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A report from an inquiry into parties held in British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Downing Street complex during Covid-19 lockdowns yesterday said some of the events should not have been allowed and identified “failures” of leadership.
“There were failures of leadership and judgment by different parts of No 10 and the Cabinet Office at different times,” said the 12-page report by senior civil servant Sue Gray, referring to Boris Johnson’s offices. “Some of the events should not have been allowed to take place.”
The report states: “At least some of the gatherings in question represent a serious failure to observe not just the high standards expected of those working at the heart of Government but also of the standards expected of the entire British population at the time.”
Johnson, facing the gravest threat to his premiership over the alleged lockdown-busting parties at his residence and Downing Street office, has so far weathered growing calls to resign by asking angry lawmakers to wait for the report by senior civil servant Gray.
“We can confirm that Sue Gray has provided an update on her investigations to the Prime Minister,” a Cabinet Office spokesperson had said earlier.
“The findings will be published on gov.uk and made available in the House of Commons library this afternoon and the prime minister will then provide a statement to the house when people have had the opportunity to read and consider the findings,” the spokesman added.
Anger over double-standards
The public and political anger over what has been called the “partygate scandal” in the UK and the apparent double-standards has put Johnson’s position in jeopardy, prompting speculation he could be ousted or forced to resign.
But doubts about Johnson’s immediate future subsided after London’s Metropolitan Police said on Friday they had opened an investigation into some of the events to assess whether criminal offences had been committed. They asked for the report to make only “minimal reference” to those events.
Gray investigated 16 separate gatherings and said she was limited in what she could say in her long-awaited report after the police probe was launched.
But in the 12-page report made public yesterday, she decried “excessive consumption of alcohol” on various occasions in Downing Street, at a time when the British public was largely banned from socialising.
The police are looking into 12 of the events, with the possibility that any of those attending, including Johnson, could be fined for breaching Covid-19 regulations in force over the past two years.
Johnson’s political opponents have accused him of misleading parliament by insisting the events at Downing Street were within the rules at the time and were work-related.
Ministers found to have broken the rules are normally under pressure to resign but earlier yesterday, Johnson told reporters: “I stick absolutely to what I’ve said in the past…You’re going to have to wait and see the outcome of the investigations.”
Weeks of media reports about more than a dozen gatherings – including a “bring your own booze” party in the Downing Street garden – have provoked widespread public anger, fuelling the perception that the political elite failed to stick to the tough lockdown rules they set for the rest of the country.–Reuters.
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