Look, we wanted to cover something other than British politics today. We hoped to spread our wings, and escape from the Westminster bubble. But you can’t get away from Partygate.
Or maybe, if you’re the prime minister… you can, actually? That’s one reading of the news yesterday, as the Metropolitan police announced they had concluded their investigation into gatherings at Downing Street, and neither Boris Johnson or his wife, Carrie, will be facing any more fines.
So what’s happened here? A careful investigation finally getting to the truth, an opaque farce that shied away from a difficult conclusion, or something in between? There’s tons of useful reporting and analysis on the Guardian this morning to help you as you try to make your mind up. Today’s newsletter will take you through it, right after the headlines. Nimo’s back on Monday – with, hopefully, something completely different.
Five big stories
Health | Chemical pollution in the environment is worsening the global obesity epidemic, a major scientific review has concluded. Scientists say that the impact of “obesogens” can be passed down through generations.
Ukraine | The United States has accused Russia of holding the world’s food supply hostage amid growing fears of famine in developing countries. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow would not allow grain shipments unless sanctions were eased.
Executive pay | Next chief executive Simon Wolfson will be paid £4.4m this year, shareholders agreed. Wolfson was awarded a 50% rise despite opposition from some investors over the disparity with wages in the wider workforce.
Crime | A man who was obsessed with the American serial killer Ted Bundy has been jailed for a minimum of 30 years after admitting the murder of the teenager Bobbi-Anne McLeod in Plymouth.
National Lottery | A Gloucester couple have described the “amazing, but also surreal” discovery that they had won the UK’s biggest lottery haul of £184m. Joe and Jess Thwaite said the news interrupted an otherwise “grumpy morning”.
In depth: Where the Met investigation leaves the PM
Yesterday was a very good day for Boris Johnson, and anyone claiming otherwise is probably wearing a red rosette.
The spectre of multiple fines for breaching coronavirus rules has haunted the prime minister for months. Now he can say that the police have concluded that he was criminally liable for just one incident: a birthday party he didn’t know about, and which he says he attended for less than 10 minutes. For a man whose political career looked like it might be over, that is an excellent result.
But today’s front pages suggest that Johnson isn’t quite out of the woods yet. While the Daily Mail and the Daily Express say the news is proof that the story is “farcical” and ask “Can we now just focus on the big issues?”, The Times (£) and the Daily Telegraph (£) both look ahead to civil servant Sue Gray’s impending report, and suggest she wants to name names. And the Guardian reports on a mood of mutiny among civil servants and special advisers who feel that the most junior among them have been scapegoated.
So. While the Met’s investigation is at an end, there are plenty of questions about Partygate which remain unresolved, starting with:
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Is this all just a storm in a teacup?
By one view, expressed loudly by supporters of the prime minister for several months and repeated yesterday, it always was. Still, two iron laws of politics have probably helped that narrative flourish – and suggest how different things might have been.
First, timing is everything: had it not been for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Johnson’s position might easily have become untenable with his own backbenchers, whose mood towards him has softened enormously in the four months since then-commissioner Cressida Dick U-turned and said that the Met would investigate.
The second maxim: it’s always nice to be graded on a curve. Consider how different all of this might have felt if the Met had decided to hold their conclusions back to be released at the same time. To get 26 new fines when you thought the investigation might go on for weeks might not sound that bad; 126 fines all at once, including the prime minister and the chancellor, could have seemed a little different.
It’s definitely not a storm in a teacup for the other 82 people to get fines, either. You can read more about what the story means for civil servants, and questions over whether Johnson has truly taken responsibility, in this piece by Jessica Elgot.
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Why didn’t Johnson get any more fines?
We don’t have a definitive answer to this question, maybe the biggest loose end in the whole Partygate story, as the Met don’t publish their reasoning on fixed penalty notices. And to some observers, yesterday’s conclusion doesn’t make a lot of sense.
After all, the infamous cake ambush in the cabinet office for which Johnson was fined appeared to be comfortably at the lower end of the spectrum, especially when compared, for instance, to a leaving do for spin doctor Lee Cain, at which Johnson is said to have given a speech and poured drinks.
