Britain’s top civil servant has been asked by Labour to investigate the row over parties last year in Downing Street, as bereaved families of Covid-19 victims said they were “sickened” by the claims.
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner requested Simon Case, cabinet secretary, look at the use of government property for parties and the role of Boris Johnson, who addressed a packed leaving celebration in November last year.
She said Case should consider calling in the Metropolitan police. “You will no doubt understand the seriousness of the allegations made,” she told him in a letter. The Cabinet Office said Case would respond in due course.
The prime minister on Wednesday insisted to MPs that no Covid-19 rules were broken but did not deny allegations that a “boozy” party had been held by staff in Downing Street on December 18 last year, while London was under strict so-called tier 3 restrictions on social interactions.
Asked on Thursday why he would not tell the public what happened at the party, first reported by The Mirror newspaper, Johnson replied: “Because I have told you.”
The Mirror also reported that Johnson gave a speech at a leaving party held in Number 10 on November 27, while England was in the second national lockdown.
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group has demanded an apology from Johnson.
One of its spokespeople, Safiah Ngah, told the BBC her father died in February and she would never forget last Christmas. “To think that just a few miles away, Number 10 was throwing a Christmas party, with no care for the rules they had set, is sickening,” she said.
Johnson, who received his Covid-19 booster jab on Thursday, insisted the country should carry on partying this Christmas in spite of the Omicron variant of coronavirus. He said the government was taking a “balanced and proportionate approach to the risk” and “people shouldn’t be cancelling things” like parties.
But the government’s message has been muddied in recent days by some ministers deviating from official guidance.
Therese Coffey, work and pensions secretary, has advised people against “snogging under the mistletoe” at parties, forcing Number 10 to stress that there was no guidance against such behaviour.
Meanwhile George Freeman, science minister, suggested that companies should consider scrapping big corporate Christmas parties, putting him at odds with Johnson’s message that they should continue.
“For many small businesses, four or five staff, who are working together every day any way, gathering to have a drink isn’t a big step up in risk,” said Freeman.
“But some companies might normally bring hundreds of people in from around the world to a big party, and they may decide, this year, is that sensible given the pandemic and given where we are?”
Opinion polling by YouGov found that people were split on whether large events should go ahead, with 46 per cent saying they should be prevented and 45 per cent saying they should not. Some 68 per cent opposed the closing of pubs.
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