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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Nicholas Cecil

‘No comment’: Cabinet minister dodges questions on whether partygate civil servant should be Saudi Arabia ambassador

Martin Reynolds Saudi Arabia Partygate Steve Barclay Boris Johnson United Kingdom Britain Libya Riyadh Alcohol

This file picture taken on November 10, 2020, shows Boris Johnson and Martin Reynolds arriving at Downing Street

(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)

A Cabinet minister refused four times on Thursday to say whether it would be a good idea to send an ex-No10 top civil servant at the centre of the partygate scandal to be Britain’s next ambassador to Saudi Arabia given the country’s strict rules on alcohol.

Martin Reynolds, who was Boris Johnson’s Principal Private Secretary, was named in the Sue Gray report as having an email sent out on his behalf to around 200 staff across No10 Downing Street, inviting them to a “bring your own booze” party on May 20, 2020, when England was under lockdown laws.

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