Downing Street party: Boris Johnson's 'only failing is loyalty' says Staffordshire MP
A senior Tory has defended Boris Johnson over the latest lockdown breach allegations – saying the PM's only fault was his "loyalty" to staff.
Michael Fabricant said it remained to be seen whether any rules had been broken during a 'bring-your-own-booze' drinks party in the Downing Street garden that Mr Johnson and his wife Carrie are said to have attended in May 2020.
The Lichfield MP claimed the PM "felt sorry" for staff who were working long hours and were "simply spilling out from their own offices into a secure garden".
Number 10 says the party – as well as others said to have taken place during Covid restrictions – is the subject of a probe by senior civil servant Sue Gray, while the Met Police is understood to have contacted the Cabinet Office over the issue.
Mr Fabricant said that while he understood people's anger, the gathering in question was "very different" from groups of random people mixing in a public area.
He said the only people who would have attended the party are those who were "working closely together" in Downing Street at the time. He said they "weren't putting lives at risk" as there was "no mixing".
"People don't always understand precisely what Downing Street is like," Mr Fabricant said. "There are over 100 offices, there are three buildings knocked into one. It's connected to the Whitehall buildings, there's the Cabinet office and there is an enclosed garden.
"All of it is a very, very secure area. I know a lot of these people at that time were working 18 hours a day to deliver one of the best, if not the best, vaccine programmes in the world. They were exhausted.
"If Boris Johnson has got a failing, it is loyalty. Loyalty to his friends, and loyalty to his staff. Whether it is right or not legally is something that the Metropolitan Police and Sue Gray will decide."
He added: "I'd rather have a Prime Minister who felt for his staff and all those hard working people, than some cold fish who really couldn't care a toss about them."
The latest scandal to hit Mr Johnson's administration emerged after a leaked email showed his top civil servant Martin Reynolds invited 100 staff to a party in Downing Street during the first lockdown.
At the time strict rules were in place banning people from meeting any more than one person they didn't live with outside. Around 40 are believed to have attended the event.
Marco Longhi, the Conservative MP for Dudley North, said: "There is an investigation going on and we are going to have to wait and see what the outcome of that investigation is.
"It's obviously not welcome news, but when you look at how this information is being put out there is clearly a hatchet job on the Prime Minister.
"If the investigation establishes that things have not been done correctly, then I'm sure there will be consequences. Until such time it would be wise not to jump the gun."
