One of the striking things about civil servant Sue Gray’s report on lockdown parties at 10 Downing Street – aside from the alcohol consumption, vomiting and karaoke singing – was the presence of multiple WhatsApp transcripts.
Exchanges between staff showed them planning parties and openly admitting that they knew what they were doing wasn’t right. In one exchange that will surely become emblematic of the whole debacle, Martin Reynolds, a close aide to prime minister Boris Johnson at the time, speaks of having “got away” with a party during lockdown without the press catching wind of it.
