As it happened: Boris Johnson apologises for lockdown drinks party

1. Boris Johnson has - for the first time - admitted he attended a drinks party at No 10 during the first lockdown
2. Speaking at PMQs, he offered a "heartfelt apology" but said he had believed it to be a work event
3. Labour leader Keir Starmer urged the PM to resign, calling him a "pathetic spectacle of a man who has run out of road"
4. Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross also says the PM's position is no longer tenable and he should resign
5. Starmer and other MPs questioned how Johnson could have thought the party was a work event
6. Witnesses said both the PM and his wife were among about 30 people at the event in May 2020 - at the time it was forbidden to meet more than one person outside
7. No 10 says it is waiting for the results of an inquiry

PM's position 'no longer tenable'- Scottish Tory leader

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has called for Boris Johnson to resign, after the PM admitted attending a Downing Street party during lockdown.

Mr Ross - who is an MP as well as a member of the Scottish Parliament - said the prime minister's position was "no longer tenable".

The Scottish Tory leader said he had a "difficult conversation" with Mr Johnson on Wednesday afternoon.

He added he would be writing to the 1922 Committee – which represents Tory backbenchers - to register his lack of confidence in Mr Johnson.

He said: "He is the prime minister, it is his government that put these rules in place, and he has to be held to account for his actions".

You can read more here.

BreakingScottish Tory leader calling for PM to resign

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross is calling for Boris Johnson to resign after his apology earlier for attending a "bring your own booze" party in Downing Street last year.

'He's a dead man walking,' says Conservative MP

Conservative MP Roger Gale, who has previously been strongly critical of the PM, has tweeted, describing the prime minister's explanation that he thought the drinks were a work event as "novel".

"Very thin ice indeed," he says.

And speaking to the BBC's World at One he says Boris Johnson is a "dead man walking".

"We now know that the prime minister spent 25 minutes at what was quite clearly a party. That means that he misled the House."

The apology was nice but it is a bit late, says bereaved family member

EPA

Boris Johnson joining the 'clap for carers' campaign in April 2020

Jo Nicholls' husband died in September 2020 and she blames his death on the pandemic because his triple heart by-pass was delayed.

Speaking to Radio 4's World At One, she says it was "nice of him [Boris Johnson] to apologise, but I think it has come a bit late".

She says she was a fan of the PM saying: "I liked his style, he seemed to be approachable, he seemed to know where Joe Public were coming from."

However she says his recent actions have damaged her trust.

She asks how he could clap key workers during the pandemic while knowing about the party in the garden.

"I've lost faith in all politicians," she adds.

One in 15 had Covid in UK last week - ONS

Just over 4.3 million people in the UK would have tested positive for Covid-19 last week, according to the latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics.

The figure, for the week ending 7 January, is the highest level of infections recorded by the ONS since the survey began, and up from 3.7 million the previous week.

It equates to 6.7% of the population - or one in 15 people.

PM did not see drinks invitation email - Downing Street

The prime minister did not see or receive the email inviting staff to "socially distanced drinks" on 20 May 2020, his press secretary has told reporters - nor did he tell him to send it.

But when asked whether Johnson's then-fiancee Carrie Symonds attended the event, whether he noticed food and drink there or if he brought a bottle to it himself, Downing Street did not say.

The press secretary said questions like these "remain for the independent review to look at and determine" - and that the prime minister would accept its findings. It is being carried out by senior civil servant Sue Gray.

Disciplinary action would be taken against individuals "if wrongdoing is established", the press secretary said, but refused to say whether the PM would resign if he was found to have broken the rules.

'Johnson will find a way out of this'

Reuters

Anthony Seldon – biographer of multiple prime ministers – says Boris Johnson is in “a very perilous position”.

Speaking to the BBC's World at One programme, he says: “It is difficult to imagine any prime minister being so far into the mud and coming back from it and yet he does defy the laws of premiership repeatedly."

“He will find a way of getting out of this,” he says, but adds: “he will not survive unless he fundamentally rethinks what it means to be prime minister, and the need to behave with decorum, dignity and gravitas.”

Reality Check

Could the party have fallen within the guidelines?

The prime minister apologised for the 20 May Downing Street garden party but said that he believed it was “a work event”.

He added that it “could be said technically to fall within the guidance” but acknowledged that there would be millions of people who would “simply not see it that way”.

So what did the government guidance at the time say?

The guidelines said that in-person work meetings should usually be avoided and if they had to go ahead “only absolutely necessary participants should attend”.

