going on to write. number ten, though, says it is untrue that the prime minister was warned about the event in advance. do you have confidence in the prime minister? i conservative mps have talked of anger among their constituents, at continued accusations of events which may have broken the rules, which most members of the public were following. a handful now say time s up for the prime minister, but most are waiting for an official report. i ve spoken to party members, people who ve been loyal party members and activists for many years, and i would say the. by far, the clear view that i ve had from them is, we should give him, the prime minister, the benefit of the doubt until we see what s in sue gray s report. people are angry, people want to know what s going on, and the prime minister acknowledged that in his statement in the house that, regardless of, you know, what may have been thought or said at the time of that party in the garden,
nobody told me that what we were doing was, as you say, against the rules, that the event in question was something that. we were going to do something that was not a work event. and, you know, as i said in the house of commons, when i went out into that garden, i thought that i was attending a work event. the chancellor was also facing questions for the first time since the prime minister s apology to the commons. do you believe the prime minister? of course i do. the prime minister. you believe he is telling the truth? of course i do. the prime minister set out his understanding of this matter in parliament last week and i d refer you to his words. as you know, sue gray is conducting an inquiry into this matter and i fully support the prime minster s request for patience while that inquiry concludes. the fresh claims come from dominic cummings, the former aide to the prime minister, now a frequent public critic. writing online, he said that on the day of the event in may 2020, i sai
virginia giuffre is saying she doesn t want to settle, she wants her day in court. of course, it s not quite that simple because going into court is very expensive. she s made a lot of money in the past by settling cases. we know that the case involving jeffrey epstein more than a decade ago, she got half $1 million. but that was a long time ago. and her lawyers will obviously want to consider what she might get by going into court, what that might cost, what the risks are of the case against the reality of a settlement in which case she gets compensation and her lawyers get paid. so, there s quite a lot of negotiation behind all of this. the uk prime minister borisjohnson has admitted, for the first time, that he attended a drinks party in the garden of number 10 downing street during england s first lockdown.
the headlines: the united nations says there s been a distress signal from the tonga archipelago following saturday s massive volcanic eruption and tsunami. there is a worrying lack of information about the scale of the damage and the whereabouts and well being of many of the pacific islanders. australian and new zealand military ascending humanitarian aid. america s largest airlines have warned of a catastrophic disruption to travel if telecommunications firms roll out their 5g technology without limiting its scope near us airports because it might interfere with altitude devices. they re requesting it be delayed until the necessary upgrades have been made to aviation equipment. boris johnson s borisjohnson s former chief adviser dominic cummins has said he warned the prime minister in person about holding a drinks party during the first lockdown in may 2020. downing street denies that.
you cannot explain it away, you cannot say that it was justifiable. it was clearly wrong, it should never have happened. and so, people are rightly angry about that and want to know, i think, what the prime minister s going to do to put this right. labour say the government s in chaos. if he did know, if he was aware that the invites went out, if he was aware that concerns were raised, and, indeed, if he did then say the party should go ahead, this is, this is just extraordinary. conservatives are gravely concerned. all of westminster is waiting for the report attempting to establish the facts. jonathan blake, bbc news. earlier i spoke to our chief political correspondent adam fleming i asked him if mr cummings would be interviewed as part of sue gray s investigation. the thing about sue gray s inquiry, it is a bit of a black box that we know very little about, you can ask that you cannot be told who she is speaking to a wants to speak to. i