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LONDON – Long-awaited internal investigation directly blames top Boris Johnson government leaders for breaking the blockade on and around Downing Street, including a series of “excessive alcohol” clashes and a which made an official boast, in a text, about living beyond the rules of the pandemic.
Senior official Sue Gray’s report, released Wednesday, offered striking details about the culture of work and play within the Johnson administration at a time when covid restrictions limited the mix between households and prevented people from visit residences or attend funerals.
Although pubs in Britain were closed for business, the report suggests that Downing Street served as a sort of out-of-hours venue for employees, with some parties until almost dawn.
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There was music, dancing, question games. And drink. Often a lot.
At a meeting on June 18, 2020, one person was “sick”, vomiting and drinking, and two more took part in a “minor altercation”, a fight.
Downing Street employees were accused of mocking security personnel who told them to shut up, even when they left trash cans overflowing with garbage for custodians to take care of. After a party, the cleaners had to clean the red wine stains from a wall.
The 59 pages The report included 16 meetings, held between May 15, 2020 and April 16, 2021, at the Prime Minister’s Office on Downing Street, at his official residence on the top floor, or at the Office of the Prime Minister. nearby cabinet.
“Many of these events should not have been allowed to happen,” the report concluded.
Gray wrote: “The center’s top leadership, both political and official, must be responsible for this culture.” He added that some of the younger officials “believed that their participation in some of these events was allowed given the assistance of senior leaders.”
The report included nine photos of Johnson, including a series of him raising a glass at a toast on November 13, 2020. Next to it, the table is filled with empty and half-empty bottles of wine and gin.
While Johnson is expected to keep his job, for the time being, the report has fueled renewed anger against elites who are considered above the rules.
Speaking to the House of Commons hours after the report was released on Wednesday, Johnson said he was “humiliated” by the revelations and “learned a lesson”. He said he took “full responsibility for everything that happened”, but it was time to “move forward and focus on the priorities of the British people”.
He added that he was “horrified” by some of the details of the report. He said his attendance at some staff farewell parties was short and that he was “surprised and disappointed” to learn that the drink continued into the night.
At a meeting on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral, some people celebrated past 4 a.m. and employees broke a toy swing that belonged to Johnson’s youngest son, according to the report.
When news of the parties came to light, Johnson repeatedly told Parliament that he believed there were no parties and that no rules had been broken. He is still facing a parliamentary inquiry into whether he deceived lawmakers with such statements.
At a press conference on Wednesday afternoon from Downing Street, a journalist asked the British leader directly: “Are you a liar?”
The Prime Minister insisted that he really believed that no rule had been breached when he made this statement in Parliament.
He defended himself by saying that the employees were “working long, long hours” and that he believed that “these were work acts. They were part of my job”.
Blocking restrictions allowed for exceptions for meetings that were essential for work purposes. Johnson called in the parties to say goodbye to employees who were leaving “one of the essential duties of leadership.”
But at least some of the attendees seem to have noticed that they were violating their own rules. In a WhatsApp exchange, a senior official wrote that “it looks like we got away with it” a party on May 20, 2020.
The long-awaited report – British journalists called “Sue Gray Day” on Wednesday – followed an independent police investigation into a dozen meetings. Police found 83 people violated the blockade rules, including the Prime Minister, his wife, Carrie, and Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Johnson is the first British Prime Minister to be found to have broken the law while in office. However, some critics suggested that the police let him go too lightly.
Opposition leader Keir Starmer said on Wednesday that the Gray report was a testament to the “scale and arrogance of a government that believed it was the norm for them and the rule for all others “. It created a contrast between him and Johnson reiterating his promise to resign if police find out he broke the blocking rules in a separate scandal called “beergate.”
The Prime Minister has made it clear that he has no intention of resigning. And members of his Conservative Party are not maneuvering in large numbers to oust him as leader. Analysts say this is partly because there is no obvious successor within the party.
Johnson’s allies have defended his decision, citing Russia’s war in Ukraine as one of the reasons why the United Kingdom has played a disproportionate role in military support.
But the Partygate scandal has affected support for the Conservatives, who suffered losses in this month’s local elections.
Polls show that most Britons say Johnson should resign, and his popularity score has fallen since blockade breaches were revealed.
“When you look at their approval ratings now, they’re not the kind of approval that a prime minister usually returns,” said Chris Curtis, head of political polls at Opinium Research.
Curtis said the Conservative Party had lost its reputation for economic competition, with rising fuel and food prices. Inflation is now 9 percent, the highest in 40 years.
“But the most important thing that has ruined Boris Johnson’s reputation is without a doubt Partygate,” Curtis said. He said that if there were elections now, polls suggest Johnson and the Conservative Party would be out of government.
The fact that the opposition Labor Party may see a path to power is a significant change in the run-up to the 2019 election, when Johnson helped the Conservatives win an 80-seat majority.
Johnson, however, has also shown that he can overcome the controversy that will overwhelm most politicians.