Boris Johnson’s premiership has been thrust deeper into peril with the publication of photographs showing him drinking wine with Downing Street staff in the depths of England’s second Covid lockdown in 2020.
The pictures, obtained by ITV News as Westminster awaits the imminent publication of Sue Gray’s report into the Partygate scandal, throw doubt on the prime minister’s claim to the House of Commons that no party took place and no rules were broken in No 10.
And they raise the question of why the Metropolitan Police did not fine the PM for taking part in the leaving party for former director of communications Lee Cain on 13 November 2020, when others were penalised for attending.
The images emerged amid growing chaos and tension at the heart of government over the Partygate scandal, with insiders describing the atmosphere in No 10 and the Cabinet Office as “daggers drawn”.
One Tory MP told The Independent that the images made clear that Mr Johnson had lied to parliament, making it likely that more letters of no confidence in his leadership would be written in the coming days.
Another senior Conservative said that their appearance as the Partygate scandal was coming to a head had “shifted it into a different gear”.
Sir Roger Gale, the first Tory MP to declare no confidence in the PM in December last year, described the pictures – which show the PM apparently toasting Mr Cain with a plastic cup of sparkling wine in a room littered with alcohol bottles – as “damning”.
And Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said: “These images will rightly make people across the country very angry. The prime minister must outline why he believes this behaviour was acceptable. To most, these pictures seem unjustifiable and wrong.”
The toxic mood has been fuelled by expectations that Ms Gray’s report will deliver a scathing verdict on leadership in No 10 and the Cabinet Office and reveal a drinking culture inside government.
Insiders told The Independent that tensions had reached a point on Monday where the mood in Downing Street was “daggers drawn”, amid fallout from a furious row between No 10 and the Gray team over a meeting between the senior civil servant and Mr Johnson.
Downing Street denied that the PM had used the meeting earlier this month to put pressure on Ms Gray to soft-pedal her findings.
But the spokesperson admitted it had been instigated by No 10 – just hours after Treasury minister Simon Clarke insisted in a TV interview that the request to meet had come from Ms Gray.
A senior Whitehall official tasked with briefing the media on behalf of the inquiry was moved to other duties after No 10’s version of events was contradicted by the Gray team over the weekend.
And Mr Johnson’s official spokesperson was forced to deny that the PM felt Ms Gray was “playing politics” with her inquiry, after reports that his allies had been briefing against her.
Mr Johnson’s former top aide Dominic Cummings claimed that relations were breaking down between feuding factions within No 10, with longer-serving staff who were present at the time of the parties in 2020 and 2021 fearing they would be made scapegoats by others who had arrived more recently.
“Some of those in key positions, now or very recently, have tried to blame other officials,” said Mr Cummings. “Those officials think some of those in key positions now have behaved appallingly, and are preparing to take action.”
Ms Gray’s report is expected to single out as many as 30 senior civil servants for criticism, as well as offering granular detail on the numbers of people crammed into the rooms in Downing Street and the Cabinet Office in the adjoining 70 Whitehall complex.
Those under fire are expected to include the head of the civil service, cabinet secretary Simon Case, and his predecessor Mark Sedwill.
Speaking of the atmosphere within the Cabinet Office, one official told The Independent: “It’s another grim one. It’s daggers drawn.
