Dominic Cummings 'walked into a trap' says Charles Walker

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Mr Johnson apologised today as he admitted attending Downing Street’s garden drinks party with around 40 staff members during England’s first national lockdown. The Government has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks after facing multiple allegations for breaking Covid restrictions. The Prime Minister admitted he “went into that garden just after 6pm on May 20, 2020 to thank groups of staff” before going back into his office “25 minutes later”, telling MPs: “I believed implicitly that this was a work event.”

Mr Johnson said he understood the public’s rage, adding: “With hindsight, I should have sent everyone back inside. I should have found some other way to thank them.”

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has demanded that the Prime Minister resign, branding his defence “so ridiculous that it is actually offensive to the British people”.

Downing Street had previously refused to say if Mr Johnson was present at the “bring your own booze” event in May 2020, which the Prime Minister’s private secretary invited colleagues to via email.

There has also been anger surrounding pictures of Mr Johnson five days earlier on May 15, 2020.

Pictures obtained by the Guardian show the Prime Minister sat beside his wife, Carrie Johnson, accompanied by two other advisers – and a cheeseboard.

One of the advisers is Dominic Cummings, who was booted out of Number 10 in November 2020.

In his blog, published last week, Mr Cummings claimed the photo shows a meeting had with the Prime Minister about Covid measures, and that no rules were broken during the wine-fuelled exchange.

He also added that the wine was brought to the table by Mr Johnson himself.

The former adviser said: “Someone brought a bottle of wine out to the table. It may have been Martin but I think it was the PM himself who went inside as I was packing stuff up and brought out wine.

“We carried on chatting about Covid, about domestic priorities, and about how to sort out the Cabinet Office which had totally collapsed.

“Shortly after Carrie joined us. (Nobody has been as critical of her as I have for her influence on the PM and No10 but it is an unarguable legal fact that she was allowed by ‘the rules’ to be in the garden in her own home.)”

On the day of the garden exchange, then-Health Secretary Matt Hancock, had given the daily coronavirus press conference, discussing the threat COVID-19 posed to the UK’s care homes.

Five days prior to this, Mr Johnson had said people could now take unlimited exercise outside of the home and meet one other person socially, so long as the reunion took place outside and a two-metre distance was observed.

Human rights barrister Adam Wagner, who examines coronavirus regulations on his Twitter page, told the Independent it was “doubtful [the gathering] was against the law” but that it may well have contradicted the guidance of the time.

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In his blog, Mr Cummings describes the May 20 drinks party that the Prime Minister has now apologised for.

He claimed that he warned Mr Johnson against such an event, but was ignored.

Mr Cummings added: “In my opinion it would not be fair for most officials who went to the garden for drinks on 20 May to be punished because, given the nature of the invitation, a junior official would be justified in thinking ‘this must somehow be within the rules or X would not have invited me’.

“Other than the 20 May, I’m not aware of events in Number 10 that ‘broke the rules’ while I was there.”

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