Boris Johnson orders probe into Downing Street lockdown party he said did not happen

Pressure has been growing on the Prime Minister over the reports that staff held a party in Number Ten, days before Christmas last year, when the UK was in lockdown and London and England was under Tier 3 restrictions.

Tory backbenchers are reportedly losing confidence in the Prime Minister, Labour said he's taking people for fools and the SNP said he should resign.

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Johnson said the Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case, would investigate and that disciplinary action would be taken if it was found rules were broken.

Johnson previously said, repeatedly, all rules had been followed at Downing Street but a video of his press office staff laughing about the party, during a recorded rehearsal briefing days later, have sparked further outrage and accusations of there being one rule for the country and another for the Prime Minister and his Downing Street staff.

Then press spokesperson, Allegra Stratton, was seen laughing after being asked about reports of the party saying: “I went home” and, asked if the Prime Minister would condone having a Christmas party she laughed “What is the answer?”

She added: “This fictional party was a business meeting. And it was not socially distanced.”

At Prime Minister’s Questions, Johnson apologised for the video and said he was “furious” at it.

He said: “I understand and share the anger up and down the country at seeing No 10 staff seeming to make light of lockdown measures, and I can understand how infuriating it must be to think that people who have been setting the rules have not been following the rules because I was also furious to see that clip.

"I apologise unreservedly for the offence that it has caused up and down the country and I apologise for the impression that it gives.

"But I repeat that I have been repeatedly assured since these allegations emerged that there was no party and that no Covid rules were broken, and that is what I have been repeatedly assured."

The reports of the party state that alcohol was consumed, with cheese and wine and a secret Santa organised.

Keir Starmer, Labour leader, said the Prime Minister had been "caught red-handed".

He said: "Millions of people now think the Prime Minister was taking them for fools, that they were lied to. They are right, aren't they?"

Stewart McDonald, Glasgow South SNP MSP, said it was “Garbage from the PM, and illustrates the problem with Labour setting the bar so low as he has now effectively met their demands.”

Adam Tomkins, former Glasgow Conservative MSP, said: “It is one of the fundamentals of who we are that the same rules apply to the governed and the government alike.

"That it is so-called conservatives who appear to have lost sight of this is beyond contemptible.”

Nicola Sturgeon said the dates of the  alleged party were “engraved” on her mind as one of the “lowest dark points in the whole pandemic”.

She said hope of a limited normality had to be “snatched away” from people days before Christmas.

She said: “That is what makes people so angry about, allegedly, what was happening in Downing Street.

“But I think the second issue is, when confronted with this the Prime Minister appears to be not being straight and truthful about it.

“That matters because he is likely to be asking people to be doing difficult things against over this Christmas and it’s really important that he is straight an honest with people.”

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said if Johnosn knew about teh party he should resign.

Ross said: "If the Prime Minister knew about this party last December, knew about this party last week, and was still denying it, then that is the most serious allegation.

"There is absolutely no way you can mislead parliament and think you could get off with that.

"No one should continue in their post if they mislead parliament in that way."