LONDON — Boris Johnson’s U.K. administration spent £7,897 on alcohol for a party to mark Britain’s exit from the European Union.
Freedom of Information documents obtained by the Daily Mirror newspaper show that the government spent the sum on wine for the event held on January 31, 2020 — marking the moment the U.K. left the bloc at 11 p.m. that night.
The Mirror reports that guests at No. 10 Downing St. for the Brexit day party guzzled 117 bottles of the Gusbourne Blanc de Blancs 2014 sparkling wine, which is sold for around £65 per bottle. The wine company’s website describes the beverage as a “complex wine with attractive mineral notes and a long, rounded finish.”
Guests also consumed 10 bottles of white wine from a vineyard in Kent, along with 11 bottles of a red wine from an EU nation — the Italian Valpolicella 2017.
All of the wine came from the taxpayer-funded government wine cellar. A government statement to the Mirror said: “The Government Wine Cellar generate revenues … to ensure minimal cost to the taxpayer.”
