Boris Johnson’s aides ‘had sex at 10 Downing Street lockdown party’

The sex claims underscore potential difficulties for the former British PM in the Downing Street parties investigation, with evidence sessions tipped to begin early this year.

The former prime minister escaped sanction for attending the event but other Downing Street staff were fined. Picture: Leon Neal//POOL/AFP via Getty Images/The Times

Some of Boris Johnson’s aides are believed to have had sex at 10 Downing Street during a party that took place during lockdown on the eve of the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral.

Two couples were seen by numerous witnesses becoming intimate with each other at the gathering of aides and officials, which continued past 4am. One pair were seen “feeling each other up” in a kitchen before retiring to a dark room from which they later emerged “flustered”. The other pair were seen going into an office “with the lights off”.

The revelations underscore the potential difficulties for the former prime minister in the privileges committee’s investigation into the Downing Street parties. Public evidence sessions are likely to begin early this year, including with Johnson.

Boris Johnson at a leaving party for Lee Cain, his director of communications. Picture: ITV NEWS/The Times

Johnson and his wife, Carrie, and Rishi Sunak, who was chancellor at the time, were served with fixed penalty notices during the Metropolitan Police’s investigation into how lockdown rules were followed at No. 10.

On the evening of April 16, 2021, two gatherings took place there to celebrate the departures of a junior photographer and the director of communications. About 30 people attended them, before the stragglers met in the Downing Street garden and the parties merged in the early hours.

Johnson was not in attendance.

The evening became notorious for a “suitcase of wine” that the partygoers brought from a Co-op supermarket. Guests photographed each other using the garden’s swing and slide.

One took pictures on an instant camera and other partygoers put pictures on their Instagram feeds. All are believed to have been deleted months later when the first stories of the partying emerged and guests became worried that the pictures could be used as incriminating evidence.

At the time, it was illegal to socialise indoors and gatherings were allowed only for “work purposes”.

A source told the ITV podcast that evidence of other parties held during lockdown was destroyed before the Met Police could investigate. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA/The Times

There were also fresh claims of misbehaviour in an ITV News podcast called Partygate: the Inside Story. Interviews with whistleblowers alleged that rule-breaking was more widespread than previously known.

“There was an aspect of getting rid of evidence,” one official said.

“It was the pictures that people were concerned about, because obviously if a picture gets out it implicates someone very personally.

“People were concerned about being exposed as the leak as well. I even got in touch with people to say, ‘Did you actually hand those pictures over? Because we just can’t give them over.’

“I know some people who are diehard civil servants gave them their phones to look through and stuff. I was never going to do that. If my phone was looked over I’d get the sack, I’d probably be arrested. There are some of us who flatly refused to give photos.”

The notorious party was the night before the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral, during which Queen Elizabeth II had to sit alone because of social-distancing rules. Picture: Jonathan Brady/PA/The Times

Another official questioned why so many of the fines were issued to junior employees.

“I deserved to be fined. I was there and I’m ashamed of myself,” they said. “I don’t know the exact number of women in No. 10 but what I do know is the higher up the organisation you go the fewer women there are.

“The sheer volume of fines issued to women also means junior women – people who earn less, so these fines really make a material difference – who have little to no influence over goings-on in Downing Street and who by and large work for senior and more experienced men … Many of the women issued emails and texts to notify staff of these events on behalf of their male bosses.”

A spokesman for Johnson told ITV: “During the Covid-19 pandemic Boris Johnson led our country through its most dangerous peacetime crisis in living memory … during a 24/7 national emergency, he worked constantly to ensure the government did everything possible in its power to save lives and protect livelihoods.”

He added: “The work of Downing Street staff was crucial as they helped marshal the UK’s response to a national emergency.”

The Times