Geraint Davies MP this week hit out at the Prime Minister’s No 10 parties during lockdown.

Geraint Davies Labour and Cooperative MP for Swansea West said, “At the time of the no 10 Downing Street party people in Swansea, Wales could face fines of £60 and £1920 for holding similar events. Doesn’t this show the respect the Welsh Labour government holds for the public health of its citizens, in contrast to the contempt the Prime Minister holds. Given he must know whether he was at the party why won’t he simply say that, why should we wait for an inquiry to find out what he already knows, why must we wait for the truth?

“I think people are sickened and horrified by the fact that Boris Johnson and his chums were having a party with something like a hundred people in the gardens of No. 10 when the rest of us were staying safe and keeping our community safe from infection and death and not visiting our loved ones and best friends, but doing the right thing whilst he was breaking the rules.

“In Wales, the Welsh Labour Government righty introduced escalating fines for people that breached the rules and put their own enjoyment ahead of community safety and that was the right thing to do which led to lower death rates in Wales. It’s amazing at that very time and when rules were being introduced in England, in a less stringent type, Boris Johnson should go ahead with a party in his garden. This speaks volumes about his attitude towards public safety and the enormous death rate that we have suffered in Britain compared to the rest of Europe and the world.

“The fact is that something like 140,000 people have now died of coronavirus in Britain and there are 200,000 infections a day. In New Zealand, by way of example, there are only 62 infections a day. There is another way forward and perhaps there is a way between those two ways but clearly, Boris Johnson’s reckless attitude and appalling behaviour has left Britain sicker and at a more ill place with the NHS much weaker.

“We should have had a firebreak now on the back on Omnicom in order to ensure we got much closer to 100% vaccination rates to limit the level of infection but instead, he has pushed on and this Party really, for many people, this will be the final straw in basically seeing Johnson as someone who will do whatever he wants irrespective of the rules, whether or not he introduces them himself. It’s outrageous.”