Bombshell WhatsApp messages show No10 aides scrambling to come up with excuses for Partygate gatherings.
The Commons Privileges Committee revealed new evidence of behind-the-scenes push to protect Boris Johnson from the scandal as part of its inquiry into whether he misled Parliament over lockdown boozing in No10 and Whitehall.
MPs on the powerful committee will haul in the ex-PM for questioning within weeks after months of trawling through evidence.
An unrepentant Mr Johnson insisted there was "no evidence" to show he knew rules were being broken - despite the committee saying it should have been "obvious" to him as he even attended some of the bashes.
In a new 24-page dossier published today, the committee disclosed new photos of the PM at gatherings and never-before-seen WhatsApps between No10 aides.
On April 28 2021 - SEVEN months before the Mirror first broke the Partygate story - an aide sent a message to warn that another official was "worried about leaks of PM having a piss up and to be fair I don't think it's unwarranted".
Then in January 2022, WhatsApps show Downing Street's then-communications director and a No10 official discussing an impromptu birthday bash for Mr Johnson in June 2020 - for which he was later fined by police.
The spin chief asked if there is any legal advice on the birthday party and then said: "Haven’t heard any explanation of how it’s in the rules."
Later that morning, a No10 official said they were trying to "do some Q&A, it’s not going well”, referring to lines for officials dealing with media queries.
The comms director replied: "I’m struggling to come up with a way this one is in the rules in my head."
He tried to suggest the PM was eating his lunch but then admits "the cake thing is it is difficult”.
Responding to a suggestion that it could be described as "reasonably necessary for work purposes", he said: "Not sure that one works does it?
"Also blows another great gaping hole in the PM's account doesn't it?"
Mr Johnson, his wife Carrie and the now-PM Rishi Sunak were handed fixed penalty noticed by Scotland Yard over the birthday bash.
Tory MP Conor Burns famously tried to defend Mr Johnson by saying it had not been a planned party and instead the then-PM had been "ambushed with a cake".
A message between aides shows that on November 30, 2021 - the day the Mirror approached No10 before breaking the first story - one official told another: “Can you pull together our best possible defence on this one. I don’t know what we say about the flat”.
Hours later, we reported how a source “even suggested there were ‘always parties’ in the flat Mr Johnson shares with wife, adding: ‘Carrie’s addicted to them’.”
No10 and Carrie Johnson have always denied there was a party in the Johnson's flat in November 2020, the night controversial aide Dominic Cummings was fired.
It became known as the Abba party after reports that passers-by heard 'The Winner Takes it All' blasting from outside No10, possibly to celebrate the departure of Mr Cummings.
