Three anonymous Downing Street insiders spoke to the BBC Panorama programme about the conditions, culture, and morale inside government offices during the COVID-19 lockdown. The insiders described how, as Cain's leaving do developed, "there were about 30 people, if not more, in a room. Everyone was stood shoulder to shoulder, some people on each other's laps... one or two people". They characterised the event on the day before Prince Philip's funeral as a "lively event... a general party with people dancing around." They added that security guards told them to leave the building and go into the garden when it became too loud. They said events were routine and that some staff were worried about the potential consequences, but that it seemed difficult to raise concerns. One said that, for staff who were working long hours, it was a lifeline. They all felt that the culture developed and it seemed the prime minister "wanted to be liked" and for staff to be able to "let their hair down." The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg reported on 24 May 2022 that the prime minister's official spokesman had said that Johnson took the revelations about what happened during lockdown "very seriously". The spokesman added that Sue Gray's interim report "raised some of these challenges" and that as a result, "wholesale changes" had been made to the way No 10 operated with "further changes to come."
