The principal private secretary nicknamed “party marty” after organising a BYOB garden bash in lockdown. The comms chief whose leaving drinks landed the Prime Minister in trouble for raising toast. The ethics chief who provided a karaoke machine to a rule-breaking pizza and prosecco party.
The characters at the centre of the partygate scandal have been emerging thick and fast - and thanks to the newly-released Sue Gray report, there are even more of them than we initially knew about.
A total of 16 individuals have been named in the investigation, from former civil servants to serving members of the Cabinet. Then there’s the Lord who has received a peerage since being fined for attending a leaving drinks, the rule-breaking spin doctor now deputy editing a newspaper and the party host tipped to become the next ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
So who’s who? Here are 10 of the key names to know.
Martin Reynolds
Role in partygate: Organiser of the BYOB garden bash who has been nicknamed “party marty”
Title at the time: Principal Private Secretary to the PM
Title now: Lined up to become the ambassador to Saudi Arabia
Now-resigned principal private secretary Reynolds has quickly gained partygate notoriety for organising the drinks gathering in the No 10 garden during the first lockdown, but he’s probably more famous for what he said after: that “[he and his colleagues] seem[ed] to have got away with” it, a line doing the rounds in the headlines since the Sue Gray report emerged yesterday.
The quote is taken from a WhatsApp message Reynolds, formerly a City lawyer and ambassador to Libya, sent to a special adviser to express relief the media was not “focusing on our drinks (which we seem to have got away with)”.
Reynolds himself was the organiser of those drinks, which were attended by 30 to 40 people despite at least two senior staff raising concerns about the event and suggesting it be cancelled. Cain was one of them, warning that “a 200 odd person invitation for drinks in the garden of no 10 is somewhat of a comms risk in the current environment”.
Reynolds went ahead, inviting as many as 100 staff to “socially distanced” drinks. “After what has been an incredibly busy period we thought it would be nice to make the most of the lovely weather and have some socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden this evening,” he wrote in an email.
Insiders say Reynolds regretted sending the email shortly after he sent it – but too late. Despite concerns from Dominic Cummings and other staff like Cain, he reportedly decided that cancelling it would be more damaging than going ahead because it would draw attention to the email.
He did, however, warn that it would be “helpful” if people avoided “walking around with bottles of wine” ahead of the party as it was taking place after a press conference, according to the Sue Gray report.
Reynolds was also involved in a party held on June 18, 2020 in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of an unnamed No 10 official. Once again, he left WhatsApp evidence, with messages showing he asked: “Is it safer to do a larger event indoors but with some people carrying on outside afterwards?”
Whether so-called “party marty” received a partygate fine or not remains unknown, but he stepped down in February amid a stream of departures following Gray’s interim report. Last week it was revealed that he is now being lined up as a candidate to become the ambassador to Saudi Arabia, where alcohol is banned.
Lee Cain
Role in partygate: attended his own leaving drinks during Wine Time Friday
Title at the time: Communications chief for the PM
Title now: Founder of PR communications agency Charlesbye
Cain, 41, an ex-newspaper journalist and longtime Johnson ally, arrived in Downing Street alongside the PM in July 2019, becoming Johnson’s first director of communications. He was offered a promotion to chief of staff but announced his departure 24 hours later in November 2020 amid internal politics.
Insiders say he was aggrieved over the appointment of Allegra Stratton, the former TV journalist brought in to host televised No 10 news conferences, and feared being sidelined.
Clearly, he went out with a bang, his leaving do becoming one of several parties named in Gray’s report. Images released by ITV News this week show Johnson standing smiling in front of a roomful of staff, raising a toast, with empty wine bottles littering the table in front of him.
“There was a leaving speech and drinks in No 10 for Lee Cain later that day, which the prime minister attended,” Gray’s report concludes. Insiders say it was unplanned, but took place at around the same time that “Wine Time Friday” would normally be held during the week.
Gray says a second party took place that night: this time in Johnson’s Downing Street flat , with Abba music - specifically the song The Winner Takes It All - heard blaring from the windows.
Notably, fellow senior adviser Dominic Cummings’ departure had also been announced that day. He and Cain had worked together on the 2016 EU referendum campaign and were regarded as close political allies.
What was his background? Cain began his career in local news before becoming a tabloid journalist, working for titles including the Sun and Daily Mirror. While working at the Mirror, he memorably dressed up as a chicken and followed David Cameron in the run-up to the 2010 election.
He went on to become head of communications at the the Vote Leave campaign, where he worked closely with Mr Cummings. After the Brexit referendum, he worked as a special adviser for Johnson at the Foreign Office.
The spin doctor stuck with Johnson when he quit two years later over Theresa May’s proposed Brexit deal and worked on his successful campaign to succeed her as Tory leader.
