Doctors who mourned Covid victims on day of No 10 garden ‘party’ hit out at Boris Johnson

PM pictured with wine and cheese at ‘most challenging time’ for hospitals

Angry medics who mourned Covid victims on the day Boris Johnson and his staff drank wine and ate cheese in the garden of Downing Street during lockdown were among those to condemn the prime minister over his alleged law-breaking.

No 10 insisted that a photo published on Sunday showing Mr Johnson, wife Carrie and two aides sat around a table was a work meeting and not a social gathering.

The photo was taken on 15 May when social mixing between households was legally limited to two people meeting outdoors while distanced and in-person work meetings were discouraged unless “absolutely necessary”.

It has sparked a backlash from clinicians and other NHS staff working on the frontline against the virus, which has so far killed more than 147,000 in the UK.

Dr Ajay Verma, a consultant gastroenterologist at Kettering General Hospital, said he and colleagues held a minute's silence on 15 May in memory of Covid victims.

“Little did we know that the PM and friends were enjoying a garden party that same afternoon,” he said.

Recounting his experience of the first wave to The Independent, he said: “It was the most challenging time in hospital I've ever seen in my life.

“Some of the stuff that went down in those first few months, and in the January wave ... They were really difficult times.”

According to government figures, 871 Covid patients were admitted to hospital on the day the photo was taken. George Cade, a critical care nurse at a hospital in Wales, hit out at the prime minister online, saying he had “witnessed a traumatic Covid death” at 3am that day.

Another medic who works in lung oncology said she was “exhausted, emotionally and physically spent” by last May. She said she could not find the words to describe how she felt seeing “Boris and his cheese and wine party that was going on at the same time”.

Medics Jo Greenhalgh (left) and Russell also shared selfies taken around the time of Downing Street photo (Jo Greenhalgh/Medic Russell)

Dr Verma shared a photo on twitter of the minute’s silence at Kettering General and compared it with the scene in Downing Street on the same day. He said people had responded to the post with their own stories of what they were doing at the time.

He said: ”There are a lot people angry, a lot of people sharing memories from that time.

“There’s a lot of really heartbreaking responses. One saying my dad died and I couldn’t go to his funeral. There are a lot like that.”

Susannah Hares told The Independent that last May was “the darkest period” of her adult life. She was raising her son Rohan, aged one, as a single mother without support, and had suffered family tragedy early in the pandemic.

Hare’s son Rohan was not allowed to go to the playground last May (Susannah Hares)

She said: “From my perspective, I was a single mother of a one year old, my dad had died in March, I couldn't see my mum and had no access to childcare.

“Seeing that photo [in Downing Street] and knowing it was taken around the same time. That really got me.”

Ruby Fuller died of cancer on same day as Downing Street garden party (PA)

Emma Jones lost her 18-year-old daughter Ruby Fuller to cancer on the same day the Downing Street photo wastaken.

Ruby was forced to say goodbye to family and friends over Zoom. Her family did not hold a funeral for her due to restrictions.

Ms Jones, from south London, said: “At the time, it was so hard and so desperately sad but that's what we had to do. It's so insulting to see those pictures. We were supposed to be in it together, and it was very hard. I know other families that it was harder for. We were lucky Ruby was at home.”

She said: “I just want Boris Johnson and his cabinet and the people in those pictures to acknowledge it and apologise. They're trying to get away with it on a technicality.”

She added: “How dare they act so nonchalant about it? It's insulting. The impression they give is that they know what they're doing but they don't care and will lie through their teeth.”