WE KNEW PARTIES BROKE RULES

No10 staff stunned by Johnson's lies to Parliament over Partygate

- PIPPA CRERAR

DOWNING Street staff watched in disbelief as Boris Johnson lied to Parliament about rulebreaking lockdown parties.

One No10 aide said: "Why is he denying this when we've been with him this entire time? "We knew that the rules had been broken, we knew these parties happened."

BORIS Johnson encouraged staff to "let their hair down" at regular bashes that were "nailed into the diary" at Downing Street, No10 insiders have claimed.

The Prime Minister, who faces a day of reckoning as Sue Gray prepares to publish her Partygate report today, is accused of lying to Parliament when he said "no rules were broken" in No10 during lockdown.

Insiders have now told of Downing Street parties so crowded that people had to sit on each other's knees, and of staff sleeping off drunken lockdown bashes in the office.

And while the rest of the country observed Johnson's strict lockdown restrictions, security staff in Downing Street were mocked when they tried to stop the illegal parties.

Downing Street staff said they watched incredulously as Johnson repeatedly told the Commons he had been unaware of the gatherings.

One said: "We were watching it all live and we just sort of looked at each other in disbelief, like - - why? "Why is he denying this when we've been with him this entire time? We knew that the rules had been broken, we knew these parties happened.