LONDON — Any evidence that parties were held in Whitehall in breach of COVID-19 restrictions will be referred to the police, a U.K. minister said Tuesday, as Boris Johnson’s government faced a storm of criticism over a Downing Street gathering.
A leaked email from civil servant Martin Reynolds, who runs the prime minister’s office, shows government staff were invited to a “socially-distanced” May 2020 drinks party in the garden of No. 10 Downing Street — at a time when people across the U.K. were banned from meeting more than one person aside from those they live with.
Defending the government in the House of Commons Tuesday, Paymaster General Michael Ellis told MPs he apologized again “unreservedly for the upset that these allegations have caused.”
He said an ongoing inquiry by government official Sue Gray into other alleged rule-breaking parties would “establish the facts” about the latest allegations and, “if wrongdoing is established, there will be the requisite disciplinary action taken.”
“As with all internal investigations, if evidence emerges of what was potentially a criminal offense, the matter would be referred to the Metropolitan Police and the Cabinet Office’s work may be paused,” he said. The Met Police have confirmed they are in contact with the Cabinet Office regarding the May 20 gathering.
In a heated, often emotional, Commons session, Democratic Unionist Party MP Jim Shannon broke down in tears as he told MPs his mother-in-law had died alone due to COVID — and asked for full and complete disclosure to the police.
Labour MP Afzal Khan told MPs his mother had died alone in hospital of COVID-19 while he sat in the car outside trying to be as close to her as he could. He questioned why Johnson himself was not in the Commons to face questions.
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner meanwhile accused ministers of hiding behind the Gray investigation, and said it “won’t wash” to “blame this on a few junior civil servants.”
“The prime minister sets the tone. If the prime minister was there, surely he knew,” she said.
Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, broke ranks among senior Tories to declare Johnson should resign if he is found to have broken the restrictions his government had put in place.
“If the prime minister and others within No. 10 had breached that guidance, while earlier in that afternoon a cabinet minister had told people what they were expected to do, yet out the back of No. 10 people were enjoying the sunshine in the garden — I think that is utterly despicable,” a visibly furious Ross told Sky News, adding Johnson must “settle this right now” by revealing if he attended the party on May 20.
The prime minister’s spokesman told journalists Tuesday Johnson had confidence in Reynolds, who sent the email inviting staff to drinks, and that the senior official would continue in his role.
But the spokesman repeatedly refused to comment on the substance of allegations, saying it was “right for the facts to be established independently” through Gray’s inquiry and that No. 10 did not want to “prejudge” that work.
Andrew McDonald contributed reporting.
