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Boris Johnson maintains ‘work events’ defence
after damning Gray report
PM says he takes full responsibility but insists it
never occurred to him the gatherings he attended broke rules
Heather
Stewart, Rajeev Syal, Peter Walker and Aubrey Allegretti
Wed 25 May
2022 20.42 BST
Boris
Johnson has insisted he was oblivious to a culture of excessive drinking and
partying in Downing Street during lockdown, despite a damning report laying
bare a litany of rule-breaking behaviour at the heart of government.
Sue Gray’s
final report, published on Wednesday, set out details of 15 events where
officials variously spilled red wine on the walls of No 10, vomited, got into a
fight, used a karaoke machine, and continued festivities until 4am while the
country was subject to strict curbs on socialising.
But in a
series of statements, the prime minister claimed he had merely attended “work
events” to boost morale, while a cabinet minister urged the public to “move
on”.
According
to the long-awaited report by Gray, a senior civil servant, No 10 officials
planned many of the events in detail, sometimes in the face of warnings against
proceeding.
Messages
were revealed warning drunken staff to leave via the back entrance of Downing
Street, apparently to avoid being photographed, and saying “we seem to have got
away with” drinks gatherings.
As dozens
of staff partied, Gray said, there were “multiple examples of a lack of respect
and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff”, prompting an apology from
Johnson on Wednesday.
The report
concluded: “Whatever the initial intent, what took place at many of these
gatherings and the way in which they developed was not in line with Covid
guidance at the time … the senior leadership at the centre, both political and
official, must bear responsibility for this culture.”
Chris
Bryant, the chair of the House of Commons standards committee, said the prime
minister had turned Downing Street into “a cesspit full of arrogant, entitled
narcissists”.
Julian
Sturdy, the MP for York Outer, publicly called for the prime minister to step
down, saying he had presided over “a widespread culture of disregard for
coronavirus regulations”. He said: “I am now unable to give the prime minister
the benefit of the doubt and feel it is now in the public interest for him to
resign.”
Sturdy is
understood to be one of at least three Tory MPs who submitted letters of no
confidence in Johnson on Wednesday.
The prime
minister told MPs he took “full responsibility for everything that took place
on my watch”. But he insisted it had never occurred to him that any of the
eight gatherings he attended were against the rules.
As Johnson
gave a press conference, cabinet ministers sent a coordinated round of tweets,
each suggesting it was time to stop focusing on the Partygate scandal.
The Tory
co-chair Oliver Dowden said: “A full and genuine apology has been given and
it’s now time to move on.”
The chancellor,
Rishi Sunak, who was fined alongside Johnson for attending the prime minister’s
birthday party, repeated his own apology and added: “The prime minister has
apologised and lessons have been learned. I hope we can now move forward and
continue delivering for the British people.”
Johnson,
explaining his appearance at events including leaving dos, said he saw it as an
important part of his role to say goodbye to departing colleagues. He is
pictured in the Gray report raising a glass to the departing director of
communications, Lee Cain, in November 2020.
“I believe
they were work events, they were part of my job, and that view appears to be
substantiated by the fact I wasn’t fined for those events,” Johnson said. “I
believe that recognising achievement and preserving morale are essential duties
of leadership.”
He claimed
that staff at the parties, some of which continued into the small hours,
believed they were working.
“It’s my
strong impression that they genuinely believed that what they were doing was
working. I certainly don’t think that they set out to deceive you about that,”
Johnson said when challenged about whether No 10 spokespeople had lied when
they repeatedly said no parties took place. Several of the events described by
Gray were held in the Downing Street press office.
Johnson
will now face an inquiry from the House of Commons privileges committee about
whether he misled parliament when he claimed Covid guidance was followed at all
times.
Insiders
believe the hundreds of photographs Gray received as part of the inquiry will
be handed to the privileges committee as part of a bundle of evidence next
week. Gray published seven photos in her report, all taken by Johnson’s
official photographer.
The
Scottish Tory leader, Douglas Ross, who has repeatedly shifted position on
Johnson, said the PM should step down if he is found by the committee to have
lied.
“If they
reach a conclusion that the prime minister deliberately and intentionally went
to the House of Commons to mislead people, then the ministerial code is
actually very clear. The expectation is that the prime minister or any minister
should stand down,” he said.
Johnson
repeatedly declined to deny reports that he had asked Gray not to publish her
report. Her communications officer was relieved of his duties on Sunday, a
decision understood to have been made by No 10. It followed a row on Saturday
after Gray’s office denied Downing Street’s claims that she had instigated a
meeting between her and Johnson.
Gray has
told friends that during the early part of her investigation, several senior
civil servants complained about cooperating fully with the inquiry – but tensions
arose with No 10 last week for the first time.
After
Johnson was heavily criticised in April for joking with backbench Tories hours
after he had apologised to the Commons for being fined, allies claimed he
struck a more contrite tone at a private meeting with his MPs on Wednesday
evening.
He repeated
his admission of culpability for what he said was a “pretty excruciating”
sequence of events. “We got things wrong, I got things wrong, I’m ultimately
responsible,” he said, according to one ally.
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However,
one senior Tory MP said Johnson had apologised only insincerely, claiming his
performance at the 1922 Committee was “all an act – he just knows what he needs
to get through this”.
The
archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said it was time to rediscover
standards in public life.
“Sue Gray’s
report shows that culture, behaviour and standards in public life really
matter. We need to be able to trust our national institutions, particularly in
times of great trouble,” he said.
“Standards
in public life are the glue that holds us together – we need to rediscover them
and abide by them.”
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