Gary Neville urges MPs to 'hold Tories to account over No 10 party'

Gary Neville has urged opposition MPs at Westminster to “drop everything” and turn their focus on holding the Conservatives to account over claims of boozy Christmas parties at Downing Street.

The football pundit took aim at Boris Johnson over reports of a party at No 10 held last year whilst London was under their three Covid restrictions.

At PMQs last week, the Prime Minister failed to deny that such an event was hosted in the run-up to Christmas, but insisted that “all guidance was followed completely”.

Hi @UKLabour , @LibDems , @theSNP . Drop everything you’re doing and concentrate on accountability on this Party and the MP’s lying to defend him. Enough !
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) December 6, 2021

Neville, who played for Manchester United and England during his career, urged Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP to take up the issue.

“Are we really going to let this Number 10 party go? No chance! Last Xmas was a misery,” he wrote.

“Listening to him standing up there telling us what we couldn’t do. Families not seeing each other, loved ones dying alone. Whilst him and his cronies party in a taxpayer funded residence!”

Neville added: “Hi @UKLabour, @LibDems, @theSNP. Drop everything you’re doing and concentrate on accountability on this Party and the MP’s lying to defend him. Enough!”

Speaking on Monday morning, the UK’s policing minister Kit Malthouse said he believes Downing Street’s assurances that any Christmas party held in No 10 last year would have complied with the rules.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I asked whether regulations were complied with as part of my briefing for this interview, and I was reassured that all the regulations were complied with.”

Pressed whether he asked how that could be the case considering how the event has been described, he said: “I’m not an investigator. My job is to seek reassurance because I thought I would get this question, and that’s what I’ve done.

“I asked the question ‘were all the regulations complied with?’ I was reassured they were, I have to take that at face value. That’s absolutely what I’m sure is the case; it’s for others if they want to decide to take it further.

“They reassured me that all the regulations were followed and of course I believe them.”