A new leaked email shows Downing Street staff were invited to a ‘bring-your-own-booze’ event in the Number 10 garden at the height of lockdown - “to make the most of the lovely weather”.
The email, obtained by ITV News, was sent by Boris Johnson’s principal private secretary Martin Reynolds to more than 100 employees in May 2020 as the nation was stuck under unprecedented restrictions.
In it, he wrote: “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!”
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Dozens of staff - including aides, speechwriters and advisors - are understood to have gathered in the garden that evening, snacking on picnic food and having drinks.
Among those in attendance, according to ITV News, were the prime minister and his wife Carrie.
The May 20th party was first mentioned in a newsletter sent out by Dominic Cummings on Friday, and is separate to a now infamous gathering captured on camera which took place five days earlier on May 15th. Downing Street had insisted that the event was a work meeting.
The latest event is one of many suspicious gatherings that have taken place during the pandemic.
People were, understandably, furious at the latest revelation.
One person neatly summed up the reality across the nation, outside of the Downing Street garden walls:
While tens of thousands of elderly, vulnerable, and disabled people drowned in their own bodily fluids in care homes, without being able to have family or loved ones near them as they took their final breaths.
— Miffy San Angelo-Carrington-Colby (@miffythegamer) January 10, 2022
My revulsion for Boris Johnson has reached an all-time high. https://t.co/dDOAFf6nRN
Another flagged the rough time the Queen endured, strictly following the rules at her husband’s funeral:
Our Queen stuck with rules and sat alone at her husbands funeral while our Government were holding parties and laughing at us Brits. @BorisJohnson and his colleagues should be ashamed #DowningStreetParties pic.twitter.com/tAPxDsbjnP
— Kevin Jones 🏴🌈 (@valleyboy1977) January 10, 2022
Entire family traditions were altered across the UK - but life went on as normal, it appears, in Downing Street:
May 20 2020 Number 10 party. Damn, I missed it. I was in a coma. Just my luck.
— Michael Rosen 💙💙🎓🎓 (@MichaelRosenYes) January 10, 2022
This was my oldest child’s 3rd birthday - end of April 2020. Raging. pic.twitter.com/4pWHoSORRj
— Siobhan Talbott (@SiobhanTalbott) January 10, 2022
You couldn't see your friends
— TechnicallyRon (@TechnicallyRon) January 10, 2022
You couldn't see your family
You couldn't visit people in hospital
You couldn't go to funerals
They had 'garden parties'
They had 'cheese and wine evenings'
They 'enjoyed the nice weather
They can get absolutely fucked https://t.co/JfscAq8FZu
It’s the disdain for the people who followed THEIR rules which is most galling. https://t.co/NGnxeHk7mn
— Gary Lineker 💙 (@GaryLineker) January 10, 2022
If this stands up, there’s only one person to blame, said one Twitter user:
This is not on the civil service
— Lloyd Duddridge (@DuddridgeLloyd) January 10, 2022
This is not on the staff
This is not on his team
This is not on the opposition
This is not on the woke
This is on the Government
This is on Boris Johnson
It’s beside the point, but arranging something like this on email seems ... quite silly?
Imagine being so stupid you plan a lockdown party over your work emails???
— Nadine Batchelor-Hunt (@nadinebh_) January 10, 2022
Also, the BYOB bit for a party at the PM's house is making me cackle... what is this? Why is Boris Johnson holding BYOB parties in his house like they're university students? https://t.co/Tpja3jJKME
What's also very obvious is that some staffers thought it was a v bad idea at the time - a flavour of messages shared with us from when Reynold's email was sent - 'Um. Why is Martin encouraging a mass gathering in the garden?', another says, 'Is this for real?'
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) January 10, 2022
Exasperated voters are no longer sure if there’s anything that would get Johnson to quit:
Not quite sure if anything would be a resignation issue for Boris Johnson short of criminality and even then there’s no guarantees
— Martyn Ziegler (@martynziegler) January 10, 2022
How Boris Johnson is surviving this is behind me. https://t.co/8r2X7Xq1GU
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) January 10, 2022
Political rivals demanded the PM “come clean”:
Enough now Boris Johnson.
