BRITAIN’S main opposition leader accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of breaking the law today, but the government vowed changes after a bruising series of revelations about lockdown-breaching parties.

In the latest, Johnson’s wife was photographed on the front page of the Sunday Telegraph newspaper embracing a friend at a party in September 2020, in an apparent violation of the then rules on social distancing.

At least six Conservative party lawmakers have publicly called for him to quit, while others said they are awaiting the findings of an internal inquiry by senior civil servant Sue Gray.

Labour leader Keir Starmer, who is enjoying an opinion poll surge on the back of the Downing Street “partygate” allegations, said the facts are clear.

“I think he broke the law. I think he is as good as admitted that he broke the law,” he told BBC television.

He said Gray has the remit to only establish the facts, and called for police to look into a possible criminal inquiry once her report is out.

“The prime minister has degraded the office of prime minister and has lost full authority not only in his own party, but the country.”

Conservatives’ co-chairman Oliver Dowden, who is a government minister, conceded that the parties are “completely unacceptable”.

But Dowden backed Johnson to stay in office, while stressing he will take “full responsibility” once Gray releases her findings.

“I can tell you that when he responds to the House of Commons, as he has committed to do so, he will make sure that we address the kind of culture that has allowed that to happen in the first place,” he told Sky News.

Conservative MPs, many of whom were spending the weekend back in their home constituencies, said they are being barraged with messages from voters outraged at the accounts of rule-breaking in Downing Street.

After weeks of denials and stonewalling, Johnson this week apologised in Parliament for at least one event organised by his staff that he attended in May 2020, when Britons were banned from socialising.

As Queen Elizabeth II prepared to bury Prince Philip, her husband of 73 years, in April last year, two other parties were held. Downing Street sent apologies to Buckingham Palace for the “deeply regrettable” parties.

But those were not isolated events, according to the Daily Mirror yesterday, which published a photograph of a fridge being delivered to a Downing Street back door for “Wine time Fridays” in December 2020. – AFP, January 16, 2022.