He moved with Johnson to No 10 but reportedly feared being sidelined when Stratton was hired. Amid concerns over her new role, he was offered the powerful role of chief of staff, which would have meant he was one of just a handful of people in No 10 with direct one-to-one access to Mr Johnson. But the move was seen as entrenching the grip of the Vote Leave faction on the Downing Street operation and ran into immediate resistance, with Mr Johnson’s then-fiancee Carrie Symonds – who has clashed in the past with Cummings – reportedly strongly opposed to the appointment. Stratton was also said to have objected to the appointment.
“He has been a true ally and friend and I am very glad that he will remain director of communications until the new year and to help restructure the operation,” were Johnson’s words when he left No 10 in 2020.
Helen MacNamara
Role in partygate: provided the karaoke machine at a No 10 leaving do in June 2020
Title at the time: Director general for propriety and ethics
Title now: Director of policy at the Premier League
You couldn’t write it. The fact that the karaoke machine at one bash was provided by the Government’s ethics chief at the time might sound made-up, but such was the bombshell nature of Gray’s report.
That ethics chief? Helen MacNamara, a Cambridge history-graduate, creative industry expert and long-time civil servant whose career has included roles in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and Cabinet Office. As director for media policy in the DCMS, she was responsible for setting up the Leveson Inquiry and the subsequent cross-party response, and in 2015, shewas responsible for co-ordinating Government preparations for the General Election.
In 2011 she was on Management Today’s list of 35 women leaders under 35 and the 50 women to watch working in the cultural sector. She was trustee of Target Ovarian Cancer between 2008 and 2013 and was a governor of Goldsmiths College, London.
But MacNamara left the Cabinet Office last year, announcing her departure in January 2021 for a move into the private sector.
She now works as the Premier League’s director of policy, but that hasn’t sheltered her from being front and centre of some of the partygate allegations. Last month she was the first person to be named as part of the Met Police’s investigation into lockdown parties in Downing Street and across Whitehall. She said she had “accepted and paid the fixed penalty notice”, adding: “I am sorry for the error of judgement I have shown.”
Gray’s report confirmed these police findings, detailing that MacNamara provided a karaoke machine on the night of the “pizza and prosecco” leaving do for an unnamed No 10 official in June 2020.
Simon Case
Role in partygate: hosted a lockdown-breaking gathering in his private office
Title now and at the time: Cabinet Secretary (the UK’s most senior civil servant)
Ironically, it was very nearly the Simon Case report, not the Sue Gray report, if details hadn’t emerged about a gathering in Case’s private office in December 2020. Now, months after those rumours first came to light, insiders are suggesting Case - as the most senior civil servant in the country - is the very man who’ll take “ultimate responsibility” for the entire partygate scandal, if not at least a great deal of heat.
So how did he get here? It all begins in April 2020, when Cambridge-graduate Case, 43, was seconded from his role as private secretary to the Duke of Cambridge to work on the Cabinet Office’s response to the pandemic - a result of reportedly being handpicked by the PM amid frustration about ministers’ response to the pandemic.
The secondment was intended to be a temporary move, but within three months he was made a permanent secretary with responsibility for running No 10. By September, he was running the show as head of the civil service and Cabinet Secretary - the youngest person to hold the position since 1916, which some say ruffled feathers amongst other Whitehall officials.
This might be the most high-profile scandal Case has handled so far, but it is far from his first. His return to Government in 2020 saw him dealing with the fallout with the Greensill lobbying scandal and his career has included stints working on the 2012 London Olympics, directing strategy at GCHQ, being private secretary to PMs David Cameron and Theresa May and working on the Irish border debate in the now-defunct Department for Exiting the EU.
When reports of the partygate scandal first emerged at the end of last year, it was Case hismelf who was tasked by Johnson to lead an internal inquiry into the affair. But he was removed from the post a week later when reports emerged of a gathering in his private office, so the job was handed to Sue Gray.
Case escaped being fined in the Scotland Yard investigation but reports suggested that he was being lined up to carry the can when Gray delivered her final report ahead of yesterday.
So far, the BBC’s political editor Chris Mason has said that Case is not resigning and will not be sacked, but planning documents seen my reporters before the Gray report was released show that Downing Street has prepared a response in anticipation of his resignation.
Will that repsonse be needed in the coming days or will he continue to ride out the storm?
James Slack
Role in partygate: attended his own leaving do at Downing Street in April 2021
Title at the time: Director of communications at No 10
Title now: Deputy editor of The Sun
Another key aide, another boozy leaving do. Slack, a former journalist, became the Prime Minister Theresa May’s official spokesperson in 2017 - an appointment that raised eyebrows as it was technically a civil service job, rather than a political appointment. He became part of May’s inner circle and built a reputation among Westminster reporters for being across detail of the endless Brexit negotiations.
He quit as Boris Johnson’s director of communications to become deputy editor-in-chief of the Sun and Gray’s report shows the first invitation for his leaving do was set out on April 9, 2021 - nine days ahead of the event. His exit party is reported to have taken place on the same night as another No 10 official’s from the press office, and Gray reported a “considerable overlap” between the two bashes.
