Time to face the music, Boris: PM braces for Partygate mauling in Commons

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Boris Johnson offered a partial apology today after finally admitting he went to a party in the Downing Street garden at the height of lockdown – but argued he thought it was a ‘work event’ and ‘technically’ within the rules.

At a stormy PMQs, Mr Johnson said he wanted to ‘thank’ staff at the event in May 2020 but recognised that in ‘hindsight’ it should not have happened.

He said he understood public ‘fury’ and ‘took responsibility’, but said he had ‘implicitly’ believed it was a work event – even though around 100 people were invited and urged to ‘bring your own booze’. 

‘I bitterly regret it. I wish we could have done things differently,’ he said.

However, the rules at the time made clear that all social gatherings of more than two people were banned, and backing from the Tory benches seemed muted.

Keir Starmer responded that Mr Johnson should do the ‘decent thing and resign’, saying the public knows he is ‘lying through his teeth’.

‘The party is over, Prime Minister,’ he said. 

The picture is looking increasingly grim for the premier with Tories up in arms following the emergence of a bombshell email from his top civil servant inviting 100 staff to the event. 

He tried to calm the situation by making offering the limited mea culpa at the start of the PMQs session, after Red Wall MPs joined calls for him to stop ‘defending the indefensible’ and say whether he and Carrie attended the drinks do. Up to now he has batted away questions by pointing out that senior mandarin Sue Gray is carrying out an investigation.  

Challenged on whether he would resign if she found he breached lockdown rules, Mr Johnson merely said he would respond ‘appropriately’. 

Tory MPs studiously dodged asking questions about Partygate during the session, instead going on topics including abolishing the BBC licence fee, bus services and Roman fossils. 

One Tory aide watching the scenes in the chamber told MailOnline: ‘This is so very very excruciating.’ 

However, No10 will be relieved that few of Mr Johnson’s own benches laid into him afterwards. One of them was veteran Tory MP Roger Gale – a regular critic of the PM – who said Mr Johnson was a ‘dead man walking’ and on ‘very thin ice indeed’. 

A Red Wall MP told MailOnline: ‘He’s not changed any minds but no killer blow today. He’s taken on a lot of water and is listing but not quite sunk yet.’ 

Another senior backbencher said Mr Johnson was in a ‘holding pattern’, but added: ‘The trouble is with holding patterns is that they need fuel to be sustained.’ 

Further damaging allegations about parties in Downing Street are circulating today, and nerves are growing among Mr Johnson’s aides about the scale of the threat to his position. Snap polls have suggested that up to two-thirds of the public believe he should quit. 

In a desperate effort at damage limitation, Mr Johnson told the packed Commons chamber: ‘I want to apologise. I know that millions of people across this country have made extraordinary sacrifices over the last 18 months.

‘I know the anguish they have been through – unable to mourn their relatives, unable to live their lives as they want or to do the things they love. 

‘I know the rage they feel with me and with the Government I lead when they think in Downing Street itself the rules are not being properly followed by the people who make the rules.

‘And though I cannot anticipate the conclusions of the current inquiry, I have learned enough to know there were things we simply did not get right and I must take responsibility.’

Mr Johnson argued that he believed the drinks bash was a ‘work event’ – even though an invite had been sent out to 100 staff telling them to ‘bring your own booze’.   

‘No 10 is a big department with a garden as an extension of the office which has been in constant use because of the role of fresh air in stopping the virus.

‘When I went into that garden just after six on May 20, 2020, to thank groups of staff before going back into my office 25 minutes later to continue working, I believed implicitly that this was a work event.’

In the closest thing to an apology so far, Mr Johnson said: ‘With hindsight I should have sent everyone back inside. I should have found some other way to thank them.

‘I should have recognised that even if it could be said technically to fall within the guidance, there are millions and millions of people who simply would not see it that way, people who have suffered terribly, people who were forbidden for meeting loved ones at all inside or outside, and to them and to this House I offer my heartfelt apologies.

‘All I ask is that Sue Gray be allowed to complete her inquiry into that day and several others so that the full facts can be established.’ 

In another bad sign for the premier, no minister was sent out to do broadcast interviews this morning – in echoes of the situation before Christmas when Sajid Javid refused to go out and defend the government. 

And Chancellor Rishi Sunak is on a visit to Devon rather than at PMQs, although aides insist the trip has been in the diary for some time.  

