Boris Johnson is facing claims that regular drinking sessions were held in Downing Street throughout the COVID pandemic with reports that staff held “wine-time Fridays”. It is alleged that the weekly event was scheduled into the electronic calendars of around 50 staff in Number 10 between 4pm and 7pm every Friday.
Number 10 did not deny the claims but pointed to the ongoing Whitehall investigation into multiple allegations of COVID breaches in Downing Street and other government buildings during the pandemic.
According to the Daily Mirror, the weekly drinks are a long-standing Downing Street tradition that continued even after COVID restrictions were introduced. The newspaper published a photograph of what it reported was a £142 drinks fridge being delivered through Downing Street’s back entrance on 11 December, 2020. The Daily Mirror report said the Friday gatherings occasionally went on as late as midnight, with up to two dozen aides drinking wine and beer and playing games such as Pictionary.
The newspaper claimed the prime minister attended a handful of the events at points when indoor socialising was banned. He is also said to have encouraged staff to “let off steam”.
The prime minister’s alleged attendance included an event on 13 November 2020, when England was in a second national lockdown. It was also the same day that Mr Johnson’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, left Downing Street for the final time following a bitter internal row.
One source told the newspaper of the events: “Boris used to stop by for a chat while they had a drink. It was on the way up to his flat and the door was usually open. He knew about it and encouraged it.”
TFI Friday @ No 10 - get the booze out and have a party …
Apparently on the 12th April Boris had just come out of hospital and was under doctors orders to recuperate, which he did from chequers. So on the 20th he wasn’t even there.
And I don’t see how Johnson didn’t know it was going on and I believe it when they say he popped in.
No body likes being taken for a fool.
The sacrifices we all made at that time were to try to save the NHS being overwhelmed. And we succeeded, well done us.
And now it seems the powers that be thought making sacrifices was only for the peasants and were drinking and laughing at us and our PM knew.
I think he should resign. Any rules or laws he makes now, everyone will be asking if they apply to him and his MPs too. You can’t run a country like that.
And he’s a coward too, the way he seems to have cleared off in the hope it will all go away.
Didn’t he hide in a fridge once before? He’s probably gone back in there
Has anyone ever socialised with a civil servant or 2? I did once, many years ago, and the overriding impression I was left with was one of them being a breed apart from us mere mortals. They came over as being above us working plebs and looked down on us (just like the old “I Know My Place” social class comedy sketch).
Then you’ll know exactly what I mean looking at it from your side if you were at a similar social event to the one I was at (an adult’s birthday party).
