Downing Street staffers sprung laughing about secret Christmas party in new video

London: Pressure is mounting on Boris Johnson after a leaked video showed his spokeswoman laughing about a Christmas party held at Number 10 last year, a day before the Prime Minister ordered millions of Britons to spend Christmas Day alone to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

For weeks Johnson and cabinet ministers have been denying the gathering was a party and in breach of the severe pandemic restrictions.

The rules in place at the time stated that “no person may participate in a gathering in the Tier 3 area which consists of two or more people, and takes place in any indoor space.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokeswoman Allegra Stratton laughs as she confirms a staff Christmas party was held at Number 10 despite a ban on gatherings during a mock press conference, footage of which was leaked to ITV News.Credit: ITV News/YouTube

“Although there are exemptions for work purposes, you must not have a work Christmas lunch or party, where that is a primarily social activity”.

The gathering took place inside Number 10, the government headquarters, on December 18 when the Alpha variant of the coronavirus was increasing “exponentially” in London and running rampant throughout the country.

On that day, nearly 500 people died after testing positive for COVID, about 35,000 infections were reported and nearly 19,000 people were in hospital. Nearly 146,000 people have died of COVID in the UK since the start of the pandemic and the December 2020 wave was the country’s most fatal.

To try to bring down those numbers, the government had imposed severe tier-three restrictions across much of the country and London.

But that night, according to reports in the British press, around 40-50 people attended Downing Street for an after-work party. One British outlet described the gathering as “cheek by jowl”.

“I am satisfied myself that the guidelines were followed at all times,” the Prime Minister said earlier on Tuesday when pressed again on the matter.

But early on Wednesday morning AEDT, commercial broadcaster ITV News broadcast leaked video footage of Johnson’s spokeswoman at the time, joking about the party in a mock press conference just four days after the event, with her colleagues practising how she would answer questions about the event being illegal.

Allegra Stratton, a former ITV presenter herself, was poised to become one of the British government’s most visible faces. She had been tapped to take on a new press secretary role modelled on the White House’s press secretary which is responsible for giving on-camera briefings that are broadcast and streamed live.

Footage of her practising the role reveals staff mocking the gathering and how the press might inquire about it.

Ed Oldfield, adviser to the Prime Minister pretending to be a journalist, asks Stratton: “I’ve just seen reports on Twitter that there was a Downing Street Christmas party on Friday night, do you recognise those reports?”

Stratton replied, laughing: “I went home”.

She appeared to question her own response saying “hold on” and then trails making noises including “Umm, errr, ahhhh,” seemingly lost for words.

“Would the Prime Minister condone having a Christmas party?” Oldfield says.

“What’s the answer?” Stratton asks herself. Her colleagues then coach her with a possible response suggesting she would answer that “it wasn’t a party” but just “cheese and wine”.

“Is cheese and wine alright?” Stratton asks.

“No, joking,” a colleague responds.

The footage was shot in a specially constructed media briefing room designed for her future press conferences but the idea of making her a public press secretary was later abandoned.

Stratton was brought into the government to run communications for Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak. Sunak was best man at her wedding to James Forsyth, a journalist at Britain’s Spectator magazine and Sunak friend since their days at Winchester College.

Despite the leaked footage clearly showing Oldfield and Stratton referring to a “Christmas party”, Number 10 insisted that “there was no Christmas party”.

“COVID rules have been followed at all times.”

Opposition Leader Keir Starmer said the lies were shameful.

“People across the country followed the rules, even when that meant being separated from loved ones,” Starmer said.

“They had a right to expect the government was doing the same.

“To lie and to laugh about those lies is shameful.

“We have a Prime Minister who’s socially distanced from the truth,” Starmer said.

This latest furore over the Christmas party, following soon after Johnson’s botched handling of an ethics probe into a Conservative MP and a chaotic business conference speech, threatens to further damage his standing in the polls. Johnson’s popularity has steadily declined through 2021, hitting its lowest level during his premiership in November, according to a survey by Savanta ComRes.

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