Sue Gray knew about text messages suggesting the prime minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, could have hosted another gathering in her Downing Street flat during lockdown, Johnson’s spokesperson has claimed.
The official Whitehall report into Partygate made no mention of the event, which took place on Boris Johnson’s birthday, 19 June 2020. The event is separate to the celebration in the cabinet room that saw both Johnsons fined by police.
Labour have said the revelation “looks like yet another cover up” that “casts further doubt on the integrity of the investigation”.
The Sunday Times said a No 10 aide had written to the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, after the Gray report was published to offer to share messages they believed showed evidence of further law breaking in Downing Street.
The aide was said to have not wanted to forward the messages exchanged with Carrie Johnson to Gray’s team, but offered in January to come into the Cabinet Office to show investigators in person and again after the Metropolitan police closed its own investigation.
At the time of the gathering, indoor socialising was banned. An exemption to meeting was made where the gathering was “reasonably necessary … for work purposes”.
Gray was aware of the texts “as part of her exhaustive inquiry into alleged breaches”, Carrie Johnson’s spokesperson said on Sunday.
They added: “Staff were given ample opportunity to present evidence including these messages and all relevant information was passed to the Metropolitan police for investigation.
“The lunchtime gathering in the cabinet room on 19 June 2020 was subsequently found to be in breach and a fixed penalty notice was issued to Mrs Johnson among others for which she apologised unreservedly and promptly paid the fine.”
Gray made reference to the cabinet room gathering in her report, saying it lasted for 20 minutes and those who attended ate food and drank alcohol. Photos were published of Johnson, the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, and the chancellor, Rishi Sunak.
Her long-awaited findings, published on Wednesday, made no reference to any other gathering that took place that day.
However, the claims threaten to reignite anger over the Partygate scandal, which the prime minister has sought to draw a line under.
A government source admitted Gray’s report had not set off the “political implosion” some anticipated, but added that the consequence would probably lead to “a gradual drip” of other damning details.
One Tory MP thought to have submitted a no confidence letter in the prime minister voiced similar concerns. “It’s bad,” they said. “This is never going to go away, there’s going to be a steady stream of new revelations. It’s just going to keep on!”
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said the text messages had been suppressed and that 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”.
She added the revelation “raises new questions about potential misconduct in public office, which must now be subject to proper and genuinely independent scrutiny” and that “this looks like yet another cover-up”.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “The report was impartially conducted and its contents represent the findings and conclusions of the investigation team alone.
“As with all such investigation reports, the process of obtaining formal representations from those perceived to be criticised prior to publication took place. This is an appropriate and usual process in such matters.”
Gray’s report contained only one mention of Johnson’s wife, in which she was not referred to by name.
It related to a garden gathering on 15 May, a photo of which was obtained by the Guardian, where nearly two dozen Downing Street staff – including the Johnsons – clustered in groups in the No 10 garden.
Gray said that event lasted for up to an hour and that the prime minister brought cheese and wine down from his flat.
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