UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson raises a glass during a toast at a lockdown gathering in November 2020. Photo / Sue Gray report, UK Cabinet Office
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson raises a glass during a toast at a lockdown gathering in November 2020. Photo / Sue Gray report, UK Cabinet Office
Sue Gray has published her long-awaited partygate report, criticising Boris Johnson's leadership and lifting the lid on lockdown-breaking antics in Downing Street.
The civil service enforcer had to wait until after a Metropolitan Police investigation, which resulted in the Prime Minister and Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, being fined, before releasing her full findings.
Her investigation unearthed repeated instances of staff flouting Covid rules and resulted in a damning assessment of the drinking culture within Number 10.
Gray has been damning of the leadership within Number 10, including from Johnson and Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, and said they should have put a stop to the partying.
She suggested Downing Street became a bubble during the pandemic and staff did not truly appreciate how their actions sat in relation to the sacrifices being made by the public.
A gathering in the Cabinet Room of 10 Downing St on the Prime Minister's June 19 birthday. Photo / Sue Gray report, UK Cabinet Office
"I have already commented in my update on what I found to be failures of leadership and judgment in Number 10 and the Cabinet Office," she wrote. "The events that I investigated were attended by leaders in the Government. Many of these events should not have been allowed to happen.
"It is also the case that some of the more junior civil servants 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."
Gray concluded that many of the gatherings held in Downing Street broke Covid rules and should not have been allowed to take place.
In her report, she confirms the parties occurred, including one on April 16 in the Downing St garden when staff broke a swing belonging to the Prime Minister's son Wilf.
"Whatever the initial intent, what took place at many of these gatherings and the way in which they developed was not in line with Covid guidance at the time", she wrote.
"Even allowing for the extraordinary pressures officials and advisers were under, the factual findings of this report illustrate some attitudes and behaviours inconsistent with that guidance.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak was photographed at the Prime Minister's birthday event. Photo / Sue Gray report, UK Cabinet Office
"It is also clear, from the outcome of the police investigation, that a large number of individuals (83) who attended these events breached Covid regulations and therefore Covid guidance."
Drinking culture
The report criticises the drinking culture within Number 10, which included regular "Wine Time Fridays" which would see staff begin consuming alcohol from 4pm.
At the time there was a wine fridge in Downing St as well as a suitcase that staff regularly used to stock up on booze from a local supermarket.
In her findings, Gray said "some members of staff drank excessively" at some events. At a party on June 18, 2020, she reported that "one individual was sick" and "there was a minor altercation between two other individuals".
At another, on December 15 that year, she said, "A Number 10 official sent a message on internal Number 10 systems referring to drunkenness and advising staff to leave Number 10 via the back exit.
A November 13 gathering at 10 Downing St for the departure of a special adviser. Photo / Sue Gray report, UK Cabinet Office
"I made a recommendation that steps should be taken to ensure that every government department has a clear and robust policy in place covering the consumption of alcohol in the workplace. Since then, guidance has been issued to all government departments."
Gray cited numerous examples of cleaning and security staff being treated with a lack of respect, and said some workers who objected to the parties were afraid to blow the whistle.
"I found that some staff had witnessed or been subjected to behaviours at work which they had felt concerned about but at times felt unable to raise properly," she wrote. "I was made aware of multiple examples of a lack of respect and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff. This was unacceptable."
She said she was "encouraged" that changes had been made to allow staff to raise issues directly with the Number 10 Permanent Secretary.
Party photos published
Gray published nine photos in the report out of more than 300 submitted to police for their investigation.
Four show the gathering in the Cabinet room for the Prime Minister's birthday on June 19, 2020, the only event for which he and Sunak were fined.
The Cabinet table is piled with drinks, sandwiches and food in takeaway containers. In one snap, the PM is raising a can, and in another he is with the Chancellor.
Cabinet Secretary Simon Case and Boris Johnson at the PM's birthday event in June 2020. Photo / Sue Gray report, UK Cabinet Office
The remaining five photos are from a gathering on Nov 13, 2020, to mark the departure of Lee Cain, Downing Street's director of communications.
