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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Katie Strick

From Liz Truss’ former adviser to Carrie Johnson’s pal — who’s who in bombshell new partygate video?

Carrie Johnson Boris Johnson Shaun Bailey Moz Hossain Mozammel Hossain Ben Mallet Zac Goldsmith Covid-19 CCHQ Tory

Every time we think we’ve seen or heard the worst of it, another shocking details rears its head.

The latest evidence of the seemingly endless scandal that is partygate? Footage of Tory staff drinking, dancing and mocking Covid laws at the height of the lockdown.

The explosive, 35-second clip — the first ever video of that now-infamous Christmas party at the Conservative Party HQ— was exposed by The Mirror over the weekend and shows officials (including two named on Boris Johnson’s controversial resignation honours list last week) dressed up in Christmas jumpers, dancing and appearing to joke about pandemic restrictions at a time when indoor socialising was banned in December 2020 — and the same day then health-secretary Matt Hancock announced that London would enter tier 3 restrictions.

At one point in the footage, two dancers are seen twirling past a sign on a social distancing sign on the wall before colliding with a table full of buffet food, while another person can be heard laughing and saying: “As long as we don’t stream that we’re like, bending the rules.” At least 24 people were reportedly in attendance at the so-called “Jingle and Mingle” bash, which saw 30 people invited and had been organised by the team behind the failed London mayoral bid of London Assembly member Shaun Bailey, who has since been given a peerage by Boris Johnson.

“Sickening”, “indefensible” and “shameful” are among the criticisms of the footage by viewers including bereaved families of Covid victims, Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner and MPs including housing secretary Michael Gove, who called the behaviour in the video “terrible” when he apologised for his Tory colleagues’ yesterday.

“Revellers openly mocked the rules the British people followed. The Tories think it’s one rule for them and one rule for everyone else,” Rayner said of the clip. “Instead of forcing them to face the consequences, Rishi Sunak has caved into Boris Johnson and chosen to reward them with honours. It’s a sickening insult.”

The Mirror’s splash on the lockdown partygate video (Mirror)

Scotland Yard says it is aware of the footage and is “considering” it and CCHQ says that “formal disciplinary action” has been taken against four staff members over the “unauthorised” event.

So who are those staff members and are they the same ones seen partying in the explosive new clip? Here’s who’s been named so far — including six new individuals exclusively identified for the Evening Standard

1. Ben Mallett

Role at the time: Conservative campaign director for the 2021 London mayoral election

Role now: Campaign manager for mayoral candidate Moz Hossain

Mallett is the one in the festive braces, if you’ve studied the photos and videos of the party now circulating on social media. The senior Tory aide is seen chatting to guests in the footage and lying on the floor at the front of the group picture, dressed in navy trousers and a navy tie and holding a glass of white wine up for the camera.

The former campaign director may be seeming to play the role of the joker in picture evidence from the bash, but he has long played a serious and prominent role in CCHQ. He has a history of campaigning for the party, running Zac Goldsmith’s mayoral campaign in 2016 and now in charge of the same thing for Moz Hossain, the barrister bidding to secure the Tory nomination to run against Sadiq Khan in next May’s City Hall elections.

He is also understood to be a close and longstanding friend of Carrie Johnson’s after reportedly meeting through Goldsmith. The pair were pictured at a wedding together in 2016 and former Tory deputy chair Lord Ashcroft claims Boris Johnson was “too cowardly” to stand up to his wife when she once tried to insist Mallett be promoted to Johnson’s chief of staff.

“Carrie began to insist on a prominent role in the campaign for a friend of hers, Ben Mallet – even, one source claims, to be the campaign chief of staff,” Ashcroft wrote in his biography of Carrie Johnson last year.

The book quoted a source close to the former PM saying: “One day, Ben Mallett walked in and announced he was now the campaign’s chief of staff. We told him politely that this was rubbish. Boris said it was fine because he was too cowardly to confront Carrie about it. When some people threatened to quit if Ben Mallet really did become the chief of staff, Boris said, ‘Can’t you just call him the chief of staff?’ He was told in no uncertain terms that this would not happen.”

For partygate critics, the real salt in the wound of The Mirror’s new footage is the fact that Mallett is one of two attendees of the party to have been awarded an OBE last week — a fact that former Coundown host Carol Vorderman was quick to point out on Twitter this weekend when she tagged Mallett’s latest boss Hossain and asked for his “thoughts” on the video.