On another day of intense political drama:

Keir Starmer faced Mr Johnson at PMQs after returning negative Covid tests and being released from his sixth period of isolation;  More than a dozen Tory MPs have gone public with criticism of the Government, with some admitting voters were ‘rightly furious’;A major Conservative donor issued an ultimatum to Mr Johnson to ‘sort it out or step aside … so that the Tories aren’t wiped out at the next election’;The PM has refused to sack his principal private secretary, whose bombshell email inviting 100 staff to the gathering sparked the crisis;His advisers were on alert over fears photographic evidence of the party could emerge;It was claimed that one senior official at the garden party event joked about the risk of surveillance by drones;The civil servant who runs Mr Johnson’s private office was facing claims of involvement in another boozy gathering that may have broken the rules.

Yesterday the premier faced a ferocious backlash from families who were prevented by lockdown rules from saying a proper farewell to loved ones.

And senior Tories warned that his survival in No 10 depends on addressing the claims and restoring trust.

Several said he will have to resign if he was at the ‘BYOB’ bash, while others suggested he could soon face a confidence vote.

Conservatives are split between those who believe the allegations are fatal to the PM and those who regard them as highly damaging.

Piling into Mr Johnson after his partial apology, Sir Keir said: ‘There we have it. After months of deceit and deception, the pathetic spectacle of a man who has run out of road. His defence … that he didn’t realise he was at a party is so ridiculous that it’s actually offensive to the British public.

‘He’s finally been forced to admit what everyone knew, that when the whole country was locked down he was hosting boozy parties in Downing Street. Is he now going to do the decent thing and resign?’

Mr Johnson replied: ‘I appreciate the point that he’s making about the event that I attended. I want to repeat that I thought it was a work event and I regret very much that we did not do things differently that evening.

‘I take responsibility and I apologise. But as for his political point, I don’t think that he should pre-empt the outcome of the inquiry. He will have a further opportunity, I hope, to question me as soon as possible.’

Sir Keir asked: ‘Why does the Prime Minister still think that the rules don’t apply to him?’

He said: ‘When the Prime Minister’s former health secretary broke the rules, he resigned and the Prime Minister said he was right to do so.

‘When the Prime Minister’s spokesperson laughed about the rules being broken, she resigned and the Prime Minister accepted that resignation.

‘Why does the Prime Minister still think that the rules don’t apply to him?’

Mr Johnson replied: ‘That’s not what I’ve said and I understand the point that he makes, as I’ve said I regret the way things happened on the evening in question and I apologise, but if I may say to him, I do think it would be better if he waited until the full conclusion of the inquiry, until the full facts are brought before this House and he will have an opportunity to put his points again.’

Labour MP Chris Bryant, who chairs the Commons Standards Committee, demanded to know why he was treating the public like fools. 

‘The Prime Minister didn’t spot that he was at a social event. That’s the excuse isn’t it? Come off it,’ he said.

‘I mean how stupid does the Prime Minister think the British people are. The worst of it is he’s already managed to completely destroy Allegra Stratton’s career, he’s tarnished the reputation of Lord Geidt, and now he’s making fools of every single MP who cheered him earlier, every single one who goes out on the radio and television to defend this shower of shenanigans.

‘Would it not be absolutely despicable if, in the search for a scapegoat, some junior member of staff ends up losing their job, but he kept his?’

Mr Johnson shot back: ‘I don’t agree with him. I’ve come to this House to make amends, to explain what happened on May 20, and to apologise.

‘I really think that with all humility I must ask him to wait for the result of the inquiry, where he will have abundant opportunity to question me again and to make his party political points again. But, until then, I’m going to ignore his advice.’

Before the PMQs clashes, a Cabinet minister told The Times it was ‘not terminal yet’, but added: ‘We’re f***ed unless we resolve it. Everyone knows this thing happened; nobody is disputing that.

‘The row has moved on from whether the party took place to questions around denial and prevarication.’

Tory MP Christian Wakeford, who has a tiny majority in Bury South, said called for ‘openness, trust and honesty’ in politics, and ‘that starts from the top’.

‘How do you defend the indefensible? You can’t! It’s embarrassing and what’s worse is it further erodes trust in politics when it’s already low.

‘We need openness, trust and honesty in our politics now more than ever and that starts from the top!’ 

