Sky News statement:

“A small number of Sky News staff attended a social event in London on Saturday evening during which COVID-19 guidelines were breached.

As a result of an internal review Sky News presenter Kay Burley has agreed to be off air for six months, and political editor Beth Rigby and correspondent Inzamam Rashid have agreed to be off air for three months.

All those involved regret the incident and have apologised.

Everyone at Sky News is expected to comply with the rules and the company takes breaches like this very seriously indeed.”

Kay Burley has released a statement:

“It’s clear to me that we are all in the fight against Covid-19 and that we all have a duty to stick firmly by the rules. It doesn’t matter that I thought I was Covid-compliant on a recent social event. The fact is I was wrong, I made a big mistake, and I am sorry.  Some dear friends and colleagues – some of the most talented and committed professionals in our business – have been pulled into this episode and I regret this enormously… I very much look forward to being able to continue my 32-year career with Sky when I return.”

How Kay thought it was Covid-compliant to bring people home after a night out on the tiles is beyond belief, she quizzed ministers about the rules regularly – she must have known. The station realised that it would lose all credibility reporting on the pandemic with presenters who had so blatantly breached the rules after taking censorious positions themselves. Kay did not help herself by lying about the evening’s events.