Reeves ridicules Downing Street claim garden party was “work meeting”

Labour’s Rachel Reeves has ridiculed the claim from No 10 that an event attended by Boris Johnson and his wife in the Downing Street garden in May last year, when household mixing was prohibited by Covid rules, was a “work meeting”.

Following the publication of a photo on Sunday, showing Johnson and Carrie Symonds in the garden with a number of Downing Street staff enjoying wine and cheese on May 15th, the Shadow Chancellor commented: “I don’t know what you do at work, but I don’t spend my time drinking glasses of wine and eating cheese.”

She added that she does not take her husband to work either, telling BBC Radio 4 today: “That wasn’t a picture of people at work. That was a picture of people enjoying themselves, and not just with colleagues, but also with family as well.”

The image emerged after weeks in which Johnson has been under pressure after denying knowledge of Downing Street parties in the run-up to Christmas last year and was pictured leading a Christmas quiz. Reeves said there has been “evidence of law breaking, not just on this occasion, but on multiple occasions”.

The photo was shared with The Guardian after No 10 denied that a social gathering with wine, spirits and pizza took place inside and outside the Downing Street building on May 15th. Johnson’s spokesperson said staff were working.

But the image prompted concerns as bottles of wine are in evidence, there is a lack of social distancing and 19 people are gathered across the terrace and lawn at a time when social mixing between households was limited to two people.

Responding to the reports, deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said the “alleged drinking and partying late into the evening when the rest of us were only recently getting one daily walk” is a “slap in the face of the British public”.

Dominic Raab insisted today that the event was a work meeting, telling Times Radio: “The point I’d make is the rules that you were referring to were all the social mixing rules. This was not a social gathering. It is palpably not a social gathering, because you had people in work suits, following meetings that they were having at work.”

Asked whether allegations of Covid rule breaking are being used to “bring down” Johnson, the Justice Secretary told listeners on BBC Radio 4’s Today that the photo and other stories had been leaked to the press “with an animus”.

The Prime Minister has repeatedly been accused of dishonesty over the last month. Allegations levelled at Johnson include more than one party and a Christmas quiz that Johnson appears to have hosted, in contravention of Covid rules.