"Sickening" - families who lost loved ones to covid react to Partygate footage

Footage of Conservative Party activists at a social gathering at the height of covid restrictions has been branded as sickening by a Northern Ireland woman whose mother died during the pandemic.

A “Mingle and Jingle” event took place at Conservative Party HQ in December 2020, with a video of the event emerging over the weekend.

Martina Ferguson told UTV “ its really really sickening, its despicable.”

“When I think back to December 2020 I was still visiting my mother at a care home window.”

“Some bereaved families had loved ones in hospital who were dying on their own.”

“They clearly knew they were breaking the rules there is no doubt about that.”

“It is really disrespectful to families, these are people in power who are there to serve the public.”

“What they are doing in that video is totally at odds with what many families across the country were doing.”

Partygate has dogged the Tory party since the revelations broke at the beginning of last year.

Hundreds of fines were issued to those who broke the rules in Downing Street.

The current Prime Minister Rishi Sunack was hit with a fixed penalty notice along with his predecessor Boris Johnson.

A powerful parliamentary committee has found Boris Johnson lied to the House of Commons, with MPs debating the findings this evening.

That debate has turned into a case of who supports the former PM and who doesn’t.

Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Fein Vice President, told a news conference earlier “I am not going to comment on what’s going on at Westminster, that’s for them to resolve.

“But I am very clear around Boris Johnsons role and the fact he has been disastrous from start to finish.”

The SDLP and Alliance party back the report from the privileges committee, however the DUP are expected to abstain from any vote that takes place.

Martina Ferguson says “anybody abstaining, I believe personally, that they are spineless.”

“They are quietly supporting Boris Johnson and I think that is totally wrong.”

“The message they are sending out is that it is ok to do and behave in a manner like that"

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