Boozing in Downing Street started at lunchtime and the idea of having a mini-fridge of drinks under the desk was not uncommon, a former Number 10 official has said.
Sonia Khan, who worked in No 10 and the Treasury during the leaderships of former Prime Ministers David Cameron and Theresa May, said a drinking culture had long been “normalised” in Downing Street.
Lifting the lid on the practice Khan told the BBC that sometimes staff could start boozing at lunch and wake up there in the office in same clothes the next day.
The revelations came as Boris Johnson battled for his political life against public outrage over a series of lockdown parties in Downing Street during the covid pandemic.
Khan said historic use was “totally different” to the allegations of partying while the public was ordered to abide by restrictions to tackle coronavirus.
She said: “Usually these drinking sessions are sandwiched between pieces of work, so it feels like a very, very routine thing,” Khan told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme.
“Drinks could start at lunch time, they could start a little bit later in the day – different teams do things very differently – but the idea of mini fridges or having drinks underneath your table wasn’t uncommon.”
Khan said “senior people at No 10” going back two decades had used drinks as a way of thanking staff for working “very, very long hours”.
Asked if people had been so hungover they had slept on sofas in Downing Street, she said: “I did see a few instances of that – people waking up in the same clothes the next day.
“But obviously I didn’t work during a pandemic and it didn’t happen very often back then, I should say. I can’t speak for what it’s like now.”
Johnson will reportedly order a booze ban in No 10 under the so-called ‘Operation Red Meat’ policies designed to save his leadership from demands for his resignation.
Johnson has admitted he attended a “bring your own booze” party in the No 10 garden in May 2020 during the first lockdown but insists that he believed it was a work event that could “technically” have been within the rules.
Khan worked as a civil servant in No 10 under David Cameron, before working in the Treasury as a special adviser during May’s leadership.
She briefly remained in the Treasury after Johnson took over, but was marched out of Downing Street by armed police after being sacked by Dominic Cummings in August 2019 over allegations of leaking.
She later settled a claim against the Government for unfair dismissal.
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