Allies of Dominic Cummings, the ex-aide who has waged a determined campaign against his former boss, have been gloating that Mr Johnson has just a 20 per cent chance of political survival.  

Mr Johnson’s fate now likely rests in the hands of Ms Gray, who was drafted in to investigate alleged lockdown-breaking Downing Street parties after Britain’s top mandarin Simon Case was forced to stand down from the probe.

The mood in No10 has been described as ‘bleak’ as Mr Johnson’s inner circle struggled to decide on a strategy to counter the claims.

Anxious aides have been asking friends how they think the situation will play out. 

It is unclear what Mr Johnson can do to reassure his fractious MPs, with the threat of a police probe hanging over Downing Street.

The latest ‘partygate row’ exploded on Monday night when an email invite to the party from Martin Reynolds, the Prime Minister’s principal private secretary, was leaked. 

The invite told staff that ‘it would be nice to make the most of the lovely weather’ and to have ‘some socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden’.

The event was held on May 20, 2020 – a time when the UK was still covered by stringent restrictions and people were banned from meeting up outside in groups of more than two.

Ministers and aides insisted they could not say whether Mr Johnson attended the event while the inquiry by Miss Gray was still ongoing. 

But their bid to ignore questions failed to quell sulphurous anger within the Conservative Party and from the wider public.

Even members of Mr Johnson’s frontbench team privately plunged the knife, with one senior minister telling the Mail the Prime Minister should resign. The minister suggested Mr Johnson should avoid a ‘slow, painful exit’.

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross yesterday said Mr Johnson would have to quit if he was found to have broken lockdown rules and warned that Conservative backbenchers were already discussing a no confidence vote.

He demanded that the PM ‘just answer the question’ about whether he was at the ‘bring your own booze’ event. 

He called on Mr Johnson to ‘settle this right now’. ‘If there’s nothing to hide here, if there’s no issue, then just answer the question,’ added the Tory MP.

‘If the Prime Minister and others within No 10 breached that guidance while earlier that afternoon a Cabinet minister had told people what they were expected to do, but out the back in No 10 people were enjoying the sunshine in the garden, I think that is utterly despicable.’

In the Commons, Cabinet Office minister Michael Ellis insisted the Prime Minister was ‘going nowhere’ in response to opposition calls for him to resign.

But a senior Tory said it was a ‘serious problem’ that ‘there wasn’t a single Government minister on the frontbench’ next to Mr Ellis as he responded to the urgent question. 

‘If the Government cannot even get ministers to defend the indefensible, how can they expect us to?’ the source told the Mail.

One Tory minister said Mr Johnson needed to execute a new strategy at PMQs today. 

‘His leadership will be put on life support unless he starts being upfront,’ they told the Mail. ‘It is critical that we get honesty.’

A backbench Conservative MP said of the PM’s position: ‘It’s a matter of when not if. It’s all that’s being discussed in the tearooms. I think the die is cast. I put in my letter weeks ago.

A teacher whose mother died alone five days before the No 10 drinks party branded Mr Johnson a ‘coward’ over his response to the scandal.

Valerie French, 68, was allowed just ten minutes with Marjorie Bourke, 98, before she was left to die from pneumonia and heart failure. 

Meanwhile Phones4U founder John Caudwell, one of the Conservatives’ biggest individual donors at the previous election with £500,000, has joined in on the criticism, issuing an ultimatum to Johnson.

He told BBC News: ‘Sort it out, Boris, or step aside and let someone else sort it out so that the Tories aren’t wiped out at the next election.

‘While the rest of us were striving to follow the ever-changing rules – including myself, even when I deemed them to be excessive at best, nonsensical at worst – those who were setting those rules were, apparently freely and frequently, disregarding them.

‘Each one of these new revelations gives greater force to the accusation that areas of the government think it’s one rule for them, one rule for the rest of us. This is disastrous.’  

Mr Johnson was branded a ‘serial liar’ by former attorney general Dominic Grieve, while Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said it would be ‘utterly despicable’ if he flouted rules. saying: ‘The Prime Minister can settle this right now, he can tell people: was he at the party or not?’

Last night former minister Johnny Mercer – now a vocal critic of Mr Johnson – issued a Twitter apology to constituents who had followed the rules, branding the situation ‘humiliating’.

The premier stood accused of going into ‘hiding’ after sending a junior minister to field an urgent question in the Commons this afternoon. 

