Boris Johnson faces Pressure as Police Mount Investigation into ‘Partygate’

Picture a group of 30 people gathered in the back garden of a house; a group of people who were invited to “bring their own booze” to the gathering, a gathering to which over 100 people had been invited. Now picture a small wooden table, topped with cheese and wine, with colleagues relaxing around it. While these scenes may sound normal at first glance, you are quickly persuaded otherwise when you learn that these activities occurred in Number 10 Downing Street, the heart of the British government, during a national lockdown.

These were the first two out of 12 events held at Number 10, currently under criminal investigation by the Metropolitan Police for breaching national lockdown laws — both of which Boris Johnson has admitted to attending. The events took place in May 2020, almost two months after the beginning of the first national lockdown in the United Kingdom.

On each of the days of these events, over 300 people died of COVID-19. Meanwhile, the prime minister (PM) and his staff partied.

Allegations of these Downing Street gatherings during lockdown began to break in late 2021. Since then, the case against Boris Johnson’s administration has only become stronger, leaving him to fight for his political life.

Leaked emails and pictures show Boris Johnson and Downing Street staff continuously disregarding the rules that they themselves introduced to fight the pandemic.

Other events include a birthday celebration on 19 June 2020, which was held in the Cabinet Room for the PM organised by his then-fiancé. ITV News reported that up to 30 people attended this party. They also reported that singing took place and cake was served to everyone.

On 13 November 2020, two more gatherings took place in Number 10: one to acknowledge the departure of a senior Downing Street advisor, and one, inside the prime minister’s private flat, to celebrate the departure of Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s former senior advisor, who had left the Prime Minister’s staff earlier that day.

These events all occurred during periods when restrictions were in place and fines could be issued to anyone found in violation of these rules. Gatherings, both indoors or outdoors, of more than two people were illegal, with a few exceptions. Whilst work-related issues may have qualified as exempt, birthdays and drinking parties certainly did not.

Their behavior is “difficult to justify,” said Sue Gray, a senior civil servant who recently conducted an investigation into the events, especially as the public was forced to “accept far-reaching restrictions on their lives.”

“The good people are outraged by Johnson's ‘do as I say not as I do’ attitude. People could not say final goodbyes to dying loved ones, could not go to funerals and delayed weddings to obey the rules. Rules that Johnson just ignored,” said Liam Byrne, Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill. He added, “Boris Johnson is an utter shambles of a prime minister, who has lied through his teeth about lockdown parties at Downing Street while presiding over a chaotic government that's doing nothing to help ordinary families deal with the spiralling cost of living.”

In a brief update before the full report was published, Ms. Gray identified 16 events, during a period starting in May 2020 and ending in April 2021, that justified investigation, as they “represent a serious failure to observe” the high standards required of the government to lead the British people.

Furthermore, another photo emerged showing that Johnson had attended a Christmas Quiz on 15 December 2020. The photo shows the PM standing behind two staff members, one wearing festive tinsel. The frame also displays an open bottle of champagne on the desk, in front of the group.

Ms. Gray’s update sheds light on the heavy drinking culture which is innate to Number 10 under Johnson’s leadership. A drinking culture which, according to Ms. Gray, “is not appropriate in a professional workplace at any time.”

However, Ms. Gray’s claims are not the first allegations against Johnson’s government regarding its excessive alcohol consumption. From the supposed installation of a “wine fridge” in one of the Downing Street offices, to the claims of suitcases full of booze being wheeled into Number 10, a tradition, which some sources claim dates back to David Cameron’s premiership, one is left to wonder how any work gets done in Number 10.

An ex-senior advisor to Tony Blair spoke to the Menton Times about the scandal and said, when asked about the current drinking culture in Number 10, that “it just seems to be absolutely extraordinary […] The idea that the people manning the phones and talking to the world’s media about the British Government’s view on developing events would be drunk, is absolutely amazing.”

The ‘Partygate’ scandal fell at a time of rising tensions between Russia and the West, over Putin’s early intention to invade Ukraine (see our special section on Ukraine for more). The scandal has diverted Downing Street’s attention away from a rapidly escalating situation. Johnson has organized a series of carefully calculated visits to vaccine centers and green energy projects, with the aim of restoring his heavily damaged image.

The extended nature of the scandal, with Johnson trying to cling to power, has had serious consequences for Britain on the international stage, argues MP Liam Byrne. “The media around the world has looked on in amazement at this bumbling prime minister. As events on the Ukraine border underline, these are serious times that demand a serious leader. And Britain doesn't have one in 10 Downing Street.”

Johnson has repeatedly, throughout his career, been accused of dishonesty and a lack of professionalism. A failure of leadership was highlighted in Sue Gray’s report.“The leader of any organization sets the tone, […] and the prime minister has set the tone of the rules not really applying to him, and therefore, to anybody who works for him,” says the ex-Downing Street advisor. He added that this sort of behavior “is not OK when you’re prime minister of the country […] The fact is, everybody knows that there would have been no such culture” under previous prime ministers.

The recent partying transgression is part of a long list of scandals that have gripped Boris Johnson’s career. From his time at the Daily Telegraph, where he conspired to have a fellow journalist beaten up, to the lies and manipulation he was accused of during the Brexit campaign, up until his Premiership, during which he has been accused of dishonesty and corruption, notably during the ‘Cash for Curtains’ scandal, the Owen Paterson lobbying scandal and now, ‘Partygate.’

Despite the numerous scandals throughout his career, Johnson’s rapid rise to the top job somehow continued. However, ‘Partygate’ appears to be seriously threatening his position for the first time. The restrictions put in place by the government to curb the omnipresent threat of the virus subjected everyone to the same rules (apart from when Britain entered a regional tier system) and the same penalties — rules and penalties which also applied to the prime minister.

Indeed, many conservative MPs are starting to lose faith in the prime minister. ITV News reports that as many as 20 letters of no confidence are believed to have been submitted to the Conservative Party apparatus. This demonstrates that Conservative MPs are rapidly losing faith in Johnson’s ability to lead. However, 20 is a long way short from the required 54 letters to trigger a vote of no confidence.

The Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has been praised for his handling of the situation, with his response in parliament to Ms. Gray’s report receiving over three and half million views on Twitter. Polls have also shown a large upswing in support for the Labour Party. So does Labour finally have enough support to overthrow 12 years of Tory rule?

While Starmer’s position is not nearly as comfortable as he would have wished for, his ratings in the polls as leader of the Labour Party have increased by 16% in the last six months. If Starmer is to dethrone Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party, then he must maintain this intensity with which he has recently been gripped. He has proven successful in discrediting Boris Johnson in the eyes of the public. He must now start to build on this by developing his plan for Britain and selling it to the British people.

The former Labour advisor commented on the party’s ability to defeat the Conservatives. “They’ve got an enormous uphill climb, Labour. They have got to do something which has virtually never been done in British political history, in terms of turning around millions and millions of votes in England to swap from Tory to Labour. It is a massive challenge. Jeremy Corbyn trashed the party and trashed the brand of Labour and it is a very big ask to come back in one election.”

Strategy-wise, Labour is divided on how to achieve victory over the Conservatives. Most Labour MPs believe that Johnson should be removed before the end of his tenureship. There are, however, a small group of Labour MPs who believe that it would be better to keep the Prime Minister in office, due to the damage he has sustained, as it would greatly benefit them in the next election campaign.

Labour MP Liam Byrne said, “there's an old saying that it's governments that lose elections, rather than oppositions that win them. But Keir knows Labour won't win by default. We've still got trust to earn and plans to set out, that put our country on a new course.”