‘Hard to pick a day when Covid rules were followed’ in No.10: Senior figures in Downing Street presided over a toxic ‘macho’ culture that sidelined women, Helen MacNamara says

According to Helen MacNamara, the government’s deputy cabinet secretary until 2021, key figures in Whitehall presided over an environment in which junior women were “talked over or ignored”.

Downing Street suffered from a “toxic culture” of sexism, “presenteeism” and “macho posturing” in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, she added.

"When the police drew the line of what was acceptable or not acceptable [regarding the infamous gathering in June 2020 to mark Boris Johnson’s birthday], I am certain that there are hundreds of civil servants and potentially ministers who, in retrospect, think they were the wrong side of that line.

“I really hope there’s been some mature conversation about that, because that sort of thing – if it’s not addressed – it is corrosive in [an organisation’s] culture.”