Downing Street Covid Christmas Party Scandal as Explosive Footage Emerges

Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, faces perhaps his most scandalous moment in office yet as the story of a lockdown breaking Christmas party exploded into new levels of public outrage.

Footage obtained by ITV News shows Allegra Stratton, the then Downing Street press secretary, joking with staffers at a mock press conference held on Monday 22 December 2020 about a party that allegedly took place the previous Friday, despite London being in the highest tier of a lockdown at the time, with strict restrictions on social gatherings.

Stratton is seen smiling and laughing as Downing Street staffers war-game potential questions that she might have been expected to answer from journalists who had heard of the party, provoking widespread outrage from many people who had to watch funerals of their loved ones via Zoom, (among many other sacrifices) since the onset of the pandemic.

Perhaps most galling at all is Stratton’s jokey reference to the rules that Downing Street continues to insist were followed - that is when they aren’t failing to convincingly deny a party took place at all: “This fictional party was a business meeting … and it was not socially distanced.”

This fits into a recurring motif of Johnson’s government that it’s one rule for them and another for the rest of us - whether it be Dominic Cumming’s drive to Barnard Castle to test his eye-sight during lockdown or Matt Hancock handing out PPE contracts to his pub landlord mate (which he claims is “a load of rubbish”) - the stench of arrogant hypocrisy is increasingly overwhelming.

This latest demonstration of the arrogance of the British ruling class has seen even previously loyal ministers run a mile from doing the normal round of media interviews – health secretary Sajid Javid cancelled a round of interviews aimed at calling for more people to get their Covid-19 vaccine boosters, presumably in fear of being relentlessly pressed about the Stratton footage.

Opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer took aim at Johnson during prime minister’s questions: “No-one was dreaming of a Zoom Christmas, turkey for one, gifts exchanged at service stations - the British people put the health of others above themselves.

“Does the PM think he has the moral authority to lead and ask the British people to stick to the rules?" Starmer said.

Johnson said Starmer was “playing politics” by trying to create confusion over Covid rules, to which the Labour leader replied: “That’s so desperate and even his own side can see it.”

Others have gone further, demanding the PM’s resignation. Ian Blackford, SNP leader at Westminster said: “"Downing Street willingly broke the rules and mocked the sacrifices we have all made, shattering the public trust. (He is) responsible for losing the trust of the people (and) can no longer lead on the most pressing issues.”

For a government immune to shame, it’s very unlikely that anyone will be resigning anytime soon, if at all. However, when even Ant and Dec are openly mocking you on national television, Conservative MPs confidence in their leader is likely at an all-time low.

PoliticsFrancesco Bonfanti