BOOZY BOJO: The Utter Rot Inside No.10 Downing Street

Findings of the Sue Gray Report have been released; however, Gray revealed she had not properly investigated the gathering held in Johnson’s flat, where five special advisers attended and alcohol was provided. . .When Scotland Yard’s inquiry ended, Gray said she considered continuing to look into the event “but concluded it was not appropriate or proportionate to do so”.

> Many Conservative MPs had said they were waiting for Gray’s full report to be published before deciding whether the prime minister should face a vote of no confidence in his leadership. A handful of backbenchers have already said publicly that Johnson should step down.

Here are a few reports:

Bloomberg:

Boris Johnson Defends British Boozing With a Nod to Churchill and the War

Prime minister seeks to rouse his embattled MPs after a bruising day of revelations about the drinking culture in Downing Street

By Kitty Donaldson and Ellen Milligan

May 25, 2022, 6:41 PM UTC

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had spent all day apologizing for the drinking culture at the heart of his administration, but there was one thing he wasn’t going to give up on: the right of Members of Parliament to drink at work. 

Johnson was huddled with his Tory MPs in a closed-door meeting when the suggestion was made that it might be a good idea for drinking to be banned in Parliament and at the prime minister’s offices at No. 10 Downing Street, according to a Conservative party official who briefed reporters afterward. . .

Listen to this article

1:37

 

Politics live with Andrew SparrowPolitics

Partygate live: Boris Johnson says no plan to resign over Sue Gray report despite Tory MP calling for him to step down – as it happened

Prime minister feels it is his ‘job to get on with my job’ despite report detailing major leadership failures at No 10. This live blog is now closed. You can find our latest Partygate stories below:

• Staff at No 10 parties believed they were ‘work events’, says PM
• Breakdown of findings from the report
• Five quotes that show No 10 staff knew they were in the wrong
• How bad is the report for Johnson? – our panel’s verdict
• Analysis: report paints damning portrait of Johnson

 Updated 13h ago

Nadeem Badshah (now) and Andrew Sparrow (earlier)

Wed 25 May 2022 17.13 EDT

First published on Wed 25 May 2022 03.59 EDT

More details can be read by going here >> https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2022/may/25/partygate-live-sue-gray-report-published-boris-johnson-downing-street-no-10-drinking

 

 

'It's my job to get on': Boris Johnson says he will not resign after Sue Gray report release – video

Nadeem Badshah (now) and Andrew Sparrow (earlier)

Wed 25 May 2022 17.13 EDT

First published on Wed 25 May 2022 03.59 EDT

From 18h ago

12.33

Tory MP Julian Sturdy says following Gray report he is now calling for Johnson's resignation

Julian Sturdy has become the first (and so far only) Conservative MP to say that, in the light of the contents of the Sue Gray report, he is now calling for Boris Johnson’s resignation.

🗣STATEMENT ON SUE GRAY REPORT

Following the publication of the full Sue Gray report, I feel it is now in the public interest for the Prime Minister to resign. pic.twitter.com/oXfkb7KmrS

— Julian Sturdy MP (@JulianSturdy) May 25, 2022

Sturdy has been critical of Johnson over Partygate in the past, but has not previously said he should quit.

14h ago16.55

A summary of today's developments

• Boris Johnson says he has no plan to resign over the Sue Gray report and insisted that staff in his press office thought they were “working around the clock” when they were partying in No 10. In his Commons statement he justified his own attendance at leaving do events on the grounds that they were work, but he said he could not defend what happened later. But, when asked why his press office had said that no parties took place even though the gatherings had actually taken place in the press office, Johnson said his press team thought what they were doing was allowed.

• The prime minister sidestepped a question about whether his political team had asked for the removal of any facts from the Sue Gray report before its release and did not deny the report saying that he floated with Gray the idea of shelving her report. He insisted that the alleged party in the Downing Street flat on 13 November 2020 was a work event and added he was making inquiries to find out who was rude to cleaning and security staff.

