borisjohnson s future as prime minister remains in the balance, despite his apology for attending a drinks party during the first coronavirus lockdown in 2020. some senior conservatives are calling for him to resign. but members of the cabinet have rallied to his defence, after he said yesterday, he understood the public s rage at his actions. he pulled out of a planned visit to a vaccination clinic today, following a family member, testing positive for coronavirus. with all the latest, here s our political correspondent, helen catt. westminster is waiting. as the fallout from the prime minister s apology for how he handled what he maintains was a work event continues, borisjohnson should have been out in front of the cameras in lancashire today, but the visit was cancelled. one of his family members tested positive for covid.
and the boss of the uk s biggest energy supplier warns that high energy bills will last for two years. i m ben brown, live at downing street, where the prime minister has confirmed he was at a drinks party in the garden of number 10 during the first lockdown, and apologised for attending. breaking days of silence over the matter, borisjohnson said he believed the gathering was a work event and that, in hindsight, he should have sent everyone back inside. at the time, in may 2020, across the uk, meeting more than one person from outside your household was not allowed. but it s claimed more than 30 people attended the bring your own booze event.
as his royal highness. buckingham palace says he is handing his titles back to the queen. the move comes the day after a judge in new york ruled the prince must defend an accusation of sexually assaulting virginia guiffre in a civil court case an accusation he denies. also in the programme, borisjohnson faces calls to resign for attending a drinks party during the first lockdown. his supporters and governments, though, defend him. in government. he accepts that he ought not to have done that, looking back. but it was done in good faith, there was no possible malice or intention to do anything other than to give a heartfelt thank you to people who had been working incredibly hard. and m15 issues a rare alert warning of a chinese agent who has been operating for years trying to influence mps at the heart of westminster. buckingham palace has announced prince andrew will no longer be
under clear skies further south, well, we ll see fog reform and also a widespread frost. so, that s how we start tomorrow. the fog, if anything, more widespread than last night, and it will also take its time to clear, some of itjust lifting into low cloud. but where it does clear, once again, we ll see the sunshine. whereas for northern ireland and also for the north west of scotland and parts of northern england, there ll be a bit more cloud around. in the north west, there ll also be some spots of rain. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: borisjohnson will face mps as pressure mounts for him to say whether he attended a drinks party in the downing street garden during the first lockdown and calls for him to resign if he did. double fault for novak djokovic as the tennis star admits breaking isolation rules when he had covid and says there was an error on his immigration form. putting the brakes on smart motorways the government pauses their rollout
you in the next hour. good to have all the good news from down under in the tennis. more sports news coming in the next hour. good afternoon to you. you are watching bbc news. we can take a look at the main stories. let s hear a bit more from the prime minister because you might know in the last hour he has been giving his first reaction to those claims made today by his former adviser dominic cummings that the prime minister had lied to parliament about that bring your own booze event in the downing street garden. to remind you, this is one in may 2020, right at the start of the coronavirus pandemic and certainly during the first lockdown. it s hard to keep up with all the different dates. dominic cummings has been writing about that particular party and he said he was prepared to swear under oath that borisjohnson new it prepared to swear under oath that boris johnson new it was prepared to swear under oath that borisjohnson new it was a drinks party, not that it was a work event,