The Christmas party held in No 10 while Covid lockdown restrictions were in place was “carnage” with staff spraying red wine on walls, according to reports.
No 10 staff were said to have been photographed “sitting on each other’s laps” despite strict social distancing rules being in place, the Sunday Times claimed.
The fresh details of the event, held on 18 December 2020 and first reported by the Mirror, include that there were pictures in circulation of the Christmas bash.
The Met Police is studying 300 photos as part of its investigation into multiple events held in Downing Street while the rest of the country was in lockdown.
At the time, London was under tier 2 Covid restrictions in which two or more people from different households were barred from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work.
Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak have been quizzed under police caution, through a written questionnaire, and are waiting for police to decide whether they will be fined.
Met deputy commissioner Sir Stephen House has played down the raucousness of the gatherings being investigated.
He told City Hall's police and crime committee: “I think maybe people have the idea that there’s tipsy revellers walking down Whitehall with Christmas hats on and blowing poppers, carrying bottles of clanking wine.
"Many of the circumstances that we’re investigating were events that took place at the end of the working day or as an adjunct to the working day.”
It came as a JL Partners poll showed that half the Cabinet - including Boris Johnson - would be on course to lose their seats if an election were held now.
The MRP model, which maps polling results onto every seat in the country, suggests support for the Tories has dropped to 2005 levels in the wake of the partygate row.
It puts Labour on 352 seats, a gain of 150, with an overall majority of 14 for Keir Starmer's party, while the Conservatives would lose all six seats in Scotland and all 14 in Wales.
