Downing Street "parties" branded disgusting by grieving families who held funerals under coronavirus restrictions

And MPs wept in the House of Commons as they demanded answers from Boris Johnson after details emerged of the event, which is alleged to have taken place in the Downing Street garden on May 20 2020.

The PM will face questions about the “bring your own booze” party, which he is reported to have attended with his wife Carrie and between 30 and 40 other people, when he appears at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, in the latest of a string of party allegations.

It comes as the Prime Minister’s official spokesperson confirmed that Martin Reynolds, Mr Johnson’s principal private secretary, will continue in his role despite inviting more than 100 people to the event at a time when the rules stated people could only meet one other person outdoors in a public place.

Ms Maddocks, who lives in Sheffield and is in her sixties, told the Yorkshire Post: “I felt we’d let him down at the funeral. And that get drags up every time something like this happens.

“I’m really strong, and I’m good at handling emotions but when something like this comes along it knocks you out of kilter.

“I think at the moment they think it doesn’t matter and we’ve all moved on.

“We have a garden that was large enough to socially distance. But we didn’t. We knew what the rules were and although it was an awful sacrifice, we followed them.

“To think that at that time people were in Downing Street having drinks is just beyond disgusting.”

Hull woman Jayne Taylor-Broadbent is still grieving the loss of her wife Julie, who died in the first wave of the pandemic of coronavirus aged 49.

Her funeral was held in Hull the same week as the alleged party took place.

Yesterday, she accused the Prime Minister of deceiving grieving families.

She said: “It’s one lie after another. Disgraceful. He’s not a leader, he’s deceitful.

“Every revelation that comes out, I go back to the time of Julie’s death.

“Julie’s funeral should have been a gathering of a lot of people. I know the chapel would have been overfilled with people who would have wanted to say goodbye and pay their respects.

“There were nine of us.”

Ministers and officials yesterday refused to answer questions about Mr Johnson’s attendance at the event, claiming they were unable to do so while the investigation by senior civil servant Sue Gray into allegations about a series of lockdown-busting parties in May and December 2020 takes place.

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner asked an urgent question about the allegations in Parliament yesterday.

She said: “It is incredibly disappointing, but not unsurprising, that the Prime Minister of whom I asked this question is not here today despite not having any official engagements.

“I think his absence speaks volumes as does his smirks on the media, the public have already drawn their own conclusions. He can run but he can’t hide.”

Paymaster general Michael Ellis faced a grilling from MPs, including the DUP’s Jim Shannon, who broke down as he recalled his mother-in-law “who died alone, and Labour’s Afzal Khan who told Parliament he had slept outside a hospital as his mother died of Covid alone inside in March 2020.

Mr Ellis told MPs in the Commons that Sue Gray’s inquiry will “establish the facts and if wrongdoing is established there will be requisite disciplinary action taken.”

Vaccine minister Maggie Throup refused to condemn the Prime Minister’s silence over the party yesterday.

When asked by The Yorkshire Post why Mr Johnson could not immediately explain whether or not he was at the event, she: “The important thing is not to pre-empt the outcome of the inquiry that Sue Gray is carrying out. It would be wrong of anybody to pre-empt the conclusions of her work.”

But when asked if she would have gone to the event if she had been invited, she said: “I wouldn’t have gone to the party. I was very busy working and getting on with everything I needed to do at the time.”