Liam O’Dell: No 10’s response to Christmas party allegations only strengthens #WhereIsTheInterpreter campaign

It’s the latest news story to completely undermine the Government’s messaging on the coronavirus, and it comes amid rising concerns about the omicron variant. According to The Daily Mirror, a Christmas party was allegedly held in 10 Downing Street in December 2020, when strict rules on household mixing were in place.

There’s also reports that Boris Johnson hosted a Christmas quiz, with pictures of the alleged incident to boot.

Whenever situations like these arise, it’s always worth keeping an eye on how the Government responds. In May 2020, former aide Dominic Cummings took to the Rose Garden in Number 10 to present his side of the infamous Barnard Castle story, and completely destroyed the argument put forward by the government around its refusal to provide a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter for its Covid briefings.

Earlier that same month, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) responded to an online petition calling for British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters to be provided for televised emergency announcements, such as the coronavirus press conferences. The call to action had been signed by tens of thousands of people.

“In line with Public Health England (PHE) guidelines, it is not possible to safely include a physical British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter in the room for daily briefings as this would require additional operations staff such as an additional cameraman to be present.

“At Downing Street the Government is working within the constraints of a historical site with limited space,” the DCMS said.

Cummings’ Rose Garden conference only raised the question: if the Government can’t have an interpreter inside Downing Street because of “limited space”, why couldn’t they host these events outside, too?

So the UK Government refused to provide a BSL interpreter for their briefings citing ‘limited space’ in Downing St, but when #DominicCummings needs to deliver a statement, they’re able to move location to the Rose Garden.

Their argument is deeply flawed.#WhereIsTheInterpreter https://t.co/5466S3Nalw

— Liam O'Dell (@LiamODellUK) May 25, 2020

Conservative MP and Women and Equalities Committee chair put it far more simply in January this year: “Go find a bigger room!”

Now we don’t need to imagine how many rooms are contained in that building behind the black door, because if they’re allegedly able to have parties with around “40 to 50” people in one room, then they can find one which accommodates a BSL interpreter alongside the Prime Minister, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Advisor.

Downing Street contains plenty of rooms and, thankfully, I don’t even have to step foot in the building to prove that, as Paymaster General and Cabinet Office minister Michael Ellis told MPs in the Commons that that was the case just last week.

“It is certainly true, as a matter of geography,” he said, in response to a question from Tory MP Desmond Swayne, “that Number 10 Downing Street is a very large property with a multitude of offices and with many, many people working inside it.”

https://twitter.com/HeadlinerClip/status/1468997837551587333?s=20

How unfortunate, therefore, that no one bothered to brief Mr Ellis on the fact that the official line around the size of Downing Street was that it is a building with “limited space”. He’s only gone and contradicted the Government’s stance on Where Is The Interpreter!

So alongside the question of whether or not there was an alleged Christmas party, Deaf people in the UK now have an additional question for our Government in light of the scandal: does Number 10 have limited space, or does it not?

Unfortunately, I feel we’ll continue to be left waiting for an answer to that.

Photo: Ollie Cole.

By Liam O’Dell. Liam is an award-winning Deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.