U.K.’s Johnson Under Fire From Tories on ‘Partygate’ Report

(Bloomberg) --

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced fresh fury from his Conservative lawmakers after a report into partying in Downing Street during lockdown slammed “failures of leadership and judgment” at the top of his government and criticized “excessive” drinking. 

London's Metropolitan Police is now investigating 12 lockdown gatherings in government buildings, including in Johnson's own apartment, and said Monday it was reviewing “more than 300 images and over 500 pages of information.”

In her 12-page interim report, senior civil servant Sue Gray said “too little thought” was given to the conditions faced by people across the U.K. under strict Covid-19 restrictions, and that some events “should not have been allowed to take place.”

“I get it, and I will fix it,” Johnson told Parliament in a session that lasted nearly two hours. He vowed an overhaul of the way his office is run, apologized “for the things we simply didn't get right” and said it was time to “look ourselves in the mirror and learn.”

Later he appealed for calm from Conservative members of Parliament at a packed private meeting, pledging to bring back election strategist Lynton Crosby for regular strategic advice to get his government back on track.

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said questions were asked of Johnson at the meeting but that his MPs want him to focus on issues such as the economic recovery, the vaccine rollout and addressing the crisis in Ukraine.

“People wanted to see the prime minister get back on with the job,” Raab said on Sky News on Tuesday. “That is overwhelmingly what MPs and I think our voters and our constituents want to see him doing.”

The prime minister is trying to draw a line under the stream of negative headlines that have accompanied the drip-drip of allegations, dubbed “Partygate” by the U.K. media. They've undermined his leadership and led to plunging poll ratings for his party. 

Losing Support

But the scale of the police probe and the damning findings of Gray's partial report highlight how he's far from off the hook. While Johnson batted away frequent opposition calls for his resignation, of more concern to the prime minister will be the obvious displeasure across a swath of his own party, with many Tories left unconvinced he can turn his fortunes around.

“I have to tell him he no longer enjoys my support,” former cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell said in the House of Commons. On BBC Radio on Tuesday, Mitchell said the saga was like “battery acid” eating away the party.

Johnson's predecessor, Theresa May, said bluntly that either the prime minister “had not read the rules or didn't understand what they meant” or he “didn't think the rules applied to Number 10.” Other Tory MPs including Caroline Nokes, Steve Baker and Aaron Bell made clear their anger and frustration with the premier and the culture in his government.

Conservative MP Angela Richardson quit as aide to cabinet minister Michael Gove, citing her “deep disappointment” at the government's handling of the matter.

The outcome of the police probe -- which is likely to take weeks or even months -- will prove a moment of extreme danger for Johnson, as many Tory lawmakers are waiting for its findings before deciding whether to topple their leader. It takes 15% of Tory MPs -- or 54 in total -- to trigger a no-confidence vote.

Read More: U.K. ‘Partygate' Probe May Be Watered Down at Police Request

Apartment Gathering

One key event being examined by police is a gathering in Johnson's Downing Street apartment on Nov. 13, 2020, the night that his former top aide, Dominic Cummings, left Number 10. Several Labour MPs stood up in Parliament to ask the premier outright whether he attended a party in his flat that night, but he declined to comment.

Johnson also declined to answer multiple questions, including from his own Conservative MPs, on whether Gray's report would be published in full after the police had finished their investigation. But his office later released a statement to say Johnson would publish an update from Gray after the police had concluded their probe.

Gray's plans to report her findings were thrown off track last week when the police launched their own investigation and asked her to only make “minimal reference” to the gatherings it was looking into -- the most damaging allegations. That meant, Gray wrote in her interim findings, that she was unable to provide a “meaningful report” at this stage.   

But she also said: “Against the backdrop of the pandemic, when the government was asking citizens to accept far-reaching restrictions on their lives, some of the behavior surrounding these gatherings is difficult to justify.”

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