Key takeaways from explosive new Partygate report

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The key lines from the Partygate report include : Boris Johnson’s communications chief admitted there was a "great gaping hole" in the prime minister's account of Partygate Messages show that in response to a suggestion the event is described as “reasonably necessary for work purposes”, his communications chief wrote: “Not sure that one works does it. Mr Johnson’s key claim - that all rules were followed - came from a special adviser and was not “a general assurance no guidance or rules were broken” The report says: “We will consider why he said he had been given repeated assurances when the evidence is that the assertion that all rules were followed was taken primarily from a line-to-take developed by the Director of Communications at No. 10 Downing Street on 21 February 2023, at which we confirmed that a line of sight exists from the bottom of the stairs leading up to what was then Mr Johnson’s flat into the Press Office vestibule where these gatherings took place, and that for Mr Johnson to have been present in the vestibule during the gatherings he would have had to proceed from the staircase through a further intervening anteroom.” Boris Johnson would occasionally join No 10 press office drinks on Friday evenings during Covid The report says that there is evidence that a culture of drinking in the workplace in some parts of No 10 continued after Covid restrictions began. Mr Johnson is said by witnesses to have seen Press Office gatherings on his way to the No 10 flat, and to have occasionally joined these gatherings when his attendance had not been planned.” Mr Johnson was aware of the rules and guidance on social distancing in place at the time The prime minister repeatedly referred to them at press conferences between May and December 2020, the report points out.