Mallett’s former boss Goldsmith was quick to fight back, tweeting: “Ben Mallet made a mistake (a pretty small one in the scheme of things). He apologised. He’s a kind & decent person who’s not hurt anyone. Yet here is a powerful media figure trying to ruin him… because she dislikes his politics.”

Mallett and Hossain are yet to comment on the video publicly. The Evening Standard has approached them both for comment.

2. Shaun Bailey

Role at the time: Conservative candidate for London Mayor

Role now: London Assembly member

Conservative London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey (PA) (PA Archive)

Bailey, 52, doesn’t technically appear in the video — he is understood to have left the party shortly before the clip was taken — but he does appear in a photo of the same party, standing in the middle of a group photo in a kitchen as colleagues in Christmas jumpers and festive headgear raise their glasses for the camera.

Bailey previously apologised for attending the bash and stepped down from his role as chair of the London Assembly committee when his attendance emerged last year. But the release of this fresh footage is certainly bad optics for the former London mayoral candidate after he was awarded an OBE and elevated to the House of Lords in Johnson’s resignation honours list just last week.

Many are calling for him and Mallett to now be stripped of their honours, though fellow Tory Michael Gove — who has called the party “indefensible” — disagrees. “The decision to confer honours on people was one that was made by Boris Johnson as an outgoing prime minister,” he said over the weekend.

“Outgoing prime ministers have that right. Whether or not they should is a matter of legitimate public debate, but they do at the moment.”

On release of the video, Bailey’s spokesperson said: “This is an old story, the matter is closed”. The Evening Standard has approached him for further comment.

3. Malin Bogue

Role at the time: Campaign aide working as director of special projects

Role now: Senior consultant in public affairs and campaigns for lobbying firm Stonehaven

Malin Bogue (REUTERS)

You’ll be familiar with Bogue’s red party dress by now, if you’ve seen the clips of her and her colleague Jack Smith twirling each other around to the sounds of The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York, past social distancing signs, before bashing not-so-gracefully into a buffet table.

The American aide might not have been a key name in the partygate scandal until now, but she certainly will be going forward as footage emerges of her parading around the CCHQ kitchen in a red v-neck dress and black heeled boots.

Bogue — the daughter of a wealthy businessman from San Francisco and a keen dancer and foxhunter — was reportedly working as an aide for Bailey’s mayoral campaign at the time; the latest in a history of campaign work after working as director of special projects for Johnson’s successful 2019 Conservative leadership bid the previous year.

But while her work for Johnson was reportedly in a voluntary capacity, reports emerged in April 2021 accusing Bogue of working for Sanjeev Gupta, a steel tycoon linked to the Grensill lobbying row whose practices left 5,000 UK jobs at risk, at the time. According to the Sunday Times, the rules of Bogue’s campaign work stated that the work of volunteers should be declared if they are “funded by another body”.

Sanjeev Gupta’s Gupta Family Group Alliance (GFG) responded to say that Bogue was on gardening leave at the time and therefore free to volunteer, but critics argued that the connection marked yet another link between the Tories and organisations associated with Greenshill.

Five months later, in September 2021, Bogue joined lobbying firm Stonehaven as a senior consultant in defence and public affairs, where she continues to work. She is also understood to be working as an aide to Hossain alongside her former colleague and party attendee Mallett. It is not yet known whether Hossain has asked the pair to step aside following the explosive new video and Bogue herself is yet to comment publicly (the Evening Standard has approached her for comment).

Little is known about Bogue’s life outside of work, but her social media accounts and previous journalism work suggest she is a keen foxhunter and dancer. In 2016 she wrote an opinion piece for The Telegraph headlined “As an American, I adore foxhunting — no matter what British class warriors think” (the following year she wrote a second piece about why Americans will never give up guns, even after a recent mass shooting in her home country) and her Facebook cover photo shows her dancing under the caption: “when I dance they call me Macarena”. She might be regretting that choice of photo now.

4. Jack Smith

Role at the time: Head of social media for then-Conservative London Mayor candidate Shaun Bailey

Role now: Parliamentary aide to Tory energy minister Graham Stuart

Smith is the other half in the now-famous partygate video dancing couple. He was, ironically, working as Bailey’s head of social media at the time; what he probably hadn’t quite bargained for was becoming a social media star in front of the camera and for all the wrong reasons, thanks to his performance at that now-infamous Christmas party.

The footage shows a bearded Smith dancing with Bogue in green trousers and a colourful Christmas jumper before they fall into a table of buffet food.

