Number 10 apologises to the Queen for lockdown parties on eve of Prince Philip’s funeral

Downing Street has said sorry to the Queen over the lockdown parties held on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral.

Number 10 apologised after new reports revealed there were two parties held at the address the day before the Queen was pictured alone at Philip’s funeral.

According to the prime minister’s spokesperson, it was ‘deeply regrettable that this took place at a time of national mourning’.

Defence Images / Flickr

They said: “It’s deeply regrettable that this took place at a time of national mourning, and No10 has apologised to the Palace.

“You’ve heard from the Prime Minister this week, he’s recognised No10 should be held to the highest standards and take responsibility for the things we did not get right.

“We have apologised to the Palace.”

According to the new reports, around thirty Downing Street staff held two parties the night before the Queen sat alone at Prince Philip’s socially-distanced funeral.

Advisors and civil servants have been accused of hosting a party and ‘drinking into the early hours’ of the morning of April 16th 2021, The Telegraph reports.

Eyewitnesses claim people at the party danced to music and went to the Co-op on the Strand ‘with a suitcase’ to stock up on wine.

No 10 Downing Street / Flickr

These eyewitnesses claim that some partygoers ‘worried there was too much wine spilling on the basement carpet’, while one person broke a child’s swing allegedly belonging to the prime minister’s son Wilf.

At the time, the rest of the country was under instructions to not socialise indoors with anyone but their own households, and to only meet others outdoors in groups of six or two households.

This comes as Boris Johnson is under increasing pressure to resign after admitting to attending a Downing Street garden party in the first national lockdown in May 2020.

The Prime Minister said he went into the garden just after 6pm on May 20th 2020 to thank staff but ‘believed implicitly that this was a work event’.