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Boris Johnson‘s wife Carrie could be dragged deeper into the Partygate row amid claims that a probe into illicit boozy gatherings will examine events taking place in the Downing Street flat she shares with the Prime Minister.
Mrs Johnson has already been placed at several ‘work events’ in the No10 gardens in 2020 where drinks were served, in apparent contravention of Covid rules in place at the time.
But in a further blow to the Prime Minister, The Sunday Times reported senior Cabinet Office official Sue Gray has widened her inquiry to include allegations that parties were held in his own official home.
The paper said that two senior Tory aides, Henry Newman and Josh Grimstone – both said to be friends of Mrs Johnson’s – visited the flat over No 11 on numerous occasions during lockdown.
Initially Ms Gray was said to have accepted the visits were for work purposes, however investigators were reported to have questioned why they were spending so much time in Downing Street when they were working for the Cabinet Office.
Mr Newman is a former protégé of Michael Gove who worked on Dominic Cummings’ Vote Leave campaign in the run-up to the referendum and is now a senior adviser at No 10. Josh Grimstone is a special adviser to Levelling-Up Secretary Michael Gove.
Ms Gray has also been given access to data of Downing Staff staff movements in and out of the building, including from their swipecards, the Guardian reported.
Boris Johnson’s wife could be dragged into the Downing Street parties scandal following reports that two of her close friends – one of whom is Henry Newman – visited the flat she shares with the Prime Minister during lockdown. (Above, Carrie with Mr Newman)
Senior Cabinet Office official Sue Gray has received evidence that Josh Grimstone (right) and Henry Newman (left) went to Carrie’s flat several times while Covid restrictions were in place. Mr Newman is a former protégé of Michael Gove who worked on Dominic Cummings’ Vote Leave campaign in the run-up to the referendum and is now a senior adviser at No.10. Mr Grimstone is a special adviser to Levelling-Up Secretary Michael Gove
Whitehall sources said the Prime Minister had torn up his diary to talk with wobbling MPs ahead of the expected publication of the Gray report
Ms Gray is also said to have been given access to data of Downing Staff staff movements in and out of the building, including from their swipecards
Mr Cummings has alleged that the PM held a gathering at his grace-and-favour flat on November 13 last year – the day the adviser was ousted from Downing Street. He also suggested there had been ‘other flat parties’.
A senior government source confirmed the ‘scope of the inquiry has broadened’ but suggested that Ms Gray was prepared to accept the explanation offered by Mr Newman and Mr Grimstone.
But a Whitehall source said: ‘Why are two spads [special advisers] from the Cabinet Office going to the PM’s flat to have work meetings with the prime minister without any officials present?’, according to the Sunday Times.
Meanwhile, the information Ms Gray gleans from the No.10 data logs could prove decisive, according to senior Whitehall sources.
A source who knows Ms Gray said: ‘This information is conclusive. This is not someone saying “I saw him or her at a party”. This is the proof of who was where, how many people were inside the building at any one time. She will have been looking at all that information, which is far more valuable than people’s say so. It is the evidence,’ reported the Guardian.
Ms Gray is said to be keen to interview all of the people identified as key witnesses in the row to ensure her final report – expected to be published next week – is viewed as credible.
But the mood music in Whitehall is said to be ‘darkening’ as she gathers more evidence.
Sue Gray (above) is reportedly keen to interview all of the people identified as key witnesses in the row to ensure her final report – expected to be published next week – is viewed as credible
Whitehall sources said the Prime Minister had torn up his diary to talk with wobbling MPs ahead of the expected publication of the Gray report.
Meanwhile, leaked photographs from last year appeared to show the Prime Minister and Carrie attending a ‘cheese and wine’ party held in the No10 garden on May 15, 2020.
Sources have reportedly claimed that Mrs Johnson was drinking with Mr Newman, who is a personal friend and close aide to the Prime Minister.
The May 15 party is one of several that will be examined during Ms Gray’s enquiry.
The development comes as Carrie Johnson has admitted she breached social distancing rules when she celebrated a friend’s engagement just days after the public were warned to keep their distance from people they were not living with.
Carrie Johnson has admitted she breached social distancing rules when she celebrated a friend’s engagement just days after the public were warned to keep their distance from people they were not living with. Mrs Johnson, 33, had been at an engagement celebration for her friend Anna Pinder on September 17, 2020 at The Conduit, a private members’ club in Covent Garden, London
Both PM Boris Johnson and wife Carrie have faced allegations of attending lockdown-breaching parties that will be investigated by civil servant Sue Gray. Above: Mr Johnson and his wife Carrie, with their daughter Romy and dog Dilyn at Chequers in December
Mrs Johnson, 33, had been at an engagement celebration for her friend Anna Pinder on September 17, 2020 at The Conduit, a private members’ club in Covent Garden, London.
Mrs Johnson, whose arm is wrapped around Ms Pinder in a picture that circulated online, appears to laugh with her friend as they pose for the snap on a sofa on the club’s outdoor terrace.
A spokesman for Mrs Johnson said: ‘Mrs Johnson was one of a group of six seated outside celebrating a friend’s engagement.
‘Mrs Johnson regrets the momentary lapse in judgment in briefly hugging her friend for a photograph.’
At the time, Brits had been warned that the country was on the cusp of a second wave of Covid infections, with 3,395 new cases reported that day, the highest daily total for four months.
Two metre social distancing guidance and the rule of six, meaning groups of more than half a dozen were restricted from meeting for anything other than work, education or weddings and funerals, were also still in place in September 2020.
Days before the happy friends were pictured smiling together on their night out, the PM hosted a press conference in which he reminded the British public to ‘always stay two metres away from people you don’t live with’ and warned the country was on the cusp of a second Covid wave.
Two days after the friends met up, Mr Johnson said it was ‘inevitable’ that a second wave would reach the UK as he contemplated six months of ‘on-off’ restrictions to tackle the upsurge in coronavirus cases amid concerns in Downing Street that the public was ignoring rules on social gatherings.
He had brought in the ‘rule of six’ on Monday, September 14 – three days before Mrs Johnson met her friend – and on September 18 said the only way to avoid a second lockdown was ‘if people follow the guidance’.
Parts of England were also forced back into lockdown, with curbs including a 10pm curfew on pubs and restaurants and a ban on socialising outside of households across the North West, Midlands and West Yorkshire from the following Tuesday.
A total of around 13 million people were put under the new local restrictions.
Source: Daily Mail
