PM told to ‘pack bags’ over report
BORIS Johnson said he took “full responsibility” after an official report revealed shocking details of raucous parties in No 10 during the coronavirus lockdown.
The Prime Minister sought to play down his personal involvement in the gatherings detailed in the report by senior official Sue Gray but acknowledged that they took place “on my watch”.
The Gray report gave details of gatherings at which officials drank so much they were sick, sang karaoke, became involved in altercations and abused security and cleaning staff at a time when millions of people across the country were unable to see friends and family.
The report said the “senior leadership” in No 10 must “bear responsibility” for the culture which led to lockdown rules being broken at a series of events in 2020 and 2021.
The Prime Minister faced fresh demands to resign after the report said the public would be “dismayed” by the behaviour uncovered.
“The events that I investigated were attended by leaders in government. Many of these events should not have been allowed to happen,” Ms Gray said.
The Metropolitan Police has issued 126 fines for rule breaches in No 10 and Whitehall, with the Prime Minister receiving a single fixed-penalty notice for his birthday party in the Cabinet Room in June 2020.
But senior civil servant Ms Gray condemned the wider culture that had been allowed to develop under Mr Johnson’s leadership.
She said some of the more junior officials who attended parties “believed that their involvement in some of these events was permitted given the attendance of senior leaders”.
She also said there were “multiple examples of a lack of respect and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff” during the events, which was “unacceptable”.
“Many will be dismayed that behaviour of this kind took place on this scale at the heart of Government,” she said.
“The public have a right to expect the very highest standards of behaviour in such places and clearly what happened fell well short of this.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told the Commons that report “laid bare the rot” in No 10 and called on Tory MPs to tell Boris Johnson “the game is up” and that it is “time to pack his bags”.
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner described the contents of the report as “indefensible”, calling Mr Johnson’s Downing Street “rotten from the very top”.
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford branded the report “damning” and called the Prime Minister to resign for “orchestrating” the scenes in Downing Street.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “Any other PM would be forced to resign by a report as damaging as this, yet still Conservative MPs defend Johnson and allow him to cling on.”
Meanwhile, three in five people have said Mr Johnson should resign, a snap opinion poll has suggested.
YouGov’s poll said 59% of Britons believe he should step down.
The proportion who say that Mr Johnson should resign includes around a quarter (27%) of 2019 Conservative voters, while three in 10 (30%) Britons say that the PM should remain in his role, rising to almost two-thirds (63%) of 2019 Conservative voters.