Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Has Boris Johnson really been ‘humbled’ by the Gray report?

Boris Johnson (Photo: Getty)

What is Boris Johnson actually accepting responsibility for when he says he is ‘humbled’ by Sue Gray’s report into partygate? Humility isn’t a word often used in connection with Boris Johnson, although it’s hardly valued at all in Westminster, so perhaps he is following a slightly different definition to the rest of us. Or perhaps his line that he is ‘humbled’, which he used again at his Downing Street press conference just now,  was written for him which is why he delivered it with a lack of conviction.

He certainly doesn’t seem to be accepting responsibility for attending leaving parties for staff: this afternoon, he once again defended this as being an important part of leadership. Most good bosses would normally agree that it’s important for morale to show your appreciation for an outgoing member of staff. The trouble is that most good bosses were running their staff leaving dos over Zoom from their homes, in accordance with the rules that were being set out and reinforced in Downing Street press conferences (on at least one occasion one such press conference coincided with a party in another part of the building). The Prime Minister was also clear in his statement and then again in answers to questions from journalists that he wasn’t responsible for those events continuing long into the night after he’d left them.

In fact, the main thing that Johnson seemed to take responsibility for was the organisational structure of Downing Street. And on that, he could point to changes which would ensure people understood the difference between working and socialising, as he put it. Those changes involved a permanent secretary for Downing Street, a new principal private secretary and a new chief of staff, along with better lines of management. He also told the press conference that he had apologised personally to the cleaning and security staff working in the building for the finding in the report that there had been ‘disrespectful and poor treatment of cleaning and security personnel.’



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