British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has again apologised to parliament over a series of lockdown parties at Downing Street, after the release of damning early findings from an investigation into the gatherings.
On Monday a limited version of the report by senior civil servant Sue Gray was released to the public. It blamed the parties on a "failure of leadership" in Downing Street and the civil service.
Ms Gray condemned some of the behaviour in government as being "difficult to justify", but also said she could not offer a "meaningful report" — an apparent acknowledgement of a police investigation into other gatherings, which led to only an abridged, 12-page version of the report being released.
These other gatherings include one party that allegedly occurred in the Prime Minister's flat above his Number 10 office after the departure of his top adviser, Dominic Cummings, in November 2020.
Giving a statement to the House of Commons following the report's publication, Mr Johnson said he wanted "to say sorry".
It is not the first time Mr Johnson has apologised to parliament over the parties.
He did so on January 13 following the leak of an email invitation to a "bring your own booze" event at the Downing Street garden, and his office was forced to apologise to the Queen after it was revealed there was a lockdown party the night before Prince Philip's funeral.
The Prime Minister went on to say his government had to learn from the criticism it had received, and that he would make changes to Downing Street.
"I get it and I will fix it," he said.
"And I want to say to the people of this country, I know what the issue is. It is whether this government can be trusted to deliver. And I say, yes, we can be trusted."
It was another bruising day in the House of Commons for the Prime Minister, with an MP from his own party telling him he no longer had his backing — the second time that has happened in as many weeks. He also faced multiple questions from the opposition benches calling for him to resign.
Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party, accused Mr Johnson of blaming everyone else but himself for the gatherings and again called on the Prime Minister to quit, even though he expected he would not.
"And just as he's done throughout his life, he's damaged everyone and everything around him."
Ian Blackford, the leader of the Scottish National Party, was forced to leave the chamber after accusing Mr Johnson of misleading parliament, an offence for which the Prime Minister would be expected to resign.
Mr Johnson, who is due to address a meeting of every Conservative MP on Monday evening local time, said he would publish the full version of the Gray report once the police investigation had ended.
'Bring your own booze'
Ms Gray's report looked into what has become weeks of a steady drip of stories about events in Downing Street during the COVID-19 lockdown, including reports of staff stuffing a suitcase full of supermarket alcohol and dancing until the early hours.
However, parts of Ms Gray's report were not published due to the ongoing police investigation, which could take months.
The officer in charge said detectives were looking at 500 pieces of paper and more than 300 photographs.
"At least some of the gatherings in question represent a serious failure to observe not just the high standards expected of those working at the heart of government but also of the standards expected of the entire British population at the time," Ms Gray wrote.
She also said the "excessive consumption of alcohol" at Downing Street was not appropriate.
Ms Gray said in her so-called "update report" that she could only now refer to four events, rather than the 16 she initially considered, to make sure she did not prejudice the police probe that opened last week.
"Unfortunately, this necessarily means that I am extremely limited in what I can say about those events and it is not possible at present to provide a meaningful report setting out and analysing the extensive factual information I have been able to gather," she wrote.
The Prime Minister's spokesman has said that Mr Johnson does not believe he has broken the law.
ABC/Reuters
