Leaked video shows Downing Street staff joking about hosting a Christmas party last year amid the UK's strict COVID-19 restrictions

• Leaked video shows Downing Street staff joking about a Christmas party amid the UK's 2020 lockdown.
• 2020 media reports claimed politicians broke COVID-19 restrictions to gather for holiday parties.

In a leaked video, Downing Street staff were heard joking about hosting a Christmas party last December amid the UK's strict COVID-19 social distancing restrictions, broadcaster ITV reported.

The leaked footage obtained by ITV was shot on December 22, 2020, four days after sources told British tabloids and news outlets that a Christmas party took place at Prime Minister Boris Johnson's 10 Downing Street office, which included food and drinks, party games, and a "Secret Santa" gift exchange.

In a clip posted to ITV's Twitter, Downing Street staffers hosted a mock press conference, in which Ed Oldfield, an adviser to the prime minister, asked questions related to the party – which allegedly took place on December 18, 2020 – to Allegra Stratton, who formerly served as Johnson's press secretary.

"I've just seen reports on Twitter that there was a Downing Street Christmas party on Friday night, do you recognize those reports?" Oldfield asked.

"I went home," Stratton replied with a laugh.

Oldfield followed up with another question: "Would the prime minister condone having a Christmas party?"

To which Stratton asked her colleagues, "What's the answer?"

"I don't know," Oldfield responded.

"It wasn't a party, it was cheese and wine," an off-camera voice said.

"Is cheese and wine alright?" Stratton asked, to which the staff member who made the cheese and wine comment is heard saying, "No... joking."

At first, UK officials maintained that any gathering was in compliance with the country's tough lockdown guidelines at the time, The Guardian reported, before a spokesperson for Johnson said no party had taken place at all.

On Tuesday, the spokesperson doubled down that no festivities had taken place, according to The Guardian report.

"I don't think there is anything to add to what I have said previously," the spokesperson said. "Our position has not changed."

Five days before Christmas 2020, Johnson announced that the country would be entering into tiered lockdown restrictions, meaning people living in certain areas of the UK would have to remain home for the holidays, while others were ordered to form "Christmas bubbles," allowing small gatherings of families living in up to three different households to interact.

Representatives from Downing Street did not immediately return Insider's request for comment.

In a statement to ITV in response to the footage, Downing Street said: "There was no Christmas party. COVID rules have been followed at all times."

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, who told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show that he didn't partake in the alleged Christmas festivities, said "until there is something substantiated, until it is more than anonymous sources, I think we are chasing shadows."

"Of course, if there was a formal party held, of course that is something that is clearly contrary to the guidance," Raab said. "If anyone held a party that is contrary to the rules, of course that is the wrong thing to do."

In response to the leaked video, Labour Party Leader Keir Starmer urged Johnson to "come clean and apologize."

"It cannot be one rule for the Conservatives and another for everyone else," Starmer told ITV.

"People across the country followed the rules even when that meant being separated from their families, locked down and — tragically for many — unable to say goodbye to their loved ones," Starmer continued. "They had a right to expect that the government was doing the same. To lie and to laugh about those lies is shameful."