Tories slam Ukraine-bound Boris for running No10 like a ‘medieval court’

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Boris Johnson and his senior ministers did not discuss the Partygate scandal at a meeting of the Cabinet this morning despite growing Tory fury and warnings the PM should be ‘very worried’ about a coup. 

Mr Johnson is desperately trying to stabilise his premiership after senior Conservatives said the ongoing row is corroding the Government like ‘battery acid’. 

The premier left the pressure cooker of Westminster following the Cabinet meeting to visit Ukraine after a stripped back version of the Sue Gray report was published yesterday which revealed the PM is being investigated by police over four potential breaches of lockdown law.

The publication of Ms Gray’s update rocked Westminster but Number 10 said the report was not mentioned during the Cabinet meeting.   

The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman said Mr Johnson had ‘obviously addressed the House I think for up to two hours yesterday and then spoke to his own MPs at length on this issue’. 

He added: ‘The Cabinet this morning was focused on the situation in Ukraine and the domestic priority of levelling up.’

Meanwhile, Number 10 has refused to guarantee that the public would be told if fines were issued for coronavirus breaches at Downing Street. 

The PM’s spokesman said: ‘It will be the Met that sets out what they see fit at the conclusion of their work and I would not seek to set out what that may or may not be.’ 

Mr Johnson suffered a mauling from a slew of Tory MPs in the Commons yesterday, with Theresa May demanding to know if he thought the rules ‘didn’t apply’ to him, and former Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell saying the premier had lost his support. 

Mr Mitchell stepped up his attack this morning warning that the row was ‘like battery acid corroding the party’ as he also condemned Mr Johnson’s leadership style.

‘I think this is a crisis that is not going to go away and is doing very great damage to the party. It is more corrosive in my judgement than the expenses scandal was and it will break the coalition that is the Conservative Party,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. 

Even normally-loyal MPs conceded that the PM’s response in the chamber was a ‘car crash’, although Mr Johnson appeared to buy himself some time with a more conciliatory performance at a private meeting with his rank and file last night. 

Writing in the Times, Lord Hague criticised Mr Johnson for getting the tone wrong, saying he should have ‘acknowledged that the buck stops with him’ and ought to be ‘very worried about the number of his own MPs who asked unhelpful questions’. 

He said: ‘Instead of reinforcing the momentum in his favour, he quite possibly stalled it. If I were him, I would be very worried about the number of his own MPs who asked unhelpful questions at the end of his statement.’ 

The looming verdict from Scotland Yard – which is sifting through more than 300 photos of Whitehall bashes and could interview both Mr Johnson and wife Carrie within days – could provide a moment of truth for the premier, but he has also been forced to agree that a full, unredacted version of Ms Gray’s report will be published after the criminal process concludes.  

On another turbulent day as Mr Johnson struggles to cling on: 

Deputy PM Dominic Raab insisted Mr Johnson is ‘getting on with the job’ but dodged giving a full-hearted defence of his swipe at Keir Starmer for failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile. ‘I can’t substantiate that claim,’ Mr Raab told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme; Mr Johnson has pledged to take regular ‘strategic advice’ from election guru Lynton Crosby as he tried to appease angry MPs; The premier has been ridiculed by Russia after he was forced to postpone a crucial call with Vladimir Putin on Ukraine so he could be grilled on Downing Street parties; The premier attacked former No10 chief Dominic Cummings comparing him to Shakespearian villain Iago while he is good-natured Othello;A snap poll has found two-third of the public do not accept Mr Johnson’s grudging apology over Partygate.   

Sir Keir twisted the knife on Mr Johnson today, saying he is ‘taking us for fools’.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, the Labour leader said the idea that Mr Johnson could not speak about whether he attended alleged parties in Downing Street until the police conclude their investigation is ‘nonsense’.

He said: ‘What happened was the Metropolitan Police asked that the full report not be published at the moment, but the idea that that prevents the Prime Minister from saying whether he was at a party on a particular day is absolute nonsense. Absolute nonsense.

‘I think the spectacle of the Prime Minister standing at the dispatch box being asked ‘Were you at this party on the 13th of November in your own flat?’ And he says ‘I can’t answer that because of the investigation’…

‘He knows very well whether he was in the flat – and he’s taking us for fools.

