Boris Johnson has again refused to say whether he attended a party alleged to have taken place in his Downing Street residence during Covid restrictions.
It comes after Whitehall mandarin Sue Gray’s “update” on rule-busting events in government buildings revealed earlier this week “a gathering in the No 10 Downing Street flat” was being examined as part of a wider Metropolitan Police investigation.
Pressed on the event and his whereabouts on 13 November, 2020, the prime minister swerved the question, saying to MPs on Wednesday: “Here we go again”.
Reports have suggested the prime minister was see heading up to the flat on the night in question, with the Mail On Sunday stating that Abba songs, including The Winner Takes It All, were heard coming from the residence.
Dominic Cummings, who first made the allegation of the flat party, yesterday claimed there were photographs of parties held at the prime minister’s official residence above No 10.
He said he had spoken with people who heard music coming from the Johnsons’ accommodation on 13 November, 2020 — the same night he exited Downing Street after a bitter power struggle.
In a question-and-answer sessions on his blog last night, Mr Cummings said there were photographs of the prime minister “at parties under investigation”.
“I’ve talked to people who were in no 10 on 13/11 who cd hear the party in no 10 after I’d left – the press office is below the flat,” he told subscribers.
“If cops talk to people there that night, there’ll be witnesses who say ‘we could all hear a party with Abba playing’.”
Raising further reports on Tuesday evening suggesting Mr Johnson had attended the gathering, the SNP’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, asked: “Can the prime minister update the House on his whereabouts on the evening of 13 November? Surely, he doesn’t need to wait for an investigation to tell us exactly where he was.”
But Mr Johnson dodged the question at prime minister’s questions, telling MPs: “Here we go again — he asked exactly the same questions as I recall in the chamber a few days ago.
“I can tell him what has been going on in Downing Street in November and throughout, we have been delivering the fastest vaccine and booster rollout anywhere in Europe and we have been getting people back into work, and we have been helping to bring the West together to defy what I think is completely unacceptable threats of intimidation from the Putin regime against Ukraine. And that’s what we have been doing.”
