Boris Johnson cancels vaccine centre visit after member of his household tests positive for Covid
Boris Johnson missed what locals in Lancashire had to say about him, reports ITV News Deputy Political Editor Anushka Asthana
Boris Johnson has cancelled a planned visit to a vaccination centre after a member of his household tested positive for Covid-19.
The prime minister will not carry out the visit to Burnley as a safety precaution.
A statement from Number 10 said the prime minister "will follow the guidance for vaccinated close contacts, including daily testing and limiting contact with others".
It comes after Mr Johnson admitted on Wednesday that he attended a "bring your own booze" lockdown-breaking gathering in the Downing Street garden on May 20 but claimed he believed it was a work event.
What does the police make of the latest developments around parties at Downing Street? Anushka Asthana explains
An email, leaked to ITV News, showed 100 staff were invited to attend "socially distanced drinks" in the Number 10 garden to "make the most of the lovely weather".
The prime minister has been urged to resign by senior Conservatives, including leader of the Scottish Tories Douglas Ross, veteran MP Sir Roger Gale, Caroline Noakes and William Wragg, chairman of the Public Affairs and Constitutional Affairs Committee.
But Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis told ITV News he not only believes Mr Johnson should remain in his job, but will win the next general election.
"We've got the right person as prime minister," he said, "not only has he been delivering for country through the pandemic in terms of the vaccine rollout, economic support for people and businesses."
He added: "He's not only the right person to lead our party and our country now, but will win the next general election."
Mr Lewis said people should wait for senior civil servant Sue Gray to complete her investigation into allegations of rule-breaking government parties before reaching a judgement.
“The prime minister has outlined that he doesn’t believe that he has done anything outside the rules. If you look at what the investigation finds, people will be able to take their own view of that at the time."
He continued: “I personally think the prime minister is the right person to be prime minister.
“I think we will be able to go forward and win a general election.
“We have got work to do.
"We have got to deliver on exactly on what the prime minister set up, which is some of the biggest important reforms dealing with issues the country would have liked to have dealt with years ago, like health and social care, issues in Northern Ireland that haven’t been dealt with in decades.
“This is somebody who wants to deal with that and do it in a way that delivers for everybody in the UK, and that is why I think he will win the next election.”
However, Shadow Housing Secretary Lisa Nandy told Times Radio the level of public anger is "immense" and Mr Johnson “should not be confident that he will survive” the controversy over Downing Street parties.
Speaking on ITV's Good Morning Britain, she said: "My inbox is full of stories of people who lost loved ones, who weren’t able to say goodbye, absolutely heart-breaking stories about what was happening to them on the day that this party took place.
“They are appalled, horrified and re-traumatised about the fact that we’ve got a prime minister who is still refusing to come clean about what other parties he attended, what parties the members of his cabinet attended, and how it could have been that we could have had senior ministers and the prime minister telling us about the impact that this (the pandemic) was having on the country, that we all must continue to do what they were telling us to do, and yet they weren’t doing it themselves."
She has also questioned why the Metropolitan Police has not launched a wider investigation into allegations about more lockdown breaches by members of the government.