Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, has warned Boris Johnson “he can run but he can’t hide”, as the prime minister declined to answer questions over a “bring your own booze” gathering in the Downing Street garden during the first lockdown. The paymaster general, Michael Ellis, was sent to the House of Commons to answer Rayner’s urgent question about the drinks event on 20 May 2020. Labour has been pressing the prime minister to “come clean” since a leaked email from his principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, obtained by ITV News, invited colleagues to “make the most of the lovely weather” and have some “socially distanced drinks”. Rayner said: “There’s no need for an investigation into the simple central question today: did the prime minister attend the event in the Downing Street garden on 20 May 2020?” Ellis apologised to MPs “for the upset that these allegations have caused”. He confirmed that the investigation being carried out by the senior civil servant Sue Gray will consider Downing Street gatherings on 15 and 20 May 2020 – but sidestepped further questions.
Ellis said Gray’s report would “establish the facts, and if wrongdoing is established there will be requisite disciplinary action taken”. But Rayner insisted: “The public have drawn their own conclusions. He can run, but he can’t hide.” Johnson has declined to say whether he and his wife, Carrie, attended the event – five days after they were pictured at a separate outdoor gathering, which ministers have insisted was work-related.
Asked whether Johnson would resign if he was found to have broken the law, Ellis said the prime minister was “going nowhere,” and “retains the confidence of the people in this country”. Ellis also raised the prospect that Gray’s work might be “paused” if the Metropolitan police launched an investigation into the events. “As with all internal investigations, if evidence emerges of what was potentially a criminal offence, the matter would be referred to the Metropolitan police and the Cabinet Office’s work may be paused,” he said. The Met confirmed on Monday night that it was in contact with the Cabinet Office over the allegations.
Johnson’s official spokesperson told journalists on Tuesday the prime minister had “full confidence” in Reynolds, who would be “continuing in his role”. He insisted repeatedly that further questions would have to wait for Gray’s report. At one point in the Commons, the Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, rebuked Labour MPs for heckling Ellis, saying: “He’s got a tough enough job as it is: don’t make it harder for him!” Veteran Conservative backbencher Peter Bone said he had confidence in the prime minister; but called for Gray’s report to be completed quickly. The Tory MP Christopher Chope asked: “Why can’t all the dirty linen be washed at once? Why are we getting this dripfeed of parties? Surely the civil service must have known that there was a party on 2 May?” Earlier, the health minister Edward Argar admitted the public would be “upset and angry” at the revelations in the leaked email from Reynolds. In a tacit acknowledgement of the strength of feeling, he said he had not attended any parties and had been aware of the regulations, “not least because I was a health minister who’d helped draw them up”.
It came as the former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson called for an immediate explanation from Johnson, rather than questions being deferred to Gray’s inquiry. “This line won’t survive 48 hrs. Nobody needs an official to tell them if they were at a boozy shindig in their own garden. People are (rightly) furious. They sacrificed so much – visiting sick or grieving relatives, funerals. What tf were any of these people thinking?” Davidson tweeted.
About 30 to 40 people are said to have attended the 20 May gathering, with food and wine set out on tables, but it is understood some staff expressed reservations at the time. On the same day, Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, had reminded the public at a press conference: “You can meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor, public place provided that you stay 2 metres apart.”