A scathing report has revealed how No10 staff sought to hide booze-fuelled parties with one saying: “We seem to have got away with” it.
The 60-page report by senior civil servant Sue Gray told how Downing Street staff left by the backdoor from at least two gatherings, at times in the early hours of the morning, as millions of people across Britain were at home following the Government’s lockdown and other Covid laws and restrictions.
Listing 16 events including “Wine Time Friday” parties in No10, and across wider Whitehall, Ms Gray concluded: “Many will be dismayed that behaviour of this kind took place on this scale at the heart of Government.”
She added: “The events that I investigated were attended by leaders in government. Many of these events should not have been allowed to happen.”
Key points in the report included:
- Ahead of the “bring-your-own-booze” party on May 20, 2020, one No10 special adviser Whatsapped Mr Johnson’s then principal private secretary Martin Reynolds: “Drinks this eve is a lovely idea... “Just to flag that the press conference will probably be finishing around that time, so helpful if people can be mindful of that as speakers and cameras are leaving, not walking around waving bottles of wine etc...”
- Mr Reynolds, who sent out the “bring-your-own-booze” invitation, later sent a Whatsapp message to a special adviser stating: “Best of luck - a complete non story but better than them focusing on our drinks (which we seem to have got away with).”
- A quiz took place in Downing Street on 15 December 2020. A No 10 official sent a message on internal No 10 systems referring to “drunkenness” and advising staff to leave No 10 via the back exit, the report said. The No10 official informed the investigation team that they did this in order to avoid staff being photographed by the press outside, it added.
- After two leaving dos on 16 April 2021, people left Downing Street as late as 4.20am. The No 10 entry logs show that a number of people left No 10 at this point. They were encouraged by the custodian to use the rear exit of No10, the report highlighted.
Ms Gray’s bombshell report provided a detailed account of the parties which took place between 15 May 2020 and 16 April 2021.
These included:
- A cheese and wine party in the garden of Downing Street on 15 May 2020, attended by Mr Johnson and former Health Secretary Matt Hancock which lasted for around 40 minutes. Ms Gray says the Prime Minister “brought cheese and wine from his flat”.
- A bring your own booze party in the Downing Street garden on 20 May 2020, attended by Mr Johnson for 30 minutes and which lasted all evening until 11pm. Ms Gray details how Mr Reynolds pressed ahead with the gathering despite repeated warnings from a No10 director as well as former director of communications Lee Cain and the Prime Minister’s former senior adviser Dominic Cummings. Following the party Mr Reynolds later messaged a special adviser: “Best of luck - a complete non story but better than them focusing on our drinks (which we seem to have got away with).”
- A leaving party in the Cabinet Office on 18 June 2020 for a No 10 official where officials ate pizza and drank prosecco well into the evening while Helen MacNamara, former Deputy Cabinet Secretary, attended for part of the evening and provided a karaoke machine.
- Mr Johnson’s ‘surprise’ birthday party on 19 June 2020. While the Prime Minister was not aware of the gathering in the Cabinet Room emails show it was planned well in advance. It was attended by Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case and those present ate sandwiches and snacks and drank soft drinks and cans of beer.
- Lee Cain’s leaving party on 13 November 2020. Pictures of this event showing Mr Johnson toasting Mr Cain were revealed by ITV News this week.
- Ms Gray says a second party in Mr Johnson’s Downing Street flat on 13 November - where Abba music was heard blaring from the windows - was not investigated by the senior civil servant because of the Met’s separate inquiry.
- Although two gatherings in No 10 to mark the departure of two No 10 officials on 17 December 2020 started separately, officials later joined together to eat pizza and drink late into the evening.
- On 18 December 2020 officials were invited to a “Wine & Cheese Evening”. Ms Gray documents how a panic alarm was accidentally triggered by a member of staff which led to security staff attending. The report states how the custodians observed a large number of people in the area outside of the main Press Office and one individual giving a speech. It added that food and alcohol were available and some members of staff drank excessively. A cleaner who attended the room the next morning noted that there had been red wine spilled on one wall and on a number of boxes of photocopier paper.
Some No10 officials, including Mr Cain, raised concerns about some of the parties, and that they posed communications “risks”.
However, the drinking culture still took place.
The Prime Minister is expected to personally apologise to security and cleaning staff after Ms Gray found they were at times treated with contempt when events were organised.
“Some staff had witnessed or been subjected to behaviours at work which they had felt concerned about but at times felt unable to raise properly,” she said. “I was made aware of multiple examples of a lack of respect and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff. This was unacceptable.”
