Boris’s Partygate act of contrition
He’ll issue THREE apologies in ‘masochism strategy’ to defuse row over Sue Gray report set for release today
BORIS Johnson will today apologise to Parliament, the public and his own MPs over Partygate in a bid to soak up criticism from the official report into the row.
Deploying a ‘masochism strategy’, the Prime Minister will ‘take responsibility’ for lockdown rule-breaking in Downing Street, which is set to be savaged in Sue Gray’s long-awaited report today.
Ministers are braced for Miss Gray to deliver her report to No 10 this morning.
In a display of contrition, the PM will then make a statement to Parliament before holding a press conference and then addressing Tory MPs at a meeting of the backbench 1922 Committee.
‘He’s going to take it on the chin,’ said one source. ‘He will apologise, he’ll say we got things wrong and he’ll take responsibility.
‘But he’ll also point out that he has already learned many of the lessons – he has made big changes in Downing Street. And he’ll say it has doubled his resolve to deliver for the public.’
Another source predicted that the report would make clear that many others were at fault for the lax culture in No 10 that allowed a series of rule-breaking events to take place, which have infuriated the public.
‘It happened on his watch, so he has to take responsibility – and he’s happy to say sorry,’
‘Already learned many lessons’
the source said. ‘But all that’s changed since his last apology is that the police have concluded their investigations without giving him another fine.
‘For many of the events that caused the most anger, he wasn’t even in the building.’
Tory whips are on red alert for signs that more backbench MPs may put in letters of no confidence if the PM fails to address Miss Gray’s concerns. Last night there was even speculation some ministers could resign.
Miss Gray’s report is expected to deliver a scathing verdict on the culture at the heart of government during the pandemic.
Her interim report in January criticised ‘failures of leadership and judgment’ in Downing Street and highlighted concerns about a culture of excessive drinking.
The PM has since restructured his No10 operation, leading to the departure of a number of senior figures who are expected to face criticism in today’s report.
Downing Street has also imposed an alcohol ban outside of official functions.
Today’s report is expected to name about 30 senior figures involved in rule-breaking events, including the Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case.
Officials found to have broken the rules could face disciplinary procedures. One insider predicted the report would make grim reading for the Government by setting out details of a string of events where rules were broken.
It was revealed last week that the report will detail how one Cabinet Office leaving do ended up in a boozy fight. A source said: ‘A lot of the details of what went on are out there already. But when people see it all put together there will still be an impact.
‘When people read the details of incident after incident it will be hard to escape the conclusion that this was not very clever and should have been stopped.’
The report is also expected to contain photographs of some events, with people’s faces blanked out. Mr Johnson, his wife Carrie and Chancellor Rishi Sunak were each fined £50 for their attendance at a so-called ‘birthday party’ in the Cabinet Room where the PM was presented with a cake between meetings at a time when indoor gatherings were banned.
The Metropolitan Police have faced questions this week over the failure to issue Mr Johnson with more fixed penalty notices, following the emergence of a photo showing him raising a glass at a lockdown leaving do for outgoing communications chief Lee Cain in November 2020.
Others at the event were fined, but Mr Johnson was not penalised. There was speculation yesterday that he may have escaped because the event took place in the building where he lives. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps insisted the PM did not believe he was at a lockdown-breaking party in the images showing him raising a glass and surrounded by colleagues and wine bottles.
Mr Shapps said he was ‘angry’ to see the photographs but suggested the Prime Minister may not have been fined over the event because he left the leaving do ‘pretty quick’.
Meanwhile, No10 denied claims that Mr Johnson urged Miss Gray to drop plans to publish her report in a private meeting earlier this month. The Times reported that the Prime Minister suggested to the senior civil servant that there was no longer any point in releasing her findings as the facts were ‘all out there’.
But Mr Johnson’s official spokesman said yesterday: ‘This was a legitimate meeting about the process [of publication] rather than the contents of report.
‘The Prime Minister did not ask her to drop the report or not proceed with the report.
‘It was the Prime Minister who commissioned the report. He wants the report to be published.’