He is now understood to work as a parliamentary aide to Tory energy minister Graham Stuart. Neither he or Stuart have yet commented publicly and the Evening Standard has approached them both for comment.

5. Nick Candy

Role at the time: Property developer and Tory donor

Role now: Property developer and Tory donor

Nick Candy with wife Holly Valance (Getty Images)

If you recognise one face in the group photo other than Bailey, it’s probably Nick Candy, one half of the notorious property tycoon duo the Candy brothers and the one who famously (and unsuccessfully) bid for Chelsea Football Club last year.

You’ll have seen the billionaire property developer in the headlines regularly over recent years: he’s married to former Neighbours actress and pop star Holly Vallance and a penthouse he developed with his brother Christian in One Hyde Park became Britain’s most expensive home when he bought it for himself for £160m in 2018.

But Candy’s involvement in the partygate scandal has put in some rather less favourable headlines in recent years. As a donor to the Tory party, he attended the now-famous Christmas bash thrown by Bailey’s aides in December 2020 and can be seen smiling next to Bailey, dressed in a grey blazer and raising a glass of white wine in the group photo.

His spokesperson said at the time: “Nick Candy attended the office of the Shaun Bailey campaign for an end of year review on 14 December 2021.

“He gave a short thank you speech to the team and spent some time with Shaun Bailey to discuss campaign matters before leaving shortly afterwards.”

He has not commented publicly since the new footage emerged. The Evening Standard has approached him for comment.

6. Joe Brett

Role at the time: Press officer for Shaun Bailey

Role now: Aide for Moz Hossain’s mayoral campaign

Brett doesn’t appear in the new partygate video but he can be seen on the far left-hand side of the group photo, smiling with his arms crossed in a striped shirt and a blue lanyard.

Insiders say he’s a “nice young Essex lad whose hobby is boxing” and “did a good job with Bailey’s mayoral campaign in 2021”.

Tory mayoral hopeful Moz Hossain breaks down in tears during an Evening Standard interview (ES)

He is now understood to be working on Hossain’s mayoral campaign alongside former Bailey campaign colleagues Mallett and Bogue.

The Evening Standard has approached him for comment.

7. Jamie Monteith-Mann

Role at the time: Aide to Tory MP David Simmonds

Role now: Unknown

Monteith-Mann can be seen fourth from the left in the group photo, his head poking up just behind the girl in the green Christmas headband.

Insiders are unsure where the former aide works now but they have confirmed he was working for David Simmonds, Conservative MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner in Greater London, at the time of the now-notorious CCHQ Christmas party.

An old advertisement for a part-time constituency assistant for Simmonds in July 2020 asks for applications to be addressed to Monteith-Mann, suggesting he helped Simmonds with recruiting new staff, and he is listed on a Parliamentary register of MPs’ secretaries and research assistants as early as February 2020.

The Evening Standard has approached him for comment.

8. Mac Chapwell

Role at the time: Former Obama staffer working as an Area Campaign Manager for the Conservative Party

Role now: Founder and Head of Campaigns at Fullbrook Strategies

Mac Chapwell (fullbrookstr​ategies.com)

Chapwell — one of Liz Truss’ most senior political advisers when she was PM — is no stranger to a political campaign. The thirty-something King’s College London graduate interned at the Minneapolis office of the Obama campaign back in 2008, before his International Politics and International Relations degree, and has since worked in the offices of Northern Ireland MP Sammy Wilson and Scottish MP David Mundell.

In December 2017 he became an Area Campaign Manager for the Conservative Party for four years, being named ‘Campaign Manager of The Year’ after the 2019 general election after managing the campaigns of three marginal MPs who won with increased majorities. This is presumably the role that earned him an invite to Bailey’s now-infamous Christmas party at CCHQ, where he is pictured kneeling between the two dancers, Bogue and Smith, in a grey sweatshirt.

According to his LinkedIn, Chapwell left the two job years later in March 2022, working as a political adviser at 10 Downing Street for just a month in September last year — the same month Liz Truss took over as prime minister.

Downing Street has confirmed it will employ Liz Truss’s chief of staff Mark Fullbrook directly after it emerged he was being paid through his lobbying company (Dominic Lipinski/PA) (PA Wire)

A Guardian article months later in October 2022 described him as one of the then-PM’s most senior advisers and revealed that Chapwell and his colleague Alice Robinson had been being paid through Truss’ chief of staff Mark Fullbrook’s lobbying company, Fullbrook Strategies, which lists renowned campaign strategist Sir Lynton Crosby as one of its advisory board members.

