CULTURE Secretary Nadine Dorries rushed to defend the Prime Minister after the former Scottish Tory leader attacked him over the latest Downing Street party reports.
Ruth Davidson reacted angrily as it emerged Boris Johnson attended an indoor celebration of his birthday during lockdown – where it is alleged 30 people gathered, shared cake and sang in the Cabinet Room.
ITV News reported the Prime Minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, had organised the surprise get-together complete with a chorus of “happy birthday” on the afternoon of June 19 2020.
A spokesperson for Downing Street said: “A group of staff working in No 10 that day gathered briefly in the Cabinet Room after a meeting to wish the Prime Minister a happy birthday. He was there for less than 10 minutes.”
ITV news also reported later that evening family friends were hosted upstairs to further celebrate the Prime Minister’s 56th birthday in his official residence.
No 10 said: “This is totally untrue. In line with the rules at the time the Prime Minister hosted a small number of family members outside that evening.”
Davidson, who received a peerage from Johnson after she left her role as an MSP at Holyrood, has been critical of the Tory leader in recent weeks amid reports of a number of gatherings held despite Covid rules preventing them.
READ MORE: Ruth Davidson declares Boris Johnson 'unfit for office' and Tories tired of drama
After Monday night’s report, she wrote on Twitter: “By coincidence, my partner shares a birthday with the Prime Minister (19th June). We marked it in 2020 by inviting one other household to sit outside, socially distanced, in our garden. It didn't occur to us - literally couldn't conceive - that we would act outside the rules.”
Culture Secretary Dorries – who has been a staunch defender of Johnson throughout the scandal – jumped on the opportunity to stick up for her boss.
She responded: “Ruth, you were at home with your partner.
“The PM was working in Downing St with 100s of staff in Covid war room offices. Where/what is the comparison?”
Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting thought the situation was clear. “The comparison is that Ruth followed the rules. Boris Johnson didn’t. Not hard, is it?” he told Dorries.
Also on Tuesday morning, Cabinet ministers sought to defend Johnson in the media.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said Johnson has admitted mistakes were made.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “Look, as the Prime Minister’s said, where mistakes were made, even though it wasn’t … I mean, he would have turned up and the cake would have been there.
“He didn’t know about it, and it clearly shouldn’t happen.
“But Sue Gray will get to the bottom of that; the Prime Minister’s already said there will be consequences falling out from the Sue Gray report, and my hope is we can get to see that very quickly.”
He added: “We know that this was a surprise, the Prime Minister obviously wasn’t involved in that surprise, but we need to have a full understanding of all of that.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel