Tameside’s three members of parliament have reacted with outrage after a video emerged of Downing Street staff joking about holding a Christmas party just days after one had been held there while the country was in lockdown.

She was recorded joking that “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.”

The prime minister came under fire for the clip in PMQ’s and apologised to the public, ordering an inquiry to establish whether any rules had been broken.

Ashton MP and Deputy Labour Leader Angela Rayner said that she was outraged by the government’s actions at a time when so many other people were making sacrifices.

She said: “People are rightly angry that whilst they were diligently following the rules to protect their community, Boris Johnson was letting parties happen in No.10.

“Nearly 150,000 people have died from Covid in the UK. Hundreds of local businesses have been forced to close. Children have missed nearly a year of vital education. Billions of pounds were wasted on useless PPE when our brave key workers wore bin bags. Thousands of families spent last Christmas apart. Thousands of families spent Christmas grieving loved ones. Thousands of key workers spent Christmas Day on the frontline, saving lives.

“They partied, we paid.”

Denton MP Andrew Gwynne, who recently returned to the front benches of the opposition as shadow public health minister, was also incensed, saying that while the public stuck to the rules, the government did not.

He said: “We all remember Christmas last year, being forced to be away from loved ones, hundreds of people dying daily. We all stuck to the rules, and we expected our Government to do the same.

“Yet whilst we followed the rules, they broke them, time and time again. To make it worse, they not only had parties, but laughed about it. It makes a mockery of the British public, and it's a disgrace.

“We're all tired of the lies and the endless spin. The Prime Minister needs to explain himself to the people of this country who have sacrificed so much over the last 18 months. The rules apply to all of us.”

Stalybridge and Hyde MP Jonathan Reynolds added his dissatisfaction, saying that it was sickening to see the laughing and plotting.

He said: “People across Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley, Dukinfield and Longdendale followed the rules last Christmas. My own office party was online via Zoom; like so many I didn’t see my parents for months; there were no office parties for the key workers who had got us through. 

“The sheer contempt from Tory No 10, not just of hosting a wholly unnecessary large gathering as infections skyrocketed, but then of lying about it repeatedly, is a shocking way for a government to treat its people. 

“My mailbox today is bursting with messages from people who have since lost relatives they weren’t able to spend last Christmas with. To see Boris Johnson’s top aides laughing and plotting how they would lie about this is sickening. This is a question of leadership and Johnson has categorically failed.”

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