Boris Johnson 'partied in Number 10' during Christmas Covid lockdown

According to the Daily Mirror, the Prime Minister and his staff held several festive bashes at Number 10 last year – despite London and the rest of the UK being under various degrees of coronavirus restrictions.

Sources told the paper up to 50 people, crammed in “cheek by jowl”, attended a leaving do for a senior adviser on November 27 – an event at which the PM is reported to have delivered a speech at. At that time, the UK was in its second coronavirus lockdown.

On December 18, similar numbers attended Christmas quiz and Secret Santa events on Downing Street, despite London being in tier 3 restrictions. One source described the events as “a Covid nightmare”.

Meanwhile, it is claimed there were “always parties” in the Prime Minister’s Downing Street flat, with his wife Carrie Johnson said to be “addicted to them”.

A small gathering was reportedly held on November 13, 2020, to mark Dominic Cummings’s departure from Number 10. An event “where they were all getting totally plastered", a source commented.

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Another source told the Mirror: “While senior civil servants were urging caution and there was one message to the public, Prime Minister gave the impression that it could be very relaxed in No 10.

“He would either turn a blind eye or on some occasions attend himself while everyone else was in lockdown.”

Downing Street did not dispute the report, but a spokesman added: “Covid rules have been followed at all times.”

One legal expert told the Mirror the festive bashes could even have been punishable with a £10,000 fine.

A spokesperson for Carrie Johnson denied she hosted parties at the flat while restrictions were in place, adding: “This is total nonsense. Mrs Johnson has followed coronavirus rules at all times and it is categorically untrue to suggest otherwise.”

The Prime Minister announced a second coronavirus lockdown in November 2020. By December, London was in tier 2 restrictions which prohibited indoor mixing between households. On December 16, the city moved to tier 3, which banned all indoor mixing with the exception of household bubbles.

Gatherings were only permissible if it was "reasonably necessary for work”.

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The SNP say Johnson should resign if the Mirror's report is accurate.

The party's Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, said: “Boris Johnson has serious questions to answer over this claim. If it turns out to be true then his position will be untenable – he must go.

“He must follow in the footsteps of previous ministers and advisers in his government who have broken Covid rules – including Dominic Cummings and Matt Hancock –  and go.

"Millions of people will find it sickening to think that the Prime Minister broke his own rules when the rest of us all made huge sacrifices to obey them - particularly at Christmas time when many were forced to spend it away from loved ones or alone.

"As former Scottish Tory leader Jackson Carlaw has said: 'There cannot be one rule for bosses and another for everyone else'.”

The revelations were published as Johnson urged people not to cancel Christmas parties or school nativity plays.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, he promised to “throw everything” at the booster vaccination campaign to tackle the Omicron variant.

But his remarks came after UK Health Security Agency chief Dr Jenny Harries said decreasing social contacts would also help.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If we all decrease our social contacts a little bit, actually that helps to keep the variant at bay.”

She suggested “being careful, not socialising when we don’t particularly need to” and getting a booster jag.

So far in Scotland, nine cases of the variant have been identified. Nicola Sturgeon confirmed in Holyrood on Tuesday that all of the cases have been linked to one private event.