Boris Johnson: We’ll publish all we can about No 10 parties

Boris Johnson has promised the government will “publish everything that we can” about parties in Downing Street during lockdown.

The comments follow confusion earlier over whether any potential fine for Covid rule-breaking imposed on the PM himself would be made public.

No 10 initially refused to “speculate” over this but later said it would “provide what updates we can”.

Labour said the public had a “right to know” about any punishment of the PM.

The party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner, tweeted: “This shouldn’t be a big deal… An ounce of transparency shouldn’t be this hard to get from Boris Johnson.”

The Metropolitan Police, which is looking into possible rule-breaking at 12 gatherings, has itself ruled out itself naming anyone who is given a fixed-penalty notice for wrongdoing.

But the force added that it would reveal the total number of penalties issued for each identified event, and explain what they were issued for.

Labour complained that this meant Mr Johnson – who attended three of the gatherings and has refused to say whether he attended a fourth – could potentially be fined without being named.

The PM’s official spokesman would said he would not “speculate” on whether Mr Johnson and any staff found by the Met to have broken Covid rules would be named by the government.

But, at a later briefing, journalists were told: “Obviously we are aware of the significant public interest. with regards to the prime minister, and we would always look to provide what updates we can on him specifically. But beyond that I can’t get into individuals.”

Asked if that “hypothetically”, should Mr Johnson be fined, No 10 would make this public, the spokesman replied: “Hypothetically, yes.”

Questioned during a visit to Ukraine as to whether the full details of senior civil servant Sue Gray’s findings about the gatherings would be revealed, Mr Johnson said: “Of course we will publish everything that we can when the process has been completed.”