Mark Drakeford said Prime Minister Boris Johnson cannot escape responsibility for the failures identified in Sue Gray’s report at the Downing Street confinement party simply by apologizing.
The full report by Sue Gray was released on Wednesday, revealing a shocking view of a drinking culture and unprofessional behavior at the heart of the UK government at the height of the pandemic. He harshly criticized senior political and civil service leaders for the culture they fostered on Downing Street.
You can read all the most shocking revelations in the report here.
Mark Drakeford said he was desperate to read the findings of Mrs Gray’s report. He was speaking while announcing the final lifting of all Covid legal restrictions in Wales. Check out our coverage of the final Covid press conference here.
“I saw Sue Gray’s report,” he said. “The truth is that the biggest reaction is a feeling of despair. That things could have reached a point where, to the heart of the government, where all those decisions are made that had such an impact on the lives of others. “People, that people behaved the way we did. Sue Gray’s report now has all these pretty bleak details of the way people felt it was okay for them to behave.”
When asked if he thought the Prime Minister’s apology was genuine (a YouGov poll suggests most of the public doesn’t think he means it), Drakeford added: “I don’t think the Prime Minister can escape his responsibility simply by apologizing for this and saying that when he entered a room where people were eating and drinking, sitting on each other’s lap, thinking of spending the night there until the first hour, he did not “I don’t think that’s consistent with the rules he was setting himself.
Read more related articles Read more related articles