— Angela Rayner (@AngelaRayner) January 10, 2022
Come clean and tell us the truth. https://t.co/WoPU0HhTUT
Yet again it's one rule for @BorisJohnson and another rule for the rest of us. This time a massive garden party at his place while people were dying alone. FFS https://t.co/HMuZTaCfIQ
— Ed Davey MP 🔶🇪🇺 (@EdwardJDavey) January 10, 2022
One person flagged a video in which he appeared to smile or smirk while being questioned about it all:
Vid here of @BorisJohnson smirking at our #Covid_19 dead loved ones. pic.twitter.com/VEklnkAs5m
— MI6 ROGUE PROJECT (@mi6rogue) January 10, 2022
One person joked that he’s too stingy to turn up with something from the off-licence:
the one get out clause for Boris Johnson over the latest no 10 #lockdown party is that people won’t believe he would attend a party where you have to bring your own bottle
— dave ❄️ 🥕 🧻 (@davemacladd) January 10, 2022
There were plenty of memes too:
The gardener showing up to number 10 during the height of lockdown pic.twitter.com/2uUjOWT9Hz
— James Felton (@JimMFelton) January 10, 2022
‘We’ve invited 100 people to a bring-your-own party by mistake’ pic.twitter.com/C95mWzygNx
— Toby Earle (@TobyonTV) January 10, 2022
Others said it was pretty cheap to expect staff to supply their own booze for a work gathering:
“Bring your own booze” , Boris Johnson won’t even buy the drinks for his own illicit lock down parties #covid19
— dominic dyer (@domdyer70) January 10, 2022
A politician in Wales said with a leaked email to hand, we can probably skip the inquiry this time:
No need for an inquiry for this one. Proof in black and white that the Tories were boozing it up while the rest of us were in lockdown.
— Liz Saville Roberts AS/MP 🏴 (@LSRPlaid) January 10, 2022
With every day that Boris Johnson remains in post, the case for independence grows stronger. https://t.co/5E3DPZyBof
The likely spin operation around the revelation was predicted by one Twitter user. Number 10 ought to sign them up:
I'm sure this didn't happen. And if it did @BorisJohnson didn't know. But if he did know, all rules were followed. And if all rules weren't followed, then he wasn't there. And if he was there, he didn't know he was there.
— Cristo (@cristo_radio) January 10, 2022
I think I just qualified for a job in @Number10press https://t.co/v5d6B3Kxaj
The political fray in becoming a circus, observed John Sweeney:
One law for us, another for Boris Johnson and his clown car. https://t.co/buHisLY8Ly
— John Sweeney (@johnsweeneyroar) January 10, 2022
In all the excitement, Laurence Fox tweeted something that didn’t quite resemble English:
Get out now @BorisJohnson ! No Gove. No Carrie. No Savage Jabit. No the YouLie bloke. Let’s vote @KemiBadenoch to lead. She’s sensible and actually cares about Conservatism. https://t.co/U6EPCSVbgz
— Laurence Fox ✝️ (@LozzaFox) January 10, 2022
Some are braced for a lukewarm response from the opposition leader:
so help me god if Keir Starmer releases a statement asking Boris Johnson to ''come clean and then apologise to the British people''
— Kirsty Strickland (@KirstyStricklan) January 10, 2022
Days after the alleged party, he acknowledged that people were staying ‘vigilant’:
This feels very damaging for Boris Johnson given (a) he was at the party (b) the email is evidence of the event.
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) January 10, 2022
Plus this is what he said at a No 10 press conference a few days later: pic.twitter.com/alSqQXQKq4
A doctor pointed out the jaw-dropping level of death that the UK saw that day:
While we could only meet 1 person outdoors, @10DowningStreet invited 100 people to a party.
— Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) January 10, 2022
While we obeyed the rules, @BorisJohnson stuck two fingers up to them.
“Make the most of the lovely weather"??
363 people died of Covid that day.
While they enjoyed a bloody booze up.
The always vocal Gary Neville gave his thoughts on what will happen over the next few days as a result:
Week Ahead
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) January 11, 2022
Today
I didn’t attend and followed the rules at all times
Wednesday
Reynolds resigns
Thursday
New Variant ( tell Sir Chris and Sir Patrick to be ready at 5pm )
Friday
Lord Martin Reynolds
Saturday
Met police drop the investigation with no evidence
👍
To be honest, the simplest tweets are always the best at summing up a political crisis:
Are you f*cking kidding?! @BorisJohnson
— Georgia Tennant (@georgiaEtennant) January 10, 2022
A source also told The Independent there were “more parties” which would come to light if Sue Gray - the official currently investigating Downing Street gatherings during the pandemic - “gets the info she ought to get”.
However, they added that it was “deeply wrong” that officials would “get the blame” when their actions were sanctioned by the Prime Minister.
“He was there for them [parties]. He encouraged people to drink and drank himself. And it was a clear untruth for Number 10 to suggest that there was nothing that could be described as parties,” they said. “It was shocking that they even tried to claim that.”
Indy100 has contacted Downing Street for comment.
