To ask the Prime Minister to make a statement on reports of
an event held in the Downing Street Garden on 20 May 2020.
Mr Speaker thank you for granting this Urgent Question.
It is disappointing that the Prime Minister, of whom I asked this
question, is not here today despite not having any official
engagements.
His absence speaks volumes, as does his smirks in the media, and
I think the British public have already drawn their own
conclusions.
Mr Speaker I received an email this morning from a man called
John who told me on 20 May 2020.
“I found my long time partner dead on the bathroom floor. I had
been unable to get a GP visit for her and she had suffered
terribly for some time before the blood clot stopped her heart.”
That day the House heard from the Prime Minister himself that 181
NHS workers and 131 social care staff had died.
The Minister hides behind the Gray investigation.
There is no need for an investigation into the simple and central
question today, Mr Speaker. Did the Prime Minister attend the
event in the Downing Street garden on 20 May 2020?
And it won’t wash to blame this on a few junior civil servants.
The Prime Minister sets the tone.
If the Prime Minister was there, he certainly knew. The
invitation was sent to a hundred staff, many of them his own most
senior political appointees.
This was organised in advance. So did the Prime Minister know
about the event beforehand and did he give his permission for it
to go ahead?
If so, did he believe this event was in keeping with the
restrictions and guidelines at the time and was the Chief Medical
Officer consulted before it went ahead?
And what did the Chancellor know about this party given he lives
and works next door?
Can the minister confirm that no other ministers were present?
Finally can I ask, does he still believe the Prime Minister to be
a man of “honour and integrity”?
