Partygate is a political scandal in the United Kingdom about gatherings of government and Conservative Party staff during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, at a time when such events were prohibited by public health restrictions. The first COVID-19 death in the UK occurred on 5 March 2020; eighteen days later, the death toll reached 335. As a result, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the UK would go into a full lockdown, with new restrictions on gathering socially with people from different households. As the pandemic continued, the rules for socialising evolved: on 16 September, the government introduced a new "rule of six", whereby groups of more than six people were banned from meeting, and, the following month, Johnson unveiled new "three-tier" regulations, with London being placed in the medium "tier 1" restrictions. Lockdown rules continued in England until 19 July 2021, at which point almost all of them were lifted.
Despite these new regulations, social gatherings continued to take place in Downing Street and Whitehall "most Fridays",[3] including some that were attended by the Prime Minister himself. In May, both a cheese and wine party and a BYOB event were held in the Downing Street garden. On Johnson's 56th birthday in June, a surprise party was thrown for him in the Cabinet Office, with a second party in his flat later that evening. In December, various Christmas parties were thrown, including one in the Downing Street Press Office on 18 December that involved a Secret Santa and an awards ceremony. Two leaving dos were held on 16 April 2021, the eve of the funeral of Prince Philip.
News articles about these events began to appear in late 2021, with the majority of them published by Pippa Crerar, the political editor of the Daily Mirror, and Paul Brand, UK editor of ITV News. The story was first broken under Crerar's byline on 30 November 2021, with details of three parties.[4] Seven days later, a video showing the Press Secretary Allegra Stratton joking about the Christmas party in the Downing Street Press Office was broadcast by ITV News. Speaking in Parliament the following day, Johnson said that he was sicked and furious to see the clip, but that "the guidance was followed and the rules were followed at all times".[2]
As details of the parties continued to be revealed in news stories throughout 2021 and 2022, investigations into them were announced. In December 2021, an inquiry led by the civil servant Sue Gray was started. Gray's completed report, published in May 2022, criticised the senior leadership at both Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, and said that they must bear responsibility for "failures of leadership and judgment".[5] In January 2021, a criminal investigation into breaches of lockdown rules a Downing Street was launched by the Metropolitan Police. As a result of the operation, 126 fixed penalty notices were issued, including one to Johnson for attending his surprise birthday party, making him the first serving prime minister to be found to have broken the law. In June 2023, an inquiry by the Commons Select Committee of Privileges concluded that Johnson had deliberately misled Parliament when he said that COVID-19 rules had been followed at all times in Downing Street.
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