Daughter’s blast at ‘disgraceful’ No10 press staff
THE daughter who endured her mum dying alone from Covid in a hospice days before Christmas has slammed “disgracefull” No10 staff who joked about an alleged festive shindig at Downing Street.
Daisy Harris’s mum Helen passed away aged 47 after contracting Covid-19 while receiving palliative care for a terminal brain tumour at St Margaret’s Hospice in Clydebank last year.
Daisy’s last conversation with her mum was on a FaceTime call on December 18 last year while her mum was in the hospice.
She never got to visit Helen in person, as the facility was in lockdown due to Covid infections spiking.
The same week, Downing Street staff allegedly gathered at No10 for a Christmas party in breach of Covid regulations enforced across the country.
And in the days after Helen died on December 20, Government staff joked about whether the festive gathering was a “cheese and wine” night that “was not socially distanced” in a mock press conference.
Reports suggest between 25 and 50 workers packed out Downing Street for the party, which is claimed to have been organised on WhatsApp and involved Christmas jumpers and a pre-planned Secret Santa.
Allegra Stratton, boris Johnson’s press secretary, resigned on Wednesday after footage of her giggling about the alleged gathering was leaked to ITV News.
As the one-year anniversary of Daisy’s mum’s death approaches, the student has hit out at the “disgusting” attitude of No10 staffers about the party that Prime Minister Johnson still refuses to acknowledge even took place.
Daisy, 20, said: “At first, I thought my grief was quite a private thing and didn’t want to speak about it since it’s coming up for a year and it’s still quite fresh. but that video was the tipping point for me.
“The way that they talk about it like it was nothing to them, and the way they joked about cheese and wine and that we were stupid for following social distancing – it was just infuriating.”
Speaking during PMQs on Wednesday, the PM said he was “sickened and furious” at the mock press conference clip, adding: “I apologise unreservedly for the offence that it has caused up and down the country and I apologise for the impression that it gives.”