Politics LIVE: Sue Gray report: Boris Johnson holding press conference
The Prime Minister faced fresh demands to resign after Sue Gray’s report said the public would be “dismayed” by a series of breaches of coronavirus rules in No 10 and Westminster.
“The events that I investigated were attended by leaders in government. Many of these events should not have been allowed to happen,” she said.
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Hide AdThe Metropolitan Police has issued 126 fines for rule breaches in No 10 and Whitehall, with the Prime Minister receiving a single fixed-penalty notice for his birthday party.
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner described the contents of the report as “indefensible”, calling Mr Johnson’s Downing Street “rotten from the very top”.
“He set the culture. It happened on his watch. It’s on him,” she added.
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford branded the report “damning” and called the Prime Minister to resign for “orchestrating” the scenes in Downing Street.
Labour said there was now “no doubt” that Mr Johnson had “lied” to MPs.
You can follow the latest in our live blog.
Politics: Partygate row as it happened: Pressure mounts on Boris Johnson as he faces questions after new photos emerge
Is the pressure mounting on Boris?
The PM was facing fresh pressure from Conservatives over the latest revelations.
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross demanded the Prime Minister explain why he believed his behaviour was “acceptable” when most people would think the pictures showed “unjustifiable and wrong” behaviour.
Conservative MP David Simmonds said he was awaiting Ms Gray’s report but that it will be “very difficult” for Mr Johnson to explain how he did not mislead Parliament.
“Clearly it does raise a new question that we were all told very clearly that there definitely had not been a party on the day in question and these photographs have emerged which suggest that that’s not the case,” the backbencher told Today.
“It seems to me he could construct some defence about how people were at work, but we need to see this in context. Many of my constituents lost relatives, they lost friends and family members, my father-in-law died of Covid.”
Boris “didn’t stop parties, he just grabbed a glass for himself”, say Downing Street insiders
The latest revelations to break say that parties were held ‘every week’ and that the Prime Minister would show up and just join in, rather than break up the event and set an example. Full story here
Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the Commons: “But since these investigations have now come to an end, this is my first opportunity to set out some of the context and to explain both my understanding of what happened and also to explain what I had previously said to this House.
“And it’s important to set out that over a period of about 600 days, gatherings on a total of eight dates have been found to be in breach of the regulations in a building that is 5,300 metres square across five floors, excluding the flats.”
He added: “Hundreds of staff are entitled to work and in the Cabinet Office, which has thousands of officials, and now is the biggest it has been in any point in its 100-year history. That is itself one of the reasons why the Government is now looking for change and reform.
“Those staff working in Downing Street were permitted to continue attending their office for the purpose of work and the exemption under the regulations applied to their work because of the nature of their jobs, reporting directly to the Prime Minister.”
Bereaved families have accused Boris Johnson of spending months “ignoring and lying” to them.
The campaign group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice said the Prime Minister has treated them like “dirt” and “an inconvenience”.
Lobby Akinnola, a spokesman for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, whose father Olufemi Akinnola died with coronavirus in April 2020 aged 60, said: “There we have it. Whilst the country had one of the highest death rates in the world from Covid-19, they were celebrating over cheese and wine and drinking themselves sick over a karaoke machine.
“When they refused to learn lessons and allowed the virus to run riot in the second wave, killing more people than it had in the first, they instead prioritised secret Santa.
“When they were texting colleagues about getting away with it, we were having to text our families telling them they couldn’t come to their loved ones’ funerals.
No 10 is bracing for the publication of Sue Gray’s full report into Downing Street parties in Whitehall during the coronavirus lockdown.
The senior civil servant’s report is expected to be heavily critical of the culture in No 10, which led to the repeated violations of Covid restrictions.
It is believed the Sue Gray report could be published on Wednesday, however the BBC said on Tuesday evening the senior civil servant will hand in her completed report that day, with the decision over its publication date being left up to No 10.
As Westminster awaited the publication of Sue Gray’s report on lockdown-busting parties, George Eustice said: “Clearly what happened in No 10 is a culture developed where they were working there, it was their place of work, and there were times when they would have a drink at the end of the day.”
The Environment Secretary told Times Radio: “That boundary between what was acceptable and what wasn’t got blurred and that was a mistake and Sue Gray highlighted that in her first interim report and I think she is almost certainly going to say more about that when her final report comes out.
“The Prime Minister himself has accepted that and recognises there were of course failings and therefore there’s got to be some changes to the way the place is run.”
Cabinet minister George Eustice insisted Boris Johnson had not lied to Parliament.
“Ministers and politicians are not supposed to knowingly mislead Parliament,” the Environment Secretary told Sky News.
“The Prime Minister himself has also given a very clear account of his own understanding of all of those events that he attended, that he didn’t regard them as parties, that he didn’t regard them as breaking the rules.
“He has explained that, that was his understanding, and obviously where the police have said there were particular failings on his part, in respect of the birthday party where the cake was brought in, he has acknowledged that and paid that fixed-penalty notice.”