would not be possible to maintain social distancing in this space, and the photographs of the event which show Mr Johnson confirm that it was not maintained. We have seen no evidence for Mr Johnson’s suggestion that people were making an effort to distance themselves socially from each other and it does not seem consistent with the photographs seen by the Committee.[1]
63. We see no evidence of mitigations being put in place. We consider that Mr Johnson’s reference to the existence of screens in the adjacent Press Office is irrelevant and a distraction as he knew that there were no screens in the vestibule where the event actually took place.
64. Mr Johnson argued that the gathering was “essential” for work purposes because of the need to maintain morale in the immediate aftermath of the potentially acrimonious departure of two senior members of staff. Even where the legal test of a gathering’s reasonable necessity for work purposes was met, the Guidance further required that “where the social distancing guidelines cannot be followed in full […] businesses should consider whether that activity needs to continue for the business to operate”.
65. We note that organisations across the UK were suffering severe staff morale pressures during the Covid pandemic; we do not consider that this in itself provided a licence for Mr Johnson’s conveniently flexible interpretation of the Rules on gatherings, or the Guidance on social distancing. We note that Mr Johnson equivocated when asked whether he would have condoned gatherings for this purpose in other organisations. In view of Mr Johnson’s repeated exhortations to the public to follow the Rules and Guidance, indicating the importance he attached to their being taken seriously, we do not believe that, if asked at the time whether unsocially distanced “leaving dos” to maintain staff morale were permitted under the Rules and Guidance in force at the time, he would have advised the British public that they were. We note that the fact that Fixed Penalty Notices were issued for this gathering supports the conclusion that such gatherings were, in fact, not permitted under the Rules then in force.
66. We conclude that there is photographic evidence of Mr Johnson’s presence at an event on 13 November 2020 where there was no social distancing; that no mitigations are visible in the photographs; and that the Covid Rules and Guidance at the time did not allow a socially undistanced event to proceed purely for the purpose of maintaining staff morale, and that this would have been clear to Mr Johnson.
Gathering on 27 November 2020
67. Two weeks after the gathering of 13 November 2020, on Friday 27 November 2020, Mr Johnson attended and gave a speech at an unplanned leaving gathering to thank a departing special adviser. This again took place in the vestibule to the Press Office.[2] This is the only one of the six events we have focussed on in this report which was not the subject of Fixed Penalty Notices. We have included this event among those focussed on because of its significance in terms of its evidential value in considering the nature of gatherings in No 10 and compliance, or otherwise, with relevant Guidance.
- ↑ His exact words were: “I don’t accept that people were not making an effort to distance themselves socially from each other” (Q9).
- ↑ Core evidence bundle materials, p17 and p19
