Sue Gray report: Johnson says UK must ‘move on’ as he takes ‘full responsibility’ for partygate
Boris Johnson has said now is the time to “move on” from the partygate scandal, after saying he takes “full responsibility” for the brazen Covid rule-breaking uncovered in Sue Gray’s report.
The Prime Minister told the House of Commons that he had “no knowledge” that Covid rules were broken on eight occasions, as deliberated by the Metropolitan Police, despite being handed a fine for attending one of the events.
Johnson said he didn’t want to “mitigate” the findings, before adding that “when I said in all sincerity [to the House of Commons] that the rules and guidance had been followed at all times it was what I believed to be true”.
The Gray report today concluded Johnson and other senior officials “must bear responsibility” for the boozy, lockdown-breaking culture in Downing Street throughout the pandemic.
The newly released report – which is 37 pages in length and included nine pictures of Johnson at Downing Street events – said there were widespread “failures” of leadership in Downing Street as evidenced by brazen Covid rule-breaking on many occasions.
Gray’s report found a pattern of rule-breaking by Downing Street staff, which included one event in June 2020 which lasted late into the night and saw one person vomit and two other people fighting.
The report shows senior staff clearly knew they were breaking their own Covid rules, with former communications director Lee Cain warning on multiple occasions that having staff parties was a bad idea.
Martin Reynolds, former principal private secretary for Johnson, even said in a May email that he was happy Downing Street had “got away with” having an illegal drinks event and that the media had not found out.
The report does not make definite judgements around whether the Prime Minister knew about any events he attended in advance or that he was aware of rule-breaking.
However, the report said: “The senior leadership at the centre, both political and official, must bear responsibility for this culture.”
Gray also found there were serious concerns about the behaviour of staff in Number 10, with the senior civil servant saying: “I found that some staff had witnessed or been subjected to behaviours at work which they had felt concerned about but at times felt unable to raise properly.
“I was made aware of multiple examples of a lack of respect and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff.”
Speaking in the House of Commons, Johnson said: “Sue Gray’s report has emphasised that it is up to the political leadership in No10 to take the ultimate responsibility, and of course I do.
“The exemption under which [staff] were present in Downing Street includes those circumstances where officials and advisers were leaving the government, and it was appropriate to recognise them and thank them for the work they have done. I briefly attended such gatherings to thank them for their service … it is clear from what Sue Gray has had to say that several of these gatherings then went on far longer than was necessary, they were clearly in breach of the rules and they clearly fell foul of the rules.
“I have to tell the house because the house will need to know this, and again this is not to mitigate or extenuate But I had no knowledge of subsequent proceedings because I simply wasn’t there.”
Johnson added: “I hope very much that now she has reported, we will be able to move on and focus on the priorities of the British people.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer renewed his calls for Johnson to resign.
“The reason the British people have had to endure this farce was his refusal to admit the truth or do the decent thing when he was found to have broken the law,” he said.
“This report was necessary because of what Sue Gray describes as ‘failures of leadership and judgment’, for which ‘senior political leadership’, ‘must bear responsibility’. It is that failure of leadership that has now left his government paralysed in the middle of a cost of living crisis.”
Pictures of Johnson were released from his work birthday party on 19 June 2020, an event which saw the PM given a police fine for attending, and from a drinks event on 13 November 2020.
The birthday party pictures show Johnson holding a can of Estrella and standing next to chancellor Rishi Sunak and cabinet secretary Simon Case.
Photos from the other event show the Prime Minister holding a glass of wine and giving a toast in front of blurred out Downing Street staff.
Johnson was handed one fine by the Metropolitan Police for attending a work birthday party in June 2020 in Downing Street.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Carrie Johnson were also fined for the same event, while the police handed out a further 124 fines over lockdown breaches in Downing Street and Whitehall.