Lisa Nandy criticised the drinking culture in No.10 again on Monday as new partygate claims emerged over the weekend.
The Sunday Times has reported that the prime minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, may now have had two supposed parties in Downing Street but neither of the alleged gatherings are going to be investigated by Sue Gray.
As Labour’s shadow levelling up secretary, Nandy told Sky News: “What this shows to me is not that there’s been another party or that there should be another investigation.
″Much more that there is clearly a culture which the prime minister has presided over, where people made the rules, they broke the rules, they lied about it and they laughed about it. And they’re still trying to get away with it.
“For a lot of families in this country that is incredibly offensive for the whole country, that’s a very serious thing.”
Her strong remarks came after digital minister Chris Philp told Sky’s Kay Burley that he did not see any reason for there to be further investigations into partygate.
“I think we’ve had an unbelievably comprehensive set of investigations, now going on for a period of nearly six months,” Philp said, later adding: “It’s not immediately obvious to me that this has – rightly – been the most thoroughly investigated set of incidents in recent times.”
In response, Nandy claimed: “It’s difficult for him to argue that and probably privately he would accept that, when the revelations keep coming on about more.”
Taking aim at Johnson again, the shadow cabinet minister added: “In the end if you can’t trust the prime minister to make sure the rules he made were followed, what can you trust him to do?”
These latest partygate have come after the Met Police’s probe concluded and the Sue Gray report was published last week.
However, there is still an investigation by MPs ahead, to see if Johnson knowingly misled the Commons when he – repeatedly – said no rules had been broken in Downing Street. If Johnson were found to have done so, it would be a breach of the ministerial code.
Last week, No.10 announced it was changing the wording of the ministerial code, removing early references to honesty and making it so minor breaches did not mean people had to resign.
Such a move prompted outrage from the general public.
Labour have since called for there to be an impartial approach to the ministerial code, so those in power “can’t bend the rules to suit them”.