Downing Street parties: No 10 staff told to 'clean up' phones

According to the Independent, staff have been advised to remove any information from their phones which could potentially indicate the lockdown bashes took place.

It comes amid fresh reports of a further boozy gathering organised by the principal private secretary to the Prime Minister.

Martin Reynolds – who sent the infamous email invite to the BYOB event on May 20, 2020 – is said to have attended another bash on December 18 in the Downing Street private offices. It was seperate to the widely reported event for Tory press advisers on the same day.

No 10 denied Reynolds was at a party, insisting staff had merely been working late on changes to Covid-19 rules which were announced that weekend.

The Telegraph also reports that he tried to organise a “leaving do” in the summer of 2020, but abandoned the plans after “pushback”. He is yet to comment.

Meanwhile, the Independent claims senior Downing Street officials suggested to staff last month that they “clean up” their phones following initial reports of rule-breaking gatherings.

One source said they were “told to clean up their phone just in case” they were asked to give it to investigators who are probing the claims.

Another added: “I was being leant on [during the discussion with a senior colleague] and told to get rid of anything that could look bad.”

A No 10 spokesperson told The Independent that they did not recognise the claims.

Martin Reynolds, the principal private secretary to the Prime Minister

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“Staff were given clear guidance to retain any relevant information. As set out in the terms of reference, all staff are expected to fully co-operate with the investigation,” the spokesperson said.

The Prime Minister is set to face MPs amid furious demands to come clean over his attendance at the “bring your own booze” party in the No 10 garden in May 2020.

Tory MPs have openly warned Johnson his position will be untenable if he has been shown to have lied.

Downing Street has refused to say if he was present at the May event, despite reports he and his fiancee (now wife), Carrie Symonds, were among around 40 people to attend at a time when such gatherings were banned.

The Prime Minister has said it is a matter for Sue Gray, the senior civil servant who is investigating a series of reported parties in Downing Street and elsewhere in Whitehall in the course of 2020 to determine what happened.

However Conservative MPs warned that such a position was simply unsustainable as Johnson must know whether he was there or not.

Backbencher Nigel Mills warned that any senior figure who willingly attended the event could not have a position where they were responsible for setting Covid-19 policy.

“It is utterly untenable, we have seen people resign for far less than that. If the Prime Minister knowingly attended a party, I can’t see how he can survive,” he told BBC News.

“I don’t think we need an inquiry to work out whether the Prime Minister was there. He knows whether he was there or not. Just come out and say what happened.

“If he was there he better try a hugely fulsome apology and see if the country will buy it but I’m not sure they will.”

His comments echoed Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, who again warned that Johnson could not carry on in No 10 if he was found to have misled Parliament.

Sir Charles Walker, the vice chairman of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, said there was a lot of anger over what had happened and said the Prime Minister urgently needed to rebuild public trust.

“I think the Prime Minister needs to spend the next six months restoring trust in No 10 and making some good and strong decisions. I think that is the challenge for him,” he told Channel 4 News.