Downing Street parties investigation to include Boris Johnson’s quiz night

Yesterday the Cabinet Office would not officially be drawn on whether Simon Case would extend his investigation to cover the event but government sources confirmed he intended to widen the review.

“He said originally that he would look at credible allegations of other gatherings and you can’t really say that a photo of the prime minister is not a credible allegation,” they said.

Another source claimed Case felt he had been put in an invidious position by being asked to carry out the investigation. While it is being done in his name it is led day to day by Darren Tierney, director of propriety and ethics in the Cabinet Office.

They said the concern was that some of those involved in the investigation could have been in Downing Street during the quiz. However, Case himself is understood not to have been there.

The Times understands that even before the photo was published in the Sunday Mirror there had been a discussion about whether to bring in someone external to oversee the investigation. In such circumstances the most likely candidate is Lord Geidt, Johnson’s adviser on ministerial interests. Downing Street staff have been told to expect the results of the review by the end of this week and before Christmas, Times Radio reported last night.

Labour will attempt to force Boris Johnson to appear before MPs today to answer claims that he breached coronavirus restrictions by hosting the quiz.

Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions, said that it was “very hard” to see how the event on December 15 last year was “compliant with the rules”.

At the time London was in Tier 2, which meant there could be no social mixing of households indoors. Labour suggested that Johnson “might have misled MPs” with previous statements.

During prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, Johnson said that he had been “repeatedly assured”, since allegations surfaced of a Downing Street Christmas party on December 18, that “there was no party and that no Covid rules were broken”.

Sir Keir Starmer said Johnson “might have misled MPs” with previous statements

ALAMY

Asked on The Andrew Marr Show on BBC1 whether the prime minister had been breaking the law at the time the photograph was taken, Starmer said: “It looks as though he was. He must have known that other groups were in other rooms in his own building.”

The Sunday Mirror reported that Downing Street staff had been invited to the quiz, raising funds for charity, weeks earlier. Although dozens of staff signed up to take part online, many decided to do so from No 10 instead. They answered questions on subjects from the history of Downing Street to lyrics of Christmas tunes. Halfway through the prime minister was said to have surprised staff by appearing on screen as quizmaster for one round lasting between 10 and 15 minutes. He asked questions including: “At her press conference, how many Covid tests did Priti Patel say had been conducted?”

At the time official guidance stated: “Although there are exemptions for work purposes, you must not have a work Christmas lunch or party, where that is a primarily social activity and is not otherwise permitted by the rules in your tier.”

Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, who said last week that Johnson would have resign if he were found to have misled parliament over the party on December 18, launched a furious attack on No 10. “Just look at these pictures,” he told BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show. “Look at people laughing about parties in Downing Street and how they would cover it up. The whole thing does make me angry . . . because I know that people I represent here in Moray and across the Highlands and Islands followed that guidance to the letter of the law because they were told to do it in the national interest. And if the people telling them to do that couldn’t follow that guidance then we are right to be angry at them.

“My family didn’t have the Christmas we expected last year. It looks like there is a possibility that we wouldn’t have the Christmas we expected this year and the public rightly expect those at the top of government and their advisers to follow the rules that they wrote.”

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said it appeared as if Johnson “lied to the country and broke the law”. She added: “It is increasingly clear that the prime minister presided over a culture of ignoring the rules that he told everyone else to follow.”

Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, said that Labour had adopted the wrong stance on the quiz.

He told Trevor Phillips on Sunday on Sky News that “many people would have had similar Zoom quiz nights around the country” and that there was not “a rule against recognising Christmas with tinsel or a hat”, as the staff photographed on either side of Johnson were doing.

Zahawi said that there had been “hype” around claims about government parties, with two events at Downing Street under investigation, but that the photograph would allow the public to “make their mind up” for themselves.

A No 10 spokeswoman said: “This was a virtual quiz. Downing Street staff were often required to be in the office to work on the pandemic response so those who were in the office for work may have attended virtually from their desks. The prime minister briefly took part virtually in a quiz to thank staff for their hard work throughout the year.”

Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, is investigating the party on December 18, when London was in Tier 3 restrictions, as well as a reported leaving event for a No 10 aide on November 27, during the second national lockdown, which was said to have been attended by Johnson. The prime minister announced Case’s investigation last Wednesday after the emergence of a leaked video of No 10 staff rehearsing a press conference last December in which Allegra Stratton, his spokeswoman at the time, was asked mock questions about the December 18 party. She resigned hours after Johnson said in the Commons that the video had left him “furious”. He told MPs: “It goes without saying that if those rules were broken, there will be disciplinary action for all those involved.”