‘I think one of the features of this particular set of circumstances is not only did the Prime Minister and others break the rules, but they’ve taken the country for fools by insulting our intelligence in the cover-up that’s gone on since.’

The former director of public prosecutions dismissed the ‘ridiculous slur’ from the PM that he had failed to bring Savile to justice.

The return of Sir Lynton, who masterminded Mr Johnson’s City Hall campaigns as well as election victory for David Cameron in 2015 – was revealed by Mr Johnson last night.

Mr Raab told LBC News that voters, MPs and the Prime Minister wanted the party to ‘get back to doing the job that people elected us to do’.

‘Lynton Crosby is an important element of that,’ Mr Raab said.

‘He has got a good strategic nose and a good sense of the direction of public opinion and a good place – not to formulate, that’s not what we do – but to test the work that we are doing to make sure we are nailing the priorities of the people.’

Mr Raab said it was ‘not clear’ whether Sue Gray would have ‘anything more’ to add beyond further conclusions in an updated report.

‘Anything she gives the Prime Minister he will publish but ultimately that’s a question for Sue Gray and the timing will depend on the police investigation,’ the Deputy Prime Minister told LBC Radio.

But anger on the Tory benches is still close to boiling point, with Mr Mitchell telling the BBC: ‘I think this is a crisis that is not going to go away and is doing very great damage to the party.

‘It is more corrosive in my judgement than the expenses scandal was and it will break the coalition that is the Conservative Party.’

Mr Mitchell said an ‘awful lot’ is going on ‘beneath the surface’.

He went on: ‘I think the problem is that Boris is running a modern government like a medieval court, you need to rule and govern through the structures, through Whitehall, through the cabinet for National Security Council.

‘Many of us thought he would govern in the way he did when he was Mayor Of London, through being a chairman of a board, running a very good team – that is not what has happened here.’

Lord Hague said Mr Johnson had benefited from ‘good luck and well-organised supporters’ in the way the Partygate crisis had developed. But he wasted an opportunity to get on the ‘front foot’ by ‘ensuring integrity in government’.

‘For some reason, this very intuitive politician decided to do the minimum in responding to the report rather than go further in his apology and his proposals,’ the former Cabinet minister wrote.

Lord Hague said ‘Tories who are ready to act to remove him will be calculating the timing of their next move, conscious that they have only one shot at it in a 12-month period’. 

Mr Johnson was lashed by his own MPs as he delivered a half-apology to the Commons after the Sue Gray report condemned ‘failures of leadership and judgment’ in Downing Street.

The senior civil servant handed a dossier of 300 Partygate photographs and 500 pages of written evidence to Scotland Yard, as detectives probe lockdown-breaching parties in Whitehall.

Scotland Yard is now examining eight dates on which 12 events are said to have taken place. The Prime Minister is understood to have attended at least four gatherings being probed by the police, including a ‘bring your own booze’ garden party and a birthday party where he was ‘ambushed by cake’. Two of the events the Met is investigating had not been reported on.

The report prompted criticism from across the House, with former PM Mrs May saying Mr Johnson either ‘didn’t read the rules’ or thought they ‘didn’t apply’ to No10. ‘Which is it?’ she demanded.

By the time Mr Johnson met with parliamentarians in a rare gathering of the whole Conservative party later, a U-turn and vow to publish the eventual report in full appeared to have cooled the situation. 

Mr Johnson told his troops he ‘nearly died’ from Covid as a sign he took it seriously, as well as launching jibes at Mr Cummings and announcing he was drafting in Sir Lynton. 

But the threat of a vote of no confidence has not yet been killed off by Mr Johnson as he still faces hostility from his own MPs. 

Tory MP Angela Richardson revealed she had quit as a ministerial aide to Michael Gove, sharing her ‘deep disappointment’ at the handling of the Partygate row.

Writing on the grass-roots ConservativeHome website today, Red Wall MP Ric Holden warned that Mr Johnson needs to ‘lead differently’. 

‘I believe that he is sorry for both ‘the way that the matter has been handled’ and for the ‘things that we simply did not get right.’ But this means he got to lead differently now,’ he said.

‘I worked for Boris Johnson when he was campaigning to be the Leader of the Conservative Party and our Prime Minister. He is an upbeat, optimistic campaigner. 

‘He really does want to do what he says about levelling up. He knows he owes the voters in seats like mine the stonking majority that got him his own mandate.’

