Downing Street party: Kate Garraway calls allegations “heartbreaking and ridiculous”

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Kate Garraway commented on the Downing Street Christmas party reportedly taking place as her husband Derek Draper was gravely ill in hospital with Covid-19.

Boris Johnson’s former press secretary Allegra Stratton left her government post yesterday (December 8) after being filmed shedding light on an alleged Christmas party at No 10 last year.

Around 50 attendants are said to have enjoyed alcohol, food and a secret Santa Claus at a time when London was under strict Level 3 controls banning most gatherings inside.

At the time, Garraway was giving interviews to raise awareness of the devastating impact the coronavirus could have, including on her husband, and was also reflecting on the ‘missed moments’ the pandemic had created.

Speaking to television cameras outside her home in London, Ms Stratton, in tears, offered her ‘deep apologies’ for her remarks, but did not say whether the party had taken place.

Garraway called the allegations surrounding the party “heartbreaking and ridiculous” on the Thursday, December 9 episode of Good Morning Britain.

Kate Garraway addressed the alleged Christmas party at No.10 last year

(Getty / ITV)

Speaking to co-host Susanna Reid, the 54-year-old presenter said: “I just don’t want to throw rocks, basically, because the obvious thing to say is it’s heartbreaking and ridiculous and I don’t can’t believe it because i don’t think they are a bunch of evil people.

In response, Reid said no one was describing “malicious intent” here, but reminded viewers there were only two legal ways to organize an indoor rally of more than 30 people in December of the year. last.

However, neither of those rules seemed to apply in the case of the party reportedly held at No.10 on December 18, when level 3 restrictions were in place in London.

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Reid explained that permissions for organized gatherings require guests to refrain from mingling with anyone outside their homes.

The only other legal route was if the gathering in question was deemed “reasonably necessary for the job,” she continued, adding that it appeared “doubtful” that the alleged Christmas party at No.10 met that criterion.

The co-hosts struggled to understand how ‘the people of Downing Street weren’t doing the same’ as families in the UK, who made difficult personal sacrifices to follow government-imposed rules.

On the last episode of Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, filmed in November this year, Garraway said the coronavirus had “devastated Draper from top of head to toe.”

Johnson has accepted an internal investigation into allegations of a Covid-breaking Christmas party in Downing Street amid growing public anger.

At a press conference on Wednesday (December 8), a tightening of the rules was announced, including the return of the homework orientation, with Covid health certificates becoming mandatory in large rooms and mask rules extended to control the rapidly spreading omicron. variant in England.

Additional reporting by the Press Association

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