As it happened: Boris Johnson apologises for lockdown drinks party

The night is drawing in on a significant day in political and coronavirus news in the UK.

Here's a recap on everything that's happened:

• PM Boris Johnson admitted for the first time he went to a drinks party in the garden of No 10 when the country was under strict lockdown measures
• He offered "heartfelt apologies" and said at the time he believed it to be a work event but in hindsight thinks he should have sent everyone home
• The Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called for Johnson's resignation for misleading parliament by previously denying knowledge of any parties at Downing Street during lockdown
• Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross joined calls for the PM to step down, along with senior Tory MP William Wragg
• No 10 repeatedly said everyone should await the outcome of an inquiry by senior civil servant Sue Gray into alleged Covid law-breaking in Downing Street

The influential 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers has been meeting this evening to discuss Boris Johnson's apology for the Downing Street drinks party.

We're told Michael Gove went, and mounted a hefty defence of the prime minister, reminding MPs of past challenges the party has faced and gains at the 2019 election.

Before the meeting, Gove said Johnson was right to apologise but that it was important to wait for the results of civil servant Sue Gray's inquiry.

There's both rage and sympathy on the streets of Boris Johnson's constituency, Uxbridge & South Ruislip, where at the last election he had a majority of just over 5,000 votes.

"I think we're living in very difficult times and everybody makes mistakes," says Mandy Coker, 54, out with her daughter. "I think he has done some fabulous things with the furlough and some people wouldn't still have their jobs and houses without that.

"I do feel he has made mistakes, but haven't we all, and remember he has had Covid himself."

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Altogether less impressed is Bernice Nartey, 27, who says Johnson should quit.

"He broke the rules as the prime minister so he needs to resign," she says.

"It was lockdown and we couldn't have a big party but he got to have one. That's not fair to the rest of the country."

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Read more: What do Boris Johnson's constituents think?

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Toni Kent contacted us to say her mother died on 22 May 2020, a couple of days after the Downing Street party. Lockdown rules prevented her from breaking the news to her brother in person.

Toni's brother has Downs Syndrome and lives in a care home. She had to break the news to him on an internet call while he was supported by care assistants.

"You can imagine how heartbreaking this was", says Toni. "He used to speak to our mum every day and she was his sole parent.

"To discover that drinks parties were taking place between the very people who were telling us that we could not meet each other is sickening to hear”.

Jamie BriffettCopyright: Jamie Briffett

Some people who feel strongly about the Downing Street drinks party have been getting in touch to tell us their stories.

One man whose mother-in-law died alone 10 days before the event. says he finds it infuriating that the government seemingly broke its own rules.

Jamie Briffett, from Caerphilly in Wales, says only nine people could attend the funeral.

His wife was shielding as she waited for a liver transplant which she had in October 2020, he says.

“She has this deep regret and guilt that could not be with her mother in her final days, she will feel that the rest of her life," he says.

“We find it absolutely infuriating and irresponsible that the government could go ahead and have a party while so many of their fellow citizens were abiding by the rules.

“This is totally unacceptable and absolutely shocking," he says. "The PM should come clean and own up and face the music. “

As we've just mentioned, the Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has called on Boris Johnson to resign over the Downing Street garden party.

Now Ross's predecessor, Ruth Davidson, who now sits in the House of Lords, has backed his stance, saying it's "a tough call to make, but the right one".

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

While many ministers are registering their support for the PM, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross and fellow Conservative MP William Wragg have called for Boris Johnson to resign - so it might be good to remind ourselves of the two ways a Tory prime minister can be replaced.

The first is obvious and self explanatory - the current leader of the Conservative Party resigns.

The second is if 15% of the parliamentary party write to the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee expressing that they no longer have confidence in their leader.

Once the chair of the committee, currently Sir Graham Brady, confirms enough letters have been lodged a vote of no confidence is held.

There are currently 360 Conservative MPs, meaning 54 letters would trigger a vote of no confidence.

A leader who loses a vote is banned from taking part in the subsequent contest to replace them, which takes place in two stages:

• Conservative MPs put themselves up as candidates, with their colleagues voting in a series of rounds until two remain
• The final pair are then put to head-to-head vote of Conservative Party members

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More of Boris Johnson's ministerial colleagues have expressed their support for the embattled prime minister.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid writes on twitter he understands why people feel let down, but says Boris Johnson did the right thing apologising and politicians now "need to let the investigation complete its work".

As we noted earlier, Justice Secretary Dominic Raab has given an interview supporting Johnson's "clear account" of the party in May 2020, while culture secretary Nadine Dorries published a very similar message to Javid - which fellow Cabinet member Michael Gove retweeted adding: "Nadine is right".

Speaking on Radio 4's PM programme, Environment Secretary George Eustace said the prime minister had given a "clear account" of why he went to the event, adding that the garden was used for meetings during that period.

He said although members of the parliamentary party were “unsettled and angry”, many of them would respect Johnson’s statement today.

However, a notable absence is Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who is currently on a trip in north Devon visiting businesses - which the Treasury says does not include any time to give interviews.

If you'd like to read more about how Tory MPs have reacted to the events of the afternoon, click here.

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An NHS doctor has described Boris Johnson's apology over garden drinks at Downing Street in the first lockdown as insulting, as she recalls how she was sweating while working in full PPE around the same time as the event took place.

Dr Saleyha Ahsan, who lost her father to Covid in the pandemic, says she believes the prime minister's situation is untenable.

