Angela Rayner has written to the Cabinet Secretary pushing for clear answers about Downing Street parties last year during lockdown.
Labour’s deputy leader has asked Simon Case, the government’s top civil servant, whether he will call in the Metropolitan Police to investigate a breach of lockdown rules.
In a letter to Case, Rayner demanded answers over explosive claims that No 10 hosted social gatherings while the rest of the country observed lockdown rules that banned meetings indoors.
Boris Johnson failed three times to deny the events took place last November and December as more details of the unofficial No10 Christmas bash came out.
And a Downing Street insider claimed there were often get-togethers in the evenings and at least two events with food, drinks and games which went on well past midnight.
The source said: “It was the only place you could get together and socialise. They happened most Fridays.”
Around “40 or 50” people were said to have been crammed “cheek by jowl” into a medium-sized room in Number 10 for each of the two events.
After the revelations by the Daily Mirror Rayner asked whether the Cabinet Secretary had been aware of the gatherings that were taking place.
The Labour deputy leader wrote: “You will no doubt understand the seriousness of the allegations made.
“This Government is undermining public health messaging with their actions and we cannot let this go on unchecked.
“It cannot be that the Prime Minister believes there to be a set of rules for the public and a totally different set of rules for himself”.
Rayner wanted to know if he would be conducting an internal investigation into the use of Government property for the parties and the role played by Boris Johnson and his officials.
Downing Street did not deny the claims, but a spokesman said: “Covid rules have been followed at all times.”
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