Exclusive: Brexiteers who leaked partygate details debunk Boris Johnson’s ‘Remainer plot’ claims

Boris Johnson’s claims he was the victim of a Remainer-led plot to oust him from power are ”total rubbish”, Downing Street sources have exclusively told ITV News.

Two Number 10 whistleblowers who helped to expose the illegal Downing Street parties under Mr Johnson emphatically rejected the former PM's claim his downfall was orchestrated by anti-Brexit plotters, by revealing themselves to be Brexiteers.

Speaking on the ITV News podcast Partygate: The Inside Story, the sources separately confirmed they voted for both Brexit and Mr Johnson as prime minister and remain supportive of Britain’s departure from the European Union to this day.

A whistleblower, whose leaked footage of staff laughing about a Christmas Party erupted the partygate scandal, said it was “ridiculous” to suggest they or others had been part of a politically motivated agenda.

You can hear the new whistleblower claims in the final bonus episode of Partygate: The Inside Story...

“Of course it wasn’t a Remainer plot,” the whistleblower said. “I voted for Brexit in 2016 and I would vote to stay out of the EU if we had a referendum again. I’m also a Conservative voter. I’ve never voted Labour in my life.“I voted to get Boris Johnson into government in 2019 and I was cockahoop when he was made PM. The reason I gave you the video is because I could no longer sit back and watch this cover-up.”The whistleblower also dismissed claims they passed evidence to the media in order to topple Mr Johnson.“I didn’t set out to bring Boris down. I wanted him to face up to and apologise for the Covid law-breaking parties and blatant super spreading events which he allowed in Number 10,” they said.“He should have just apologised. I'm a bit sad that it needed a leak to get the truth out there, but I'm happy that I did the right thing.”

Mr Johnson had stoked claims of a conspiracy in his explosive resignation statement from the House of Commons last Friday, writing: “I am not alone in thinking that there is a witch-hunt under way, to take revenge for Brexit and ultimately to reverse the 2016 referendum result.”

He described his “removal” as an MP from the Commons as “the necessary first step” adding: “I believe there has been a concerted attempt to bring it about.”

But another source who passed information to ITV News rejected his claims as “total rubbish”.

“I still am pro-Brexit," they said. "I’m definitely not aware of any Remainer network. People haven't been conspiring in groups within Number 10, within the government, to actively plot and conspire against the then prime minister. To say that it was organised, that it was set up, is total rubbish. I don't think it's a witch-hunt.”

Mr Johnson had cited Sue Gray’s impending switch to become the chief of staff for Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer as no “coincidence” after she led the damning Cabinet Office probe into the Downing Street parties.

And he hit out at a committee of cross-party MPs who separately investigated him as a “kangaroo court” - the third investigation after Ms Gray's and a Metropolitan Police probe which led to 126 fines for Downing Street staff, including one for Mr Johnson.

The former PM announced he was standing down having been sent the conclusions of the final report of the Privileges Committee, published Thursday, which was investigating whether he knowingly misled Parliament over the lockdown parties.The committee found Mr Johnson committed "repeated" and "serious" contempt of Parliament by deliberately misleading MPs with his denials of lockdown breaches inside Number 10.

In the final episode of the Partygate podcast series, the sources also revealed the impact the scandal, and their anonymous role in it, has had on them.

“I’m still living with the impact of Partygate on my career, to life in general. It's had a very lasting impact on me,” one source revealed.

“When I first started giving information, I was questioning myself because no one else was coming out. I was thinking, ‘they don't believe me, why?’ And to see it’s been verified by police, by other people, by reports, by so much information coming together, it's made me feel confident in my accounts.

“You know, we had reached such a level of I don't want to say corruption, but we had reached such a level of some disinformation within the government that people could do whatever they wanted.”The whistleblower who released the infamous Downing Street mock press conference video said they were motivated solely by the public learning the truth rather than any personal gain.

“I didn’t do this for fame or fortune,” the anonymous source said. “I never made a penny from any of this. It wasn’t about any of that. I did this to expose what was going on.“No government should be allowed to cover up its mistakes. It’s been a stressful two years. I’m just glad it’s over.”

The final bonus episode of Partygate: The Inside Story is available in the embed player within this article and below and on all podcast platforms.

The Partygate: The Inside Story podcast brings you new revelations and our whistleblowers in their own words in the definitive behind-closed-doors story of how ITV News uncovered one of the biggest scandals of our era...