She says hearing of "yet another wrongdoing, another slip-up" by those at the top of government is "traumatising", saying healthcare workers "collectively feel insulted".

She says: "What it does, it reminds us of what we were doing at that time.

"And what was I doing in May 2020? I was dressed in PPE. Yeah, the weather was warm. I was sweating. Trying not to pass out every time I went into the contamination room to see a patient who had Covid in our full PPE. We weren't going out in the evenings to gather as colleagues to have drinks."

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The Ministry of Defence is believed to be considering a new request from Northern Ireland for armed forces personnel to help its health service deal with pressures created by Omicron cases, a reliable source has told the BBC.

It is believed that upwards of 100 personnel have been requested by the Stormont health minister Robin Swann.

The MoD has agreed to several previous appeals for assistance during the past two years.

Read more here.

A few people have been out in Westminster expressing anger over the No 10 garden gathering - including these two who brought their own party snacks and bunting.

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PA MediaCopyright: PA Media

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Deputy PM Dominic Raab says Boris Johnson has given a "clear account" of his actions, and the "right way to handle this" is to let senior official Sue Gray continue her inquiry into lockdown gatherings.

"If there are questions, issues, that are raised by this - that's precisely why Sue Gray is there to conduct the investigation and make sure all the answers can be provided," he tells broadcasters.

Asked whether he would stand in any potential Tory leadership contest, Raab replies: “I think it’s frankly a daft question.

"I’m fully supportive of this prime minister, and I’m sure he will continue for many years to come.”

The fallout from the latest revelation about a party at Downing Street has resonated far beyond Westminster and the UK.

Across Europe, newspapers have been highlighting the scandal prominently on their websites and assessing the damage it’s done to Boris Johnson’s premiership.

Writing for Spain’s El País newspaper, London correspondent Rafa de Miguel says Johnson usually acts as if he is “exempt from the rules that apply to other mortals”. But this Wednesday, the correspondent writes, Johnson was left with no choice but to issue an apology to the British people.

The reaction is no less scathing in France either. The newspaper Le Monde's London correspondent, Cécile Ducourtieux, suggests Johnson's "future as head of government now seems compromised" following ITV News's report about the party invite.

In Germany, the Bild tabloid newspaper was running the reaction to "partygate" as the top story on its website. The headline suggests: "Es wird eng fur party-Boris", or in English, "It's getting tight for party-Boris".

BildCopyright: Bild

Conservative MP Nadine Dorries has taken to Twitter to express her support for Boris Johnson's apology at PMQs.

The culture secretary says she thinks the PM was right to apologise and he has "taken full responsibility".

Communities secretary Michael Gove then tweeted his support of Dorries' opinion, simply saying "Nadine is right".

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I saw doctors and nurses inside this hospital’s intensive care unit struggle against Covid during the terrifying days of the first peak nearly two years ago. Back then, it was full of 30 completely unresponsive patients. In a Herculean effort, teams had to turn them every few hours.

After new year, I donned the gown, mask and visor to return again, I found far fewer seriously ill Covid patients - 10. The vaccine and better treatments have helped, but the new, highly transmissible Omicron variant is still putting pressure on the respiratory wards. The numbers there have quadrupled from about 40 before Christmas to 175.

Omicron is also having a big impact on staffing, with so many people off sick or self-isolating. The hospital told me 600 are off – out of a workforce of 10,000 - and the number is rising.

I could see how tired the doctors and nurses were in the intensive care unit now. But they’re resigned. This isn’t going to end any time soon, they say, but there’s still a determination to get through it.

Watch Panorama’s The NHS vs Covid: The Fight Goes on BBC One at 7:30pm, or on BBC iPlayer afterwards

The police approach to the Coronavirus Health Protection Regulations from the start was to encourage people to comply over enforcement and fines.

The Metropolitan Police have been reluctant to do retrospective investigations into events many months ago.

It could also be seen as disproportionate for officers to start seizing emails and mobile phone messages from Downing Street staff while the Civil Service is already conducting its own investigation.

So if there is any greater police involvement it is likely to wait until Sue Gray’s investigation is complete.

Whether any regulations were actually breached that day is far from clear, as the regulations in force at the time applied to gatherings “in a public place” while the garden of No 10 Downing Street was many of the alleged participants’ workplace.

There is also the question of whether police officers working in Downing Street at the time noticed that people were arriving at No 10 that evening with bottles bought at the local Tesco Express.

If officers were aware of the drinks do, did they inform anyone or do anything about it at the time to ensure Health Protection Regulations were not being broken? The Metropolitan Police has not yet answered that question.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has called on Scotland Yard to launch a full police investigation into the Downing Street party on 20 May, 2020.

In a letter to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick, Sir Ed says the Prime Minister should be interviewed under caution following his confirmation that he was at the event.

"Boris Johnson admitted today that he did attend this illegal party in the Downing Street garden," Sir Ed says.

"The Met Police must now confirm that a full investigation will be launched and that the prime minister himself will be interviewed.

"The police must reassure the public that justice will be done and there isn't one rule for them and another for Boris Johnson and his colleagues in Downing Street."

A further 129,587 Covid cases have been recorded in the UK, according to the government's daily figures.

There were also 398 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

There are 19,735 Covid patients in hospital and 793 in ventilation beds.

Meanwhile, a total of 135,739,326 vaccinations have been given, the data shows.

That's 52,011,835 first doses, 47,774,248 second doses and 35,953,243 third or booster doses.