Partygate: Sue Gray report sparks bereaved families' anger

The Sue Gray report details how staff in Downing Street partied while the rest of the country was in lockdown

A Covid bereaved families group in Wales has reacted angrily over the findings of a report into rule-breaking parties in Downing Street.

One of the group's founders, who lost her father to Covid and had to ask a nurse to read out her goodbyes to him, said the prime minister should resign.

The document highlighted excessive drinking, staff being sick and cleaners and security staff being abused.

Boris Johnson said he took "full responsibility" for what took place.

The Sue Gray report said many events "should not have been allowed to happen" and senior leadership "must bear responsibility".

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But Labour Shadow Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens called for Mr Johnson to go, saying the report "exposes the rot that has infected 10 Downing Street under this prime minister".

Sam Smith-Higgins lost her father to Covid in January 2021

'We've been let down completely'

Sam Smith-Higgins, 51, from Cwmbran, Torfaen, lost her 74-year-old father Phil to Covid in January 2021. He caught the virus in hospital and died several days later.

She said she could not have imagined the contrast between her experience and what she now knows what was happening in Downing Street

"I drove over and stood outside the hospital and was waving up at my dad while talking on the phone. And that was the closest I got to see him.

"I had to sit there quietly and send a text to a nurse to read out my final goodbyes to my dad and this is the stuff that keeps you awake at night. It does haunt you.

"Boris Johnson has said he's sorry, great - I'm sorry too. I'm mad. I'm angry, we've been let down completely."

Ms Smith-Higgins is a founder of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru group.

On Wednesday the group tweeted that it was also angry with First Minister Mark Drakeford for trusting the prime minister with the UK Covid inquiry.

The group wants a specific Welsh inquiry to be held.

Kim Ombler said it was "awful" that officials were partying during a "horrendous time" in the care sector

A nursing home manager said she was appalled by the reports of parties at Downing Street while conditions were "horrendous" in the care sector.

Kim Ombler, from Glan Rhos nursing home in Bynsiencyn, Anglesey, said: "We were work, home, work, home, and having to work in difficult situations.

"For people like this, to be partying, I think it's awful."

Mr Johnson's future is in the hands of his MPs.

Welsh Secretary Simon Hart, a member of the cabinet, stood by him after the revelations.

Speaking to Radio 4's World at One, he said the prime minister has apologised, "accepted he made mistakes," and had committed to co-operating with a police inquiry and committed to following its findings.

Mr Hart said Mr Johnson was "not trying to deny that stuff happened that shouldn't have happened".

"What we're trying to say is what we've done about it and how we hopefully can restore trust and confidence".

One senior backbench Tory MP told BBC Wales he thought less than 10% of MPs who backed Mr Johnson were "doing it with any enthusiasm".

"The calculation is still that he would win a general election," they added.

"Grassroots and party members are broadly behind the PM and they expect MPs to stick with him too."

Conservative MP for Ynys Môn, Virginia Crosbie, said the prime minister had her "full support".

"I am unhappy about what happened in Downing Street but much has changed in how it operates since these events and I do feel the prime minister has explained, taken full responsibility and apologised sincerely."

That view was not shared by Plaid Cymru's Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts. She said to call the reporty damning was "an understatement".

"For 168 days, he has used Sue Gray as a human shield against this duty. In this farce of a parliamentary system, it's now all down to Tory MPs to grow a backbone and oust this moral vacuum of a prime minister."

Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford said Mr Johnson was "not out of the woods yet".

He said the report showed that parties were going on in Downing Street on "an industrial scale" and the "least powerful people were going to be asked to carry the can".

He added: "There is a House of Commons inquiry into whether the prime minister lied when he went to the House of Commons and said there were no parties in Downing Street, but no rules were broken.

"I think it's very difficult to read the Sue Gray report and see how he came to that conclusion."

In the Commons, Rhondda Labour MP Chris Bryant said the prime minister's response was a "load of baloney".

Mr Bryant raised the poor treatment of security and cleaning staff, and asks if the prime minister has "no sense of shame that Downing Street under him has been a cesspit full of arrogant, entitled narcissists".

Mr Johnson said it is "absolutely disgraceful in any circumstances to be rude to people helping you".

He said he will make sure those who took part either apologise to those staff or were disciplined.

Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds said: "I have spoken to members of his party and Conservative voters who are shocked that Welsh Conservative MPs are still standing by a prime minister who is only out for himself.

"They need to grow a backbone and submit their letter of no confidence."