People who attended parties in and around Downing Street during lockdown have revealed what actually happened for the first time. Talking to BBC Panorama. insiders have explained exactly what happened in the events that generated more than 120 fines.
Full details of the events are expected to be made public on Wednesday with the publication of the Sue Gray report, but people who were there have spoken to leak their experiences ahead of the publication. People who work in Westminster have described arriving for work the morning after a get-together to find bottles lying around, bins overflowing with rubbish and empties on the table.
They have also told the BBC that events were attended by dozens of people who were crowded together at the height of lockdown - when indoor events were banned to prevent the spreading of Covid-19. They say events went on so late that some people ended up staying in Downing Street rather than going home.
Insiders say people who tried to break up the parties were mocked. Downing Street declined to comment when approached by the BBC.
Police issued 126 fines to people who attended the event and pictures leaked this week ahead of the report showed Boris Johnson apparently drinking at one of the events. Mr Johnson was fined for his part in a separate party.
Three insiders have now told the BBC that lockdown rules were routinely ignored in Downing Street, socialising was regular, with, they felt, the prime minister's implicit permission.
One said they felt they had the permission of the Prime Minister as he was not telling them to break up the scenes when returning to his flat.
“No, he wasn’t telling anybody that.
“He was grabbing a glass for himself,” they said.
Describing the leaving party for director of communications Lee Cain on 13 November 2020, at which the Prime Minister was photographed raising a glass and standing next to a table full of bottles, a staffer told the BBC: "there were about 30 people, if not more, in a room. Everyone was stood shoulder to shoulder, some people on each other's laps…one or two people."
They describe the Downing Street party on the night before Prince Philip's funeral on 16 April 2021, as a "lively event... a general party with people dancing around". They say the party became so loud security guards told them to leave the building.
"So everyone grabbed all the drinks, the food, everything, and went into the garden," one source told the BBC. "We all sat around the tables drinking. People stayed the night there."
Insiders say events were routine. "They were every week," one said. "The event invites for Friday press office drinks were just nailed into the diary."
One says a Downing Street security guard was mocked when they tried to stop a party in full flow adding: "People made fun of him because he was so worked up that this party was happening and it shouldn't be happening."
The three whistleblowers say the Prime Minister "wanted to be liked" and for staff to be able to "let their hair down".
Downing Street has denied that Boris Johnson suggested to Sue Gray that she should drop her report into lockdown parties in Whitehall.
The Times reported that Mr Johnson asked the senior civil servant whether there was any point in publishing the report now the facts were “all out there” at a meeting earlier this month.
However the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “This was a legitimate meeting about the process rather than the contents of the report.
“The Prime Minister did not ask her to drop the report or not proceed with the report.
“The Prime Minister commissioned the report, initially by the Cabinet Secretary, and wants it to be published.”
The spokesman said that he understood that the report would be published “in the coming days”.
You can watch the programme, Partygate: Inside the Storm on BBC 2 tonight at 7pm on BBC 2, on iPlayer.
