Tag Archives: partygate

Boris Johnson’s Account Of Partygate Was ‘More Fictional Than Reality’ – Tom Tugendhat

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Tom Tugendhat today said Boris Johnson’s account of partygate was “more fictional than reality”.

The Tory leadership hopeful skewered the prime minister over his account of the scandal that led to the downfall of his administration.

However, the MP for Tonbridge and Malling dodged a question about whether he would serve in the cabinet of a prime minister who had broken the law.

In the first TV debate on Friday night, Tugendhat received a round of applause when he flatly said Johnson was not an honest man.

It set him apart from his rivals who were unable to give a straight verdict on the prime minister’s integrity.

Asked what Johnson had been dishonest about on the BBC’s Sunday Morning show, Tugendhat said: “We wouldn’t have been having that debate on Friday night had the others not agreed with me.

“We know very well the others agree with me because otherwise they wouldn’t have resigned from his government, they wouldn’t be standing as leadership candidates.”

Pressed on what Johnson had been dishonest about, Tugendhat replied: “It’s perfectly clear that the alignment of stories that he came to on the partygate scandal seems to have been rather more fictional than reality.”

Asked if he would work for a prime minister who broke the law, Tugendhat said: “I’ve been very clear about my policies on all of this. I think that what we need to be doing is making sure that we bring about integrity into politics.

“And that’s why I’ve spoken about bringing back a ministerial standards commissioner.”

Pressed on the matter, Tugendhat suggested presenter Sophie Raworth was trying to “have a go” at Rishi Sunak who received a partygate fine.

Pushed again, he replied referring to the current prime minister: “Well, I haven’t worked for this one.”

His critics say Tugendhat cannot get the numbers to be PM and is instead in the running for a cabinet position in the next administration.

It comes after the government was accused of hiding how much taxpayers spent on legal advice for officials accused in the partygate scandal.

The Government Legal Department – an in-house legal organisation – has refused to even confirm or deny if their lawyers advised those being investigated by the police.

Meanwhile, Johnson has been told to hand over a huge number of documents including his diaries to MPs investigating whether he lied to parliament over partygate.

Tory MPs hope to have reduced the search for Johnson’s successor, due to be announced on September 5, to two possibilities in the coming days.

Monday will see the third round of voting with the aim of whittling down candidates to the final two by Thursday, before the summer recess.

The final two will then go forward to a postal ballot of party members.

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Minister Insists No Tories In His Seat Have Criticised Boris Johnson And People Are Sceptical

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A cabinet minister has been ridiculed after he claimed no Conservatives in his constituency are critical of Boris Johnson.

Brandon Lewis said Tories in Great Yarmouth are “in full support” of the prime minister, despite 148 of his own MPs voting to remove him from office.

The PM has seen his personal approval ratings plummet in recent months as a result of the partygate scandal.

But appearing on the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme, the Northern Ireland secretary insisted Johnson remained popular throughout the country.

He said: “In 2019 people came out and voted for the prime minister, gave him an overwhelming mandate, which followed the mandate the Conservative Party gave him a few months earlier.

“He is somebody who consistently does well and wins elections and I’ve got to say, my constituents, my mailbox, is very clear that support is there for the prime minister.”

Presenter Sophie Raworth asked: “You don’t get criticism in your mailbox about the prime minister?”

Lewis replied: “Genuinely, the criticism I’ve had in my mailbox has been people I know are Labour supporters or are Labour activists in my constituency. What I’ve had generally on doorsteps and in my mailbox, and elsewhere in the country, is people want to see us getting on delivering for people and that’s what the prime minister is focused on.

I can only talk for my constituency – I’ve had people in full support of the prime minister. And actually, even today I’ve had supportive messages from the chairman of the Conservatives in Northern Ireland around the work the prime minister’s doing and we should get on with the job.”

The exchange was met with incredulity on social media.

Lewis had earlier insisted that legislation being introduced tomorrow by the government to over-ride parts of the Northern Ireland protocol will not break international law.

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Boris Johnson Responsible For ‘Unacceptable Failings’, Says Andrea Leadsom

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Boris Johnson is responsible for “unacceptable failings” of leadership, former cabinet minister Andrea Leadsom has said.

The prime minister is under mounting pressure from his own MPs to resign, following the Sue Gray report into partygate.

It takes 54 Tory MPs to formally submit a letter for a no confidence vote in Johnson to be triggered.

In a letter on Tuesday, reported by The Mirror, Leadsom said she wanted to be “clear” about her views but stopped short of calling for Johnson to resign or offering him continued support.

“I believe in the importance of high standards of integrity, and that Members of Parliament must strive to be good role models, very specifically because we are the lawmakers and therefore in a trusted position of power and authority,” she said.

“I am determined to be clear about my views as a matter of personal integrity — the conclusion I have drawn from the Sue Gray report is that there have been unacceptable failings of leadership that cannot be tolerated and are the responsibility of the prime minister.

“Each of my Conservative MP colleagues and I must now decide individually on what is the right course of action that will restore confidence in our government.”

Leadsom has served in a number of senior government roles including business secretary and Commons leader.

She ran against Johnson in both the 2016 and 2019 Conservative leadership elections.

Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories, is the only person who knows the number of letters that have been sent in.

It is widely expected in Westminster that Brady would wait until parliament returns from the current recess next Monday, after the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations, before revealing whether the threshold had been met.

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Labour’s Lisa Nandy Hits Out At ‘Offensive’ No.10 Culture As More Partygate Claims Emerge

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Lisa Nandy criticised the drinking culture in No.10 again on Monday as new partygate claims emerged over the weekend.

The Sunday Times has reported that the prime minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, may now have had two supposed parties in Downing Street but neither of the alleged gatherings are going to be investigated by Sue Gray.

As Labour’s shadow levelling up secretary, Nandy told Sky News: “What this shows to me is not that there’s been another party or that there should be another investigation.

″Much more that there is clearly a culture which the prime minister has presided over, where people made the rules, they broke the rules, they lied about it and they laughed about it. And they’re still trying to get away with it.

“For a lot of families in this country that is incredibly offensive for the whole country, that’s a very serious thing.”

Her strong remarks came after digital minister Chris Philp told Sky’s Kay Burley that he did not see any reason for there to be further investigations into partygate.

“I think we’ve had an unbelievably comprehensive set of investigations, now going on for a period of nearly six months,” Philp said, later adding: “It’s not immediately obvious to me that this has – rightly – been the most thoroughly investigated set of incidents in recent times.”

In response, Nandy claimed: “It’s difficult for him to argue that and probably privately he would accept that, when the revelations keep coming on about more.”

Taking aim at Johnson again, the shadow cabinet minister added: “In the end if you can’t trust the prime minister to make sure the rules he made were followed, what can you trust him to do?”

However, there is still an investigation by MPs ahead, to see if Johnson knowingly misled the Commons when he – repeatedly – said no rules had been broken in Downing Street. If Johnson were found to have done so, it would be a breach of the ministerial code.

Last week, No.10 announced it was changing the wording of the ministerial code, removing early references to honesty and making it so minor breaches did not mean people had to resign.

Such a move prompted outrage from the general public.

Labour have since called for there to be an impartial approach to the ministerial code, so those in power “can’t bend the rules to suit them”.

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Sky’s Kay Burley Rips Into Boris Johnson Ally Over ‘Duty’ To Attend Staff Leaving Dos

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Boris Johnson’s chief of staff has insisted the prime minister had a “duty” to attend staff leaving parties during the pandemic — even when people were unable to say goodbye to dying relatives.

The PM repeatedly stood by his decision to thank departing staff in person following the publication of Sue Gray’s damning report into the partygate scandal that has rocked No.10.

The report contained salacious details of excessive drinking and socialising inside No.10, where staff drank until they were sick and red wine was spilled up the walls.

In her report, the senior civil servant noted how Johnson attended a series of events himself, including a now infamous gathering for his departing director of communications Lee Cain where he is pictured raising a glass of alcohol.

But speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, the prime minister insisted he felt it was his “duty” to make an appearance at the leaving-dos of departing colleagues.

“When I was speaking to colleagues about the departure of another spad [special adviser], or government adviser or official, it didn’t occur to me that this was anything except what it was my duty to do as prime minister during a pandemic.

“That’s why I did it, and that’s why I spoke as I did in the House of Commons. And, yes, as Sue has found and everybody can see and the evidence has shown, after I had been there things did not go well.”

Johnson’s words were immediately seized on by Sky Presenter Kay Burley, who asked Barclay: “So he could say goodbye to a work colleague, but people watching this programme this morning couldn’t say goodbye to a dying relative?”

Barclay replied: “I know from my own families in the constituency that that was heartbreaking for people that weren’t able to say goodbye, I think it was probably one of the worst features of the pandemic that people didn’t get that moment of being able to say goodbye.

“I think as was covered at the time in the rules, people working in Downing Street, because of the nature of their jobs working for the prime minister, they’re working in our vaccine rollout, ensuring we have the PPE, working very long hours in tight-knit situations, and there was a work exemption for them to be able to work together.

“It was in that context that the prime minster was very briefly, usually for a matter of minutes, to meet people.”

Burley interjected: “Why would he feel that he could say goodbye to a work colleague but people couldn’t go to a graveside?”

“Because they were already in the building,” Barclay said. “They were already working in tiny groups, they were already there.”

“Six bottles of wine, two bottles of champagne and a bottle of gin on the table…what sort of workplace is that?”

Barclay replied: “The Met has looked at these issues, these were very brief periods of time, the nature of the prime minster’s job is to go from meeting to meeting to meeting.

“But at the same time he has recognised the need for changes, he’s made those changes, and Sue Gray herself has recognised there’s been significant change with a permanent secretary, with a change of leadership team as a result of the lessons we’ve learned.”

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Jacob Rees-Mogg Clashes With Naga Munchetty Over Partygate ‘Non-Story’

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Jacob Rees-Mogg clashed with the BBC’s Naga Munchetty after she asked him about more than 100 fines being issued to Downing Street staff over partygate.

The cabinet minister insisted it was a “non-story” and that the public had now moved on from the scandal of lockdown-breaking parties in Number 10 and Whitehall.

He also took aim at the BBC, who he said had “loved” covering the story.

The Metropolitan Police announced yesterday that the number of fixed penalty notices they had issued over the affair had doubled to more than 100, with the investigation continuing.

Munchetty asked Rees-Mogg for his reaction to the news when he appeared on BBC Breakfast.

The BBC presenter asked Rees-Mogg whether the news that more than 100 Downing Street staff have now been fined for breaking lockdown rules “reflected well on this Conservative government”.

Rees-Mogg said: “I’m afraid I think this is a non-story. The BBC has absolutely loved it, but what is important is we get on with the business of government.”

Munchetty then interjected to ask: “Why do you think this is a non-story? Have you not heard people upset, genuinely devastated, that people in Downing Street thought it was OK to break the rules that they set while other people didn’t break the rules and missed out on meeting dying family members?”

Rees-Mogg replied: “I think people were upset. I think this was an important story in February when it first became known, and that there was great concern and there was a feeling of people who were bereaved particularly about it.

“I also think we need to look in the inquiry at the rules to see if they were proportionate.”

The minister said the rules were “too restrictive” because they prevented people from “giving comfort to the dying”.

Munchetty then asked: “Can I just understand your interpretation of where we are with the rules and why you think this is a non-story? So, the fact that more than 100 fines have been issued in a non-story because the rules that were set in the first place were too rigorous?”

The minister said: “What I’m saying is the fines are a consequence of things we knew in February and it was a story in February and people now know about it and have made their judgment on it and there are other things going on that are more important.”

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Rishi Sunak Has Received A Questionnaire From Police Investigating Partygate

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Rishi Sunak has received a questionnaire from police investigating the partygate affair.

The Chancellor has joined the prime minister, and other Downing Street staff, in being questioned by the Metropolitan Police..

It is understood Sunak attended a birthday party for Boris Johnson in the Cabinet Room in June, 2020 – one of the alleged gatherings under investigation.

A source close to the Chancellor confirmed to HuffPst UK that he has received a questionnaire asking him to explain his attendance at the event.

He has a week to fill in the form and return it to the Met.

If he is found to have broken the anti-Covid social distancing rules that were in place at the time, he faces receiving a fixed penalty notice.

A copy of one of the questionnaires was leaked to ITV earlier this week, revealing that recipients were effectively being interviewed under caution.

Recipients were told that they “do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you do not mention we questioned something which you later rely on in court”.

Respondents are advised to “ensure the caution is read and understand prior to any answers to questions being provided”.

The document goes on to say that those sent the questionnaire are being provided with the “opportunity to cooperate with police in the form of a written statement under caution”.

Among the questions posed are “What, if any, lawful exception applied to the gathering and/or what reasonable excuse did you have for participating in the gathering?”

It meant that Boris Johnson is the first prime minister ever to be interviewed under caution.

When Tony Blair was prime minister during the cash for honours scandal, he was interviewed by police as a witness.

He let it be known to aides that if he were interviewed under caution, he would have to resign.

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‘Don’t Threaten Police’ – Boris Johnson’s Allies Warned Over Partygate

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The prime minister’s allies have been warned not to “bully” police investigating Partygate after an extraordinary comment was made in a newspaper.

Senior Tory MPs are among those who urged Boris Johnson to distance himself from the controversial remarks made in The Times.

A source close to the PM apparently said the Met Police will need to be “very certain” that he had broken lockdown rules before issuing him with a fixed penalty notice.

The source added: “There is inevitably a degree of discretion here. Do you want the Met Police deciding who the prime minister is?

“If he does get one, it would be odd if the discretionary action of the police determines the future of the country.”

Sir Bob Neill, Tory chair of the Commons justice committee, hit back: “It is completely inappropriate to suggest that there should be any special treatment for anyone involved in these inquiries and any suggestion of political pressure on the police is completely reprehensible. No.10 would do well to disown it.”

The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford said: “The prime minister must distance himself from this extraordinary threat to the police. No-one is above the law, not even Boris Johnson – no matter what he might believe.”

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey added: “This veiled threat by Number 10 allies is amongst very heavy competition perhaps the darkest moment of this whole sorry saga.”

Meanwhile, the PM’s former chief aide turned critic Dominic Cummings tweeted: “Tory MPs are propping up a guy not just trying to fix illegal donations etc but trying to bully cops into treating him differently.”

Adam Wagner, a human rights barrister and expert in Covid regulations, stressed that the legal test is that the police “reasonably believe” someone has committed an offence before issuing an FPN.

“This will be the same regardless of how important the person is — this is the rule of law,” he added.

The Metropolitan Police Service is investigating 12 alleged Covid-rule breaking gatherings held in Downing Street and Whitehall during the pandemic.

Among them are parties Johnson is understood to have attended as well as a separate bash held in his Downing Street flat.

Police said they need to contact “each individual” who attended the events – which means both the PM and his wife Carrie could face interviews.

Detectives investigating the alleged rule-breaking parties are due to contact more than 50 attendees this week.

Officers will send formal questionnaires to those individuals over events that took place between May 20 2020 and April 16 2021.

Anyone found to have breached Covid rules without a reasonable excuse could be issued with an FPN.

