Go out The back
No 10 HR boss urged workers to sneak away
A SENIOR official urged staff to leave by the back door on the night Boris Johnson helped host a Downing Street Christmas quiz.
And an email seen by our sister paper the Mirror shows organisers had planned days in advance for some staff to enjoy the quiz in person, from the office.
It was revealed on Sunday that the PM had helped host the quiz – and that some staff had spent the evening conferring around office screens rather than dialling in.
London was then under Tier 2 regulations, which banned social mixing between households. Official guidance also said: “You must not have a work Christmas lunch or party, where that is a primarily social activity.”
No 10 insists the event on December 15 last year was a “virtual quiz”. It admitted: “Those who were in the office for work may have attended virtually from their desks.”
But a bombshell email sent to staff four days before the event proves organisers knew all along employees would be taking part inside No 10. The email, sent the Friday before to team captains, told staff members “planning to stay in the office for the quiz” to follow social-distancing rules.
It read: “Teams in the office should ensure that they arrange themselves behind the Perspex screens. All staff will be required to leave the office immediately after the end of the quiz.”
It also told staff not due in that day not to attend just for the quiz. Sources said some staff stayed drinking and chatting for two hours or so after the quiz finished at 9.30pm.
Most stayed in their offices, but a few allegedly moved around the building to mingle with colleagues, in a further apparent breach of the rules.
And today it can be revealed No 10’s head of HR told staff to leave through the rear exit afterwards. At 9.39pm on December 15, the top official sent a message to the chat group being used for the quiz. It read: “Go out the back.” Teams from the PM’s private
office, the policy unit and press office were among those taking part.
A video filmed days after the quiz showed then-communications chief Allegra Stratton joking about a party in No 10 on December 18. She resigned last Wednesday after it went public.
Johnson surprised attendees of the December 15 quiz by appearing on their screens halfway through to ask questions for 10 to 15 minutes.
A source said of staff ’s decision to do the quiz in Downing Street: “Everybody decided it would be more fun. It would be difficult to take part in such a large virtual quiz from home. No work was discussed, it wasn’t a business event. Nobody was working that evening, it was purely a social event.”
The Met Police said on Monday that despite photographic evidence of the PM potentially breaking Covid rules, they still do not intend to investigate.
But in a meeting with MPs its chief Cressida Dick said the force was still considering an investigation.
The PM has confirmed Cabinet Secretary Simon Case has widened a probe into Christmas bashes while London was under lockdown laws to include the December 15 event.
The top civil servant was already probing three dates on which parties were said to have been held. These are a No10 leaving party on November 27 at which the Prime Minister spoke; a No10 Christ mas party on December 18 and a Department for Education bash held on December 10.