Fullbrook claimed the pay arrangement had not been done for tax purposes but still went on to voluntarily scrap the arrangement after an outcry from opposition and some fellow Tory MPs, who described the payment plan as “unusual” and said it did not “smell right” that tax changes in the budget had made it easier to pay less tax if paid through a self-employed company than through Downing Street’s payroll. Sources close to Fullbrook suggested the U-turn was necessary so that it did not detract from important governmental work.

Chapwell is understood to have been a founding member of Fullbrook Strategies and currently describes himself on LinkedIn as Founder and Head of Campaigns at the lobbying firm. The Evening Standard has approached him for comment.

9. Brigitte Fink

Role at the time: Unknown

Role now: Geopolitical expert and researcher

Yale University major Brigitte Fink can be seen on the left-hand side of the group photo from Bailey’s bash, smiling in a skirt and pink Christmas headband, just in front of Monteith-Mann.

Her private Twitter account details how she spent 20 years helping to keep young people out of crime and gangs as a youth worker — a cause through which insiders believe she came to know Bailey and support his campaign.

A biography on the website of the Fox International Fellowship — a graduate student exchange program between Yale University and others — describes Fink as a senior in Yale College in the academic year 2021-22, majoring in history with a focus on 20th century diplomacy.

“She is from London, UK and grew up between there and the United Arab Emirates, where she attended high school. Brigitte is interested in the intersection of technology and security policy, specifically with respect to counter-terror strategy,” the bio continues. “Brigitte has worked for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a London-based counter-terrorism think tank where she helped to develop Facebook’s counter-narrative platform, which promotes positive campaigns to oppose extremist propaganda.

“She also worked for the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) in New York, analyzing the activity of extremist leaders on social media and publishing reports on the CEP website. Brigitte’s current work focuses on researching trends of radical content on social media platforms, and developing a comparative analysis of Israeli, US, and UK counter-terror policy. Brigitte hopes to develop an greater understanding of how to effectively integrate social media companies into current counter-terrorism practices. At Yale, Brigitte is active in the Yale Political Union, teaches fifth grade health education, and is a research assistant for Professor Paul Kennedy.”

The Evening Standard has approached Fink for comment.

10. Adam Wildman

Role at the time: Political director at the Conservative Party

Role now: Unknown

Wildman, the London Assembly Conservatives’ former chief of staff and a former Tory councillor for Bexley in south-east London, can be seen standing next to Bailey in the picture — eagle-eyed Twitter users identified him all the way back in 2021, prompting him to delete his Twitter and LinkedIn pages after local families and councillors called for him to resign.

At the time, local Belvedere vicar Simon Archer said he was “beyond angry” to see Wildman in the picture and Bexley Conservatives condemned their councillor’s actions, saying they were “shocked and very disappointed” and “recognise and share the anger that it has caused.”

Wildman left the Conservatives in January last year, going on to run as an Independent councillor. His last-known role was as associate director of PR and consultancy firm Teneo, though Teneo has confirmed that Wildman left the firm last year.

Insiders describe Wilman as a “political bruiser” and in his now-deleted Twitter profile he describes himself as a “recovering policy wonk”. In 2018, he wrote a piece for the website Conservative Home about growing up next to Grenfell Tower, losing a member of his family in the fire and how his party’s response to the tragedy would go on to define it.

The Evening Standard has approached him for comment.

11. Sedef Akademir

Role at the time: Outreach Director for the Conservative Party Mayoral Campaign in London

Role now: Senior consultant at advisory and advocacy firm APCO Worldwide

Akademir stands next to Fink in the group photo and is believed to have attended the party in her capacity as Outreach Director for the Conservative Party Mayoral Campaign. The english literature graduate had previously run as Conservative councillor candidate for West Hampstead in north-west London in 2018 and worked for Westminster lobby group Conservative Friends of Israel.

A biography on the website of APCO Worldwide — the global advisory and advocacy communications consultancy where she now works — describes Akademir as a senior consultant at its London outpost who “brings over eight years of experience in communications in the heart of Westminster, shaping and advising on policy, speech writing and political campaigns.

“In the past, she has generated positive communications campaigns and seen through successful policy changes. She has faced challenging and high-pressure situations, equipping her with the experience to navigate a crisis.”

The Evening Standard has approached her for comment.

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