Boris Johnson apologises to No 10 cleaners and tells ‘disrespectful’ staff to do the same

Downing Street cleaners and security staff have received a personal apology from Boris Johnson after a “lack of respect and poor treatment” during the partygate scandal.

The Prime Minister said he was “appalled” to learn from Sue Gray’s partygate report that civil servants had mistreated other staff when they objected to parties taking place in Whitehall.

The Telegraph understands that Mr Johnson walked around Downing Street in person to apologise to workers who had been told to “f--- off”, according to one source.

“I found that some staff had witnessed or been subjected to behaviours at work which they had felt concerned about but at times felt unable to raise properly,” Ms Gray’s report said.

“I was made aware of multiple examples of a lack of respect and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff. This was unacceptable.”

It has been reported that Downing Street security officers, known as custodians, had been “laughed at” by partying press officers when they tried to close an event down.

A source told BBC Panorama: “I remember when a custodian tried to stop it all and he was just shaking his head in this party, being like: ‘This shouldn’t be happening.’

“People made fun of him because he was so worked up that this party was happening and it shouldn’t be happening.”

On Wednesday, The Telegraph verified that an email was sent around by Downing Street security after the incident.

Mr Johnson said he had already apologised to those concerned and expected his juniors to do the same.

“I was appalled to learn that there have been multiple examples in Sue Gray’s phrase of disrespectful and poor treatment of cleaning and security personnel,” he told the Commons.

“I personally apologised to those dedicated members of staff for what happened, and I expect anyone who behaved in that way to do the same. I will make sure that staff, custodians and cleaners who were treated disrespectfully get a proper apology.”

A Conservative Party source suggested those responsible for the abuse of staff had since left Number 10 and Mr Johnson was “particularly disgusted” by the revelations upon reading them on Wednesday morning.

According to the source, he was told by one member of staff: “You were badly let down by people who have moved on.”

Ms Gray’s report identified one case on Dec 20, 2020, the same day that “Wine Time Friday” would normally take place, when custodians responded along with a Number 10 door duty police office to a panic alarm being accidentally triggered by a member of staff.

The report said the custodians “observed a large number of people” outside the press office, and one was giving a speech.

“A cleaner who attended the room the next morning noted that there had been red wine spilled on one wall and on a number of boxes of photocopier paper,” Ms Gray’s report added.

Following two leaving events in April 2021, a Number 10 custodian asked attendees “to leave the building” before the group moved to the garden. While custodians were later locking down the building, some members of the group returned inside at 9.30pm.

The report said a custodian later “encouraged” the remaining revellers to “use the rear exit of Number 10”, but some stayed and continued drinking alcohol, with the latest leaving at 4.30am.

The mistreatment of staff in Downing Street raised criticism from MPs on both sides of the Commons after Wednesday’s statement.

Chris Bryant, the Labour MP for Rhondda, said the behaviour was “the most despicable thing of all” in Ms Gray’s report.

He said the report had found “multiple examples of a lack of respect and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff because they knew what the rules meant even if nobody else does”.

Claire Coutinho, the Conservative MP for East Surrey, said she was “troubled” by “language used towards the custodian”.