Extract from Urgent Question (Commons) on Downing Street Christmas Parties Investigation - Dec 9

Matt Western (Warwick and Leamington) (Lab): The Government are supposed to be lawmakers, not lawbreakers. When these gatherings, parties or whatever were happening, across Coventry and Warwickshire we have had 5,000 incidents in the last 20 months in which people have been fined for breaking the law: a bar in Leamington was fined £10,000 for having a gathering; 200 Warwick University students were fined for holding various events; and another pub landlord was fined £1,000. “Party” is a synonym for “gathering.” These were not business meetings, were they?

The Paymaster General (Michael Ellis): That is exactly what the investigation seeks to uncover. If there was a gathering, it seeks to uncover the nature of that gathering.