The "Partygate" which has shaken the United Kingdom for weeks continues to weaken Boris Johnson.

Latest episode: four influential collaborators of the British Prime Minister have resigned, Downing Street announced in a press release on Thursday evening February 3.

Were accepted the resignations of Martin Reynolds, chief secretary of Boris Johnson who had sent an email to a hundred people to invite them to a drink in May 2020, as well as that of his chief of staff Dan Rosenfield, a year after his arrival.

The prime minister thanked them for their "significant contribution to government", including their work on the pandemic and economic recovery, a spokesperson said in a statement.

"They will remain in place until their successors are appointed," he added. 

This announcement was preceded, Thursday in the day, by those of Munira Mirza, head of policy at Downing Street, and the head of communications, Jack Doyle, who would have participated in one of the parties in question. 

Munira Mirza has slammed Boris Johnson for making a 'misleading' accusation against the Opposition Leader when he was defending himself in Parliament after the publication of a damning internal report into the Downing Street encounters, which blamed him for "mistakes of leadership".

>> To read: Partygate: back on the dates of this scandal which risks bringing down Boris Johnson

A "misplaced" accusation against the leader of the Labor Party

The Prime Minister had accused Labor leader Keir Starmer of allowing pedophile Jimmy Savile, the late former BBC star, to escape justice when he headed the British prosecution.

The use of this accusation, widespread in conspiratorial and far-right circles, caused an outcry.

Keir Starmer himself has accused Boris Johnson of repeating "conspiracy theories of fascists to score political points on the cheap".

"There was no reasonable or fair basis for this assertion," Downing Street policy officer Munira Mirza wrote in her resignation letter published on The Spectator magazine's website.

It was a "partisan and inappropriate reference to an appalling case of child sexual abuse", she said.

Despite her plea to that effect, "you have not apologized for the misleading impression you gave," she continued.

A former member of the defunct Revolutionary Communist Party, Munira Mirza worked with Boris Johnson when he was mayor of London between 2008 and 2016.

Downing Street has confirmed his departure, as has that of communications director Jack Doyle.

According to the tabloid Daily Mail, he told his teams that it had always been his intention to leave two years after arriving at Downing Street in 2020, initially in a junior role, and that his family life had suffered badly. of this scandal in recent weeks.

Downing Street underlined Boris Johnson's "gratitude" to these two former advisers for their "contribution to government".

With AFP

The summary of the

France 24 week invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 app

google-play-badge_EN