Prime Minister Boris Johnson has addressed the House of Commons after Sue Gray’s report into Partygate was published.
Ms Gray’s report “found that “at least some of the gatherings” in Downing Street represented “serious failure” to observe what was asked of the public at the time.
The Met are investigating a series of No10 events in 2020 including a gathering in the Cabinet Room in No 10 on Boris Johnson’s birthday, the report suggests.
Now the Prime Minister has told MPs he will make changes to the way Downing Street and Cabinet Office works.
In the light of the report, he said: “I get it and I will fix it.”
What Boris Johnson said in full:
He opened the statement with the words: “Firstly, I want to say sorry – and I’m sorry for the things we simply didn’t get right and also sorry for the way this matter has been handled.
“It’s no use saying this or that was within the rules and it’s no use saying people were working hard. This pandemic was hard for everyone.”
He told the Commons: “We asked people across this country to make the most extraordinary sacrifices – not to meet loved ones, not to visit relatives before they died, and I understand the anger that people feel.
“But it isn’t enough to say sorry. This is a moment when we must look at ourselves in the mirror and we must learn.
“While the Metropolitan Police must yet complete their investigation, and that means there are no details of specific events in Sue Gray’s report, I of course accept Sue Gray’s general findings in full, and above all her recommendation that we must learn from these events and act now.”
Mr Johnson said: “We are making changes now to the way Downing Street and the Cabinet Office run so that we can get on with the job that I was elected to do and the job that this Government was elected to do”.
He added: “First it is time to sort out what Sue Gray rightly calls the fragmented and complicated leadership structures of Downing Street which she says have not evolved sufficiently to meet the demands of the expansion of Number 10 and we will do that, including by creating an Office of the Prime Minister with a permanent secretary to lead Number 10.”
Concluding his statemen, he said: “I get it, and I will fix it. I want to say to the people of this country I know what the issue is.”
The Prime Minister continued: “It is whether this Government can be trusted to deliver, and I say ‘yes we can be trusted to deliver’.”
He added: “The reason we are coming out of Covid so fast is at least partly because we doubled the speed of the booster rollout and I can tell the House and this country that we are going to bring the same energy and commitment to getting on with the job to delivering for the British people and to our mission to unite and level up across this country.”
