Government “still trying to get away with” partygate, Nandy says

Lisa Nandy has accused the government of “still trying to get away with” ‘partygate’ amid reports that Boris Johnson’s wife Carrie Johnson held an illegal gathering in Downing Street that was not considered by the Sue Gray inquiry.

Leaked text messages revealed by The Sunday Times suggest that Carrie Johnson hosted a group of friends in the No 10 flat on June 19th 2020, the Prime Minister’s birthday. Covid restrictions at the time banned gatherings of two or more people indoors except for work purposes.

Appearing on Sky News this morning, the Shadow Levelling Up Secretary said: “I think what this shows for me is not that there’s been another party or that there should be another investigation.

“Much more that there is clearly a culture that the Prime Minister has presided over where people made the rules, they broke the rules, they lied about it and they laughed about it, and they’re still trying to get away with it.”

She added: “It’s why Labour has called this weekend for there to be an impartial approach to the ministerial code, so that those who don’t act with the highest standards of ethics and integrity can’t just change and bend the rules to suit them and why we’ll be pursuing this in the House of Commons as well.

“There are lots of things happening in the country but in the end if you can’t trust the Prime Minister to ensure that the rules that he made were followed what can you trust him to do?”

The text messages were sent several hours after a gathering in the cabinet room celebrating Johnson’s birthday. The Prime Minister, his wife and Rishi Sunak all received fines from the Metropolitan Police for attending the earlier event.

The event has not been denied by Downing Street and Carrie Johnson’s spokesperson said Gray had been made aware of the messages as part of her investigation into partygate.

Labour has called for an inquiry into the alleged gathering. Angela Rayner said the incident “looks like yet another cover up” and added: “The public deserve the truth about why the holding of a lockdown party in the Prime Minister’s flat on his own birthday has not been made public until now.”

In a letter to Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, the deputy Labour leader said it is “crucial that you now advise the Prime Minister to come clean about his involvement” in the incident.

Rayner requested that Johnson’s “correspondence pertaining to this event and his whereabouts” on the evening in question be made public and that the messages be handed over to the privileges committee

Johnson is due to be investigated by the Commons privileges committee over claims he misled parliament over partygate. The ministerial code states that ministers who knowingly mislead parliament “will be expected to offer their resignation”.

An updated version of the code was published on Friday, which states that ministers who breach the code will not always be required to resign, but could instead apologise or temporarily lose pay. The new version still states that ministers who “knowingly” mislead parliament will be expected to resign.

Commenting on the amendments, Rayner accused Johnson of “downgrading and debasing the principles of public life“, adding that “he should be tendering his resignation but is instead watering down the rules to save his own skin”.

Labour plans to table an opposition day debate on ministerial standards. The party will call on MPs to enshrine the requirement that ministers who commit serious breaches of the ministerial code have to resign, arguing that this should not only apply to misleading parliament.