Hang up the bunting and grab a suitcase of wine – it’s Covid Inquiry prime time. This week, the longest running farce in London is gearing up to take evidence from a succession of familiar faces including the likes of Vote Leave duo Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain. But before all that, it was the turn of Martin Reynolds, Boris Johnson’s former Principal Private Secretary, to take the stand.
Reynolds of course was the hapless mandarin who sent the incriminating 20 May 2020 email to 100 civil servants to ‘Bring your own bottle’ and ‘make the most of the lovely weather’ in the Downing Street garden. This was at the height of the first national lockdown when the rest of the country was banned from meeting more than one other person outdoors. In the ensuing ‘Partygate’ scandal, the fun-loving civil servant was given the nickname in Westminster of ‘party Marty’.
Now re-homed at the Foreign Office, Reynolds was subjected to an intense grilling this morning by Hugo Keith, the Inquiry’s lead counsel. Below are some of the highlights rounded up by Mr S…
Disappearing messages
The most intriguing revelation from this morning’s evidence session is that, two weeks before Boris Johnson announced the Covid Inquiry in April 2021, Reynolds turned on the disappearing messages function on his WhatsApp group with the Prime Minister and senior officials. Reynolds claims he ‘cannot recall’ why he did so, adding that it might have been because he was worried about someone screenshotting his messages and leaking them. It doesn’t exactly scream confidence in his colleagues running the country…
More Simon Case WhatsApps
Boris Johnson seemed to think that his own WhatsApp messages would not published, according to a message received by Reynolds from – who else? – Simon Case. ‘PM is mad if he doesn’t think his WhatsApp’s will become public via covid inquiry’ wrote Case in December 2021. This conversation took place on WhatsApp and, er, is now public via the Covid Inquiry. Which begs the question as to why Case would write down such a message when it was obviously going to be published.
Elsewhere, in previously unseen messages, Johnson is described as ‘not exactly a consistent interlocutor’ and ‘weak and indecisive.’ Case also complained that ‘Government isn’t actually that hard, but this guy is really making it impossible’ and that ‘I am at the end of my tether.’
Case’s fury at Partygate
In December 2021, Case was forced to step down from leading the Partygate investigation after the embarrassing revelation that he had attended one of the events in question. The day after he recused himself, he texted Reynolds on WhatsApp to complain that he was ‘being dragged through the mud’. ‘Am flipping pissed off deep down (like the PM) that I am being attacked for something trivial that I was not involved in’.
Boris’s lack of updates
Reynolds told the inquiry that he ‘cannot recall’ why for ten days in February 2020 Boris Johnson was given no Covid updates. Hugo Keith pointed out it was half term at the time. It also coincided with the infamous cabinet reshuffle in which Sajid Javid resigned, after which Boris Johnson took 10 days holiday. Reynolds admitted that probably should have kept him informed. You don’t say…
‘Speak plainly’
Throughout the mammoth morning session, Keith has clearly grown frustrated at Reynolds’ repeated reliance on the Sir Humphrey playbook. One exchange saw the lawyer ask the mandarin to confirm that in early March No. 10 did not have plans to deal with a Covid pandemic. A squirming Reynolds bleated that ‘I’m not sufficiently expert to say’, adding only that there were structures in place. After an exasperated Keith pressed him to accept that there was no proper plan in place, Reynolds eventually accepted.
It followed a pattern of ‘Party Marty’ indulging in endless civil service speak, with much talk of the ‘challenges’ of the pandemic along with the ‘procedures’ and ‘machinery’ of government, forcing a clearly frustrated Keith to urge Reynolds to ‘speak plainly’ when giving his answers.
A shame for Reynolds that his replies to the Inquiry won’t disappear after seven days…
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