Scots woman ‘gobsmacked’ by Downing Street lockdown party on day of mother’s funeral

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A Scots woman whose mother’s funeral took place on the day of a lockdown cheese and wine party in Downing Street has said the disregard shown by those breaking the rules was “gobsmacking”.Sharon Mair told the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry she felt “hurt and anger” that then prime minister Boris Johnson and staff were partying in London on May 15, 2020, while she could not even hug friends or family at the service to say farewell to her mother.Mr Johnson was photographed sitting with his wife Carrie and staff at a table with wine and cheese in the No 10 garden that day.Mrs Mair’s mother died in a care home on April 26, 2020 aged 83, and her funeral took place on May 15.Only a small number of people could attend and the service was live-streamed on Zoom, with Mrs Mair’s youngest son among those watching as he was not able to attend.Mrs Mair, whose husband and eldest son attended the funeral, told the inquiry: “As you can imagine, May 15 for us as a family, that was a really, really difficult and emotional day.“We could not even have a cup of tea with people who had come and stood with us at the funeral, we couldn’t even hug them.“Subsequently we found out that on May 15 in Downing Street, they had a cheese and wine pizza party, so while we were saying goodbye to my mum and not even able to bring somebody into our back garden to have a cup of tea with us, those that were making the rules were breaking the rules.“The complete disregard for people that were going through one of the most cruel and emotional days is just gobsmacking.“If you look at those two scenarios carefully, one you’ve got a family grieving following the rules, and at that point you weren’t allowed to meet a load of people, you weren’t allowed to have, I think