Head of Civil Service refuses to step down

BRITAIN’S top civil servant was clinging to his job last night despite being blamed in Sue Gray’s partygate report for overseeing a culture of rule-breaking in No10.

Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, has refused to resign after Ms Gray tore into the Downing Street leadership for attending boozy gatherings.

Boris Johnson has decided to stand by his most senior official, who informed the Prime Minister before the Gray report was published that he would have to be pushed.

Officials had reportedly drawn up a resignation letter for him in advance that praised his leadership role during the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Yesterday afternoon, Mr Case wrote to staff saying that lessons had been learnt from the “partygate” furore and they “must remain fully focused on serving the Government”.

The letter, which was seen as a call to move on from the scandal, went down badly with some officials who criticised it as tone deaf and a “disgrace”.

It came after Ms Gray appeared to suggest that junior staff within Downing Street, who bore the brunt of police fines over partygate, had been hung out to dry by their bosses.

She said that “the senior leadership at the centre, both political and official, must bear responsibility for this culture” of rule-breaking in No10. “It is important to acknowledge those in most junior positions attended gatherings at which their seniors were present, or indeed organised,” she wrote.

“It is also the case that some of the more junior civil servants believed that their involvement in some of these events was permitted, given the attendance of senior leaders.”

There was also dismay that the Cabinet Secretary avoided a fine for attending Mr Johnson’s birthday party, while the Prime Minister and Chancellor did not.

Mr Case, then the Prime Minister’s Permanent Secretary focusing on the pandemic response, was copied into emails about the gathering in June 2020 and is in photos of it.