Dominic Raab made a significant error during an interview with Sky News on Tuesday as he appeared to go against the government’s line and admit there was a No.10 party on May 20, 2020.
Raab, the deputy prime minister and justice secretary, was wading into the latest development in the row between Boris Johnson and his former senior aide, Dominic Cummings about the alleged party.
Raab was trying to dispel Cummings’ claims the PM disregarded any concerns that the party should go ahead when he told Sky News: “I can only talk to what I know and what I see.
“There was speculation that the May 20th party was held in my honour to thank me. It’s just ridiculous.”
Raab had stepped in for Johnson at the time as the PM was briefly hospitalised with Covid.
″Was it?” Kay Burley asked.
“No, of course not. Ridiculous!”
“So it was a party?”
“No! Exactly. Er, no, er, no no no no.”
“You refer to it as May 20th party. That’s not what you just said!”
“This is the claim that was made. It was nonsense, I wasn’t invited and I didn’t attend.
“I don’t think anyone is accusing me of that.”
Raab continued: “I do not, personally from my own experience, recognise the caricature that they were all partying – this was an incredibly serious, difficult and dedicated team.”
He denied that there was drinking culture in No.10, even though it was at one stage thought the PM was going to blame any boozy parties on this culture more than anything else.
“People were working extremely long hours, so it does’t surprise me if people as you see in other walks of life, had a glass of wine or beer at the end of a very long week.”
Raab also dismissed Cummings’ “nonsense” claim that Johnson lied to parliament about knowing the May 20, 2020 event was a drinks party – not a “work event” as the PM claimed last Wednesday.
Questioned over whether Johnson should resign if he did lie to Parliament, Raab said: “I’m not going to speculate on hypothetical situations.”
Raab certainly has form when it comes to car crash interviews – he has previously misunderstood the meaning of misogyny and once claimed “the sea was closed” when trying to justify his holiday during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
In response to Raab’s latest interview, shadow justice secretary David Lammy tweeted: “It’s like an episode of Columbo, ’there’s just one more thing Mr Raab...”
He wasn’t the only one to spot the blunder either.
