A brand-new Partygate video exposed by The Mirror, showing a number of Tories at a lockdown rule-bending Christmas do during the height of the Coronavirus pandemic has 'appalled and sickened' those who lost family members and friends during the pandemic. The previously unseen footage shows staff dancing and mocking pandemic-era laws at the Conservative Campaign HQ in the capital.
It has led to an apology being issued by Cabinet Minister Michael Gove, who dubbed the footage as 'indefensible' while the rest of London was subject to strict barring rules on socialising indoors. Today, a spokesperson for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign hit out at the video - which showed Tory activists living in 'a parallel universe'.
Amos Waldman, who lost his grandmother in April 2020, told Times Radio: "I was appalled and sickened by the video. It's not a huge surprise given we know what was happening, but the imagery of it was pretty powerful, and completely at odds with what the rest of the country and certainly we as bereaved families and our loved ones were going through at the time."
Read more: First Partygate video exposes Tories drinking, dancing and laughing at Covid rules
He went on: "It's like a parallel universe and to be honest, it's difficult to comprehend how they can act in such a care-free manner, given what the rest of the country was going through. To think of these people who were celebrating, just oblivious to what was going on around them and putting other people's lives in danger, which is, you know, one of the worst aspects of this because we all complied with the rules."
Labour's Shadow Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, also condemns the footage and actions of those in it. He added: "People followed the rules at great personal pain and sacrifice. This is what the Tory rule-breakers in Number 10 still don’t get.
"As far as they were concerned, it was one rule for them and another for everyone else."
The party was organised by the campaign team of then London Mayor candidate, Shaun Bailey, who is now Lord Bailey after Boris Johnson made him a peer in his honours list. Mr Bailey is said to have left the party before the video footage was taken.
The damning clip shows Ben Mallet - who was also awarded an OBE in Boris' list - holding a glass of red wine while wearing festive braces. He was the Tories' campaign director for the 2021 London mayoral election.
Senior Tory Gove however today argued that they should not be stripped of their honours. He claimed: "The decision to confer honours on people was one that was made by Boris Johnson as an outgoing prime minister. Outgoing prime ministers have that right.
"Whether or not they should is a matter of legitimate public debate, but they do at the moment."
A Conservative Party spokesman, said: "Senior CCHQ staff became aware of an unauthorised social gathering in the basement of Matthew Parker Street organised by the Bailey campaign on the evening of December 14 2020. Formal disciplinary action was taken against the four CCHQ staff who were seconded to the Bailey campaign."
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