Johnson apologises for Number 10 party video and launches probe
Boris Johnson has apologised for a leaked video appearing to show his staff joking about an illegal Christmas party last year and has launched a probe into the event.
Johnson said he would draft in cabinet secretary Simon Case to investigate whether a party happened at Downing Street on 18 December last year when social gatherings were banned in London under the government’s Covid rules.
However, some members of his own party grilled the PM in the Commons and said speculation of incoming Covid restrictions – including a work from home order – were being used to distract from Number 10’s most-recent scandal.
Tory MP William Wragg asked Johnson if there will be a press conference later tody about Plan B measures, adding “very few will be convinced by this diversionary tactic”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Johnson has been “caught red handed” by the video of his staff members joking about how to cover up the fact that they had an illegal party.
Starmer also asked the Prime Minister is he had the moral authority to introduce the so-called Plan B winter lockdown measures, given the accusations of hypocrisy.
Johnson said: “I understand and share the anger up and down the country of seeing Number 10 staff seeming to make light of lockdown measures.
“I can understand how infuriating it must be to think the people who are setting the rules have not been following the rules. I was also furious to see that clip.
“I apologise unreservedly for the offence it has caused up and down the country and I apologise for the impression it gives. I repeat, I have been repeatedly assured since these allegations emerged that there was no party and that no Covid rules were broken and that is what I have been repeatedly assured.
“I have asked the cabinet secretary to establish all the facts and to report back as soon as possible.”
A video was leaked to ITV yesterday of government aide Allegra Stratton joking about having an illegal Christmas party at Number 10 last year in a mock press conference.
It came after a week of Number 10 staff denying there had been a Christmas party during strict Covid restrictions last year in the face of press stories from The Mirror and The Times.
The video shows Stratton taking questions from other Number 10 staff in a mock press conference.
Stratton, a former ITV journalist, was lined up to take televised Number 10 press conferences, before the idea was scrapped.
She can be heard joking in the video about Number 10 staff having a “cheese and wine” night on 18 December last year when asked by another staff member about what she would say if asked about Downing Street’s “party”.
Stratton also implied during the mock press conference that she would pass off the party as a “business meeting”.
She also said the party was “not socially distanced”.
Starmer told MPs that “489 people died on the day of the Downing Street party”.
“They knew there was a party, they knew it was against the rules, they knew they couldn’t’ admit it and they thought it was funny,” Starmer said.
“It’s obvious what happened.
“The British people put the health of others above themselves and followed rules. Isn’t the Prime Minister ashamed that his Downing Street couldn’t do the same?”