'Who's in charge?' Police break up street party at same time as No10 'BYOB' event
Watch: Police break up illegal party at same time as Downing Street BYOB bash
This is the moment police break up an illegal street party – that was taking place at the same time as Downing Street’s BYOB bash.
Officers dispersed the crowd in Birmingham at 7.45pm on 20 May 2020, some 120 miles away from the government's ‘Bring Your Own Booze’ event that Boris Johnson apologised for attending on Wednesday.
Bodycam footage from the “social gathering” in a cul-de-sac in Handsworth shows one officer ask attendees: “Good evening people, how we doing?
“Who’s in charge? Anyone in charge? No-one’s in charge!”
A woman then claims the party is “not a social gathering at all” despite officers seeing dozens of people enjoying music, eating a barbecue and chatting together.
Police managed to persuade the party-goers to return to their homes and gardens and assured the crowd that COVID “is real”.
He tells the cheering crowd: “The reason we are here is to provide safety for people.
“We need to disperse this group and for people to go about your business.
“This gathering needs to stop. All the best, enjoy the sun elsewhere.”
After several minutes the party-goers leave the area with no fines being imposed by officers and no arrests.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting tweeted the footage, drawing reference to the Downing Street party.
He said: "We don't have to imagine what would have happened if anyone else had organised a party of 100 people on the same day as the Downing Street BYOB party.
"Here's what happened in Handsworth. It's one rule for them and another rule for everyone else.”
The prime minister is facing calls to resign after he apologised told MPs he attended the lockdown-busting party for 25 minutes.
Johnson insisted he thought the party was work-related, but said he recognised “with hindsight I should have sent everyone back inside”.
He said an inquiry headed by senior Civil Service official Sue Gray was examining the situation but accepted “there were things we simply did not get right and I must take responsibility”.
Some of his own MPs have said Johnson must resign in light of the scandal, while a poll for The Times by YouGov, which was carried out before Johnson’s apology, put Labour at a 10-point lead ahead of the Tories for the first time in nearly a decade.
Watch: Boris Johnson apologises for Downing Street party