Mr Holden said Mr Johnson has ‘got to listen to those MPs in Parliament and our members and voters in the country, and then use his judgement’. 

‘No blinkers to drive hard through the Brexit quagmire now. This is a moment of reflection that must evolve into actions that drive us through to the next general election,’ he said.

Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg said the ‘mood was positive’ among Conservatives following an evening meeting on the Parliamentary estate.

He added: ‘So many people voted personally for Boris Johnson rather than voting for political parties.

‘Politicians have to accept that our bosses are the British people, and they voted for that, they put him in office.’

The Met confirmed they are investigating events on eight different dates at Downing Street and the Cabinet Office.

The first is May 20 2020, the day of the ‘bring your own booze’ party held after Number 10 official Martin Reynolds, emailed 100 members of staff inviting them to a drinks event.

Next is June 18 when there was a gathering at the Cabinet office on the departure of a No 10 private secretary; and June 19 when there was a get-together in the Cabinet room in No 10 Downing Street on the Prime Minister’s 56th  birthday.

Also under the spotlight are events on November 13, the night of the departure of Dominic Cummings, the day when there was one gathering in the Downing Street flat and another in No 10 Downing Street.

Police are investigating dates which have been linked to Christmas parties in the Cabinet Office on December 17 and Downing Street on December 18, and leaving drinks for the former head of the Government’s Covid Taskforce Kate Josephs.

They are also looking at dates when drinks were held at Number 10 on January 14 on the departure of two private secretaries; and leaving events for James Slack, Mr Johnson’s former director of communications, and one of the Prime Minister’s personal photographers in Downing Street on April 16 2021, the day before the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral.   

Mr Johnson is said to have been at his own birthday celebration, BYOB gathering, and two leaving dos for senior aides where he gave speeches. 

Rishi Sunak could also be involved, as he is understood to have briefly attended the birthday ‘party’ – although it was breaking up as he entered the room to attend a Covid strategy meeting. 

The Mail on Sunday revealed details of the alleged ‘victory party’ held by friends of Carrie on the night of November 13, 2020, after Dominic Cummings had left with his belongings in a box.

He had allegedly lost a power struggle with the then Ms Symonds and other advisers.

‘There was the sound of lots of banging and dancing and drinking, and a number of Abba tracks – including a triumphalist Winner Takes It All,’ a source said.

A spokesman for Mrs Johnson said: ‘It is totally untrue to suggest Mrs Johnson held a party in the Downing Street flat on November 13, 2020.’

In a statement, the Met said: ‘Having received the documentation from the Cabinet Office on Friday 28 January, we are now reviewing it at pace to confirm which individuals will need to be contacted for their account. This prioritisation will include reviewing all the material from the Cabinet Office, which includes more than 300 images and over 500 pages of information.’  

‘If following an investigation, officers believe it is appropriate, because the Covid regulations have been breached without a reasonable excuse, a fixed penalty notice would normally be issued. Once the penalty is paid, the matter is considered closed.

‘Alternatively individuals may decide to dispute the notice. In these circumstances officers will consider whether to pursue the matter in a magistrates’ court. 

Three new gatherings not previously revealed were included in Sue Gray’s investigations.

These were a gathering in the Cabinet Office on June 18, 2020, to mark the leaving of a No10 private secretary, a third gathering on December 17, 2020 – on top of two already reported – to mark the departure of a No 10 official in Downing Street, and a new event on January 14, 2021, also in No 10, when two private secretaries left.

Two previously reported gatherings were not included in her inquiry.

These were drinks held at the Treasury on November 25, 2020 and drinks at the Department for Transport on December 16, 2020.

On the Treasury drinks, a spokesman said at the time: ‘We have been made aware that a small number of those staff had impromptu drinks around their desks after the event.’

A DfT spokesperson said: ‘Fewer than a dozen staff who were working in the office had a low-key, socially distanced gathering in the large open-plan office after work on December 16, where food and drink was consumed.

‘We recognise this was inappropriate and apologise for the error of judgment.’  

 

Boris Johnson will visit Ukraine TOMORROW in show of support for nation as he urges Vladimir Putin to ‘step back from the brink’ of invasion 

Boris Johnson will visit Ukraine tomorrow in a show of support for the country – after warning Vladimir Putin to ‘step back from the brink’ of invasion.