She says Slack’s began at 6.30pm with a speech in the press office, with around 45 people attending. Wine and beer was drunk during the speeches and the last two members of staff didn’t leave Downing Street until 4.20am, hours before the Queen sat alone at Prince Philip’s funeral.
It is not known whether Slack has been fined for the event but his deputy editorship at The Sun is not understood to be under threat, despite criticism of the Sun’s own partygate coverage. “I wish to apologise unreservedly for the anger and hurt caused. This event should not have happened at the time that it did. I am deeply sorry, and take full responsibility,” is all Slack has said on the matter.
Kate Josephs
Role in partygate: organised her own leaving do in December 2020
Title at the time: Director of communications at No 10
Title now: Boss of Sheffield Council
Again, you couldn’t write it. The third Westminster staffer shamed in Gray’s report is Kate Josephs, 44, director general of the government’s Covid taskforce, the unit responsible for drawing up the very pandemic restrictions she is reported to have broken.
The party in question is her leaving do, an event in December 2020 that Gray says was attended by 20 to 30 staffers. Josephs was found to have sent an email to colleagues inviting them to a “farewell, Covid secure drink” and attendees reportedly brought crisps, beer and Prosecco and played their own music from a smartphone speaker. The party winded down by 11.30pm.
Josephs now has a job as the £190,000-a-year chief executive of Sheffield City Council and reports of her attendance at the party broke in her first month in the post. Since January this year she has been on paid leave while an external investigator explores what happened and a committee set up to decide on her future in the role is reportedly due to meet soon.
On the publication of Sue Gray's report today, I want to reiterate my sincere and unequivocal apology. pic.twitter.com/i7wIrtVcqw
— Kate Josephs (@katejosephs) May 25, 2022
Since yesterday’s Gray report, she has reiterated her “sincere and unequivocal” apology, sharing an image of her statement on Twitter.
Dominic Cummings
Role in partygate: attended two of the alleged lockdown-breaking parties in May and June 2020
Title at the time: Senior adviser to the PM and de facto Downing Street chief of staff
Title now: Director at tech consultancy firm Siwah Ltd.
Cummings might have had his own rule-breaking scandal with Barnard Castle-gate, but he’s didn’t stop there.
According to Gray’s report, he attended two of the lockdown parties in Westminster: on May 15 and June 18. For the May 15 event, it says a meeting began between Reynolds, Cummings and the Prime Minister in Johnson’s office before moving outside to the terrace.
Cummings is said to have attended the first part of the June 18 event, which was held in the Cabinet room and was a mixture of people who attended in person and on Zoom.
The report states Mr Cummings also raised concerns in writing with Mr Reynolds over the Bring Your Own Booze party, but Ms Gray said: “We have not found any documentary evidence of this.”
Cleo Watson
Role in partygate: organised Johnson’s birthday bash in June 2020
Title at the time: No 10 special adviser
Title now: Rumoured author of an upcoming political bonkbuster
The former special adviser was a close ally of Cummings when they worked at No 10. When she left Downing Street in November 2020, Boris Johnson allegedly spoke at her leaving do. She went to work for Alok Sharma on Cop26.
Her role in partygate reportedly involves organising “some sandwiches and cake for about 1pm in the Cabinet Room” for Johnson’s birthday on June 19.
In a series of messages, Reynolds reportedly asked if “anyone from [his] team would like to pop in and wish him a happy birthday”.
Watson added: “Have sent this to policy, press and e&v heads. Do you mind letting PSs know?” to which Reynolds said: “Will do.”
Jack Doyle
Role in partygate: handed out certificates to staff at the Downing Street Christmas party in December 2020
Title at the time: Deputy head of Downing Street communications
Title now: Unknown
After Cain’s resignation, Doyle became Slack’s deputy as part of a reshuffle in the team.
The Daily Mail journalist-turned-senior comms adviser attended the Downing Street Christmas party on December 18, where he reportedly spoke and handed out certificates to staff as part of a joke awards ceremony.
The father-of-two resigned from his position as Downing Street director of communications in February this year, stating that “recent weeks [of the partygate saga] have taken a terrible toll on my family life”, but that he had always intended to leave after two years.
Lord Mark Sedwill
Role in partygate: attended a leaving do in June 2020, for which he allowed colleagues to use his office
Title at the time: Cabinet Secretary during the first part of the pandemic
Title now: Deputy chair at Lloyd’s of London and chair of the G7 panel on economic resilience
Diplomat and senior civil servant Sedwill, 57, was Case’s predecessor, serving as Cabinet Secretary during the first months of the pandemic after taking the role in April 2018. He stepped down in September 2020 amid reported tensions among the PM’s inner circle.
The former ambassador to Afghanistan and head of the civil service to Prime Ministers May and Johnson might have left the job early on in the pandemic, but he didn’t escape partygate: according to Gray, he was part of the No 10 leaving do in June 2020, giving staff permission to use his office “for a short time” and briefly staying at the party himself.
It is not known whether he’s been fined, but since standing down he has received a peerage. Perhaps he and his fellow partygaters did (mostly) “get away with it” after all.
