Catherine West MP
(Picture: UK Parliament)When the Partygate saga first broke, with the footage of Allegra Stratton joking at the mock press conference, the Westminster rumour-mill went into overdrive. For weeks leading up Prime Minister’s Questions on the 8th of December there were growing mutterings of other parties and gatherings at the heart of our democracy while the country was in lockdown, with suggestions that the Prime Minister – the man who wrote the rules we all followed in the public interest – had been among those taking part in outrageous rule breaking.
In our system it is rare for MPs to have chance to directly question the Prime Minister, with the weekly PMQs heavily subscribed, and I knew going into the Chamber on that day that I had one chance to get the Prime Minister on the record about the partying which had been rumoured to have taken place. The rules of Parliament are very strict, and Members must not lie from the despatch box.
