Nine photos showing Boris Johnson and other members of staff during lockdown 'gatherings' have been released as part of Sue Gray's report into the partygate scandal.
The long-awaited report was handed to the Prime Minister today following the conclusion of the Met Police investigation into lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street and Whitehall during the pandemic. The nine photos published in the report are from two dates.
They show the 19 June 2020 birthday party, where top civil servant Simon Case is laughing and Boris Johnson is holding a can of Estrella. They also show him raising fizz at aide Lee Cain's leaving do on 13 November 2020 - the date he explicitly said no party took place.
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Other photos include the previously-seen images of Mr Johnson raising a glass of wine at a leaving do for his former spin doctor Lee Cain on November 13, 2020. Chancellor Rishi Sunak is also pictured smiling, stood near Boris Johnson. A tray of sandwiches and cups, and two jugs of what appears to be juice, is pictured set out on the table in front of them.
The report also detailed that the “senior leadership” in Boris Johnson’s government must “bear responsibility” for the culture which led to coronavirus lockdown rules being broken. It said the public would be “dismayed” by a series of breaches of coronavirus rules in No 10 and Westminster.
“The events that I investigated were attended by leaders in government. Many of these events should not have been allowed to happen,” Sue Gray said. The Metropolitan Police has issued 126 fines for rule breaches in No 10 and Whitehall, with the Prime Minister receiving a single fixed-penalty notice for his birthday party.
But senior civil servant Ms Gray condemned the wider culture that had been allowed to develop under Mr Johnson’s leadership. She said some of the more junior officials who attended parties “believed that their involvement in some of these events was permitted given the attendance of senior leaders”.
“The senior leadership at the centre, both political and official, must bear responsibility for this culture,” Ms Gray said. She also said there were “multiple examples of a lack of respect and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff” during the events, which was “unacceptable”.
“Many will be dismayed that behaviour of this kind took place on this scale at the heart of government,” she said. “The public have a right to expect the very highest standards of behaviour in such places and clearly what happened fell well short of this.”
Sue Gray's report also revealed that staff carried on drinking in No 10 until the early hours of the morning on the eve of the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral. Two leaving dos took place in Downing Street on April 16 2021, including one for departing communications chief James Slack.
After the two events merged in the No 10 garden some staff began leaving around 9.30pm, having been encouraged by the No 10 custodian to use the rear exit, but some remained in the building and carried on drinking. Exit logs indicated that some left after midnight and others between 1.45 and 2.45am with two staying on later with one leaving at 3.11 and and the last departing at 4.20.
It was reported that a child’s swing/slide in the garden was damaged in the course of the evening by people leaning on it. During another gathering, former proprietary and ethics chief Helen MacNamara provided a karaoke machine for a Cabinet Office gathering.
The then-deputy Cabinet secretary provided it for the June 18 2020 event for the departure of a No 10 official. The report read: “Helen MacNamara, deputy Cabinet secretary, attended for part of the evening and provided a karaoke machine which was set up in an adjoining office to the waiting room.”
