Boris Johnson’s future hangs in the balance as Tory MPs await the findings of a inquiry by Sue Gray into Downing Street parties during Covid restrictions.
The investigation into the gatherings reportedly obtained an email yesterday showing that an aide to the PM was warned that the now infamous garden gathering of 20 May 2020 was against the rules.
The email, and reports of at least 12 other alleged rule-breaking gatherings, are being investigated internally by a senior civil servant who has been tasked with establishing the facts of what happened at each.
On 8 December last year, the prime minister, who is facing calls to resign over the matter, appointed Sue Gray to look into the reports after Simon Case, the cabinet secretary and the UK’s most senior mandarin, recused himself from the investigation as it emerged a gathering had taken place in his office.
Ms Gray, the second permanent secretary at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities who previously worked in Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team, has a fearsome reputation for pulling no punches when it comes to wrongdoing.
Her probe does not have the same powers as a judge-led or public inquiry. Some believe the conclusions in the former pub landlord’s report could be written in such a way as to suggest to Mr Johnson, who is fighting for his political life over the ‘partygate’ scandal, that it is last orders and he should resign.
According to the Institute for Government thinktank, it is unlikely she will explicitly call for Mr Johnson to quit or rule on whether or not he breached the ministerial code in his responses to the party reports in the House of Commons.
When the terms of reference for the investigation were set (by the prime minister) there was no concrete date for its publication and it has apparently been delayed on at least one occasion after fresh allegations emerged and the scope of the investigation widened.
Sources told The Daily Telegraph it could be published this week. Reports now say it will be released in the first half of next week. The Independent has contacted the Cabinet Office for comment.
Allies of the PM, including Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, have repeatedly called for patience from colleagues calling for the PM to resign over the affair, saying MPs should give the PM space until Ms Gray’s report is published. Mr Johnson has himself repeatedly referred to the investigation when being asked to answer further questions on partygate.
Government whips have this week been frantically trying to delay a potential no confidence vote in Mr Johnson as back bench Tory MPs become increasingly restless over his handling of the affair.
The PM appeared on Sky News on Tuesday to defend himself against claims by Dominic Cummings, his former chief aide, that he was in fact made aware that the 20 May 2020 party broke the rules. Mr Cummings also accused the PM of lying to parliament, which would be a breach of the ministerial code and therefore usually a resigning matter.
“I’m saying categorically that nobody told me, nobody said this was something that was against the rules, doing something that wasn’t a work event because frankly, I can’t imagine why it would have gone ahead, or it would have been allowed to go ahead if it was against the rules,” Mr Johnson said in his response.
But the prime minister was then criticised for refusing to accept responsibility for the rules he had set and the response reportedly triggered a fresh wave of no confidence letters going in to Sir Graham Brady, chair of the powerful 1922 Committee.
Some rebel MPs claimed that the no confidence vote threshold of 54 letters would be reached by the end of Wednesday, but this never transpired. Allies of the PM subsequently briefed news outlets that the defection of Christian Wakeford to the Labour party earlier in the day had “calmed” the party and made rebels “think twice” about submitting letters.
Infighting over Mr Johnson’s future broke out into the Commons on Thursday as MPs plotting to topple the PM accused whips of “blackmailing” them to vote with the government.
William Wragg, a senior Tory MP, chair of the public administration committee — and one of those calling for Johnson to resign over the partygate scandal — was first out of the blocks to make the incendiary claims, saying that some of his colleagues had been threatened with funding cuts if they didn’t vote in a specific way.
Just a few hours later Christian Wakeford, who defected to the Labour Party on Wednesday and is also calling for the PM to go, stepped forward to tell the BBC that whips had threatened to axe funding for a school in his constituency if he did not support the government on voting against free school meals.