In highly-charged scenes, MPs including the DUP’s Jim Shannon and Labour’s Afzal Khan spoke emotionally about their own bereavements during the pandemic and called for clarity on what had happened in No10. 

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said Mr Johnson’s decision to swerve the confrontation – emulated by most Tory MPs – ‘speaks volumes’.

She said: ‘It is incredibly disappointing, but not unsurprising, that the Prime Minister of whom I asked this question is not here today despite not having any official engagements.

‘I think his absence speaks volumes as does his smirks on the media, the public have already drawn their own conclusions. He can run but he can’t hide.’

Cabinet Office minister Michael Ellis apologised for ‘upset’ caused by the allegations – but insisted that everyone should wait for the investigation to conclude.

Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon called for the premier to quit saying people were ‘aghast’ at his ‘serial breaches’ of the rules. 

Scotland Yard has confirmed that they are now ‘in contact with the Cabinet Office’ over reports of the drinks event. 

The force is thought to be waiting to see if Ms Gray’s inquiry identifies rule-breaking before considering whether further action is needed.

A spokesman for the Met said: ‘The Metropolitan Police Service is aware of widespread reporting relating to alleged breaches of the Health Protection Regulations at Downing Street on May 20 2020 and is in contact with the Cabinet Office.’ 

Lawyers have suggested the premier being there might not have broken the law at the time, as it was technically his garden.  

The raging ‘Partygate’ row was not even mentioned at Cabinet this morning, according to No10. 

But bereaved families vented fury and accused Mr Johnson of ‘smirking’ rather than answering the allegations.

And Sir Keir said: ‘Boris Johnson, your deflections and distractions are absurd. Not only did you know about the parties in Downing Street, you attended them.

‘Stop lying to the British public. It’s time to finally come clean.’

Ms Gray – who has a fierce reputation in Whitehall – is set to deliver her findings as early as next week. 

No10 has rejected reports that a senior figure advised some aides to ‘clean up’ their phones to remove information about potential lockdown breaches.   

A No 10 spokeswoman said: ‘We don’t recognise these claims.

‘Staff were given clear guidance to retain any relevant information. 

‘As set out in the terms of reference, all staff are expected to fully co-operate with the investigation.’

But the problems are already spiralling, with Tory mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street among those demanding to know immediately if Mr Johnson was at the gathering. 

One Conservative aide told MailOnline they personally would not have attended any such event at the time because they are ‘not stupid’. 

Another said the situation ‘really isn’t looking good’. ‘He has to find a new scapegoat now. Reynolds alone won’t be enough.’

They also pointed to a wider problem of trust in the PM, with polls showing his personal ratings plunging. 

A Tory insider told MailOnline Ms Gray was seen as ‘evil incarnate’ by some in Whitehall but her duty would be to protect the premier.  

‘Boris is going to protect himself. And people who have been loyal to him are soon going to see how that will never be reciprocated,’ they said. 

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Ms Rayner said: ‘He doesn’t need an investigation, he doesn’t need a civil servant to tell him whether he attended this party or not.’

Asked whether she had confidence in Ms Gray’s inquiry, Ms Rayner added: ‘I have every confidence in Sue Gray to do her job and diligently do that, but I think this particular allegation does not need to wait for Sue Gray’s inquiry, which is a much wider one around the culture and what was happening at the time within the Government departments.

‘This is about the Prime Minister and his integrity, and whether he broke the law or not.

‘He can answer that question very simply, he doesn’t need to hide behind a civil servant or anyone else.’

Senior Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood called for Ms Johnson to ‘show some contrition’.

The Commons Defence Committee chairman told Sky News: ‘I strongly urge the Prime Minister to act now, to apologise for No 10’s poor judgment, to show some contrition and to be committed to appropriately respond to Sue Gray’s findings when they come out.

‘We can’t allow things to drift, that is not an option.’

Asked whether he would consider it the ‘end of the matter’ if Mr Johnson ‘comes clean’ over the party claims, the former minister added: ‘It would probably be for the Cabinet then to judge, and then also what he says and how he says it.

‘But we need to get ahead of the story. This is distracting us, it is taking airtime away.’

Snap Savanta ComRes research last night found that 66 per cent believe Mr Johnson should quit over Partygate, including 42 per cent of Conservative supporters.

YouGov had similar results, with 56 per cent saying the premier should fall on his sword and 27 per cent saying the opposite. 