One possible clue to the distinctions that saved Johnson comes in an observation from the Met’s acting deputy commissioner Helen Ball, who said yesterday that the criteria for fines included “whether this was someone’s home [or] wasn’t someone’s home”. Or maybe an organised birthday celebration, however trivial, was deemed an unambiguously social event in a way that drinks for a departing colleague were not.
On the other hand, Adam Wagner, a lawyer who has made a specialism of lockdown rules in recent months, observed on Twitter yesterday: “I think the outcome of the Met investigation is that the Prime Minister attended 6 illegal gatherings but attended 5 of them legally.” He went on to tell the Guardian’s Peter Walker: “I don’t see why, if the prime minister had a reasonable excuse for attending, the other people attending wouldn’t… generally, the decision is difficult to understand.”
For more on this, read Peter’s examination of the legal issues surrounding the decision here.
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So is Johnson safe?
Safer than he was. The response of backbench MPs yesterday was largely to support the prime minister – and in the end, it’s up to them.
But Johnson faces dangerous byelections in Wakefield and Tiverton next month – and he has two other big milestones ahead of him. (You can read more about them in Heather Stewart’s analysis.) The first is Sue Gray’s report, said to be highly critical of the leadership that allowed these events to transpire. The question is whether her final analysis explicitly includes Johnson in that failure.
While some who want Johnson gone have given Gray the same semi-mystical saviour status once accorded to Lady Hale in relation to Brexit, both the Times and the Financial Times (£) today quote senior sources who believe that she will stop short of such an unequivocal conclusion. And the BBC hears that Gray will be more damning of the civil service than the prime minister.
Even if Johnson survives that, it’s not quite over. He will next be the subject of a parliamentary privileges committee investigation into whether he misled parliament by saying that all guidance was followed in No 10. The Labour chair, Chris Bryant, has recused himself over his past criticism of Johnson - and the committee has a Conservative majority. So, although not impossible, it would be surprising if they reached a conclusion that could force his resignation.
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So – all that must be good news for the Conservatives?
That depends on whether you think an unpopular prime minister hanging on to office despite public disapproval is great for the party brand.
James Johnson, a former Downing Street pollster for Theresa May, noted yesterday that while Johnson’s position has stabilised, the news “also means the gap between what Tory MPs think and what the public thinks continues to widen. And that is better news for Labour than it is the Conservatives”. Meanwhile, new polling for Ipsos Mori has found that Labour’s lead is at six points.
Even despite all that, it’s probably a bit out there to view the prime minister’s victory as a catastrophe for his party, especially when his opponent is still on the hook to resign if he gets an FPN himself over the “Beergate” story. In the end, the biggest problem for Johnson might not be anything the police have said – but the space that the conclusion of this story will open up for political focus on the cost of living crisis, and the prospect of a wounded prime minister trying to deal with it.
Wagatha Christie latest
A chimney sweep, some stolen jewels and a lost phone dominated proceedings at the high court on Thursday, as Coleen Rooney’s barrister, David Sherborne, accused Rebekah Vardy and her agent of a concerted effort to “cover up incriminating evidence”. In response, Vardy’s barrister doubted his client was either clever enough or cynical enough to have deleted incriminating messages. With friends like that …
Vardy’s agent, Caroline Watt, and the mobile phone that ended up at the bottom of the North Sea again occupied much of Rooney’s defence – and Jim Waterson did his best to explain Sherborne’s reliance on a 300-year-old precedent – involving the aforementioned sweep – and why this “fishy story” is Rooney’s best hope of victory. The trial is now over – so when will the verdict be revealed? It’s due ………. “later this year”.
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“One can only imagine how badly [Vardy’s] position would look were the court to have access to what she was able to successfully delete. What remains cannot be anything other than the tip of the iceberg.”
