World News: Assailed by scandal, UK’s Johnson fights for his job – Gulf Digital News

World News: Assailed by scandal, UK’s Johnson fights for his job – Gulf Digital News

LONDON - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was fighting to shore up his premiership on Monday as he faced the publication later this week of an investigation into boozy parties at the heart of the British state during Covid-19 lockdowns.

Johnson, who in 2019 won the biggest Conservative majority in more than 30 years, is now assailed by scandal, facing claims that he and his staff partied during the worst pandemic for a century and a new accusation of racist discrimination in his party.

The results of an official investigation by Cabinet Office official Sue Gray into the lockdown parties is due to be published later this week.

Johnson has given a variety of explanations about the parties: first he said no rules had been broken but then he apologised to the British people for the apparent hypocrisy of such gatherings.

Police officers who guard Downing Street have been interviewed by Gray and have given "extremely damning" evidence, The Telegraph newspaper reported, citing an unidentified source.

Johnson has denied a claim that he was told a "bring your own booze" lockdown gathering on May 20, 2020, which he says he thought was a work event, was inappropriate.

His former senior adviser Dominic Cummings - now