‘I’m with the gays’: How new revelations of Carrie Johnson gathering on Boris’ birthday may derail his premiership

Boris Johnson, only two months out of intensive care, must have felt properly cared for when Carrie Symonds, his then fiancee and now his third wife, surprised him with drinks to celebrate his 56th birthday.

The party, planned without her soon-to-be husband’s knowledge, has already caused quite a stir. Mr Johnson received a fixed penalty notice for his attendance - making history as the first serving prime minister to receive a fixed penalty notice and in the process threatening to bring his career to a shuddering halt.

But it has now emerged that a second event was hosted by Mrs Johnson later the same day, attended by at least two male friends at the couple’s flat at No 11 Downing Street.

This second gathering on Mr Johnson’s birthday was flagged up to investigators working with Sue Gray, as well as to the Metropolitan Police. Its existence has only now been made public.

The Gray inquiry may have decided not to investigate - the reasons are unclear - but the privileges committee, investigating the Prime Minister for misleading the House of Commons, may well decide to add the event to its to-do list. Mrs Johnson, 34, may well now be summoned to give evidence to MPs over this new gathering.

The committee is likely also to take an interest in the so-called “Winner takes It All” Abba party that allegedly took place on November 13, five months after the June 19 birthday.

The Telegraph understands that an early draft version of the Gray report contained a reference to officials claiming to have heard Abba songs blaring out from the Prime Minister’s flat on the evening that Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s chief aide, and Lee Cain, his communications director, quit.

One person questioned by Ms Gray said: “I told both her and the Met Police that I heard Abba music coming from the No 11 flat on that night. At least three other people told her the same but, despite us offering this information, it was never followed up by anyone.”

A source familiar with early drafts said that the Abba music reference had been in there but had “not been very detailed”.

Revelation of text messages

Messages were sent by Mrs Johnson on June 19 2020 a few hours after the birthday bash held in the Cabinet Room for which Mr Johnson was fined, along with Mrs Johnson and Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The messages appear to show a second gathering inside her flat. At the time of the alleged event, Covid lockdown rules were clear - prohibiting more than two people from meeting indoors unless for work purposes.

Watch: 'Not immediately obvious' investigation needed into alleged Carrie Johnson Downing Street lockdown party, minister says

At the evening event inside their flat, Mrs Johnson is alleged to have been in the company of at least two friends, both of them special advisers. But Mrs Johnson had no formal position in Government and it is uncertain what the work purpose could be.

The messages exchanged at 6.15pm begin with one from a Downing Street aide informing Mrs Johnson that her husband was on his way up to the flat. According to sources, it was common for such messages to be sent, not unreasonably informing Mrs Johnson of the Prime Minister’s movements. Mrs Johnson, according to the Sunday Times, then replied that “she was already there and suggested that she was with an unspecified number of male friends”.

What precise words are contained in the message from Mrs Johnson is unclear but, according to sources familiar with the messages, she responded: “Great. I am here already with the gays.”

The term, used affectionately, refers to a small circle of gay, male friends with whom Mrs Johnson is close. The claim of the use of such language is consistent with a report, back in February, of a Downing Street staffer quoted by Dan Hodges, the Mail on Sunday columnist. He wrote: “She [Mrs Johnson] would say: ‘I'm with the gays up in the flat. Can you come up?’ It was meant as an affectionate nickname.”

The existence of the texts was made known to the Gray inquiry in January. But now, it gets complicated.

The aide declined to forward the messages on, but said they were prepared to go to the Cabinet Office and show them to inquiry officials in person. The aide also said they agreed to supply them to the Metropolitan Police, which at the time had announced it was launching its own criminal investigation.

The Cabinet Office has disputed this version of events. A Cabinet Office source said: "The individual did not offer to bring the messages into the Cabinet Office, so there was no chance for the investigation team to read them."

The aide has now written to Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, to raise with him “some evidence I provided to the Gray report and the Met that I feel is important”. It includes the attachment of an email sent to the Gray inquiry in January that claimed they had “messages that indicate there was a social gathering in the PM’s flat on that evening”.

It was a long old birthday for Mr Johnson. Photographs in the Gray report show the Prime Minister enjoying a can of beer at about 2.30pm at the party.

Mr Johnson then retired to his flat, where Mrs Johnson was waiting for him, allegedly with her friends.

After that, the pair went out into the garden with their young son, Wilf, for an around the firepit catch-up with Mr Johnson’s siblings. The event, outdoors and restricted to six people, was entirely above the law. “I didn't see much of the Prime Minister and his family during lockdown, but the times I did see him, he was completely compliant: he dotted every i, he crossed every t”, Rachel Johnson, his sister, who was at the later birthday party told a radio station.

Mrs Johnson is adamant she has done nothing untoward with regards to any parties, other than the afternoon birthday party for which she was fined.

Over the emergence of the June 19 text messages, a spokesman for Carrie Johnson said: “Sue Gray was aware of these exchanges as part of her exhaustive inquiry into alleged breaches.

“Staff were given ample opportunity to present evidence including these messages and all relevant information was passed to the Metropolitan Police for investigation.

“The lunchtime gathering in the Cabinet Room on June 19 2020 was subsequently found to be in breach and a fixed penalty notice was issued to Mrs Johnson among others, for which she apologised unreservedly and promptly paid the fine.”

Downing Street has consistently denied any such Abba party took place. In her final report, Ms Gray wrote of the November 13 event, “that five special advisers were present” in the Downing Street flat and that Mr Johnson arrived at 8pm and that “food and alcohol were available”.

But Ms Gray admitted that “information collected on this gathering is limited as the process of obtaining evidence had only just been commenced when the Metropolitan Police announced their own investigations, which included events on November 13 2020”.

She said she then stopped her investigation to prevent the police inquiry being prejudiced. She decided it was neither “appropriate” nor “proportionate” to resume it on May 19, when Scotland Yard closed down its investigations.

The privileges committee may now decide to take a closer look at what may - or may not - have occurred in the Johnsons’ Downing Street flat.