BORIS JOHNSON’s father, Stanley Johnson, defended his decision to travel to Greece before travel restrictions were lifted by the UK Government, after receiving strong criticism in the UK.
At the time of his trip to Greece, the Government’s advice under coronavirus rules was for UK nationals to avoid all but essential travel. Greek government officials confirmed on Thursday that Stanley Johnson had arrived, likely via Bulgaria, in the northern region of Pelion, where he has a holiday home. The Prime Minister’s father told reporters he was on a business trip.
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“I don’t know what the reaction of the British public (has been), I came here to have a quiet time to organise the house,” he said in comments to local reporters carried by Sky News, referring to measures to make the property COVID-19 secure for lettings.
“I’ve just got one week to get everything organised.
“I’ve got a whole lot of instructions about how to make the place COVID-proof,” he said, noting he planned to return to the UK on July 10.
He later told BBC reporters: “If anything, I think I would want to say: you know, let’s open up this air bridge as quick as we can.
“You know? Let’s open it up.
“I’ll go back, I think I said, on the 10th, but people are longing to get here and this is a country which has everything.
“You see? That’s my answer. Honestly, that’s my answer.
“I’m not going to say whether my actions are correct or not, but in any case…
“In any case, what happened, happened, here I am and look, how could you not be here?
“Look around at this fantastic place.
“And you say, look, how wonderful it would be if quite quickly, the two governments come to some arrangement?
“That’s what I think.”
On Friday, Britain’s foreign ministry set out exemptions from a global advisory against “all but essential” international travel, to take effect from Saturday.
That list includes Greece.
Mr Johnson said photos he posted on his Instagram account on the outward leg of his trip were not put up “in a spirit of defiance or anything like that.”
Boris Johnson was asked about his father’s trip on Friday.
“I think you really ought to raise that with him,” he told LBC radio.
Details that emerged in May of a long road trip at the height of the UK coronavirus lockdown by Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister’s senior adviser, provoked outrage across the country.
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