Easy News: Sue Gray reports on Downing Street lockdown parties

1. 

   The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has been in trouble recently. People say he has been ignoring the rules he made to stop Covid-19 from spreading in 2020.

2. 

   Covid-19 spreads more easily when people are close together and indoors. People were told only to get together if they needed to, and not just for fun.

3. 

   Government rules to stop Covid-19 spreading as fast have included stopping people from seeing their friends and family indoors, and stopping lots of people from going to wedding and funerals.

4. 

   People have found out that large groups of people went to 16 different events at Downing Street when the rules said this was not allowed. Downing Street is where the Prime Minister lives and works.

5. 

   One of these events was on the 20th of May 2020, where about 100 people were invited to the garden of Downing Street to have fun. Around 30 people went and Boris Johnson was there.

6. 

   People are angry with Boris Johnson for breaking the rules, when everybody else was following them. Lots of people were punished for breaking the rules, or missed out on going to funerals and weddings of people they loved.

7. 

   Boris Johnson says that all of the parties were within the rules. Not everyone agrees with him.

8. 

   Boris Johnson asked Sue Gray to find out if anyone did break the rules. Sue Gray is a Civil Servant who finds out when people in the Government do wrong.

9. 

   Her report came out on Monday 31st January and agreed that the Government had not always followed the rules as well as they should have. She said there were bad decisions made and bad leadership from people in 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office.

10. 

    The Metropolitan Police are also looking at whether any laws were broken at 12 of the events.

11. 

    Boris Johnson is the head of the Conservative Party. Some Conservative MPs are worried that people are so angry with Boris Johnson that they will not vote for them in the next General Election in 2024.

12. 

    Those Conservatives are trying to get Boris Johnson to stop leading them. They have asked him to leave, but he said no.

13. 

    Not every Conservative agrees that Boris Johnson is bad. Some MPs think that people will still vote for them.

14. 

    The Conservatives can vote to make Boris Johnson leave, but nobody knows if they will. This is called a Vote of No confidence.

15. 

    Some Conservatives MPs have left the party, to show how upset they are.

16. 

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