london british prime minister boris johnsons authority took yet another hit on friday after revelations that his staff had partied in downing street as queen elizabeth mourned her husband at a time when mixing indoors was bannedjohnson is facing the gravest crisis of his premiership following news of a series of social gatherings at his residence during covid19 lockdowns some held at times when ordinary people could not bid farewell in person to dying relativesafter building a political career out of flouting accepted norms johnson is now under growing pressure from some of his own lawmakers to quit due to apparent rulebreaking at downing streetthe daily telegraph said two other drinks parties were held inside downing street on april 16 2021 when social gatherings indoors and outdoors were limited johnson was at his chequers country residence that day the paper saidsuch was the revelry in downing street the newspaper said that staff went to a nearby supermarket to buy a suitcase of alcohol used a laptop to play music and a swing used by the prime ministers young son was brokenthe next day queen elizabeth bade farewell to prince philip her husband of 73 years following his death aged 99dressed in black and in a white trimmed black face mask the 95yearold elizabeth cut a poignant figure as she sat alone in strict compliance with coronavirus rules during the funeral service for philip at windsor castleleave the stageopponents have called for johnson 57 to resign casting him as a charlatan who demanded the british people follow some of the most onerous rules in peacetime history while his own staff partieda small but growing number in his own conservative party have echoed those calls fearing it will do lasting damage to its electoral prospectssadly the prime ministers position has become untenable said conservative lawmaker andrew bridgen a former johnson supporter the time is right to leave the stagejohnson has given a variety of explanations of the parties ranging from denials that any rules were broken to expressing understanding for the public anger at apparent hypocrisy at the heart of the british stateforeign minister liz truss said real mistakes were made but added we need to look at the overall position were in as a country the fact that he johnson has delivered brexit that we are recovering from covid he has apologisedi think we now need to move on and talk about how we are going to sort out issues she told broadcasters on fridayto trigger a leadership challenge 54 of the 360 conservative members of parliament must write letters of no confidence to the chairman of the partys 1922 committeethe telegraph said as many as 30 such letters had been submittedjohnson faces a tough year ahead beyond covid inflation is soaring energy bills are spiking taxation will rise in april and his party faces local elections in mayone of the april 2021 parties was a leaving event for james slack a former director of communications at downing street who