What else we’ve been reading
Keir Giles says despite significant military losses for Russia in Ukraine, there’s still a long way to go. Celebration would be premature, Giles writes, as the country continues to be devastated by a war that may drag on for months, or even years, to come. Nimo
This set of photographs that capture hard evidence of the climate crisis isn’t reading, exactly - but it is beautiful, and alarming, in equal measure. Archie
After concerning reports of soaring hospital inpatient admissions for eating disorders, author and anorexia survivor Hope Virgo argues that intervention should come far sooner. Nimo
Until I read this reader interview, I’d never heard of Udo Kier, a German character actor who’s played Frankenstein and Dracula and is a veteran of 275 movies from Antichrist to Ace Ventura. I won’t forget him now. Thanks, readers! Archie
No one wants to be betrayed – but over the course of our lives we all probably will be, by all kinds of people. Sirin Kale spoke to various people about their experiences of betrayal and how they recovered from it. Nimo
Sport
Football | Everton secured their Premier League status for another season with a 3-2 comeback win over Crystal Palace. Burnley’s 1-1 draw against Aston Villa means Leeds must better Burnley’s result on Sunday to avoid dropping into the Championship.
Football | A man has been jailed for 24 weeks after pleading guilty to assaulting the Sheffield United captain, Billy Sharp. Sharp was headbutted during a pitch invasion at the end of his club’s match against Nottingham Forest on Tuesday.
Cricket | The England fast bowler Jofra Archer, whose injury troubles have kept him out of cricket since last July, has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a stress fracture to his lower back.
The front pages
“Fury as Johnson escapes Partygate with single fine” is how the Guardian handles the Partygate fallout on its front page. The Mirror plays on Boris Johnson’s previous claim that “no Covid rules were broken” and contrasts that with a headline simply saying “126 fines”. The Telegraph goes with “Sue Gray demands to name partygate ringleaders” and while the Times reports that Gray is frustrated by “police secrecy”, its lead is “Doctors to give sleep app rather than pills”. The i’s front page story is “Tories ask Johnson: the party’s over, so what’s the plan?”. The Mail’s splash is “What a farcical waste of time and £460,000” and the Express asks “Can we now just focus on the big issues?”. The Sun leads on the big lottery win with “Lucky tip!”. In Scotland the big story is the prospect of lengthy rail strikes this summer. “Mass strikes threaten to grind Scotland to a halt for months”, the Herald says.
Something for the weekend
Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read and listen to right now
TV
Derry Girls (Channel 4)
This final series has been a triumph. From its celebrity cameos to its playful decision to mix up genres, each week has been delightful … It took a while for it to establish itself as a modern comedy classic, but now it feels like it has always been there. Rebecca Nicholson
Music
Harry Styles – Harry’s House
Styles seems to have pulled off one of the hardest tricks in pop – the transition from manufactured scream-inducing teen idol to more mature artist – more effectively than anyone since Justin Timberlake. Harry’s House is extremely well turned out, ticks a lot of the right boxes and – like Styles – has abundant charm. Alexis Petridis
Film
The Innocents
A Norwegian housing estate becomes the village of the damned in this icily brilliant supernatural tale from film-maker Eskil Vogt. It might yet become a scary-movie classic – see it now before Hollywood comes along and messes up your perception with a dodgy remake. Peter Bradshaw
Podcast
Podcrushed
One for Gossip Girl and You fans, each episode hears millennial pinup Penn Badgley read out a submitted story about middle school. With his pals Nava Kavelin and Sophie Ansari, he unpicks the awkwardness of adolescence via surprisingly relatable conversations. Hollie Richardson
Today in Focus
The nurses getting huge bills for quitting the NHS
International nurses working for NHS trusts are being trapped in their jobs by clauses in their contracts that require them to pay thousands of pounds if they try to leave. Shanti Das reports.
Cartoon of the day | Martin Rowson
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
Exclusion rates from schools have been on the rise in recent years, with black students disproportionately affected. To tackle this problem Zahra Bei, a former teacher who had been working in London schools for almost two decades, helped set up a community-based social justice movement called No More Exclusions (NME).
Bei wants to create an education system that works for everyone, moving away from punitive structures that harm many children. NME has not only raised significance awareness and moved the issue up the education agenda, they have also been a place where families affected by exclusion can go for support and advice.
Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday
