British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks at a COVID-19 press conference in the Downing Street media briefing room in London, Britain, Dec. 15, 2021. Britain reported 78,610 new coronavirus cases, the highest daily number since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 11,010,286, according to official figures released Wednesday. (Simon Dawson/No. 10 Downing Street/Handout via Xinhua)

 
Britain' s Boris Johnson was fighting to shore up his premiership on Monday after his office said his birthday in 2020 was marked by a gathering in Downing Street, adding fuel to an investigation into government parties during COVID-19 lockdowns.

Johnson, who in 2019 won the biggest Conservative majority in more than 30 years, is facing a raft of accusations that he and his staff partied three times during the worst pandemic and a complaint of racist discrimination in his party.

The new allegation come just days before an official investigation by Cabinet Office official Sue Gray into the lockdown parties is due to be published later this week.

ITV News said up to 30 people attended the June 2020 birthday event, during the first COVID-19 lockdown, in 10 Downing Street, his central London office and residence. Social gatherings indoors were banned at the time.

The prime minister was believed to have been presented with a cake while his wife led staff in a chorus of happy birthday, it said.

Johnson's office disputed that it was a party, telling ITV: "A group of staff working in No. 10 that day gathered briefly in the Cabinet Room after a meeting to wish the prime minister a happy birthday."

ITV said there was another gathering in Downing Street the evening before his birthday. Johnson's office said that was "totally untrue."

Johnson has given explanations about the previous allegations of parties: First he said no rules had been broken but then he apologized to the British people for the apparent hypocrisy of such gatherings.

Police officers who guard Downing Street have been interviewed by Gray, the Telegraph newspaper reported, citing an unidentified source.

"Johnson has completely lost his authority," Nick Timothy, who served as Downing Street chief of staff to Johnson's Conservative predecessor Theresa May, wrote in the Telegraph.

"The collapse in Johnson's authority is causing widespread political dysfunction and further danger for the Conservative," Timothy said. "Johnson is no longer popular, he is no longer powerful."

Johnson has denied an allegation that he was told a "bring your own booze" lockdown gathering on May 20, 2020.

To trigger a leadership challenge, 54 of the 359 Conservative MPs in parliament must submit letters of no confidence.

Leading rivals within the Conservative Party include Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, 41, and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, 46.

Johnson on Monday ordered an inquiry into allegations by a lawmaker who said she was fired from a ministerial job in the government partly because her Muslim faith was making colleagues uncomfortable.

AFP