Sue Gray report: Boris Johnson looks safe for now despite humiliating report revealing scale of Downing Street law breaking

Sue Gray’s report has finally been published, leaving the Prime Minister bruised, but seemingly safe despite overseeing a culture of excessive law breaking.

Boris Johnson refused to resign on a day that saw him deliver a statement on partygate to MPs, before holding a terse press conference when he bemoaned the number of questions he had to face from journalists.

Criticising the “senior leadership” at the heart of Government, the report revealed incidents of staff being sick, red wine on the walls, and even the abuse of cleaners.

Staff would hold ‘Wine Time Fridays’, there were altercations, while the former proprietary and ethics chief Helen MacNamara provided a karaoke machine for a Cabinet Office gathering.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson during his statement on the Sue Gray report, in the House of Commons in London. Picture: Jessica Taylor/AFP via Getty Images

The Prime Minister recognised people are “indignant” over the damning findings, but sought to play down his personal involvement in the gatherings detailed in the report by senior civil servant Ms Gray.

Speaking in the Commons, Mr Johnson declared he took “full responsibility for everything that took place on my watch”.

The Prime Minister told a Downing Street press conference: “I understand why people are indignant and why people have been angry at what took place.”

But pressed whether he ever considered resigning, Mr Johnson responded: “I overwhelmingly feel it is my job to get on and deliver.

“No matter how bitter and painful that the conclusions of this may be – and they are – and no matter how humbling they are, I have got to keep moving forward and the Government has got to keep moving. And we are.”

The report prompted yet another change of view from Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, who, while not submitting a letter, said the Prime Minister should stand down after the Ukraine crisis.

Mr Ross told Sky News: "Yes, [after the war] then I think he should step down, because I've said it is the stability in the UK Government at this time of conflict."

Despite the scale of the law breaking, most Tory MPs seemed to stand by Mr Johnson on Wednesday, with only a few putting their head above the parapet to demand he resign.

Those included former Brexit minister David Davis, who reiterated previous calls for the Prime Minister resign, claiming millions of supporters agreed with him.

Senior backbencher Tobias Ellwood claimed the report showed an “absence of leadership, focus and discipline in No 10”.

He said: “Can we continue to govern without distraction given the erosion of the trust with the British people?

“And can we win the general election on this current trajectory? I’m being heckled by my own people.

“If we cannot work out what we’re going to do, then the broad church of the Conservative Party will lose the next general election.”

Conservative MP for York Outer Julian Sturdy called for Mr Johnson to go, explaining he was “unable to give the Prime Minister the benefit of the doubt and feel it is in the public interest for him to resign”.

Another Tory MP told The Scotsman the report was “ugly reading”, but the Prime Minister has “got away with it”.

The MP: “It looks bad, but we needed it to be worse to convince colleagues to send letters in.

“There’s no good replacement, so we’re stuck with him”.

Conservative MP John Baron asked Mr Johnson if his excuses “passed the test of reasonableness”.

He said: “The British army teaches you, or certainly believes at its very core, that you serve to lead and you lead by example.

“Given the extent of rule-breaking in Number 10, does he believe that what he has said to the House since about their being no rule-breaking passed the test of reasonableness?”

Despite quiet unease among the backbenches, there was no suggestion of a move against the Prime Minister, with the majority of ministers tweeting support.

One would-be plotter told The Scotsman the report was “unlikely” to see enough letters sent in, while at the 1922 committee of backbench MPs, Mr Johnson was greeted with approving bangs of the desk.

Other explosive findings in the report included that staff carried on drinking in No 10 until the early hours of the morning on the eve of the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral, with the last departure recorded at 4:20am.

Mr Johnson joined five advisers in a “food and alcohol” event in his Downing Street flat on the evening of the announcement of Dominic Cummings’s departure as chief adviser.

Ms Gray also said there were “multiple examples of a lack of respect and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff” during the events, which was “unacceptable”.

She wrote: “I found that some staff had witnessed or been subjected to behaviours at work which they had felt concerned about, but at times felt unable to raise properly.

“I was made aware of multiple examples of a lack of respect and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff. This was unacceptable.”

The report exposed not just drinks being regular across Government, but also attempts to hide it from the public.

Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister Martin Reynolds even boasted “we seem to have got away with” the BYOB garden party in a WhatsApp message to a special adviser.

The report issued by Ms Gray includes a series of photos, with Mr Johnson pictured at the surprise birthday party in the Cabinet Room on June 19, 2020 for which he received a fine.

He is seen with top civil servant Simon Case and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, with sandwiches, juice and what appears to be Estrella lager. In one picture Mr Johnson is seen raising a can of the beer aloft.

Other photos include the previously seen images of Mr Johnson raising a glass of wine at a leaving do for his former spin doctor Lee Cain on November 13 2020.

In her report, former pub landlady Ms Gray refers to “excessive alcohol consumption” at the June 18, 2020 event in the Cabinet Office and staff drinking “excessively” in Number 10 on December 18, 2020 and April 16, 2021.

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford, who accused Mr Johnson of adopting a “sinister pattern of evasion”, appealed to Tory MPs to oust the PM.

He said: “I hope they will bear in mind the now infamous Government advert featuring a desperately ill Covid patient. It said ‘look into her eyes and tell her you never bend the rules’.

“If they don’t submit a letter, if they don’t remove this Prime Minister, how will they ever, ever look at their constituents in the eye ever again?”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urged Conservative MPs to do “their bit” and tell Mr Johnson “this has gone on too long”.

He said: "The value symbolised by the door of Number 10 must be restored.

"Members opposite must finally do their bit. They must tell the current inhabitant, their leader, that his has gone on too long.

"The game is up. You cannot be a lawmaker and a law breaker.”

Labour’s shadow Scotland Secretary Ian Murray told The Scotsman the buck must stop with the Prime Minister.

He said: “His Government treated the sacrifices made by the people of this country with utter contempt. He has lied to Parliament and the public.

“Sue Gray criticises failures of leadership and judgement in No 10. It is Boris Johnson's failure of leadership that has now left his Government paralysed and the people paying the price. He should resign.”