Kmflett's Blog

Lest We Forget. 5 years on. 15^th December 2020. The start of Boris Johnson’s Downing St Christmas Party week

Boris Johnson was until July 2022 the elected leader of a political party a job he didn’t really seem that interested in doing. By contrast he was and no doubt still is a great enthusiast for another kind of party-the one involving champagne and nibbles (tbh sausage rolls and crisps don’t cut it). Sonia Purnell’s biography of Johnson, Just Boris, has numerous accounts of parties he attended. A lot were thrown by his erstwhile employers the Spectator and the Telegraph. When he was married to Marina Wheeler and lived in Islington he was also, according to Purnell, a frequent attender at dinner parties.

When he was elected London Mayor in 2008 he threw his own parties(paid for by the taxpayer obviously) and in that year The Tatler described him as ‘party viagra’.

He did not deny that a Christmas party was held at Downing St in December 2020, the one that started off the whole parties investigation. The Daily Mirror published a picture of the Christmas Quiz which took place via Zoom on 15^th December 2020 which clearly shows an open bottle of champagne. No problem with that except in the context of the times when COVID laws banned social mixing in London. It clearly was not really a work event either but a social quiz.

There were three parties on 17th December, two at the Cabinet Office & one at Downing St.

However the one that really brought the whole thing into public focus took place on 18th December 2020.

The BBC report:

Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street on this date.

However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister’s then press secretary Allegra Stratton joking about reports of the event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.”

Ms Stratton resigned following an angry backlash, saying she would “regret the remarks for the rest of my days”.

The police investigation determined that the event on this date did breach the rules in place at the time.

What though of pre-restrictions 2019. Johnson had just won an Election and was celebrating.

According to the perhaps not totally reliable source of Tom Bower (Boris Johnson, the Gambler) on Friday December 13th after returning to Downing St from Buckingham Palace where he had seen the Queen, Johnson headed to Brown’s hotel off Piccadilly. The hotel is owned by Brexiteer Rocco Forte and a celebration party was being held.

One party however was not enough for Johnson. He then went to Evgeny Lebedev’s ‘traditional’ Xmas party which was in his house overlooking Regents Park. Unlimited caviar and champagne were available. In 2020 Johnson made Lebedev a Peer..