They also stated that meetings should be held: “outdoors or in well-ventilated rooms whenever possible”.

But we could find nothing in the guidelines that makes a reference to socialising or drinking at work.

So it is not easy to see how an event – to which as many as 100 people had been invited to “bring your own booze” – could have fallen within the guidance.

You can read more about what rules were broken here.

'For all he does, I still like Boris'

Boris Johnson's apology for attending a drinks party in the garden of No 10 during lockdown has been met with anger from many MPs, as we've been reporting.

But what's the view outside the Westminster bubble? We've heard from a few people in Leeds.

BBC

One woman tells us an apology from the prime minister should be enough.

"For all he does I still like Boris," she says.

BBC

A man at a market stall says he would vote for Johnson in the next general election.

"We were all going through hard things and if you could party and get away with it...millions and millions of people have done it. Unfortunately he's been caught and that's it.

"At the end of the day I think the man's done a good job."

BBC

But a woman who says it was "heartbreaking" to visit her husband in hospital with cancer says the PM's apology will not be not enough.

"It's like one rule for him and one rule for us," she says. "He's done too much of it, you don't take any notice of him now."

Has the mood calmed in the Conservative Party after PMQs?

Nick Eardley

Political correspondent

PA

"The key moment is now Sue Gray," says one MP

From the MPs I’ve spoken to in the past hour, there’s a sense that the prime minister has bought some time.

“The key moment now is Sue Gray” says one member of the government, referring to the report by a senior civil servant into what went on at various events.

Another agrees, but they’re worried. What if she is critical? What if she finds something else?

“That’s pretty close to terminal” says a senior Conservative.

Tories are still unhappy and worried about what’s happened and what could still happen. They want a resolution.

Opposition MPs meanwhile are convinced this is a defining moment that could eventually mean the end of Boris Johnson.

Johnson's apology 'carefully worded' - lawyer

Boris Johnson's apology in the Commons earlier was "carefully worded and obviously lawyered", an expert in the government's Covid rules concludes.

Human rights lawyer Adam Wagner says the PM's defence was "a personal one only", with its framing that he believed the event was in the rules, and argument that it could technically be said to have fallen within the guidance.

But it "doesn't make any sense at all given what the government were telling everyone else to do at the time", he says.

In an extensive Twitter thread, the Covid regulations expert says the apology appeared to directed at people who now believe the PM broke the rules - rather than an admission he did breach them.

Conservative MPs react to Johnson's statement

Reuters

Parliament on a busy day in Westminster

We have gathered some more reaction from Conservatives, following the PM's apology.

Speaking anonymously, one MP tells the BBC that Boris Johnson’s “explanation doesn’t bear scrutiny - it will unravel”.

And a senior Tory source says the PM looked "battered and crestfallen" when he met MPs in the tearooms after PMQs. They said Boris Johnson had lost what made him so successful with his party.

A Conservative MP told Nick Watt, the political editor at Newsnight that: "The PM’s statement isn’t enough. It won’t do the trick. He can usually find a small piece of Teflon to help him slip away from trouble. But I think he has finally run out of Teflon."

Nick Watt also reports: "A Tory grandee turned to a member of the 2019 intake of MPs, who may play a decisive role in deciding Boris Johnson’s future, to ask their thoughts on the PM’s statement. The 2019er told their fellow MP that the PM’s statement was meaningless and it’s over for him."

Another 2019 MP says: “I thought it went OK, considering”.

Support for Boris Johnson comes from minister - and long-term ally - Conor Burns, who says he has "confidence and belief" in the PM. He is determined to restore trust, he adds.

"I do not believe the prime minister misled the House of Commons," Burns says.

Tory MPs have moral duty to remove PM - bereaved relative

PA Media

Hannah Brady, whose story was highlighted at PMQs by Keir Starmer, says Tory MPs have a "moral duty" to remove Boris Johnson.

Brady, a spokeswoman for the campaign group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, whose father died with Covid just days before the May 2020 party, says: "Not content with kicking bereaved families like mine in the teeth by breaking the rules he set and then lying to us about it, he's now taking the British public for fools by pretending he 'didn't know it was a party'.

"Every time he lies to us, he pours more salt into the wounds of those who have already lost so much to this pandemic, but that doesn't stop him. He's incapable of telling the truth and he needs to go."

Apology not enough - PM must resign, Labour MP says

Labour's shadow employment minister says the prime minister's apology is not enough and he should resign.