Downing Street confirmed that the Prime Minister would sidestep the fallout from the Sue Gray Partygate report by travelling to Kyiv for talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday.

That journey, made with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, will take place after an expected phone call with Putin today, as tens of thousands of Russian troops maintain their position close to the Ukraine border.

Fears of an imminent Russian incursion in Ukraine have grown in recent days, despite denials from Moscow and pleas from Zelensky to avoid stirring ‘panic’ over the military build-up on the border. 

Mr Johnson said today he will reiterate that an invasion would be ‘bitterly and bloodily resisted’ by Kiev’s forces – as well as having major repercussions internationally. 

Speaking to reporters in Essex this morning, Mr Johnson said: ‘What I will say to President Putin, as I have said before, is that I think we really all need to step back from the brink.

‘I think Russia needs to step back from the brink. I think that an invasion of Ukraine, any incursion into Ukraine beyond the territory that Russia has already taken in 2014 would be an absolute disaster for the world, and above all it would be a disaster for Russia.’    

As well as visiting Ukraine, the Foreign Secretary will head on to Moscow for talks. 

Diplomatic efforts are ramping up as Putin-backing oligarchs were warned there will be ‘nowhere to hide’ from new UK sanctions.

The Foreign Office is set to announce details of enhanced measures that could be used against ‘strategic interests’ of the Russian state. 

Targets could include financial institutions and energy firms as well as Mr Putin’s wealthy supporters. 

Meanwhile, former MI6 chief Sir John Sawers has insisted Russia can be deterred from pushing ahead with an invasion if the West makes clear there will be ‘costs’. 

‘It took all that time to produce EIGHT pages’: Anger and mockery as long-awaited Sue Gray report on No10 partygate is published (and is just as lacking in detail as many predicted) 

Britons today mocked the long-awaited Sue Gray report into Downing Street parties during lockdown for being a ‘whitewash’, with one tweeting: ‘You mean it took Sue Gray all that time just to produce 8 pages of content?’

A limited version of the senior civil servant’s report into the parties held between May 2020 and April 2021 was published today and condemned a ‘serious failure’ to observe the high standards expected of those working at the heart of Government.

Social media users had earlier jokingly predicted that some of the report – which was issued at about 2.20pm today – would say ‘this page is left intentionally blank’. In reality, the second page actually stated: ‘This page intentionally blank’.

Others used the ‘I dunno, I think that’s a bit dodgy mate’ Inbetweeners meme when summarising the report as a ‘TLDR’ version – meaning ‘too long; didn’t read’.

Addressing angry MPs in the House of Commons today, Mr Johnson told MPs he will overhaul the operation in Downing Street and the Cabinet Office to address the concerns raised in the report, adding: ‘I get it and I will fix it.’

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford was ordered to leave the Commons for failing to withdraw claims that the Prime Minister had misled the House.

Ms Gray has been working on the report since December 17 last year, meaning it has taken more than six weeks to be published. 

The Cabinet Office said that Ms Gray had provided an ‘update’ on her investigation to the Prime Minister, suggesting it was not the full report she was preparing before the Metropolitan Police intervened. Scotland Yard last week asked Ms Gray to make only ‘minimal reference’ to gatherings being investigated by its officers. 

Downing Street has so far refused to commit to publishing a fuller version of Ms Gray’s findings once the police investigation has concluded.

The version of Ms Gray’s report published online said ‘it seems there was too little thought given to what was happening across the country in considering the appropriateness of some of these gatherings, the risks they presented to public health and how they might appear to the public’.

The Downing Street garden was used for gatherings ‘without clear authorisation or oversight’ in a way that was ‘not appropriate’. The report reveals 12 events are being investigated by the police, including a gathering in the Downing Street flat and an event to mark Boris Johnson’s birthday in June 2020. 

Here are some of the best memes posted following its publication this afternoon: 

Earlier, Britons raised concerns over a ‘whitewash’ today after Sue Gray finally handed Boris Johnson a version of her inquiry into allegations of lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street

. People took to social media to share joke images surrounding the news such as a ’50 Shades of Sue Gray’ spoof, and a Hermes ‘sorry we missed you’ delivery note. 

Others posted pictures of a completely-redacted piece of paper and the popular Titanic ‘it’s been 84 years’ meme in a gag about how long the report has taken.

And here are some of the memes posted before the report was revealed: