"Failures of leadership": Gray report puts Johnson in unenviable spot
3 Min Read
British PM Boris Johnson is facing the nigh-impossible task of justifying all his wrongdoings over the course of the past two years.
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Boris Johnson addressing the House of Commons following the publishing of the report on Monday in an attempt to salvage his premiership (Reuters)
With the publishing of the Sue Gray report, British PM Boris Johnson is facing the nigh-impossible task of justifying all his wrongdoings over the course of the past two years.
As 300 photos and a dozen events in Downing Street are being investigated, including a party in Johnson’s private flat, as well as four others, Gray’s investigation concluded that most of the parties were “difficult to justify,” condemning the “failures of leadership and judgement” in No 10 and the Cabinet Office.
The photographs in question included pictures taken at Johnson’s alleged parties as well as security-systems cameras that captured people arriving and leaving the buildings where the events were hosted.
The PM’s own party members were furious with his conduct, with former chief whip Andrew Mitchell relinquishing all support for Johnson and his predecessor, Theresa May, questioning his understanding of the rules.
A Tory aide, Angela Richardson, expressed her disappointment in the PM following the debacle which prompted her resignation last week from her government job.
Nevertheless, Johnson quickly pledged a shakeup of his Downing Street operation and afterward promised to publish Gray’s full report once the police finish investigating, all while refusing to step down.
He eventually made an address to all his MPs in which he declared that his No 10 staff will be reshuffled and changed in the upcoming days.
Johnson initially refused to publish the full Gray report while putting on a show in the Commons, but a highly negative response and pressure from former ministers forced him to release the unredacted version.
Multiple Tory MPs described the PM’s clinging to his post in the midst of the scandal as witnessing a “death by 1,000 cuts”, wondering why more party members are not submitting letters of no confidence.
The Gray report did not criticize Johnson personally or pass judgment on his past statements, but highlighted failures in his government.
It listed 16 different gatherings across 20 months in 2020-21 that were examined for evidence of rule-breaking, of which 12 are being investigated by the Metropolitan police.
According to Sue Gray, the report was restricted by the Met’s request to make only limited reference to parties that they were investigating, hence her decision to not publish factual accounts of the other four dates as she viewed doing so would hinder the balance of findings.
Moreover, a more detailed report exists and will seemingly be available to the public in due time.
