Downing Street parties: Rachel Johnson breaks her silence

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Rachel Johnson hit back at her brother Boris Johnson’s detractors, pointing out that the Prime Minister behaved in an exemplary way during lockdown by scrupulously ensuring that even during the few family gatherings no rules were broken.  Ms Johnson is finding himself in the firing line after admitting to attending a garden party at Nr 10 Downing Street in May 2020 while his staff reportedly held a wild alcohol-fuelled party behind his back on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral nine months ago. Ms Johnson spoke at length about what has always set her brother apart, emphasising that he “not once” came up with festive ideas when Britain was placed under stringent lockdown orders in a bid to contain COVID-19, which was running rampant at the time.

Ms Johnson then dismissed the idea that her brother is a rulebreaker, stressing that if he found himself in the garden on that 20^th of May two years ago it was only for professional reasons.

The LBC presenter told listeners: “To my mind, if he did go out into the garden and he’s told us he did for him that would have been work.

“He may have had a drink, I don’t know.

“Is that one of the key questions? But that would have been work!”

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After weeks of unrest during which Mr Johnson attracted the ire of the whole nation, his sister insisted that she “didn’t see much” of him and his family during lockdown as the Prime Minister refused to take advantage of his position.

She said: “It hasn’t been the quietest, calmest of weeks in the Johnson family.

“I know that what I’m gonna say is going to sound a bit strange but I didn’t see much of the Prime Minister and his family during lockdown.

“But the times I did see him he was completely compliant. He dotted every I, he crossed every T [and] if it was rule of six there were six.”

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Tory MPs and many Britons alike are of the opinion that, even though he delivered good work on the Brexit and Covid fronts, the Prime Minister keeps getting in his own way and undoing most of his hard work with deplorable actions.

But Ms Johnson took issue with the criticism levelled at her brother, saying that even during his birthdays on June 19, he refused to invite more than five people which is testament to how seriously he took the pandemic and the rules.

She added: “What I didn’t see was all the things that you’ve been reading about.

“For example, his birthday it was me, my three brothers, Carrie and Wilf, that was six people.

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“And I have to tell you something else about my brother’s character.

“I mean, you’ve been seeing obviously the front pages couldn’t have been worse, suitcases of booze going into Downing Street from the Co-op on the strand.

“I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that he has never once turned to me or any member of my family and said: I tell you what let’s have an office party or I tell you what let’s have a party.

“I mean if anything he’d say let’s play reading when we were growing up or even in our 20s or let’s play who can memorize the most poems from the Oxford Book of Verse.

“And of course it was always him.

“Look, I’m just telling you what I saw and what I saw over lockdown and what I know of my brother’s character.

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