Friday afternoon drinks were scheduled as standard in the agendas of the press information department. At some drinks people sat on each other’s laps and there was talk of excessive drinking. Cleaners had to scrub the red wine off the wall afterwards and security guards who said something about violating the corona rules were barked at.
Press and politicians have been awaiting the findings of British senior civil servant Sue Gray for months, who conducted an independent investigation into rule-breaking during the corona lockdowns at 10 Downing Street, both the home and office of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. On Wednesday, Gray . published her report. It paints a picture of a parallel world where there were no corona rules – while the rest of the country was forced inside and kept away from loved ones and friends.
Forced break
Much of what was in Gray’s report was already known in the general sense because she had already written down her conclusions at the end of January. She was then forced to take a break because the police had suddenly announced that they wanted to investigate the parties after all. Police handed out 126 fines, including Prime Minister Johnson and Finance Minister Rishi Sunak. In this report, she gives all kinds of concrete examples of the ‘failing leadership’ that Gray identified in January. As a result, it once again has a major impact in Westminster, the political center of London.
Session full of wine, beer and pizza
According to Gray, the culture in which rule-breaking became normal was caused by the inaction of top leaders, both politicians and senior officials. In May 2020, a senior official even sent out warnings that employees should not walk around “waving bottles of wine” because there was a corona press conference at the same time that they were having a drink in the garden. After that session full of wine, beer and pizza, Johnson’s private secretary, Martin Reynolds, sends a message to a political official in which he writes that they “seem to get away with it”.
Prime Minister Johnson offered his “repeated apologies” in the House of Commons on Wednesday over party gate – it was therefore the fourth time that he had to go through the dust about this. Johnson said much of what was in the report was also new to him, as most of the get-togethers would have taken place without him. It led to loud booing from the opposition, but for the prime minister it is much more important whether lower house members of his own Conservative Party decide in response to this report to cancel their confidence in him by letter. The threshold for a vote on that question – whether the Tories still have faith in their leader – is 54 MPs. How many members have already sent in a letter requesting such a vote is secret. only the chairman of a special party committee knows that.
Still voting magnet?
The related question for the Conservatives is whether they want to enter the next national elections, scheduled for 2024, with Johnson as party leader. Here it is revenged that there is no logical successor ready. Rishi Sunak seemed like a suitable candidate, but doubts have arisen about him after a fuss about his wife’s tax returns. And Johnson was a voice magnet in the past, which makes saying goodbye to him difficult.
Because the report mainly provides more details and context and does not provide new hard evidence, the consequences for the prime minister appeared to be not too bad on Wednesday. One new Tory announced that he thinks it’s time for Johnson to step down. But most cabinet members expressed support for Johnson after the debate on Wednesday night, saying it is time “to move on.”
That’s a vain hope, because Partygate isn’t over yet. The House of Commons itself is opening another investigation into whether Johnson misled parliament by saying that no rules had been broken. If that committee of inquiry determines that there has been deliberate deception of the House of Commons, that would be a reason for leaving. But Johnson argued on Wednesday that he knew nothing about the get-togethers and that he had always regarded the meetings he did know about as work meetings.
A poll from research agency YouGov showed on Wednesday that the British public has drawn its conclusions about Johnson. 59 percent of them think it would be better if Johnson resigned. That’s just 2 percentage points higher than the 57 percent who thought he should leave in April, when it was revealed that the prime minister had been fined for violating the rules at a rally to celebrate his birthday.
The number of Britons who think Johnson lied is even higher, at 74 percent. Even a slim majority of Conservative voters (51 percent) think Johnson hasn’t spoken the truth – and yet he’s getting away with it for now.