No 10 security staff ’s warnings ‘laughed at’

Staff said to be unhappy at Downing St ‘custodians’ telling them to stop having lockdown-breaking events

‘I remember a custodian tried to stop it all and he was just shaking his head in this party’

DOWNING STREET security guards warned staff that lockdown-breaking parties were illegal but were laughed at and ignored, it was claimed last night.

Security staff, known as “custodians” in No10, asked people attending latenight drinks in the press office to go home because they believed their behaviour was unlawful.

But staff laughed a custodian out of a room and were later “unhappy” to receive an email telling them that drink events should stop. The parties were named “wine time Fridays” by staff and scheduled on a weekly basis while Britain was in full lockdown.

A BBC Panorama documentary that aired last night said an email warning staff not to gather and drink was sent by security after a custodian was “laughed at” for objecting on one occasion.

“I remember a custodian tried to stop it all and he was just shaking his head in this party, being like, ‘This shouldn’t be happening’,” said one attendee.

The Daily Telegraph has independently confirmed that such an email was sent around by Downing Street security after the incident.

“I remember an email being kicked around and people being broadly unhappy about it,” a No 10 insider said.

It has previously been reported that security staff were called to a party after a drunken member of staff accidentally pressed a panic button.

Both incidents prompted questions about why the parties were not reported at the time to the Met Police, which has officers stationed outside the front door of No10 at all times.

Last night, staff who were fined for their attendance accused Mr Johnson of avoiding responsibility for the events.

The Prime Minister was fined just once by the Met, while some No10 staff received as many as five fixed penalty notices for their attendance at parties.

Employees said they were assured that No10 had checked with the Government’s Covid Taskforce whether drinks events happening in the building were legal, and pointed to Mr Johnson’s own attendance as evidence that they were considered acceptable at the time.

Sue Gray’s report into partygate, expected to be published today, is likely to contain the names of senior civil servants she feels were responsible for 16 events that took place in Downing Street and the Cabinet Office.

The parties include a “bring your own booze” event organised by Martin Reynolds, Mr Johnson’s principal private secretary.

“The fundamental point in all of this is that there was an expectation that the private office, and Martin Reynolds in particular, would check with the Taskforce to ensure that things were within the rules,” one attendee of lockdown-breaking events told The Telegraph. “I think if you are a member of the team, particularly a junior member, and you are told by the private office to come to an event with the Prime Minister, you are well within your rights to believe that the event you’ve been asked to go to is within the Covid guidelines.

“These people worked incredibly hard, but they feel that the Prime Minister has abandoned them and left them to take the rap while he is standing in Parliament saying, ‘I’d never do any of this’. It’s outrageous.”

Panorama contained similar accusations from former members of staff.

One told the programme that No 10 insiders stood in disbelief listening to Mr Johnson tell MPS that no parties had taken place. “We were watching it all live and we just sort of looked at each other in disbelief like – why? Why is he denying this?” they said. Mr Reynolds’ email inviting staff to the garden party was described by another attendee as “foolish”, adding:“people knew that it would be trouble if and when it got out.”

Another former staffer described the Gray inquiry and police investigation as a “witch hunt” against junior employees. After a photograph emerged on Monday of Mr Johnson at a leaving party for Lee Cain, his former senior aide, Downing Street sources argued that he had not broken the rules because he was not fined for that event by the Metropolitan Police.

A No10 source said that while it was true the Prime Minister had briefly attended the event, he had only stayed for 10 minutes as a polite gesture to his outgoing spin doctor.

Others at the event told The Telegraph Mr Johnson stayed for 25 minutes.