The Queen reportedly refused an offer to waive restrictions to allow more than 30 mourners at Prince Philip’s funeral so that she could set an example to the nation.
When Britain’s longest-serving consort died on April, 9th 2021, Downing Street reached out to Buckingham Palace to offer a temporary easement of restrictions for his funeral, reports the Private Eye.
The country was in the midst of a lockdown roadmap with indoor mixing prohibited at the time.
The Queen is said to have decline the invitation on the grounds she sought to set a positive example.
The revelations could stir further anger amid reports of a lockdown-breaking double Downing Street party the night before Her Majesty laid the Duke of Edinburgh to rest.
With the nation in a period of national mourning, Downing Street staff allegedly drank and danced along to music until the early hours.
The Government’s own guidance at the time read: “You must not socialise indoors except with your household or support bubble. You can meet outdoors, including in gardens, in groups of six people or two households.”
However, an eye-witness told The Telegraph that around 30 people over both gatherings combined continued drinking and dancing well beyond midnight.
The second gathering that night took place in the NO.10 basement with limited ventilation as someone was sent to a local Co-op with a suitcase to stock up on more booze.
Piers Morgan slams Downing Street officials
This says everything about the Queen… and everything about those at Downing St. https://t.co/eEFBRwA3QP
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 19, 2022
The news sparked reaction from Piers Morgan who shared a tweet with his near eight million followers.
He said: “This says everything about the Queen… and everything about those at Downing St.”
It will cause further damage to Boris Johnson who is facing calls to resign over the ‘partygate’ scandal.
Mr Johnson is battling on after a senior Tory demanded “in the name of God, go” and a Conservative MP defected to Labour over allegations of rule-breaking parties in Downing Street.
Former Brexit secretary David Davis called for the Prime Minister’s resignation in a Commons intervention on Wednesday before later warning the party faces “dying a death of 1,000 cuts” if they do not act swiftly to oust him.
Minutes before Prime Minister’s Questions, Bury South MP Christian Wakeford dramatically switched sides, refusing to “defend the indefensible” over alleged breaches of Covid rules.
Seven Tory MPs have publicly called for Mr Johnson to go, far short of the 54 required to submit letters of no confidence to the backbench 1922 Committee.
The number would have been eight, but Mr Wakeford’s defection means the tally is unchanged.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel