​“You can’t call it an ABBA party”: ABBA respond to Downing Street flat party

ABBA have responded to reports that their music was played at multiple lockdown-breaking parties held at Downing Street through 2020.

According to Boris Johnson’s former political aide Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister held a “victory party” in light of his departure.

One of many gatherings reportedly hosted at Number 10 took place on November 13, 2020, where Johnson and his wife’s friends danced to ‘The Winner Takes It All’ by ABBA.

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Both Johnson and his wife have denied these claims, although Cummings stated that there were “witnesses who say ‘we could all hear a party with ABBA playing’”.

The Swedish group have since been informed of these reports and in an interview with PA - via i News - ABBA’s Benny Andersson joked: “You can’t call it an ABBA party”.

“It is a Johnson party where they happened to play some ABBA music. It is not an ABBA party. You see how he wriggles himself out of this,” he said.

Bjorn Ulvaeus, fellow ABBA star, also reacted to the reports adding: “I mean, wow. Did they only play ABBA music? Are you kidding? Of course they played other music as well.”

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According to Cummings, the party could be heard in the flat above the press office where multiple witnesses claimed to have heard the music from above head.

Currently, 12 separate parties are being investigated by the Metropolitan Police after a report led by senior official Sue Gray passed the investigation over to the hands of the police.

Out of all investigated parties, Johnson is known to have attended at least three. The Prime Minister will reveal soon whether he has received a fine as a result of lockdown breaches.

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Digital Intern, follow her on Twitter