Politics LIVE: Sue Gray report: Boris Johnson holding press conference
The Prime Minister faced fresh demands to resign after Sue Gray’s report said the public would be “dismayed” by a series of breaches of coronavirus rules in No 10 and Westminster.
“The events that I investigated were attended by leaders in government. Many of these events should not have been allowed to happen,” she said.
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Hide AdThe Metropolitan Police has issued 126 fines for rule breaches in No 10 and Whitehall, with the Prime Minister receiving a single fixed-penalty notice for his birthday party.
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner described the contents of the report as “indefensible”, calling Mr Johnson’s Downing Street “rotten from the very top”.
“He set the culture. It happened on his watch. It’s on him,” she added.
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford branded the report “damning” and called the Prime Minister to resign for “orchestrating” the scenes in Downing Street.
Labour said there was now “no doubt” that Mr Johnson had “lied” to MPs.
You can follow the latest in our live blog.
Politics: Partygate row as it happened: Pressure mounts on Boris Johnson as he faces questions after new photos emerge
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said: “While the British public were making huge sacrifices, Boris Johnson was breaking the law.
“Boris Johnson said repeatedly that he knew nothing about law-breaking – there’s no doubt now, he lied.
“Boris Johnson made the rules, and then broke them.”
Commons Leader Mark Spencer was also asked whether Mr Johnson had misled Parliament over his reassurances that Covid rules were upheld in Downing Street and for saying that there was no party on November 13 when the picture was taken.
None of the senior ministers, including Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, responded while heading for the famous black door.
Mr Johnson did not receive a fixed penalty notice from the Metropolitan Police, which concluded its investigation into lockdown parties in No 10 last week, for the date in question, with the picture – published by ITV – showing there were at least eight other people in the room at a time when people were banned from social mixing.
The Prime Minister did not address the photo but instead opened the Cabinet meeting by heralding the current low rate of unemployment and discussing the UK Government’s plan for pushing down inflation, which has soared to 9% in April, its highest level for 40 years.
The Prime Minister, speaking to ministers in the Cabinet room on Tuesday, said unemployment stood at 3.7% and was at its lowest since 1974, even joking at how it had never been lower in Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s lifetime.
Boris Johnson does not believe he was at a lockdown-breaking party in the images showing him raising a glass and surrounded by colleagues and wine bottles, a Cabinet ally has said.
Downing Street has denied that Boris Johnson suggested to Sue Gray that she should drop her report into lockdown parties in Whitehall.
The Times reported that Mr Johnson asked the senior civil servant whether there was any point in publishing the report now the facts were “all out there” at a meeting earlier this month.
However the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “This was a legitimate meeting about the process rather than the contents of the report.
“The Prime Minister did not ask her to drop the report or not proceed with the report.
“The Prime Minister commissioned the report, initially by the Cabinet Secretary, and wants it to be published.”
The spokesman said that he understood that the report would be published “in the coming days”.
Three Downing Street insiders have detailed to the BBC allegations of chaotic parties in Downing Street during lockdown.
On the Lee Cain leaving do the Prime Minister has been pictured at, one staff member said “there were about 30 people, if not more, in a room. Everyone was stood shoulder to shoulder, some people on each other’s laps…one or two people”.
Downing Street insiders have described chaotic mid-lockdown parties in No 10 they felt were condoned by Boris Johnson as he “was grabbing a glass for himself”.
Three anonymous individuals have told BBC Panorama in detail what they witnessed at regular rule-breaking events during coronavirus restrictions.
Their evidence will heap further pressure on the Prime Minister ahead of the publication of the Sue Gray inquiry into “partygate”, which No 10 expects on Wednesday.