The Spectator

Portrait of the week: No. 10’s garden party, Djokovic’s visa row and France’s vaccine protests

issue 15 January 2022

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Boris Johnson admitted to attending evening drinks for about 40 staff in the garden of 10 Downing Street on 20 May 2020, when lockdown regulations made social gatherings illegal. ‘We thought it would be nice to make the most of the lovely weather and have some socially distanced drinks in the No. 10 garden this evening,’ said an email from the Prime Minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. ‘Please join us from 6 p.m. and bring your own booze!’ Mr Johnson said that he had been talking to Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, about how people could be helped with soaring energy bills. Kathryn Stone, the parliamentary standards commissioner, said that she was not going to investigate the financing of works on Boris Johnson’s flat in Downing Street. A 30ft fossilised ichthyosaur was discovered in the mud at Rutland Water.

In the seven days up to the beginning of this week, 1,271 people had died with coronavirus, bringing the total of deaths (within 28 days of testing positive) to 150,057.

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