THE Tory tasked with leading the promotion of the coronavirus contact-tracing app trial stands accused of breaking lockdown rules to attend a barbeque.
The event is also believed to have been attended by the chairman of the Brexit Party as well as political journalists.
According to the Guardian, Bob Seely attended a barbeque being hosted by Spectator deputy editor Freddy Gray on the Isle of Wight – where the contact-tracing app is being trialled.
Brexit Party chairman Richard Tice and his partner, journalist Isabel Oakeshott, were also in attendance at the event in the village of Seaview on Friday, May 22.
Seely attended the barbeque with his partner and said he was unaware others would be there when he arrived and observed social-distancing rules while there.
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Gray, whose wife was also in attendance, admitted inviting the Isle of Wight MP over for the event and said that Seely did not drink alcohol and “didn’t stay long”.
When asked about their attendance, Tice and Oakeshott made reference to testing their eyesight, a reference to the Prime Minister’s top aide Dominic Cummings who claimed he made a 60-mile round trip to Barnard Castle to check if he could see properly.
By the time of the barbeque, UK Government measures had been eased slightly to allow one person to meet outdoors and in public one other from another household as long as social distancing was adhered to.
People were not allowed to enter other households, other than for essential purposes, including in gardens.
Seely backed the Government’s stay-at-home message at the time and warned against people visiting second homes.
In a statement, Seely said: “As the island’s MP, I have had a lot of dialogue with local residents over recent weeks.
“The vast majority of these have been over the phone or the internet. A handful of these – when requested – have been in person, at a two-metre distance and outside.
“I was in Seaview two weeks ago undertaking constituency work. Whilst there, I agreed to visit someone who wanted to discuss the app.
He added: “He is a journalist and an acquaintance. When I arrived, I saw another couple of people there, which I was not expecting. I thought about leaving but felt that was perhaps overreacting.
“I apologise because, on balance, I called this wrong. It would have been better to have spoken to this person without any others nearby.”
Labour’s Ian Lavery, MP for Wansbeck, said: “Bob Seely’s actions are extremely concerning and should be taken very seriously. Boris Johnson claimed to be taking back control of the Covid-19 pandemic but this is just the latest example that shows he can’t even control his own MPs.”
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