During a Christmas party on December 18, 2020, the day before London was plunged into Tier 4 Covid restrictions, No10 staff took part in a Secret Santa gift exchange, quiz and prize giving in the area just outside the Downing Street Press Office. Up to 45 people gathered in the room where awards certificates were handed out by senior special adviser Jack Doyle.
The morning after a cleaner “noted that there had been red wine spilled on one wall and on a number of boxes of photocopier paper”, the report found.
As he seeks to stay in office, Mr Johnson, who has already apologised for the gatherings in No10, made a statement to Parliament and took questions at a press conference before meeting his backbenchers this afternoon.
The Prime Minister told MPs he takes "full responsibility for everything that took place on my watch".
He said he renewed his “apology to the House, to the whole country, for the short lunchtime gathering on June 19, 2020 in the Cabinet Room, during which I stood at my place at the Cabinet table and for which I received a fixed penalty notice.
"I also want to say above all that I take full responsibility for everything that took place on my watch. Sue Gray's report has emphasised that it is up to the political leadership in Number 10 to take ultimate responsibility and, of course, I do."
He told the Downing Street press conference he "overwhelmingly" believes he should remain in office despite public anger at the "bitter and painful" conclusions of the inquiry.
He recognised people are "indignant" over the damning findings of Sue Gray's report into law-breaking at the heart of Government but defied fresh calls to resign as a snap poll from YouGov after it was published said three in five Britons want Mr Johnson to quit.
He sought to draw a line under the “partygate” affair by claiming it was time for the country to “move on” and claimed much of the content of the report was “news to me”.
The threat to Mr Johnson’s premiership had eased in recent weeks.
But the publication by ITV News of pictures of Mr Johnson, allegedly at a No10 leaving do for outgoing director of communications Lee Cain, where bottles of wine and fizz could be seen on a table, led some Tory MPs to renew their calls for him to stand down.
Senior backbencher Tobias Ellwood, a prominent critic of the Prime Minister, challenged Mr Johnson in Parliment over the "damning report" which revealed an "absence of leadership, focus and discipline in No 10".
He asked fellow Tories "are you willing day in and day out to defend this behaviour publicly" and asked: "Can we win the general election on this current trajectory?"
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told the Commons the report "laid bare the rot" in No 10 and called on Tory MPs to tell Mr Johnson "the game is up" and that it is "time to pack his bags".
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner described the contents of the report as "indefensible", calling Mr Johnson's Downing Street "rotten from the very top".
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford called on the Prime Minister to resign for "orchestrating" the scenes in Downing Street.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: "Any other PM would be forced to resign by a report as damaging as this, yet still Conservative MPs defend Johnson and allow him to cling on."
Mr Johnson’s red box was in at least one of the pictures which may allow his aides to argue that he was at the event as part of his working day.
Ahead of the report, a Cabinet minister acknowledged that the line between work and social activity was blurred in No 10 during the coronavirus lockdowns.
Environment Secretary George Eustice told Times Radio: “Clearly what happened in No10 is a culture developed where they were working there, it was their place of work, and there were times when they would have a drink at the end of the day.
“That boundary between what was acceptable and what wasn’t got blurred and that was a mistake and Sue Gray highlighted that in her first interim report and I think she is almost certainly going to say more about that when her final report comes out.
“The Prime Minister himself has accepted that and recognises there were of course failings and therefore there’s got to be some changes to the way the place is run.”
Mr Johnson is facing an inquiry by the Commons Privileges Committee into whether he deliberately misled Parliament, which would be a resigning matter, according to many MPs.
Mr Eustice stressed: “The Prime Minister himself has also given a very clear account of his own understanding of all of those events that he attended, that he didn’t regard them as parties, that he didn’t regard them as breaking the rules.
“He has explained that, that was his understanding, and obviously where the police have said there were particular failings on his part, in respect of the birthday party where the cake was brought in, he has acknowledged that and paid that fixed-penalty notice.”
According to an earlier, shortened report published in January, Ms Gray’s investigation analysed 16 events in Downing Street and Whitehall from May 15 2020 to April 16 2021.
The full publication into the parties was sidelined as the Metropolitan Police conducted its own partygate probe into 12 of the gatherings.
The force concluded its investigation on May 19, with 126 fines being issued in total to 83 people.
At the time, it explained: “We took great care to ensure that for each referral we had the necessary evidence to prosecute the FPN (fixed penalty notice) at court, were it not paid.”
Legal experts have highlighted that this is a different level of proof/evidence as for many of the other fines given out by police forces.