As well as the 66 per cent overall who wanted Mr Johnson to quit, Savanta ComRes found 42 per cent of Tories wanted him gone.

Some 62 per cent felt the event in the No 10 garden in May 2020 was a worse breach of trust than the initial Christmas party revelations.

The survey of 1,040 UK adults carried out found the proportion of those who felt Mr Johnson should resign had risen by 12 points since December. Among Tory voters there was a nine-point rise.

And 65 per cent thought Martin Reynolds, the PM’s principal private secretary who organised the garden party, should leave his role.

Chris Hopkins, political research director at Savanta ComRes, said: ‘That rope for Boris Johnson just got shorter as the latest allegations of further lockdown breaches in No.10 emerge and, crucially, this time Boris Johnson may lack plausible deniability due to the rumours circling that he and his wife attended the drinks event on 20 May while the rest of the country were restricted to meeting just one other person socially outdoors.

‘A 12-point increase in those saying he should resign compared to Christmas Partygate is significant, but ultimately it’s not the court of public opinion that Johnson will be tried in; it’s his own party.’

The separate YouGov poll found 56 per cent of people thought the PM should resign, while 27 per cent said he should stay in his role and 17 per cent did not know.

When a similar question about whether Mr Johnson should remain as leader of the Conservative Party was posed by YouGov on November 22, 48 per cent said he should stand down, 31% that he should stay, while 22 per cent answered that they did not know.

On May 20, 2020, the Met had told people they could have a picnic, exercise or do sport outside providing you are ‘on your own, with people you live with, or just you and one other person’.

Oliver Dowden, then the culture secretary, used a Downing Street press conference that day to remind the public they could ‘meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor, public place provided that you stay two metres apart’. It is understood Mr Dowden was not at the ‘BYOB’ bash.

A total of 807 fixed penalty notices for Covid-related offences were issued in the week of May 15 – 21 2020 across all forces, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council. 

Mr Reynolds’s email, which was leaked to ITV News, said: ‘Hi all, 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!’

Downing Street said yesterday that the PM still has ‘full confidence’ in his PPS. 

Sir David Normington, a former Whitehall permanent secretary and former First Civil Service Commissioner, suggested there should have been an external probe into the Partygate claims. 

But he said Ms Gray was the ‘best person’ within Whitehall to look into the allegations.

‘She will be very aware that she has the reputation and possibly the careers of senior civil servants and possibly of the Prime Minister in her hands, and that is a very difficult position to be in, however fair and fearless and rigorous you are,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Calling the position Ms Gray finds herself in ‘very odd’, the former Home Office mandarin added: ‘She has in her previous role as head of propriety and ethics investigated Cabinet ministers, the behaviour of Cabinet ministers and so on, but I think it is fairly unprecedented for her to be investigating behaviour of the Prime Minister and, of course, of the Cabinet Secretary and the principal private secretary in No 10.

‘This is a step beyond, I think, anything she will have done in the past.’

Asked whether there should have been an external investigation into what went on in Downing Street, Sir David said it might have been ‘better to have someone from outside’, but added: ‘If we are going to have a civil servant doing it, Sue Gray is the best person to do it.

‘She has the confidence both of people who worked in previous governments, Labour governments and Conservative governments, so we are where we are.’

Mr Johnson’s authority has come under serious challenge among backbenchers and Cabinet colleagues in recent months, including over Partygate. 

In December, the PM insisted that a photo of a gathering in the No10 garden where staff were seen eating cheese and drinking wine from May 15, 2020 showed people ‘working’.

Another photo, obtained by the Sunday Mirror, showed Mr Johnson hosting a Christmas quiz in Downing Street in winter 2020.

The PM has also come under criticism for imposing restrictions including facemarks and Covid passes in response to the Omicron variant – an issue that sparked Lord Frost’s dramatic resignation last month.

Barrister Adam Wagner, an expert on Covid regulations, said that on the basis of what was known, the gathering on May 20, 2020 was ‘unlikely to be legal for attendees’.

He added: ‘Being outside the home was illegal at the time unless – the only potentially relevant exception – it was for the need to work. Socially distanced drinks and bring your own booze don’t sound like work.’

However, he pointed to a ‘loophole of people not themselves being liable for having parties in their back gardens’ – which was subsequently closed later in the year. He suggested that as a result the only potential legal threat to the PM would be as an accessory to other people’s breach.