Kate Garraway brands Downing Street party 'heartbreaking'
Kate Garraway brands Downing Street Christmas party ‘heartbreaking and depressing’ after her husband Derek spent a year in hospital battling Covid
- Kate Garraway said alleged Downing Street Christmas party was ‘depressing’
- Her husband Derek Draper spent a year in hospital gravely ill and battling Covid
- TV presenter struggled to ‘try and make things work’ during restrictions last year
Kate Garraway has described the Downing Street Christmas party as ‘heartbreaking and depressing’ after her husband Derek Draper spent a year in hospital battling Covid.
The TV host, 54, told Good Morning Britain today she struggled to ‘try and make things work’ and follow lockdown rules during the period the party allegedly took place.
In her documentary Finding Derek, released earlier this year, she also spoke about the struggles her family faced as her husband spent a year in hospital gravely ill after contracting coronavirus.
Commenting on reports of the Downing Street party today, she said: ‘I just don’t want to throw stones, basically, because the obvious thing to say is it’s heartbreaking and ridiculous and I can’t believe it because I don’t think they’re a group of evil people.
‘But there is definitely something very, very uncomfortable about it. Maybe they just didn’t know the devastation… the rules were affecting all of us.’
Kate Garraway today said that reports of a Downing Street Christmas party are ‘heartbreaking and depressing’
In her documentary Finding Derek, released earlier this year, she spoke about the struggles her family faced as her husband Derek Draper spent a year in hospital gravely ill after contracting coronavirus
Co-presenter Susanna Reid said: ‘I don’t think anyone is describing malign intent here.
‘But Adam Wagner, who is a barrister – we regularly talk to Adam on the programme – has been, as you suggest, crunching the legals over this.’
She continued, quoting from a document: ‘During that period, there were only two legal ways to have an indoor gathering of more than 30 people.
‘There were permitted, organised gatherings – but that would mean guests weren’t allowed to mingle with anyone not in their household. That doesn’t seem to apply.
‘And the only other legal route was if the gathering was ‘reasonably necessary for work’. It seems doubtful any kind of party held for more than 30 people indoors where Covid was more likely to spread would be reasonably necessary for work.’
Garraway added: ‘Because I just remember the scrutiny that we went through to try and make things work.
‘And you know, Susanna, because I talked to you a lot about it, about even simple things like ‘Can I leave them on their own? Am I allowed to have people in to look after the children?’
‘It was just very complicated. But I think if I was doing that, I know every household in the land was doing that – ‘Am I within the rules?’. And it’s just depressing.’
Reid finished: ‘How people at Downing Street weren’t doing the same thing…. ‘Are we doing this within the rules? We have set the rules’.’
Boris Johnson has agreed to an internal investigation into allegations of a Covid-rule-breaking Christmas party in Downing Street in the face of mounting anger.
The Prime Minister has repeatedly insisted the rules were followed that night but apologised over the impression made by leaked footage of No 10 staff joking about coronavirus restrictions.
Boris Johnson has agreed to an internal investigation into allegations of a Covid-rule-breaking Christmas party in Downing Street in the face of mounting anger
The Prime Minister has repeatedly insisted the rules were followed that night but apologised over the impression made by leaked footage of No 10 staff joking about coronavirus restrictions
The adviser who outed the Downing Street Christmas party in the notorious video refused to answer questions today as he fled a media scrum through Whitehall – as details of four separate gatherings emerged.
Ed Oldfield, a 23-year-old former public schoolboy, kept his head down as he strode purposely through Whitehall pursued by a press pack.
The row over last year’s ‘illicit’ Downing Street Christmas party has rocked Westminster over the last week and led Ms Stratton to announce her resignation yesterday.
But it has now emerged that the December 18 event may have been only one of as many as six Whitehall bashes held in the run-up to Christmas – at a time when the country was under stringent Covid restrictions.
It was alleged there was a leaving do where the PM reportedly gave a speech, a quiz night and even a celebration in the Downing Street flat on the night Dominic Cummings left No10. There were also said to have been other parties in Whitehall departments and at Tory headquarters.
The ‘raucous’ dos, at which several officials were said to have been seen ‘rat-a**ed’ on copious amounts of wine, have certainly left Whitehall with a lasting hangover as the events are probed by the Cabinet Secretary and the Met Police.
Meanwhile, during a press conference on Wednesday, a tightening of rules was announced, including the return of work-from-home guidance, Covid health certificates becoming mandatory in large venues, and mask rules being extended to combat the rapidly-spreading Omicron variant in England.
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