Staff reveal scale of No.10 parties
DOWNING Street insiders have described chaotic mid-lockdown parties in No 10 which they felt were condoned by Boris Johnson as he “was grabbing a glass for himself”.
Three anonymous individuals have told the BBC’s Panorama in detail what they witnessed at regular rule-breaking events during coronavirus restrictions.
Their evidence will heap further pressure on the Prime Minister ahead of the publication of the Sue Gray inquiry into “partygate”, which No 10 expects today.
Party debris was left overnight for people arriving at work the next day to discover after staff crowded together and sat on each other’s laps at parties, according to the attendees.
One said they felt they had the permission of the Prime Minister as he was not telling them to break up the scenes when he arrived.
“No, he wasn’t telling anybody that. He was grabbing a glass for himself,” they said.
Mr Johnson was already under renewed pressure after images obtained by ITV News showed him raising a glass while surrounded by colleagues and bottles of wine.
Days after ordering England’s second national lockdown, the pictures showed the Prime Minister giving a toast for departing communications chief Lee Cain on November 13, 2020.
One witness described the party that night: “There were about 30 people, if not more, in a room. Everyone was stood shoulder to shoulder, some people on each other’s laps ... one or two people.”
“Unforgivable” scenes were also described at the party on April 16 last year, which was the eve of the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral.
They described a “lively event... a general party with people dancing around” that became so loud that security guards told them to go into the No 10 grounds.
“So everyone grabbed all the drinks, the food, everything, and went into the garden,” one source said.
“We all sat around the tables drinking. People stayed the night there.”
The insiders said the events were “every week”, with invitations for press office drinks listed in the diary as “Wine-Time Friday”.
One former official described often turning up at No 10 to find it “a mess”.
“There were bottles, empties, rubbish – in the bin, but overflowing – or indeed sometimes left on the table,” they said.
One said a Downing Street security guard, known as a custodian, was mocked when he tried to break up a party.
“I remember when a custodian tried to stop it all and he was just shaking his head in this party, being like ‘This shouldn’t be happening’,” they said.
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner questioned “who will defend this rotten culture” as she suggested the BBC report portrays “Downing Street as a parallel universe”.
Meanwhile, No 10 was forced to deny that Mr Johnson urged Ms Gray to drop plans to publish her report in a private meeting earlier this month.
The Times reported that the Prime Minister suggested to the senior civil servant that there was no longer any point in releasing her findings as the facts were “all out there”.
Mr Johnson’s official spokesman said he did not recognise “that characterisation” of the meeting and insisted the Prime Minister wants the report to be published.