Sue Gray Report RECAP: Boris Johnson faces Parliament as Downing Street parties investigation findings made public
Mr Johnson faced stern criticism from both opposition and backbench MPs for nearly two hours this afternoon, after Sue Gray's findings were published online.
Gray’s document was described as an ‘update’, as it lacked details due to the ongoing investigation into the parties by the Metropolitan Police.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHe was told he was a "man without shame" by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, while SNP Westminister leader Ian Blackford accused him of having "wilfully misled" the House over the alleged parties.
Here is The Scotsman’s RECAP on the events of the day.
Sue Gray Report RECAP: Downing Street parties investigation findings made public
What are the key findings of Sue Gray’s partygate report?
A version of senior civil servant Sue Gray’s long-awaited report into partygate has finally been published.
Ms Gray’s report has seven general findings.
You can read about them here:
How to read the Sue Gray report?
A version of the Sue Gray report was published in the afternoon of January 31st, 2022 on the UK Government website.
You can read it by clicking here, or via the Policy Paper section on gov.uk, found on this page.
Boris Johnson told to ‘resign’ as he faces House of Commons
Boris Johnson faced shouts of “resign” from Opposition MPs as he told the Commons: “We asked people across this country to make the most extraordinary sacrifices - not to meet loved ones, not to visit relatives before they died, and I understand the anger that people feel.
“But it isn’t enough to say sorry. This is a moment when we must look at ourselves in the mirror and we must learn.
“While the Metropolitan Police must yet complete their investigation, and that means there are no details of specific events in Sue Gray’s report, I of course accept Sue Gray’s general findings in full, and above all her recommendation that we must learn from these events and act now.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the British people believe Boris Johnson should “do the decent thing and resign” but he is “a man without shame”.
Ian Blackford has been thrown out of the House of Commons by the Speaker, after he refused to withdraw his statements accusing the Prime Minister of “lying” and “misleading the House”.
Boris Johnson accused Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer of failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile as he hit back at Labour criticism over the Sue Gray report.
The Prime Minister said: “The report does absolutely nothing to substantiate the tissue of nonsense that he has said. Absolute nonsense.
“Instead this leader of the opposition, a former director of public prosecution - who used his time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile, as far as I can see - he chose to use this moment to continually pre-judge a police inquiry.
“He has reached his conclusions about it. I am not going to reach any conclusions and he would be entirely wrong to do so.
“I have complete confidence in the police, I hope that they will be allowed simply to get on with their job and don’t propose to offer any more commentary about it and I don’t believe that he should either.”