Politics

Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.

Wednesday

25 May 2022

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

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

Katy Balls

Did the Sue Gray report move the dial?

14 min listen

The long-awaited Sue Gray report is finally published today. It included new photographs (including of the birthday bash, though James Forsyth describes the photo as looking more like ‘an enforced office socialising occasion’ than a party), colourful details (one staffer was threw up at one drinks) and some unsavoury revelations (Sue Gray was damning about some of the staffers’ treatment of cleaners and security staff). But amidst all this, has the report really worsened the situation for Boris Johnson? Katy Balls talks to Isabel Hardman and James on this episode. Produced by Natasha Feroze and Cindy Yu.

Freddy Gray

Is Kissinger right about Ukraine?

32 min listen

Freddy Gray speaks to Sergey Radchenko a Cold War historian and Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and visiting professor at Cardiff University. They discuss a recent speech by Henry Kissinger who believes that Ukraine should made territorial concessions to Russia – is he right?

Kate Andrews

What the Sue Gray report tells us about the ‘party elite’

Britain’s ‘party elite’ – perhaps better-termed ‘Covid elite’ – were hiding in plain sight throughout the pandemic. Even before the parties, trysts and suitcases of wine were exposed, we knew politicians and government officials were leading radically different lives to everyone else during last year’s extended lockdown. Trips abroad for ministers when it was illegal for the rest of us to leave the country, protection from ‘ping-demic’, an ‘event research programme’ full of trial parties that happened to align with Whitehall’s favourite freebee events. It wasn’t hard to document because no one was trying to hide it. The laws were written to provide ministers with loopholes and get-out-of-isolation clauses, so

James Forsyth

Why Tory MPs are staying quiet about Boris’s partygate troubles

The loudest sound at Westminster today has been the silence of most Tory MPs. A few such as Tobias Ellwood have demanded that Boris Johnson should go. Others have defended the PM publicly. But most Tory MPs have chosen to say nothing. Indeed, because only 13 Tory MPs wanted to contribute to the statement the PM made about the Sue Gray report, the chair had to call opposition MP after opposition MP, rather than going from one side of the House to the other as he normally does. What does this silence of the majority of Tory MPs mean? It tells us that while backbenchers might not be prepared to move

Katy Balls

Boris’s new ‘masochism strategy’

How humbled is Boris Johnson by the publication of Sue Gray’s report into partygate? Speaking in the Commons chamber, the Prime Minister attempted to strike a solemn tone at the first of three events today which have been dubbed a ‘masochism strategy’ of taking pain in the chamber, a press conference and then appearing before Tory MPs at a meeting of the 1922 Committee. Johnson told MPs: ‘I am humbled and I have learned a lesson’. He went on to point out how ‘the entire senior management has changed’ including a new chief of staff, a new director of communications and a new principal private secretary. He described Starmer as ‘Sir Beer

James Kirkup

The Sue Gray media circus is political journalism at its worst

It’s a helicopter day at Westminster. I’m writing this at my desk, which is about 200 metres from the House of Lords. My office is full of the racket made by a chopper flitting about over the Palace of Westminster and Whitehall, providing aerial camera shots of politicians – mainly the PM – moving around the place. The reason today is the Sue Gray report, but helicopter days are relatively common at Westminster. The drone of the rotors is the easiest way to tell that this is a Big News day, when journalists spend more than the usual amount of time talking about extraordinary events and major developments. As with

Isabel Hardman

PMQs: Partygate isn’t Johnson’s only problem

Sir Keir Starmer used Prime Minister’s Questions today to show how hard it is going to be for Boris Johnson to move on from the Sue Gray report. The Labour leader acknowledged as he opened that there was going to be a statement on that inquiry right after this session, and so he was going to focus on the cost of living. It underlined that even if the Prime Minister manages to keep his backbenchers sufficiently calm to ‘survive’ the Gray report, that survival is not going to be followed by a swift recovery of his political fortunes. Long-time critic of the Prime Minister William Wragg asked a zinger of

Steerpike

Six of the worst bits from Sue Gray’s report

Politics’ longest-running farce is at a close. Sue Gray, that pillar of Whitehall officialdom, has today delivered her report into whether Boris Johnson did indeed break lockdown rules during the pandemic. And while there will no doubt be some relief for those in No. 10 that Gray’s inquiries didn’t investigate any further parties to those previously reported, some of the details contained in her findings do make for excruciating reading. Below are six of the lowlights from the Sue Gray report…. 1. The Met torpedoed Gray’s probe Few institutions emerge well from partygate but the Metropolitan Police probably came out worst. Constantly derided for being too opaque, too slow to act

Steerpike

Tory staff demand change over sleaze in parliament

Sleaze is the watchword in Westminster at the moment. Morale amongst staff on the parliamentary estate was already low before the latest partygate shenanigans. Recent embarrassments about outside interests, dodgy MPs, drinking on the estate and historic sex offences have taken their toll. Few of the twenty-somethings who work in the Commons have a good word to say about our elected members at present, whether it’s Neil Parish watching porn or Liam Byrne getting just a two day suspension for bullying his staff. Parish fiddles while Byrne roams, indeed. Will anything change as a result? Some of those in parliament have had enough. Mr S has been told that a new grassroots organisation is

