Cabinet minister Liz Truss has led a defence of Boris Johnson by urging MPs to wait for Scotland Yard’s findings on “Partygate” rather than moving against him after a top civil servant’s report into the scandal.
With Westminster braced for Sue Gray to deliver her report into the series of gatherings in Downing Street, possibly as early as today, the Foreign Secretary issued the plea as some Tory MPs were considering sending in letters of no confidence in the Prime Minister. Ministers have for days urged Tory backbenchers to wait for the Gray report before deciding whether to act against Mr Johnson.
However, in an apparent change in government tactics, Foreign Secretary Ms Truss said MPs should now wait for the Metropolitan Police to report.
The force announced on Wednesday it was investigating a series of potentially Covid law-busting “events” in Downing Street and Whitehall when millions of people across Britain were following lockdown rules or other restrictions.
“We need to wait for the results of the Sue Gray report and the police investigation,” Ms Truss told Sky News.
The Met police inquiry could take weeks, even months, to be completed.
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “No one in Britain needs the Sue Gray report or the police to know that Boris Johnson needs to go. He can’t kick this into the long grass anymore.”
However, anger among Tory MPs over “Partygate” has dissipated in recent days, especially with the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Ms Gray’s report is expected to be deeply uncomfortable for the PM and civil servants in No10. But it was far from clear this morning whether it will trigger MPs to put in a wave of letters of no confidence in Mr Johnson.
If Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs, receives 54 letters, it would lead to a vote on Mr Johnson’s leadership.
An indication of how damaging the Gray report could be came when Met chief Dame Cressida Dick announced their inquiry, based in part on evidence obtained by the civil servant’s probe.
Sky News reported officials have handed Gray’s investigators photos of parties in Downing Street which include images of the PM and show people close together with wine bottles.
The “parties” at the centre of the storm include:
- A birthday gathering for Mr Johnson which ITV News reported the Prime Minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, organised on the afternoon of June 19 2020.
- A “bring-your-own-booze” gathering in the garden of No10 on May 20, 2020, which Mr Johnson told MPs he thought was a work event.
- Two leaving-dos held in Downing Street the night before the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral on April 17, 2021.
Ms Gray was expected to hand over her report today and for No10 to publish it within hours, though this timetable could slip.
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said many MPs will decide in the “next few days” whether Mr Johnson should remain Prime Minister.
The MP for Chingford and Woodford Green condemned the series of “parties” in Downing Street as “appalling”.
He also stressed that there should have been “serious leadership from all those relevant” to stop such a culture developing in No10 when Britain was in lockdown or under other Covid restrictions.
However, Mr Duncan Smith also praised Mr Johnson’s leadership on some of the decisions made during the Covid pandemic including on the vaccine roll-out and on resisting imposing tougher restrictions.
Speaking on Talk Radio about the “parties”, Mr Duncan Smith who was ousted as Tory leader in 2003, said: “I’m not going to make a judgement other than this was appalling.
“The culture in Downing Street, both among civil servants and politicians, needed to have serious leadership from all those relevant.”
He also emphasised that Mr Johnson got some of the “big calls” right during the pandemic, including not imposing another lockdown before Christmas and the fast roll-out of jabs.
The world is also facing a “very dangerous” time, with the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, he added, and that “every day that we spend on this (parties) is a day lost for serious Government business”.
Sir Bob Neill, Conservative MP for Bromley and Chiselhurst, said: “I’m genuinely open-minded about which way this is going to go but the sooner it is sorted the better.”
He added that the Gray report needed to be published in full.
Conservative MP Robert Halfon, chairman of the Commons education committee, said he would like to see the Prime Minister “respond and take responsibility” following the news that Mr Johnson could face a police interview over alleged coronavirus rule-breaking parties.
Speaking just hours before Prime Minister’s Questions, he told Times Radio: “I don’t need Sue Gray or the police to tell me or my constituents of Harlow that what’s gone on has been pretty awful. We all feel let down and disappointed.”
Tobias Ellwood, Tory chair of the Commons Defence Committee, added: “We’ve been in a holding pattern as we wait for the Gray report to land. There is genuine collective nervousness, knowing all MPs will now be asked to respond.”
Mr Johnson’s allies were using a series of tactics to try to persuade Tory MPs to continue supporting him.
Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg even suggested there may have to be a general election if Mr Johnson is ousted.
He told BBC’s Newsnight: “It is my view that we have moved, for better or worse, to essentially a presidential system and that therefore the mandate is personal rather than entirely party, and that any prime minister would be very well advised to seek a fresh mandate.”
However, Ms Truss branded this “complete hypothetical speculation”.
Many Tory MPs, appalled by the ongoings in No10, are still very reluctant to move against Mr Johnson, especially given the situation with Ukraine.
Some believe he could stay on as PM even if he is found to have broken the law and is issued with a fine.
Ms Truss, a frontrunner to succeed Mr Johnson, previously said she wanted him to stay for “as long as possible”, which was seen by some as a sign that she was jockeying for position ahead of a possible leadership race.
Asked if he should resign if he has broken the law or misled Parliament, she said: “The Prime Minister has appeared before Parliament, he has apologised for what has happened.”
