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Partygate: Conservative Party staff filmed drinking and dancing during COVID lockdown | UK News

Conservative Party staff were filmed celebrating at their London headquarters during the height of the COVID lockdown.

New footage, obtained by The Mirror, shows the workers at a Christmas party dancing, drinking and joking about COVID restrictions while lockdown rules were in place in December 2020.

Two of those at the party were named in Boris Johnson‘s resignation honours list.

One couple can be seen holding hands and dancing animatedly to Fairytale Of New York while twirling around the room, at one point knocking into a table laden with party food and drink.

During the video, one man can be heard asking: “Are you filming this?” while another responds, “it’s for party, erm, party use.”

Someone else quips, “Instagram live!”

The first person then laughs, and says: “As long as we are not streaming that we’re, like, bending the rules.”

It is understood to have been filmed at a time when many families were unable to see one another over Christmas due to the lockdown tier system, restricting the number of people who were able to mix together indoors.

The Mirror said more than 24 people attended the event, and claim at least nine people can be seen in the video.

Read more:
Boris Johnson ‘calling off the dogs’ from attacking privileges committee report
Rishi Sunak facing potentially acrimonious vote on Boris Johnson partygate report

The two people at the event recognised in Mr Johnson’s honours list are former London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey (who is understood to have left before the video was taken) – who has been given a peerage – and Ben Mallet, the Tory campaign director for the 2021 London mayoral election, who can be seen in the video wearing brightly coloured braces.

The video is likely to turn the spotlight back onto former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, just days after the privileges committee found he had repeatedly misled MPs with denials over partygate.

The Mirror previously released a photo from the party, which was subsequently investigated by police. No further action was taken at the time due to lack of evidence.

Responding to the video, a Conservative Party spokesperson said: “Senior CCHQ staff became aware of an unauthorised social gathering in the basement of Matthew Parker Street organised by the Bailey campaign on the evening of 14 December 2020.

“Formal disciplinary action was taken against the four CCHQ staff who were seconded to the Bailey campaign.”

Angela Rayner, Labour deputy leader, said the video showed attendees “openly mocked the rules,” adding that the recent honours announcement was a “sickening insult”.

She said: “Revellers at this lockdown Tory booze up openly mocked the rules the British people followed. The Tories think it’s one rule for them and one rule for everyone else.”

“Instead of forcing them to face the consequences, Rishi Sunak has caved into Boris Johnsons’ demands and chosen to reward them with honours. It’s a sickening insult.”

“This Prime Minister is failing to deliver the integrity he promised and showing he’s too weak to turn the page on thirteen years of Tory scandal.”

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Conservative MPs and ministers should be sick to their stomachs seeing this new Partygate footage.

“While families grieved and NHS staff worked on the front line, Conservative Campaign Headquarters partied.

“What’s worse is the current Prime Minister granted Boris Johnson’s request to give some of these people honours.

“There are thousands of families out there who deserve an apology for this scandal – Rishi Sunak should give them one immediately.”

Be ‘less squeamish’ about drinking reprocessed sewage water, environment chief says | UK News

Britons should be “less squeamish” about drinking reprocessed sewage water, and stop treating the resource as a “free good”, the head of the Environment Agency has said.

It comes as water companies have been accused of dumping sewage into rivers and the sea over the last few weeks, triggering warnings about contaminated water.

There have been growing calls to strip water company bosses of their multimillion-pound bonuses after outrage at how much sewage is being pumped into the sea.

Writing in The Sunday Times, Sir James Bevan, head of the Environment Agency, said that people in the UK should be “less squeamish” when it comes to drinking water that has previously been mixed with sewage, as water companies plan to recycle water directly from flushed toilets.

Sir James says this type of water is “perfectly safe and healthy, but not something many people fancy”.

He added we should “change the way they think about water”, and “treat it as a precious resource, not a free good”.

“We need to remember where it comes from: when we turn on the tap, what comes out started in a river, lake, or aquifer,” he wrote.

“The more we take, the more we drain those sources and put stress on nature and wildlife.

“If we are going to get there, we are all going to have to think differently. Some of these measures will be unpopular, so future governments will need to show political will.”

Sir James’s comments come as a Channel 4 News investigation found more than 870 water pipes in the UK could be dumping sewage without permits.

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Sewage alerts keep swimmers away

More than 200 of those have been confirmed to be in use by water companies, the broadcaster said.

The Environment Agency told the programme: “Water companies have rightly been condemned for allowing far too many sewage spills, and we are holding the industry to account on an unprecedented scale.”

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs added: “We are the first government to take action to tackle sewage overflows. We have been clear that water companies’ reliance on overflows is unacceptable, and they must significantly reduce how much sewage they discharge as a priority.

“This is on top of ambitious action we have already taken, including setting targets to improve water quality which will act as a powerful tool to deliver cleaner water, pushing all water companies to go further and faster to fix overflows.”