Inside 24 hours of Westminster chaos as Boris
Johnson tried to spin the Sue Gray report to Tory MPs
The Prime Minister was seen as bungling his Commons
statement but won over most backbenchers at a packed meeting on Monday evening
By Hugo
Gye, Arj Singh, Richard Vaughan
February 2,
2022 6:00 am(Updated 6:01 am)
It did not
take long for Government insiders to conclude that the Sue Gray report would
not be a knock-out blow for Boris Johnson.
Just a few
minutes after the findings were submitted to No 10, those who had first sight
of them realised that their length – just 12 spaced-out pages – and lack of
detail meant they were very unlikely to push undecided Tory MPs into joining
the stalled rebellion against the Prime Minister.
The head of
Scotland Yard may be to blame, according to some aides. “The Met have
absolutely torn all of the interesting stuff out,” a source told i. “Cressida
Dick was just desperate to make a big splash and she’s essentially put the
whole thing on hold.”
After the
publication of the report at lunchtime on Monday, Mr Johnson faced a “rollercoaster”
as one “red wall” MP described it. The Prime Minister’s performance in the
Commons “wasn’t great”, the backbencher said: “I think that annoyed a lot of
colleagues, and got them concerned.” Some Tories were shocked by Mr Johnson’s
false claim that Sir Keir Starmer was responsible for letting Jimmy Savile walk
free.
But a few
hours later, he summoned all Conservative MPs to a meeting in Parliament’s
modern extension, Portcullis House – and most professed themselves won over by
Mr Johnson’s performance. “He was his jovial self, he was doing jokes, he was
serious when he needed to be serious, he was contrite when he needed to be
contrite, he definitely carried the room,” the red wall MP said.
Some
grandees – including Sir Peter Bottomley, the Father of the House – refused to
offer the Prime Minister their full support at that gathering. But Sir Edward
Leigh, another Commons veteran of four decades, reminded colleagues of the
bloody end to Margaret Thatcher’s career in 1990, warning: “Wounds suffered to
the party from that decision were deep and took years to recover from.”
In one
comic moment recounted by attendees, Sir Edward appeared to criticise Theresa
May – not realising she was sitting yards away from him. She retorted: “I am
sitting right here, so you can say it to my face.”
As they
trooped out at the end of the meeting, MPs declared themselves far happier with
Mr Johnson than they were throughout much of January. One commented: “It was
like he was fighting a leadership campaign again and saying what people wanted
to hear.”
But a
former Cabinet minister warned that the outward jollity was no guarantee of
harmony within the party, particularly given the potential for a huge hit to
public opinion when the police report back on Downing Street parties. Asked why
other MPs were showing such a brave face, they replied: “The currency of
politics is sycophancy and nepotism.”
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