EXC: Tory MP Tobias Ellwood attended a Christmas dinner with *27 guests* at a private members club in Mayfair on Tuesday🎄🍴
The Iraq Britain Business Council on its website described the event at the Cavalry and Guards Club in Piccadilly as its "Christmas party" 🎅
But Mr Ellwood insists it was a "business meeting" so was allowed under Tier 2 restrictions that applied at the time
Mr Ellwood gave a speech at the event and then says he was "introduced to business people... It was a proper business function"
The Commons defence committee chair says there were no Christmas crackers and when asked if turkey was served for the meal said: "No I don't think so"
Unsurprisingly the reference to the event as a "Christmas Party" was swiftly removed from the website after I called Mr Ellwood to ask about it
Oooops... looks like they've forgotten to delete all the references to the event as a "Christmas Party" 😬
Here’s Tobias Ellwood in the Commons *a day before the dinner* warning that allowing families to meet at Christmas “could be very dangerous indeed" and risks a "third wave”
🎄Tory MP's lockdown ‘Christmas party’ with TWENTY-SEVEN guests
🍴Ex-minister who warned of a third wave attended a festive function at exclusive London club... but insists it was a ‘business meeting’
He says he "worked hard to leverage every opportunity" to further his understanding of foreign policy at the Christmas dinner and "gleaned extremely useful intelligence"
Boris Johnson backs Home Secretary’s condemnation of Tobias Ellwood for his “egregious” breach of coronavirus rules
Downing Street says it is “vital for everybody to follow the rules”
Tobias Ellwood claims the website description of the event as a Christmas Party was a "clerical error"
Strange that the organisers made the exact same clerical error in each of the last three years 🤔
Missed this earlier... Tobias Ellwood on @BBCPM with @EvanHD attempted to blame the organisers of the dinner not having English as their first language for it being described as a "Christmas Party" 😱
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My beginner's guide to the Robert Jenrick/Richard Desmond planning row in 8 tweets 👇
🏗️Richard Desmond, the billionaire former newspaper tycoon, applied for planning permission to build a £1bn development, including 1,500 homes, on the site of the old Westferry printworks on the Isle of Dogs
🍽️ In November, Desmond sat next to Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick at a Tory fundraising dinner at the Savoy Hotel and played him a video about the scheme on his mobile phone
Robert Jenrick refuses to apologise for moving between his homes in London and Herefordshire. Government guidance is that people should not be living in their second homes
A reminder for those saying he's not broken the rules by shifting to his home in Herefordshire:
+ the govt has told people not to stay in their 2nd homes
+ he and his wife work in London
+ his children go to school in London
+ his own website says he lives in London and Newark
Government on 23 March told people staying in second homes to return to their primary residence asap
Exclusive: Rick Stein refuses to pay workers at his restaurant empire - despite posting on Instagram about importance of looking after them dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8…
Earlier *this month* Rick Stein was awarded one of 100 Best Companies to Work For
Now he has done what even Wetherspoons has backed away from and told staff they won’t get wages until end of April when government furlough scheme pays out
Here’s Rick Stein on Instagram last week talking about how much he cares about his workers
BREAKING: Man shot dead by police in Streatham had only been released from prison in the last few days after serving sentence for the possession and distribution of extremist material
Authorities had concerns about man’s behaviour, including language that suggested he continued to hold extremist views, but he had to be released under current laws
Whitehall source: ‘The public will look at this case and say why was this individual not kept behind bars and the Prime Minister shares that view' #Streatham