Alison McGovern tells BBC Politics Live it is "flabbergasting" that he wants people to wait for the details of the ongoing inquiry.

"He needs to demonstrate that he's accountable," she says.

What did we learn from PMQs?

PA Media

Boris Johnson faced tough questions over the drinks party at No 10 during the first lockdown. Here's a recap of what was said:

• For the first time, the PM confirmed he attended the Downing Street party, saying he went into the No 10 garden for 25 minutes to thank staff
• Boris Johnson began by offering "heartfelt apologies", saying that he knows the "rage" people feel with him and the government over perceived rule breaking
• Labour leader Keir Starmer said the PM should "do the decent thing and resign" over his "pathetic" excuses and "ridiculous" lies
• Starmer noted that the ex-Health Secretary Matt Hancock resigned when he broke the rules as did his former adviser Allegra Stratton when a video emerged of her joking about a party
• Boris Johnson said that when he went into the No 10 garden he "believed this was a work event", but in hindsight he should have sent everyone back inside
• The PM said Sue Gray needs to complete her inquiry so the facts can be known and he will respond then

PM's apology was sincere, says Tory MP

BBC

Conservative MP Christopher Chope describes the prime minister's apology as "genuinely sincere".

"I’ve never heard such an abject apology from a government minister in my 30-plus years in this place," he tells the BBC.

"I think that the prime minister showed contrition and he realised he had done the wrong thing in not intervening at the time and all the rest of it.

“I think when somebody makes an apology like that, reasonable people accept the apology - obviously with the caveat that this is continuing because there’s a continuing inquiry.”

He says in the short term "this is a monumental relief to myself and lots of other colleagues because we didn't think he'd be able to carry on" if he did not confirm whether he attended the party or not.

However, Chope adds that it is disappointing that the prime minister has got caught up in the "arrogance of the establishment", with civil servants and ministers at the top feeling they can behave in a different way to ordinary people.

PM heads to MPs' tea room to seek support

After PMQs, the prime minister headed to the House of Common's tearoom - the place where MPs gather, and where prime ministers often go to shore up support on their own benches.

The BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg says it is "very unusual for him to go and press the flesh like that".

Kuenssberg: This party row is not going away

Laura Kuenssberg

Political editor

I don't think the prime minister's statement makes the issue go away at all.

The prime minister tried to strike a different tone today - there was no smirk, no swagger, none of the usual Johnson gags.

He did apologise - which many of his colleagues were calling for - he admitted he was there and that a party took place.

But Boris Johnson says he technically thinks it was still in the rules.

Today's admission may have brought him some time, but he is basically pleading with his party to wait for the inquiry to conclude before they make their minds up.

However, some people will see this as being a non-apology apology.

He said 'I'm sorry I was there but I think it is ok.'

Other people may beg to differ.

Boris Johnson's apology - read what he had to say in full

The prime minister has apologised for attending a drinks party in Downing Street's garden during lockdown in May 2020.

Here's what he said:

Mr Speaker, I want to apologise. I know that millions of people across this country have made extraordinary sacrifices over the last 18 months. I know the anguish that they have been through - unable to mourn their relatives, unable to live their lives as they want or do the things they love. And I know the rage they feel with me and with the government I lead, when they think that in Downing Street itself the rules are not being properly followed by the people who make the rules."

And though I cannot anticipate the conclusions of the current inquiry I have learned enough to know there were things we simply did not get right and I must take responsibility. Number 10 is a big department with the garden as an extension of the office - which has been in constant use because of the role of fresh air in stopping the virus. And when I went into that garden just after six on the 20th of May 2020, to thank groups of staff before going back into my office 25 minutes later to continue working, I believed implicitly that this was a work event."

But, Mr Speaker, with hindsight I should have sent everyone back inside, I should have found some other way to thank them and I should have recognised that even if it could be said technically to fall within the guidance, there would be millions and millions of people who simply would not see it that way. People who suffered terribly - people who were forbidden from meeting loved ones at all, inside or outside. And to them and to this house I offer my heartfelt apologies. And all I ask is that Sue Gray be allowed to complete her inquiry into that day and several others so that the full facts can be established."

The law applies to everyone - Tory MP

PMQs has finished, and MPs have started giving their reaction to the PM's apology.

Speaking on the BBC News channel, Conservative MP Rachel McClean says the law applies to everyone, including the prime minister, and there are consequences for breaking it.

When pushed by Laura Kuenssberg she will not go as far as to say that the PM should resign if he is found to have broken the law.