Helen MacNamara: Civil Service ethics chief fined by police for bringing karaoke machine to riotous, debauched Covid lockdown-busting Downing Street party – and who incurred the ‘misogynistic’ wrath of Dominic Cummings

Helen MacNamara, who is giving evidence to the Covid Inquiry today, was the government ethics chief who was at the heart of a very unethical lockdown-busting party at the height of the pandemic.

The mother-of-four was in charge of making sure the government upheld the highest standards of behaviour while the country was reeling from the privations of the pandemic in June 2020.

But Ms MacNamara played a central role in a drunken party that saw staff vomiting and fighting in government buildings – even bringing along a karaoke machine to liven things up.

At the time Brits were banned from meeting together indoors as the virus swept the nation. 

Sue Gray’s 2022 report into rule-breaking at the heart of government revealed a bacchanalian event, writing: ‘The event lasted for a number of hours. There was excessive alcohol consumption by some individuals. One individual was sick. There was a minor altercation between two other individuals.’ 

Ms MacNamara was Director General for Propriety and Ethics at the Cabinet office before becoming Deputy Cabinet Secretary, the second most senior civil servant in the country.

She was among the first people to be fined by the Metropolitan Police as part of its probe into Downing Street.  She later apologised for her behaviour, saying it had been an ‘error in judgement’.

The mother-of-four was in charge of making sure the government upheld the highest standards of behaviour while the country was reeling from the privations of the pandemic in June 2020.

Ms MacNamara was the head of propriety and ethics at the Cabinet office. But she was also Deputy Cabinet Secretary, the second most senior civil servant in the country.

She was namechecked in proceedings on Tuesday as Dominic Cummings denied he had behaved in a misogynistic way during his time in Downing Street.

The former top civil servant left the Civil Service in 2021 to work for the Premier League. But she left her role as chief policy and corporate affairs officer after less than two years in December 2022. 

READ MORE – Ex-civil servant swipes at ‘macho’ behaviour in No10 at the start of pandemic

In the Sue Gray inquiry MacNamara was named as the government official who brought a karaoke machine to a leaving drinks event in Whitehall during the first national lockdown on 18 June 2020.

The Premier League was embarrassed by Gray’s revelation that MacNamara helped organise the lockdown-breaking event for Downing Street official Hannah Young, which ended with one individual being sick and two others being involved in a physical altercation.

The Gray report outlined details of a ‘raucous’ leaving bash involving ‘excessive alcohol consumption’, which began at 7.40pm on June 18 and continued until 3.13am the following day.

The party took place at a time when all indoor gatherings were banned and mourners were prevented from singing hymns at funerals in an effort to stop the spread of Covid-19.

There is no suggestion that MacNamara’s involvement was behind her departure from the Premier League. 

He was recruited by the football body due to her excellent Government relationships after spending almost 20 years working in a variety of departments across Whitehall 

Ms MacNamara entered the civil service in 2002, joining the Department for Culture, Media and Sport where she played a key role in London’s successful bid for the 2012 Olympics.

One Tory minister described the mother of four as ‘a perfect official, fair-minded, doesn’t play games, will always try to get at the truth, capable of bringing sense out of five-sided talks’.

In the Channel 4 drama ‘Partygate’ Ms MacNamara was played by Ghosts star Charlotte Ritchie (left)

She played a key role in the Covid response as one of the country’s most senior officials. The inquiry has already revealed that she authored a report in the early period of the pandemic on the culture at the top of Government, finding that female staff were being ‘talked over and ignored’ and ‘bad behaviours’ were being tolerated from senior leaders.

Former No10 aide Dominic Cummings appeared to confirm this yesterday when he gave his own evidence to the Covid Inquiry.

She was namechecked in proceedings on Tuesday as Mr Cummings denied he had behaved in a misogynistic way during his time in Downing Street.

WhatsApp messages shared with the inquiry revealed that Mr Cummings had labelled Ms MacNamara ‘that c***’ and said he would ‘handcuff her and escort her’ from Downing Street.

‘I don’t care how it’s done but that woman must be out of our hair – we cannot keep dealing with this horrific meltdown of the British state while dodging stilettos from that c***,’ he wrote.

Giving evidence to the Covid inquiry this morning, she complained that her efforts to ‘inject caution’ about the risks from the virus were pushed aside.

She said by January 2020 there was a ‘low-trust environment’ between officials and Boris Johnson’s team in the wake of Brexit wrangling.

And Ms MacNamara swiped that when it came to Covid the tone of regular morning meetings she attended in No10 was ‘confident and macho’.

She said in Cabinet Mr Johnson ‘was very confident that the UK would sail through and we should all be careful of over-correcting in advance of something that was unlikely to have a huge impact and for which – in any case – we were well prepared’.

In the Channel 4 drama ‘Partygate’ Ms MacNamara was played by Ghosts star Charlotte Ritchie. 

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