The prime minister has so far refused to confirm he would quit if police rule he broke lockdown laws

A spokeswoman told the Mail: “This government has always backed the police and fully respects their complete independence to carry out inquiries without fear or favour.”

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Nadine Dorries Says She Would Only Stop Supporting Boris Johnson If He ‘Kicked A Dog’

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Nadine Dorries has spelled out how far her loyalty to Boris Johnson goes as she defended the prime minister over leaked photos of a Christmas party during lockdown.

The culture secretary has developed a reputation for robustly supporting the under-fire PM against any critics since she became a cabinet minister in September.

Last week, a still from PMQs of Dorries staring at Johnson – smiling – quickly became a meme.

Now, in an interview with US broadcaster CNN, Dorries made clear there would be little Johnson could do to shake her off.

When asked if there was any situation which would cause her to withdraw her support of him, Dorries replied: “Well, of course there are. If he went up and, you know, kicked a dog, I’d probably withdraw my support for him, but no, based on his professional delivery for the UK, no, absolutely not.”

Of the leaked photos of him taking part in a quiz with champagne and tinsel during lockdown, she added: “What I would say on the food, it was an open packet of crisps, it was Christmas, it was a Zoom quiz with the wider staff. So, I mean, basically that’s all I’ve got to say on it. I’m not sure who didn’t do a Zoom quiz during lockdown with an open pocket of crisps.”

It’s the latest bizarre contortion from a Tory MP in an effort to defend their leader.

Junior minister Conor Burns claimed Johnson was effectively “ambushed by cake”, and therefore his alleged rule-breaking birthday party was not his fault.

And backbencher Adam Rosindell compared partygate to robbing a bank in an odd exchange on Sky News.

Rosindell described so-called “cakegate” as a “frenzy”, and said: “He’s made a mistake, no question about that, we all do.”

He continued: “I think we’ve all done it, let’s not be so judgemental that the prime minister of the United Kingdom has not committed some horrendous, terrible crime the deserves the entire government to be derailed.”

Sky News’ Kay Burley replied: “And you’re confident that it’s OK for the prime minister who makes the rules to break the rules and thus break the law – that’s OK?”

“No it’s not – you know I’m sure there are ministers who get parking tickets and speeding fines too,” Rosindell said.

“Anyway, lots of people break the law in small ways, sometimes unintentionally.

“He’s not robbed a bank.”

The Metropolitan Police is currently investigating 12 alleged parties, and may launch a formal probe into another after the new image emerged of Johnson taking part in a Christmas quiz on December 15, 2020.

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Met Police To Begin Contacting More Than 50 Downing Street Party Attendees This Week

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Detectives investigating alleged Downing Street and Whitehall rule-breaking parties are to begin contacting more than 50 attendees this week.

The Metropolitan Police said it would be sending notices asking for “an account and explanation of the recipient’s participation in an event”, and added the inquiry has been named Operation Hillman.

The announcement on Wednesday came hours after the force said it is reviewing whether a Christmas quiz at No.10 may have breached Covid-19 restrictions after a picture emerged showing Boris Johnson and colleagues near an open bottle of champagne.

Officers will send formal questionnaires to more than 50 people, starting by the end of this week, in relation to eight dates that are being investigated between May 20 2020 and April 16 2021.

“This document, which asks for an account and explanation of the recipient’s participation in an event, has formal legal status and must be answered truthfully,” the Met said.

“Recipients are informed that responses are required within seven days. In most cases contact is being made via email.”

The statement added: “It should be noted that being contacted does not mean a fixed penalty notice will necessarily be issued to that person.

“Nevertheless, if following an investigation, officers believe it is appropriate because the Covid regulations have been breached without a reasonable excuse, a fixed penalty notice will normally be issued.

“We understand the interest in and impact of this case, and are progressing the investigation at pace. We are committed to completing our investigations proportionately, fairly and impartially.”

This is a breaking news story and will be updated. Follow HuffPost UK on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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