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Downing Street party: My constituents are 60 to one against Boris Johnson, says Conservative - BBC News

Downing Street party: My constituents are 60 to one against Boris Johnson, says Conservative - BBC News

Downing Street party: My constituents are 60 to one against Boris Johnson, says Conservative - BBC News
Jan 17, 2022 3 mins, 28 secs

The prime minister's former top aide Dominic Cummings has said Boris Johnson was warned about No 10 holding a drinks party during lockdown.

A Downing Street spokesman added: "As he said earlier this week, he believed implicitly that this was a work event.

Last week, Mr Johnson said he went to the gathering in the Downing Street garden and stayed at the drinks for 25 minutes to thank staff for their hard work.

However Mr Cummings, who worked in No 10 at the time of the party, has insisted Mr Johnson "knew he was at a drinks party cos he was told it was a drinks party and it was actually a drinks party".

"I said to the PM something like, 'Martin's invited the building to a drinks party, this is what I'm talking about, you've got to grip this madhouse'.".

Mr Cummings' intervention comes after Conservative MPs spent the weekend canvassing public opinion on the prime minister, with some reporting anger with Mr Johnson.

Speaking outside Downing Street, Conservative MP Steve Baker told reporters: "My constituents at the moment are about 60 to one against the prime minister.

"I've listened very carefully to members of my [Conservative Party] association, too.

The MP later added "it was impossible to say" if Mr Johnson would lead his party into the next general election.

The former minister is an influential voice among Conservative MPs, having previously led a powerful pro-Brexit group within the parliamentary party.

He supported Mr Johnson to become leader of the party in 2019, but has recently been critical over some of his decisions on coronavirus.

Another Conservative MP, Damian Collins, said the number of letters he has received from his constituents about the Downing Street party in May 2020 is "in the hundreds" and "a lot of people are very angry".

For a Conservative Party leadership contest to be triggered, 54 Conservative MPs must write to the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, to say they no longer have confidence in the prime minister.

It is reported that those around Mr Johnson have started "Operation Save Big Dog", which could include an overhaul of his top team, following criticisms of the culture within Downing Street.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told LBC radio Mr Johnson was "too weak to lead...

"There is simply no comparison" to the culture within Downing Street, Sir Keir said, adding that Conservatives bringing it up were trying "to take everyone into the gutter with them".

Boris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020.

A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden.

When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”.

About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds.

Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”.

Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality" in England by Christmas "through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns.

With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began.

He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”.

Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live.

Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street

Boris Johnson was not at either party

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