A surprise celebration, complete with cake and up to 30 guests – ITV News UK Editor Paul Brand laid out the details of a party that ITV News understands took place during lockdown. Boris Johnson had a birthday gathering during the first lockdown in 2020, despite guidelines at the time forbidding indoor celebrations.
It was reported that the prime minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, helped organize a surprise party for him on the afternoon of 19 June, shortly after 2pm.
ITV News Political Editor Robert Peston warned that Sue Gray’s full report would make for “really awkward reading” for the prime minister, while Labour called for Boris Johnson to resign following the lockdown birthday claims. Families who were kept apart from elderly relatives on their birthdays under Covid rules at the time said they felt “robbed” of those moments.
Up to 30 people are said to have attended the gathering in the Cabinet Room after Boris Johnson returned from an official visit to a school in Hertfordshire.
ITV News understands that interior designer Lulu Lytle – who was not a member of No 10 staff – also attended the event. At the time, Ms Lytle was renovating Boris Johnson’s flat in Downing Street, which had already been the subject of a separate controversy.
Nine days before the alleged birthday gathering at No 10, on 10 June, Mr Johnson had asked the public “to continue to show restraint and to respect the rules which are designed to keep” everyone safe.
No 10 has disputed some of these claims, maintaining that the prime minister only briefly joined family members gathered outside.
At the afternoon gathering, Carrie Johnson and Lulu Lytle are believed to have presented the prime minister with a cake, while his wife led staff in singing “Happy Birthday.”
Those present are understood to have eaten picnic food from M&S, with the gathering lasting around 20-30 minutes. Downing Street maintains the prime minister was only present for less than 10 minutes.
“For the first time, tonight Downing Street are admitting the PM was at an event,” said Paul Brand, although he noted there were attempts to play down its significance.
In June 2020, indoor gatherings were still banned under lockdown rules. At the time, there was also heightened concern about the potential for singing to spread Covid-19, with choirs unable to meet to rehearse.
ITV News understands those present at the afternoon gathering included the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, who had previously invited over 100 staff to a drinks event on 20 May 2020.
Jack Doyle, currently No 10’s director of communications, and the head of operations, Shelley Williams-Walker, are also said to have been present. They were joined by other members of the prime minister’s Private Office, No 10 special advisers, and the No 10 operations and events team.
Robert Peston described it as “the worst day for a prime minister that I can remember for a considerable time.”
The week before his birthday gathering, Boris Johnson had asked the rest of the country to stick to the guidance in a press conference from Downing Street.
“I urge everyone to continue to show restraint and respect the rules which are designed to keep all of us safe. It’s only because of the restraint that everyone has shown so far that we are able to move gradually out of this lockdown,” he said on 10 June 2020.
He added: “It is emphatically not designed for people who don’t qualify to begin meeting inside other people’s homes – that remains against the law.”
On 13 June 2020, six days before Boris Johnson’s birthday celebration, the Queen marked a scaled-down event for her official birthday on her own, without family members by her side. Her Majesty watched the annual Trooping the Colour parade from behind the walls of Windsor Castle, out of public view, while the parade adhered to the strict two-metre government guidelines on social distancing in place at the time.
The latest revelations came as senior civil servant Sue Gray finalized her report into allegations of multiple gatherings in Downing Street throughout the pandemic, which was expected to be published shortly.
The internal inquiry had been ongoing since early December, when the prime minister announced an investigation following the leak of video to ITV News showing Downing Street staff joking about a Christmas party.
Approached for comment about the allegations, a Number 10 spokesperson 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.”
Responding to claims of a further gathering later that night in the prime minister’s flat, a Number 10 spokesperson said: “This is entirely untrue. In line with the rules at the time, the prime minister hosted a small number of family members outside that evening.”
A representative for Soane Britain, the company co-founded by Lulu Lytle, said: “Lulu was in Downing Street on 19 June working on the refurbishment. Lulu was not invited to any birthday celebrations for the prime minister as a guest. Lulu entered the Cabinet Room briefly, as requested, while waiting to speak with the prime minister.”
What Were the Covid Restrictions in England on 19 June 2020?
Indoor gatherings were banned at the time, with people only allowed to meet outdoors in groups of up to six. Pubs, hairdressers and restaurants remained closed, and most schools remained closed to the majority of their pupils.
People in England and Northern Ireland who lived alone were permitted to form a “support bubble” with another household, but this only applied to people living alone and to single parents living solely with children under the age of 18.
