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Parties that went on until the early hours. Drunk staff vomit and fight each other. Downing Street walls stained with red wine. And an illegal birthday party for the British Prime Minister, complete with six packs of beer and dozens of sandwiches.
That was the scene at the heart of Boris Johnson’s government, while the rest of the UK was banned from seeing friends or relatives, according to a long-awaited inquiry into lockdown-breaking parties in Whitehall and Downing Street.
Johnson faces a battle to save his premiership after the report published Wednesday by senior official Sue Gray criticized a culture of rule-breaking events and revealed new photos of him at two separate meetings.
Gray wrote that “the senior leadership at the center” of Johnson’s administration must “be responsible” for a culture in which the parties could take place.
She added that there is “no excuse for some of the behavior” she investigated, including “excessive drinking”. There were also logs of email exchanges, including some in which employees openly discussed hiding their parties from the media.
The report examined 16 events that took place while the UK was living under strict Covid-19 restrictions.
A photo of Johnson lifting a can of beer at a birthday party held in his honor was on file, along with more images of the prime minister at another event.
Speaking to Parliament moments after the report was published, Johnson said he was “humiliated” and “learned my lesson”, adding: “I take full responsibility for everything that happened on my watch. ”
But he also echoed previous claims that parties didn’t escalate until after he left, insisting he was “surprised and disappointed” that several drink-fuelled events were taking place.
And he suggested that the cramped quarters of government buildings and the “extremely long hours” of his staff responding to the Covid-19 crisis could explain why several parties and social events took place.
“I attended such meetings briefly to thank them for their service, which I believe is one of the essential responsibilities of leadership,” Johnson said.
The report raises serious questions about whether Johnson misled lawmakers when he previously denied that there were any parties.
He was mobbed by opposition leader Keir Starmer, Labor Party leader, who said the inquest “provides definitive proof of how the people in the building treated the sacrifices of the British people with utter contempt.”
“This report will be a monument to the hubris and arrogance of a government that believed it was one rule for them, and another rule for everyone else,” Starmer said.
“You cannot be a legislator and a lawbreaker. It’s time to pack his bags.”
Gray found that Johnson attended a garden party for about half an hour in May 2020, where about “30-40 people” attended.
An invitation to that event told staff about “socially distancing drinks” in the Downing Street garden, open to “anyone who is in your office.”
“Can you imagine bringing their own booze! I’m not sure we’ll have enough,” Martin Reynolds, Johnson’s chief private secretary, said in an email, according to the report. The next day, Reynolds noted that the media had not reported on the party and wrote to a colleague, “Looks like we got away with it.”
In one email exchange, staff were told to avoid “walking around with bottles of wine” while reporters were in the building, and to keep noise down during meetings when a Covid-19 ministerial press conference took place.
Prior to a December 2020 virtual quiz in which Johnson took part, an official sent a message to staff regarding “drunkenness” advising them to exit Downing Street through the rear exit to avoid press photographers.
A night of heavy drinking on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral – which took place during lockdown rules that forced the Queen to sit alone to say goodbye to her husband of nearly 74 – resulted in a child’s swing breaking in the Prime Minister’s Garden.
The staff left that event well after midnight with the last person leaving at 4:20 am
Some employees were uncomfortable with the behavior within number 10, but feared raising the issue, Gray found. And on other occasions, prison staff were mistreated by those involved in events.
“I was made aware of several examples of disrespect and poor treatment of security and cleaning personnel. This was unacceptable,” she wrote.
And Gray hinted that Downing Street officials were unwilling to provide information about the parties, writing: “It was also the case, unfortunately, that details of some events only became known to me and my team through media coverage. This is disappointing.”
Johnson’s tenure has been derailed by the months-long scandal dubbed “Partygate” by the British media. He initially denied that any events had taken place, but 16 were subsequently investigated by Gray, 12 were investigated by police and Johnson himself was fined by officers for attending one.
Some lawmakers in his own Conservative party have joined opposition calls for him to resign in recent weeks, and he will now have to convince his colleagues to back him, despite the string of allegations and Gray’s damning investigation.
But political ramifications aside, the most shocking element of Gray’s report is the stark contrast between events in Downing Street and across the country.
Britain has undergone three strict lockdowns and several other regional measures during the pandemic, which have claimed more lives in the UK than in any other country in Europe.
During those periods, laws restricted attendance and physical contact at funerals and kept people away from dying relatives in hospitals and care homes.
“There we have it,” the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Although the country had one of the highest death rates in the world from Covid-19, they feasted on cheese and wine and drank themselves sick over a karaoke machine.
“The reports in the report show that they knew how disrespectful they were to the families they abandoned, but that didn’t bother them,” she added.
The group urged Johnson to leave office, saying he has “treated us as they treated their cleaning staff and security who were fighting their violations of the law at the time: as if we were an inconvenience, as if we were dirty.”
