Pressure builds on UK's embattled PM

The United Kingdom's prime minister came under more pressure to resign on Wednesday over claims he attended parties during novel coronavirus lockdowns, with new allegations emerging and another high-profile lawmaker from his own party urging him to quit.

Boris Johnson might have hoped his official visit to Ukraine and his government's announcement of spending plans for impoverished parts of the UK would have knocked the so-called Partygate scandal off the front pages, but he was wrong.

With an additional allegation emerging in The Daily Telegraph newspaper on Tuesday, of Johnson attending an event at his Downing Street apartment on Nov 13, 2020 — the day he parted company with senior advisor Dominic Cummings — government minister Michael Gove asked critics to wait until after the police finish investigating before forming an opinion.

Gove, the minister of levelling up, housing, and communities, told Sky News the claims will all be looked at.

"All of these allegations are being investigated by the Metropolitan Police," he said. "There's been any number of allegations in the newspapers … I think it's only right that we allow the Met (police) to get on with their work and then appropriate conclusions can be drawn at the end of it."

Conservative Party lawmaker Tobias Ellwood, however, had heard enough by Wednesday morning, and called for Johnson to be ousted from office.

He joined fellow Conservative Party member of Parliament Peter Aldous who said on Tuesday that he would write a letter of no confidence in Johnson's leadership.

If 54 such letters are received from among the party's 359 lawmakers, a leadership election would be triggered. So far, around eight letters are known to have been sent, although others could have been submitted in confidence.

Sky News quoted Ellwood, who chairs the House of Commons' defense committee, as saying the party has been "slipping into a very ugly place" and that it was unacceptable for lawmakers to "continuously have to defend this to the British public".

The Guardian newspaper quoted the former defense minister as saying: "The government's acknowledged the need for fundamental change, culture, make-up, discipline, the tone of Number 10 (Downing Street), but the strategy has been one, it seems, of survival."

He insisted the party must "improve our standards and rise above where we are today".

The Financial Times newspaper said it understands most Conservative MPs have effectively put Johnson on a "three-month probation" that will end when local government elections are held in May. The paper said that if it becomes clear in those polls that voters have turned against Johnson, MPs will trigger a leadership election.

The Metropolitan Police is understood to be probing reports of 12 parties in government buildings during lockdowns, with the prime minister thought to have attended at least four.

Senior civil servant Sue Gray also investigated the allegations and submitted a report to Parliament this week, but it was abridged at the request of the police, so it did not detract from their investigation.

There is no word yet on when the police probe will conclude.