Meon Valley MP Urges People To “Move On” After Partygate

Meon Valley MP Flick Drummond has urged people to “move on” now that the Sue Gray report into illegal gatherings at Downing Street has been published.

Mrs Drummond said she was very unhappy with what happened in Downing Street but said the party for which Boris Johnson was fined “lasted only nine minutes.”

The long-awaited Partygate report into parties at 10 Downing Street, at a time when the country was under lockdown restriction was published this morning and detailed rule-breaking, boozy parties and cases of security and cleaning staff being verbally abused by partygoers.

The report revealed senior officials seemingly knew the events would break Covid 19 rules, but went ahead anyway. At one party, a staffer was sick and two people had an “altercation” and that at another, which went on until the early hours, a swing belonging to the Prime Minister’s son was broken.

Flick Drummond said in a statement: “I am very unhappy about what went on at Downing Street but there is very little direct criticism of the PM in the Gray report.

“I am pleased Boris Johnson has taken full responsibility for what happened and he has apologised again, even though it is clear he only attended many of these gatherings for a short time at the start. The one he was fined for he knew nothing about until it happened, the report has concluded, and it lasted only nine minutes.

“However, what occurred simply wasn’t good enough and I am pleased the Downing Street operation has now been substantially changed. This sort of behaviour from officials and the descriptions of raucous parties is unacceptable. I hope everyone has learned their lesson.

“We now need to move on with the Prime Minister at the helm. There are many pressing issues to focus on both at home and abroad.”