Boris Johnson: Downing Street staff invited to lockdown-breaking party, leaked
The email, from Johnson’s principal private secretary Martin Reynolds, invited more than 100 staffers to “socially distanced drinks in the No. 10 garden” on May 20, 2020, encouraging them to “bring (their) own booze” and “make the most of the lovely weather.”
At that time, strict lockdown restrictions were in place in England that banned more than two people from meeting outdoors.
The revelation deepens a scandal over a series of allegedly rule-breaking parties held in and around Downing Street that have sparked public fury, sunk Johnson’s Conservative Party in opinion polls and led to scrutiny over his position as prime minister.
In the email, first published by ITV News on Monday, Reynolds said: “After what has been an incredibly busy period it would be nice to make the most of the lovely weather and have some socially distanced drinks in the No10 garden this evening.”
“Please join us from 6pm and bring your own booze!” the email added.
A source who worked in Downing Street at the time has confirmed the contents of the email independently to CNN.
Two-thirds (66%) of UK adults say that Johnson should resign following allegations that he attended the BYOB social gathering when England was under lockdown, according to a new Savanta ComRes snap poll, published on Tuesday.
And four out of 10 (42%) people who said they voted for Johnson’s Conservative Party in the last election said that he should resign, the poll found. That’s a rise of nine points — from 33% — in people saying he should resign in December.
Hannah Brady, a campaigner for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, said her father had died with the virus four days before the email was sent. “At the time, everyone would have known that going to a party was wrong, so how can those running the country have thought it was OK?,” she said in a statement.
“To think that whilst it was happening Boris Johnson was making the ‘most of the weather’ and throwing a party for 100 people, is truly beyond belief,” she added. “Could there be a more disgraceful example of ‘one rule for them, and another rule for the rest of us’?”
Mixing between households was at the time limited to two people, who could only meet outdoors and at a distance of at least 2 meters (6.5 feet). In workplaces, official guidance stated that in-person meetings should only take place if “absolutely necessary.”
Johnson refused to respond to reports that he and his wife, Carrie Johnson, had attended the event when pressed by a journalist on Monday, saying only: “That, as you know, is the subject of a proper investigation by Sue Gray.”
Gray, a senior civil servant, has been tasked with investigating the alleged parties. She took on the role after Cabinet…
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