Previously unseen messages suggest the Prime Minister’s wife held a second party in the Downing Street flat, it has been claimed.
Cabinet secretary Simon Case has been sent a letter unveiling the messages, which suggest that Carrie Johnson organised the law-breaking event in Number 10, according to The Times.
The paper says that communication on June 19, 2020, show that she was in the flat with several friends on the evening of Boris Johnson’s 56th birthday – and that the PM went up to the flat.
At the time, indoor events of two or more people indoors were banned, except for work purposes.
The event would also have occurred just a few hours after Mr Johnson came to a gathering organised for his birthday in the cabinet room for his birthday – an event for which he, his wife and Rishi Sunak were fined by police.
The latest revelations come after the publication of the Sue Gray report earlier this week, which reeled off details of lockdown-breaching events inside Number 10 after the Metropolitan Police made it the most fined address in the UK.
It is the second time that the prime minister’s wife is said to have attended a Covid-rule breaking event in the flat. The other gathering — the so-called Abba party on November 13, 2020 — but neither the Gray report or the Met’s investigation led to serious repercussions.
A spokeswoman for Carrie Johnson told The Times: ‘Sue Gray was aware of these exchanges as part of her exhaustive inquiry into alleged breaches.
‘Staff were given ample opportunity to present evidence including these messages and all relevant information was passed to the Metropolitan Police for investigation.
‘The lunchtime gathering in the cabinet room on 19 June 2020 was subsequently found to be in breach and a fixed penalty notice was issued to Mrs Johnson among others for which she apologised unreservedly and promptly paid the fine.’
Mr Case is said to have been told that at 6.15pm, an aide contacted Mrs Johnson to explain that her husband was heading to the flat. She replied that she was already in the flat and with an unspecified number of male friends.
'More children would die if AR-15 rifles were banned,' says US senator Ted CruzThe Gray inquiry team and an aide who flagged the messages to Mr Case dispute the reasons that the event did not appear in the senior civil servant’s report.
It comes as increasing numbers of Tory MPs continue to call for the PM to resign over the rule-breaking in Downing Street. If 54 send a letter of no confidence to the backbench 1922 committee, a vote of confidence will be held in his leadership.
Metro.co.uk has contacted No 10 for comment, but a spokesperson did not deny that a gathering had taken place or that the PM attended, when contacted by The Times.
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