• Julian Sturdy has become the first Conservative MP to say that in light of the contents of the Gray report he is now calling for Johnson’s resignation. Meanwhile, responding to the report in the Lords, Labour frontbencher Lord Collins of Highbury called on Conservative members to act “to stop this out-of-touch, out-of-control prime minister from driving Britain towards disaster”.

• Boris Johnson will not be apologising to the Queen during their audience despite Gray’s findings on the party held on the eve of the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral, according to a Conservative party source. Asked if Johnson will be apologising to the Queen during their call this evening, the party source told PA: “What does he need to apologise to the Queen for?”

• Two-thirds of people believe Boris Johnson should resign given the findings from Gray’s report into Partygate, according to a snap poll from Savanta ComRes

 

Vomiting and partying until 4am: Sue Gray delivers damning verdict on Boris Johnson’s No 10

 

Heather Stewart and Aubrey Allegretti

Wed 25 May 2022 09.22 EDT First

 published on Wed 25 May 2022 06.30 EDT

"Sue Gray has issued a damning verdict on the party culture in Boris Johnson’s Downing Street, in a 37-page report that includes nine photographs and names a string of senior civil servants.

Gray sets out in embarrassing detail how each event unfolded, including a leaving party on 18 June 2020 at which “one individual was sick” and “there was a minor altercation between two other individuals”.

“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 report says. . .

“Even allowing for the extraordinary pressures officials and advisers were under, the factual findings of this report illustrate some attitudes and behaviours inconsistent with that guidance.”

In his first public reaction to Gray’s report, Johnson issued a qualified apology for the boozy culture that developed in Downing Street during the pandemic, saying he took “full responsibility”.

Speaking to MPs, the prime minister said he was “renewing my apology to the house, to the whole country”, for the birthday gathering in June 2020 for which he was fined, and took “full responsibility for everything that took place on my watch”.

Boris Johnson takes 'full responsibility' for his failings over Partygate – video

However, he insisted he regarded it as “one of the essential duties of leadership” to “briefly” attend leaving events and thank departing staff, because “it was appropriate to recognise and to thank them for the work that they had done”.

He claimed he had been “appalled” on learning how some of these events had subsequently developed. At one point, Johnson said: “We are humbled,” but after being jeered by MPs, corrected himself to say: “I am humbled.”

The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, responding to Johnson, dismissed his partial apology, saying: “When the dust settles and the anger subsides, this report will stand as a monument to the hubris and arrogance of a government that believed it was one rule for them, and another rule for everyone else.”

In what appears to be an indictment of the prime minister, as well as senior civil servants, Gray says: “The senior leadership at the centre, both political and official, must bear responsibility for this culture.”

> Details of the gatherings include security logs revealing some staff carried on partying until 4am after the leaving do for the director of communications, James Slack, cleaners giving evidence of spilled wine over the walls, and messages warning drunken staff to leave via the back entrance.

She also highlights a number of occasions on which members of No 10 staff raised questions about whether events should go ahead, or about drunkenness in Downing Street, and had their concerns dismissed.

The nine photographs relate to two gatherings – the June 2020 birthday party for which Johnson, Rishi Sunak and the prime minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, were fined; and a leaving do for director of communications, Lee Cain.

> Officials in No 10 were given the opportunity to read printed copies of the report in a locked room before it was published on Wednesday morning.

Gray sets out the context in which the gatherings took place, saying: “No 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office were at the centre of the government’s response to the pandemic. Tight-knit groups of officials and advisers worked long hours under difficult conditions in buildings that could not be easily adapted as Covid-secure workplaces.” . . The report includes details of a drinks event in the No 10 garden on 20 May 2020, organised by Johnson’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, who urged anyone working in Downing Street that day to “bring your own booze!”

> An unnamed special adviser sent Reynolds a WhatsApp message praising his “lovely idea” but pointing out a Covid press conference would just be finishing, so those attending should avoid “walking around waving bottles of wine”.

> After the party, Reynolds messaged one adviser saying: “Best of luck – a complete non-story but better than them focusing on our drinks (which we seem to have got away with).”

The prime minister attended eight of the events described in detail by Gray. . .

REFERENCE: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/may/25/sue-gray-law-breaking-no-10-parties-published-boris-Johnson