Partygate video: Bereaved families and NHS doctors disgusted by lockdown footage

Bereaved families and NHS doctors have expressed outrage over footage that appears to show Conservative Party staff partying during lockdown.

There have been calls for two people who have been given honours to be stripped of them following the publication of the video.

Filmed on 14 December 2020, and published by The Sunday Mirror, one person is heard saying it is Ok to record “as long as we don’t stream that we’re, like, bending the rules”.

During that time, NHS staff were working tirelessly in overwhelmed hospital wards while bereaved families were following strict lockdown regulations at funerals.

On social media, doctors and nurses recalled their time in busy wards in December 2020, sharing stories of “families who couldn’t be with their dying relatives” and intensive care units running out of beds.

Rachel Clarke, a palliative care doctor, said that while Tories partied, she was trying to “care for the dying on desperately overwhelmed Covid wards”.

Labour MP Taiwo Owatemi, who worked as a locum pharmacist during the pandemic, said the party footage was “unforgivable”, tweeting: “I saw first hand how staff worked tirelessly during the pandemic. Meanwhile, Downing Street partied.”

The gathering was held by the campaign team of Shaun Bailey, the unsuccessful Tory candidate for London mayor, who was given a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list this month. Mr Bailey had left the event when the video was recorded.

Ben Mallet, a recipient of the OBE in Johnson’s honours list and the former campaign director for Bailey, also appears in the video wearing festive clothes.

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove apologised for the footage but said the former prime minister had a right to confer resignation appointments which should not be blocked.

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Liberal Democrat chief whip Wendy Chamberlain MP said the apology was “too little too late”, adding: “It will bring cold comfort to the millions of people who stuck by the rules in the darkest days of the pandemic.”

She called for Mr Bailey and Mr Mallet to be removed from the recent honours list, adding: “If the Conservatives knew about this scandal why on Earth did those Boris Johnson honours get the green light from Rishi Sunak?

“Those honours should all be removed, the Government can do that.”

Lara Wong, founder of Clinically Vulnerable Families – a core participant in the UK Covid-19 Inquiry – said the behaviour shown in the video had been “normalised” but it was still “very difficult” for members of the group to see.

She said: “The fact that we’re continually having this drip-feeding of parties coming out over time is very difficult because they are continuing to live very restricted lives now. It’s unending for them and so it’s just like another kick in the teeth.”

Asked whether the group wants an apology for the way the pandemic was handled, Ms Wong said: “Yes, certainly, but it’s long past the time for apologies now and they’re clearly not apologetic at all.

“They felt that that was acceptable behaviour at the time and I doubt their opinion has changed.”

Matt Fowler, a co-founder of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, said the footage was “pretty shocking to see”. He founded the group after his father died in April 2020.

Calling for Mr Bailey and Mr Mallet to be removed from the recent honours list, he told The Guardian: “I don’t think these sort of people deserved to have been honoured in the first place, so they probably should be stripped of their titles.

“Maybe that sort of punishment is warranted because that could influence people in the future to behave in a much more honest and acceptable way.”

Mr Gove said the two Tories should keep the honours they were handed by Mr Johnson despite attending a pandemic-era gathering at which staff were filmed apparently joking about Covid restrictions.

Asked whether the pair should be blocked from receiving honours, Mr Gove told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show: “No, I don’t think that and I have to explain the context for that, so I hope that you and viewers will allow me to do so.

“The decision to confer honours on people was one that was made by Boris Johnson as an outgoing prime minister. Outgoing prime ministers have that right.

“Whether or not they should is a matter of legitimate public debate, but they do at the moment.”