Direct quotes, with links to Hansard, and discussion
November 2021
[Reports of Downing St parties]
01 December 2021
Johnson: all guidance was followed completely in No. 10
Was this the one time he misled the Commons inadvertently? Did he not ask? Were his media people really so inept as to ignore the danger signals? Did the defensive sentence come naturally?
07 December 2021
[Video of press conference rehearsal with jokes about “a party”]
08 December 2021
Johnson: I apologise unreservedly for the offence that it has caused up and down the country, and I apologise for the impression that it gives.
I don't apologise for the briefing, and I certainly don't volunteer anything about it being normal practice. I don't apologise for the party referred to, so I don't acknowledge that a party did happen.
I repeat that I have been repeatedly assured since these allegations emerged that there was no party and that no COVID rules were broken. That is what I have been repeatedly assured.
I won't tell you who assured me, I won't tell you myself that there was no party and no rule breaking, and I won't tell you I've spoken to Allegra Stratton, Ed Oldfield or anybody else at the rehearsal to resolve the conflict between what I'm telling you and what you saw for yourselves in the video. I might well have spoken to all of them, but I don't need to tell you that.
But I have asked the Cabinet Secretary to establish all the facts and to report back as soon as possible.
As soon as possible is not now, and I've done all the apologising I need to.
