oris Johnson has been warned his position will be “untenable” if he knowingly attended a “bring your own booze” party in the No 10 garden in breach of Covid rules.
The Prime Minister has been under growing pressure to say whether he was at the gathering in May 2020 after an email from his principal private secretary Martin Reynolds to Downing Street staff was leaked on Monday to ITV News.
Downing Street has refused to say if he was present, despite reports that he and his wife Carrie were among around 30 people to attend at a time when such gatherings were banned.
The Prime Minister has said it is a matter for Sue Gray, the senior civil servant who is investigating a series of reported parties in Downing Street and elsewhere in Whitehall in the course of 2020.
However Conservative backbencher Nigel Mills warned that any senior figure who willingly attended the event could not have a position setting Covid-19 policy.
“It is utterly untenable, we have seen people resign for far less than that,” he told BBC News.
“If the Prime Minister knowingly attended a party, I can’t see how he can survive having accepted resignations for far less.
“He accepted the resignation of his spokesperson (Allegra Stratton) for not attending a party but joking about it at a time of much lighter restrictions. I just think that’s untenable.”
Mr Mills added: “I don’t think we need an inquiry to work out whether the Prime Minister was there. He knows whether he was there or not. Just come out and say what happened.
“If he was there he better try a hugely fulsome apology and see if the country will buy it but I’m not sure they will.”
Earlier the leader of the Scottish Tories Douglas Ross again warned that Mr Johnson could not carry on in No 10 if he was found to have misled Parliament
He said the Prime Minister should not wait for Ms Gray’s report to say whether he was at the event on May 20 in 2020.
“It’s definitely going to come up at Prime Minister’s Questions tomorrow, so why not come forward, right now, and tell the public: was he at the party or not?” Mr Ross told the PA news agency.
“But I’m in no doubt that any member – whether the Prime Minister or otherwise – who deliberately misleads Parliament cannot continue. They would have to resign.”
Sir Charles Walker the vice chairman of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, said there was a lot of anger over what had happened and said the Prime Minister urgently needed to rebuild public trust.
“I think the Prime Minister needs to spend the next six months restoring trust in No 10 and making some good and strong decisions. I think that is the challenge for him,” he told Channel 4 News.
Asked if Mr Johnson had that long to win back support, Sir Charles said: “That is for him to decide, for the parliamentary party to decide. But I think the Prime Minister is a fighter and he’ll want to prove to his doubters that he is up to the job.”