Staff socialized in Downing Street while the rest of the UK was in lockdown with the blessing of their heads, according to Sue Gray's report. 




The elderly civil menial said numerous events" should not have been allowed" and the PM and his officers" must bear responsibility for this culture". 

 

 The report highlights inordinate drinking, with staff being sick, and abuse of cleaning and security staff. 

 Warnings about parties breaking Covid rules were ignored, it says. 

 

 Boris Johnson told MPs he took" full responsibility for everything that took place on my watch", had been" lowered by the whole experience" and had learned assignments. 

And, speaking at a Downing Street press conference, he ruled out relinquishing, saying" I have got to keep moving forward." 

 In her 37- runner report, Ms Gray plant 

 

 Political and sanctioned leadership must bear responsibility for the culture at No 10 

Staff socialized- some until after 4 am- on the dusk of Prince Philip's burial 

 At another party, in June 2020, there was" inordinate alcohol consumption by some individualities. One existent was sick. There was a minor altercation between two other individualities" 

 A No 10 functionary transferred a communication pertaining to" drunkenness" and advising staff to leave No 10 via the aft exit after a December 2020 Christmas quiz to avoid press shutterbugs 

" Multiple exemplifications of a lack of respect and poor treatment of security and drawing staff" 

The PM's crucial assistant Martin Reynolds was prompted to cancel a" bring- your- own- booze" party in the Downing Street theater in May 2020, as it posed" kindly of a comms threat". 

 

 An unnamed special counsel also told Mr Reynolds via WhatsApp that it would be" helpful" if people avoided" walking around signaling bottles of wine etc" ahead of the event, as it was taking place incontinently after a televised Covid press conference. 

Mr Reynolds latterly told an unnamed counsel" we feel to have got down with" the party. He has since left Downing Street, returning to his job at the Foreign Office. 

 


 

 In the conclusion to her report, Ms Gray said" Numerous of these events shouldn't have been allowed to be. 


" It's also the case that some of the further inferior civil retainers believed that their involvement in some of these events was permitted given the attendance of elderly leaders. 

 

" The elderly leadership at the centre, both political and sanctioned, must bear responsibility for this culture." 

n aggregate, 83 people have been fined by the Metropolitan Police for breaking lockdown laws in Downing Street. 

 

 These include Mr Johnson, his woman Carrie and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who entered Fixed Penalty Notices for attending the PM's birthday party in June 2020, which is among 16 events covered by the Gray report. 

Mr Johnson told MPs he'd formerly brought in the elderly operation changes Ms Gray recommends. 

 

 He denied lying to MPs over lockdown parties but admitted it hadn't been correct when he told Parliament that the rules had been followed at all times. 

The PM is facing an disquisition by a commission of MPs into claims he deliberately misled Parliament, a finding of which would typically affect in abdication. 

 

 He told MPs" I'm happy to set on the record now that when I said- I came to this House and said in all sincerity- the rules and guidance had been followed at all times, it was what I believed to be true. 

" It was clearly the case when I was present at gatherings to want staff farewell, and the House will note that my attendance at these moments- detail as it was- has not been plant to be outside the rules." 

 He added that he'd been" shocked" and" appalled" by some of Ms Gray's findings, especially over the treatment of security and drawing staff, but it was now time to" move on". 

 

 Mr Johnson said at the press conference latterly that he'd tête-à-tête apologised to Downing Street cleansers and custodians for the" hugely inferior" geste they had been subordinated to. 



 Sir Keir Starmer- who has said he'll abdicate if he's fined by police over a lockdown event- said the Gray report" laid bare the spoilage" in No 10 and showed how people in No 10 had" treated the immolation of the British people with maximum disdain". 

 

 SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford ingrained the report" ruinous" and called the high minister to abdicate for" orchestrating" the scenes in Downing Street. 


 Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said" Any other PM would be forced to abdicate by a report as damaging as this, yet still Conservative MPs defend Johnson and allow him to cleave on." 

 

 Latterly on Wednesday, the high minister faced a meeting of Tory MPs who could eventually decide his fate. 


 In the Commons, elderly backbencher Tobias Ellwood, a prominent critic of the PM, asked fellow Conservatives" Are you willing day in and day out to defend this geste intimately?" 

 

" Can we win the general election on this current line?" he added.