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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
John Bett

'While the Prime Minister partied at No 10 I waited alone for the coroner'

Boris Johnson has been slammed in Sue Gray's Partygate report on lockdown parties at No 10 as damning images from the 37-page dossier emerge.

Nine pictures have been released, and they show Mr Johnson, Rishi Sunak, and civil service chief Simon Case in a room with bottles of alcohol and snacks on a table.

Ms Gray said many people will be 'dismayed' by the Government's lockdown-busting parties in her damning report, and now people have taken to social media to share what they were doing on the day in question, Novermber 13.

One woman said that she was waiting alone for the coroner after her mother-in-law, a key worker, passed away - and was unable to go in and comfort her family due to the coronavirus restrictions.

For more news about Sue Gray's report, follow our live blog here.

What do you think about Partygate? Let us know in the comments...

Taking to Twitter, one woman named Kat wrote: "So, I took a photo on November 13, 2020 as well. This one. That's my mum-in-law's car, outside her house, where I was stood waiting for the coroner to arrive and pick her up.

"The NHS keyworker stickers and the stack of masks on her dashboard really struck me in that moment.

"Inside, my other half and his sister were sat with their mum, trying to process what had happened. Yet even in those terrible moments, they were worried they'd get in trouble for breaking the rules.

"I couldn't go in, be with my partner, or even give him a hug. One of us had to stay out of the virus' reach, to keep our baby safe, to ensure someone would be able to get stuff done etc. And to be one less person found breaking the rules, if it came to that.

The Prime Minister has been slammed in Sue Gray's report (PA)

"My mum-in-law was so careful. Stuck to the rules, didn't want to put anyone at risk. Working on the hospital wards, she was so scared of catching it. We saw so little of her in her last year, and it breaks my heart now. But she knew the dangers and followed the rules, we all did.

"When cases started going up in October, it took a while to catch up here. The October half term was our tipping point, people travelling up here for a holiday in the unseasonable autumn warmth. Cases at the hospital increased; locking down sooner could have prevented that.

"When she came down poorly with it, we'd gone back into lockdown. We wanted to see her but she didn't want to put us at risk and was worried about breaking the rules. So the whole time she was ill, she was alone.

"And she died alone. Of a virus she caught while working on the front line of the NHS. During a spike that seems preventable. And while our family broke, as we kept to the law, as we mourned apart from each other, in Downing Street a very different photograph was being taken...

"It's hard to say what I'm most angry about. That she was working on the at risk wards, despite her age and her asthma... That she should have retired already, but like so many women her age, her pension was stolen...

"...or that the vaccine for NHS workers was so close to coming, but time and fate were not on our side...

"...or that we weren't locked down soon enough to prevent that half term spike...

Boris Johnson faces a battering in parliament (PRU/AFP via Getty Images)

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"...or that the people who made the laws were breaking them and drunkenly laughing about them, while our world and the worlds of so many other families were crashing down around us...

"...or, and it's probably this - that those lawbreakers lied to us then, and are lying to us now, and that they'll go on lying because not this, not those photos, none of it is enough to get rid of them and give this country back some dignity, some trust, and some competence."

Kat wasn't the only one to suffer on that day, Alan Calderwood explained that at around the same time his wife had sadly passed away.

He said: "One year ago my wife was taken away in an ambulance - we were not permitted to accompany or visit. She died, indirectly due to Covid (I blame the disastrous handling by Tory chancers). At her funeral, just 20 of us were allowed. How I despise you, Boris Johnson."

And another Twitter user named Phiona said: "(In) Nov 2020 my father was being moved to (the) fifth hospital in two months.

"Unable to visit to comfort and reassure him, getting through on the phone took hours. His belongings were lost including his teeth and glasses. It was inhumane. He came home 2021 a traumatised man."

And another, named Ian wrote: "I was legally married shortly after the #PartyGatePhotos. We were only able to have four people socially distanced in the room with us, and couldn’t even have a takeaway coffee with our parents & siblings outside afterwards. Why were we mugs?"

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