Several Covid-19 deaths in Sussex during week of Downing Street party

Figures from the UK Coronavirus daily dashboard show six people died in Brighton and Hove between December 12 and 18, last year.

Meanwhile, six people died in Mid Sussex that same week, and there were another eight deaths total in Horsham, Crawley, Eastbourne and Hastings.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered an investigation last night into claims staff broke lockdown rules by holding a party at Number 10 last year, and told MPs he was “furious” about footage apparently showing aides joking about it.

• READ MORE: We asked Sussex's Tory MPs if they attended the ‘Christmas party’, and this is what they said

Mr Johnson apologised for the offence caused by the leaked video but insisted he had been repeatedly assured “there was no party and that no Covid rules were broken” on December 18.

During that week, there were also 2,240 cases reported by those authorities, as well as Adur, Chichester and Worthing, which had no deaths in that time period.

The Prime Minister’s intervention followed a week of official insistence that no party took place when London was under tier three restrictions – despite reports staff drank alcohol and exchanged Secret Santa gifts.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on his way to attend Prime Minister's Questions yesterday, picture from Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the Prime Minister’s apology raises more questions than answers as he had been “caught red-handed”.

He added: “Millions of people now think the Prime Minister was taking them for fools, that they were lied to. They are right aren’t they?”

The video from No 10’s press briefing room, which is reported to be from December 22 last year, refers to a party on “Friday” – the same day The Daily Mirror reported there was a staff party which involved games, food and drinks, which went on past midnight.

At this time, coronavirus restrictions were being reintroduced across many parts of the UK ahead of Christmas amid fears over the emergence of the 'Delta' variant.

• READ MORE: Tottenham Hotspur match before Albion trip called off after covid cases

Mr Johnson agreed that any evidence uncovered about parties in Downing Street would be handed over to police.

Statistics published by the National Police Chiefs' Council reveal a total of eight fixed penalty notices were issued by Sussex Police for breaches of Covid-19-related laws between November 17 and December 20 last year.

And by December 22 – the day the leaked video was apparently filmed – separate figures from the Department of Health and Social Care reveal that more than a quarter of care homes in England were no longer permitting residents to receive visitors as Covid-19 infection levels rose across the country.

For the whole of December 2020, 230 people died "due to Covid-19" - with 156 deaths in East Sussex and 74 in West Sussex, according to government data.

In Brighton and Hove, 10 care homes had done the same by December 22 – around 29% of all those in the area.

This came after almost half a care home’s residents died at a facility in Crowhurst. 13 of 27 residents died “with confirmed or suspected Covid since December 13”, the home operator's managing director Adam Hutchison told The Guardian in January.

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