Boris Johnson described scenes of women being pinned to the ground during a peaceful vigil for Sarah Everard, who was raped and murdered by a serving police officer, as “argy bargy”.
Speaking in a WhatsApp group on 13 March 2021, then prime minister Johnson said it would be wrong to publicly speak out against the police behaviour before he knew more about the situation at a vigil for Everard, despite videos and photos circulating of the events.
“Feels off to weigh in and bash the cops when all I have seen is some footage of argy bargy without knowing what happened,” he wrote to a group that included his political secretary Ben Gascoigne, deputy head of press Jack Doyle and press secretary Allegra Stratton.
