UK Newspaper Publish Photo Of PM Boris Johnson Allegedly Holding Park Meeting During COVID-19 Lockdown

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. (Wikimedia Commons/Administration of the President of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - Britain's Guardian newspaper on Sunday published a photo of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and more than a dozen others drinking wine in the garden of his No.10 Downing Street residence that it said was taken during the COVID-19 lockdown in May 2020.

In response, PM Boris Johnson's office said there was a staff meeting in the park that day.

PM Johnson has been hit by a string of media reports in recent weeks over alleged Christmas parties at government offices, including his own, last year in violation of the COVID-19 lockdown and has ordered an investigation.

The report has disappointed voters who were ordered by the government to forego their own Christmas event last year, and who face the possibility of being told to curb their Christmas plans for a second year running as the Omicron variant spreads rapidly.

The images published by the Guardian are reportedly from May 2020, shortly after Johnson was discharged from the hospital where he spent several nights in intensive care with COVID-19.

It shows Johnson with his wife Carrie, who appears to be holding their newborn son, and two others at a table on the patio in a Downing Street garden with cheese and wine.

Nearby was another table of four, and not far away was a larger group standing on the grass around the table with bottles of wine.

When asked about the image, a Downing Street spokesman said: "Job meetings are often held in Downing Street park in the summer months. On this occasion there is a staff meeting following the No. 10 press conference," citing Reuters Dec. 20.

"Downing Street is the Prime Minister's home as well as his workplace. The Prime Minister's wife lives at No. 10 and therefore also uses the park legally."

The newspaper said the photo was shared with him after Mr Johnson's office last week denied there had been a social event, saying Downing Street staff worked in the garden in the afternoons and evenings.

At the same time, then Health Secretary Matt Hancock had given a press conference urging people to abide by the rules and not to take advantage of the good weather over the weekend to socialize in groups, he reported.