Sue Gray

Full text: The Sue Gray report

The investigation into Downing Street lockdown parties by the civil servant Sue Gray has been published. You can read the full report below: ALLEGED GATHERINGS: REPORT On 8 December 2021 the Prime Minister asked the Cabinet Secretary to carry out an investigation into allegations reported in the media relating to gatherings in No 10 Downing Street and the Department for Education during November and December 2020. On 17 December 2021 the Cabinet Secretary recused himself from the investigation as a result of allegations concerning an online quiz held by his private office in the Cabinet Office on 17 December 2020 in 70 Whitehall. It was at this point that I

Steerpike

Sue Gray releases her partygate pics

Well, it’s finally here. After five months of waiting, Sue Gray has today released her report into the parties that went on in Downing Street during Covid. Her 60-page report is currently being pored over by hacks, spinners and MPs across parliament, ahead of Boris Johnson’s appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions today. But initial attention has focused on the nine pictures which Gray released as part of her inquiry (many more images of the lockdown shindigs were reportedly taken). And the early conclusion is one of surprise at just how anodyne the gatherings seem to be, in light of the frenzied speculation about what they would depict. Far from Bacchanalian orgies that resemble

Isabel Hardman

Sue Gray’s report makes for grim reading for No. 10

In the past few minutes, Sue Gray’s final report into lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street has been published. It makes for grim reading. The report is just 37 pages long, along with photos of the events that the senior civil servant was tasked to investigate. The key line is where Gray says that ‘the senior leadership at the centre, both political and official, must bear responsibility for this culture’ of believing that events were permitted when they were not in line with the rules. She writes: ‘Whatever the initial intent, what took place at many of these gatherings and the way in which they developed was not in line with

Gus Carter

The dreary truth about partygate

I’m starting to get a bit annoyed about partygate. Well no, that’s a lie. I’m angry in theory. On paper I’m fuming. In real life? Meh. This whole saga has trundled on for so long now I’ve just stopped caring. I’m probably annoyed about something else. Train timetables or maybe the fact that broccoli is £1.60 in M&S. Given how miserable the rest of us were during lockdown, those making the rules should really have done the polite thing and followed them. But then when you read the details of ‘partygate’, you can’t help but think that they weren’t really enjoying themselves. A Colin the Caterpillar cake in between meetings? ‘Wine time

Michael Simmons

Sturgeon’s record in eight graphs

Today, Nicola Sturgeon becomes the longest serving First Minister in the history of devolution. Surpassing Alex Salmond’s seven years, six months and five days. It’s a long time to be in charge: a full generation by some definitions. Certainly time enough to make your mark on a country with devolved powers unparalleled in the democratic world. But what difference has Sturgeon made in her time in office: 1. Life expectancy for Scots men and women has seen the sharpest fall in 40 years – accelerating in the time Sturgeon’s been in power. Scottish men born today can expect to live 77 years, the lowest of any UK country (it’s 79

Sam Ashworth-Hayes

The moral decay at the heart of the Tory party

Pigs may fly, Hell may freeze over, and a month may pass without a Conservative MP revealing the moral decay at the core of the party. Yesterday, former MP Imran Khan was sentenced to 18 months in prison for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy. In Westminster, meanwhile, rumours circulated that a senior MP had sexually assaulted colleagues. Yet another member was bailed after being arrested in a rape investigation. These stories shouldn’t be confused with the unnamed Conservative MP who was arrested over rape allegations in 2020 before the investigation was dropped or the former government whip Charlie Elphicke who was jailed for sexual assault in 2020. Neither should they

Lloyd Evans

The bizarre theatre of the BBC’s partygate exposé

Last night’s must-see TV show was Bury Boris – the Movie. In anticipation, the BBC released a trailer for a Panorama edition about parties in Downing Street. It’s a thrilling two-minute watch. It opens with a shot of a dodgy skinhead in a sleazy overcoat being released from Wormwood Scrubs. Or is it an international money-launderer being secretly filmed at Davos? Or perhaps a premiership star on his way to court for kicking his dog. But hang on. There’s a caption. ‘Lee Cain’s leaving do’. The date is November 2020 and a farewell bash is being held in Downing Street. Over this, we hear a tense, familiar voice. ‘Can you

Tuesday

24 May 2022

Robert Peston

A Treasury cost-of-living help package could be imminent

A £10 billion package of help with fuel bills and the cost of living targeted at those on lowest incomes could be announced as soon as Thursday, I am told. No final decisions have been made, but the prime minister wants to reset his administration before the Queen’s Jubilee parliamentary recess and after the publication tomorrow of Sue Gray’s report into Downing Street parties – which is expected to be damaging to the PM’s reputation. The rise of energy costs would mean that in England alone, just under 10 million households would suffer from ‘fuel stress’ The expected acceleration of new Treasury support for the poorest follows today’s announcement by

Matthew Lynn

Andrew Bailey is floundering in the face of soaring inflation

Prices are rising at the fastest pace for 40 years. Real wages are falling rapidly. The cost of servicing the government’s vast debts is escalating, and companies are struggling to keep up with the rising price of raw materials. Still, not to worry. Fortunately, a quarter of a century ago Gordon Brown wisely decided to hand over management of inflation to a supremely competent group of expert technocrats, so that we could have stable prices and steady growth forever – or indeed an ‘end to boom’n’bust’ as Brown would have inevitably put it. Oh, but hold on. It turns out it is not quite going to plan. In fact, while

Katy Balls

How will Boris Johnson respond to the Gray report?

11 min listen

Sue Gray’s report into Downing Street parties during lockdown is set to be released on Wednesday morning. The tone Boris Johnson takes will be vital to his political future. What will he say? Katy Balls speaks to James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman.