Colchester teacher on No. 10 parties: "I'm not going to get my dad back'
Essex teacher reacts to reports of another Downing Street party, having lost his father to Covid
Last updated 25th Jan 2022
A teacher from Colchester has expressed anger, after news broke about the lockdown-breaking birthday party reportedly held in Downing Street in June 2020.
Steve Townshend lost his father to Covid in April 2020, after he caught it in hospital. He was unable to see his father in the weeks before he died, and hosted a Covid-restricted funeral, meaning only 10 people could attend.
He wants the Prime Minister held to account:
"I'm not going to get my dad back. His brother couldn't go to the funeral because there was a limit on the amount of people that could go to the funeral, and travel as he lives in Yorkshire... I'm not getting that back. I'm not going to be able to say goodbye to my dad, that's not going to happen. So, frankly, just getting him to resign is letting him off very, very lightly.
"I don't know what else I expect... as people were being convicted in the courts for having get togethers at the time that he was having get togethers, I suspect that's what should happen to him."
He said that constantly hearing about new parties which took place was insulting:
"It is constant. It's infuriating. Every day I turn the news on and he's sitting there saying: 'wait for the report' or 'I take full responsibility' or 'I thought it was work event'.
"Every time he does that it's like another stab in my heart, it really is it. It's just disgusting and nothing's going to make that better... the way my father went to the hospital, with nurses not all wearing PPE because it wasn't available in the hospital... I feel that there is somebody to blame for that, and they've got away with it."
Steve said he found it more frustrating as he was following the rules:
"We stuck to the policies completely. I couldn't go and see my dad in hospital, and then you hear that not only are they not sticking to the rules but it's trivial things like parties because they've worked so hard!
"Really, they should have seen some of the nurses in the hospital my Dad was at, or some of the teachers that I was working with. They were working hard and sticking to the rules."
The teacher continued:
"I just can't believe that somebody who's been elevated into such a position would be so irresponsible and and would have so little respect for the people that voted for him and put their trust in him. It was his duty to protect us all."
Whilst Steve's father passed away, he said they've still found a way to honour him:
"The nurses were wonderful. They said we could send a letter and they would laminate it and and read it to him. My youngest daughter was eight months pregnant and we wanted it to be a surprise, but if it had been a girl, we were going to name it after my mum, who died two years earlier and if it was a boy we'd make his middle name my dad's. We were going to keep that as a surprise for when the baby was born but we had to write it in the letter and give it to him. He died a month before my grandson was born."
The Met Police commissioner says officers are now investigating 'a number' of events which took place at Downing Street during lockdown.
Scotland Yard's commissioner says it follows evidence gathered by Sue Gray's Cabinet Office inquiry.