BORIS HIT BY NEW PARTY STORM AS DOUBTS GROW OVER HIS FUTURE

ANGER AFTER DRINKS ON EVE OF PHILIP FUNERAL HIS FUTURE

- Nicholas Cecil, Rachael Burford and David Bond

BORIS JOHNSON’S premiership was plunged into deepening crisis today over the party “culture” at No10, which included two gatherings the night before the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral.

Tory grassroot support was ebbing away from the Prime Minister as the Government was rocked by the fresh revelations about Downing Street bashes. With the furore showing no sign of abating, at least one more MP confirmed he had sent in a letter of no confidence in Mr Johnson. The Prime Minister apologised on Wednesday for a “bring-your-own-booze” party in the garden of No10 on May 20, 2020, when Britain was in lockdown, but told MPs he regarded it as a work gathering, so may technically have been within the rules.

However, any hopes he may have had that the storm may ease were dashed this morning with the new revelations about two leaving dos in Downing Street the night before the Queen attended her husband’s funeral wearing a face mask and socially distanced from her family at Windsor Castle, in line with Covid restrictions. The Prime Minister’s former director of communications apologised for the “anger and hurt” caused by the leaving gathering held in Downing Street the night before the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral.

James Slack, who last year left No 10 to become deputy editor-in-chief at The Sun, said the party on April 16, 2021 “should not have happened at the time that it did”. However, one senior MP criticised the “culture” at No 10 which has led to top civil servant Sue Gray now investigating a series of parties in Downing Street while Cabinet ministers were telling millions of people across Britain to make often difficult sacrifices to abide by Covid restrictions.