The prime minister’s former chief adviser Dominic Cummings has claimed that lobby journalists attended parties at the No 10 flat during lockdown restrictions.
V unwise for No10 to lie about this but PM set the course of lying on covid in spring when he decided to start rewriting history, deny herd immunity plan etc. NB some lobby hacks were also at parties in No10 flat so trying to bury this story… https://t.co/pYMRiOgULV
— Dominic Cummings (@Dominic2306) December 6, 2021
On December 17, the day prior to the alleged Downing St party, the gov.uk Twitter account tweeted the legal restrictions on Christmas parties, writing: “Although there are exemptions for work purposes, you must not have a work Christmas lunch or party, where that is a primarily social activity and is not otherwise permitted by the rules in your tier.”
From 17 May 2021, six people were allowed to gather indoors, or a larger group of up to two households was allowed.
All social contact rules were initially scheduled to be lifted on 21 June, but were delayed by four weeks until 19 July.
Cummings comments come after a video was leaked to ITV in which Downing Street aides joking about the alleged Christmas party last December while practising for then Press Secretary Allegra Stratton’s planned TV briefings.
No 10 continues to deny that a party took place.
Last year Cummings was at the centre of his own lockdown scandal, after he drove from London to Durham during the coronavirus lockdown after his wife showed symptoms of Covid.
In a press conference in the Downing Street Rose Garden in the wake of a media storm surrounding the claims, he thought he had “reasonably” and within the law.
In November 2020 he resigned from his role as the PM’s top aide.
