made at the heart of No 10.”
Susanna then began reading out tweets from viewers, including which one which read “one rule for us, and no rules for the privileged”, before adding: “And that’s the problem, isn’t it?
“People feel like, how did they stick to the rules, but there was a special category who were allowed to break the rules.”
She and co-host Ed Balls then highlighted a resurfaced letter written by Boris Johnson in March 2020 to a seven-year-old girl, who had cancelled her birthday party in order to stop the spread of Covid.
“How could he have taken the time to handwrite this letter to this little girl, and tell the rest of us, ‘be more like this little girl, who has made this sacrifice of her own birthday party in order to follow the rules’, [and then attend] his own birthday party?” Susanna questioned. “It is remarkable.”
Later in the show, Susanna added: “They thought that because they were behind the gates of No 10, no one was watching. We are now and it is a big problem.”
A Downing Street representative has said of the fresh allegations: “A group of staff working in No 10 that day gathered briefly in the Cabinet Room after a meeting to wish the Prime Minister a happy birthday. He was there for less than 10 minutes.”
ITV News has also claimed that family friends were later hosted upstairs in the prime minister’s flat, though this has been denied by the PM’s spokesperson.
They insisted: “In line with the rules at the time, the prime minister hosted a small number of family members outside that evening.”
Tuesday morning also saw the announcement that the Metropolitan Police will be investigating a “number” of parties alleged to have taken place in Downing Street during the pandemic.
Metropolitan police commissioner Cressida Dick announced the move during a session with the London Assembly, saying that while the police did not “normally” investigate retrospective breaches of the rules, the force had decided that some events in No.10 met the criteria for an after-the-event probe.
Good Morning Britain airs every weekday from 6am on ITV.