They show a grinning Johnson raising a drink in a toast in front of a table laden with open bottles of wine, biscuits, and hand sanitiser.
'Got away with it'
The report includes damning evidence about a drinks gathering in the Number 10 garden on May 20, 2020, which was organised by Martin Reynolds, Johnson's Principal Private Secretary.
It said at least two senior staff suggested that the event, which was attended by 30-40 people, raised concerns about the event and said it should be cancelled. In the planning for the gathering, officials discussed the fact that there was a Covid press conference happening that afternoon.
One said it would be "helpful if people can be mindful of that as speakers and cameras are leaving, not walking around waving bottles of wine, etc".
Cain cautioned that "a 200-odd person invitation for drinks in the garden of no 10 is somewhat of a comms risk in the current environment".
Afterwards, in a WhatsApp message to a special adviser, Reynolds appeared to express relief the media was not "focusing on our drinks (which we seem to have got away with)".
Pizza, prosecco, and karaoke
Gray's report detailed another party held on June 18, 2020 in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of an unnamed No 10 official.
Once more Reynolds was involved, with WhatsApp messages showing he asked: "Is it safer to do a larger event indoors but with some people carrying on outside afterwards?"
Records show that Cain again raised objections, replying "I'm not sure it works at all, to be honest" and "it obviously comes with rather substantial comms risks".
At this party, there was pizza and prosecco and Helen MacNamara, the Deputy Cabinet Secretary, provided a karaoke machine for the evening.
One staff member was sick from "excessive drinking", while there was "a minor altercation between two other individuals".
One of the more eyebrow-raising passages in Gray's report covers her decision not to fully investigate a gathering in the Prime Minister's flat on Nov 13, 2020.
The get-together, at which Johnson's wife Carrie was present, was reportedly to celebrate the departure of Dominic Cummings, his former chief adviser, and saw Abba's hit "Winner Takes It All" blaring out.
Gray confirmed that the event took place "some time after" 6pm and said it was "to discuss the handling" of the departure of Cummings and Cain, who left on the same day.
She said five special advisers attended and "food and alcohol were available", with Johnson joining the group at around 8pm.
The event was so "crowded and noisy" that people elsewhere in Number 10 "heard significant levels of noise coming from what they characterised as a party".
Gray wrote: "At approximately 19.45 that evening, a panic alarm button was accidentally triggered by a member of staff. The custodians on duty responded, as did one of the police officers on Number 10 door duty. They observed a large number of people in the area outside of the main Press Office and one individual giving a speech."
She added that a cleaner who went into the room to tidy up the next morning "noted that there had been red wine spilled on one wall and on a number of boxes of photocopier paper".
Late night drinking
Gray's report revealed a number of the gatherings at which drinking went on until well into the early hours.
At a joint leaving do for James Slack, the director of communications, and another official on April 16 last year, the last reveller did not leave until 4.20am.
Another leaving party on Dec 17, 2020 involved members of staff staying up drinking until 1.30am, according to the report.
Gray stopped her inquiry into the event when the police started their investigation and say she "concluded it was not appropriate or proportionate" to return to it, without offering further explanation.
Police witnessed party
Gray revealed that an on-duty police officer witnessed one "party" in the Number 10 press office, on December 18, 2020, after a member of staff accidentally triggered the building's panic alarm.
A police officer walks past 10 Downing Street in London. Photo / Frank Augstein, AP
She said up to 45 people were at the gathering, which featured a Christmas quiz and Secret Santa gift exchange, and at which "some members of staff drank excessively".
There was also a bash a day later and "No 10 exit logs show a number of members of staff remaining in the office until after midnight".
At the prosecco and karaoke event on June 18, 2020, Gray notes "the last member of staff, who stayed to tidy up, leaving at 03.13".
Party staff named
Gray has named 15 people who attended at least one of the partygate events in her report, while referring to many others anonymously.
Alongside Johnson and Sunak, she mentions the Prime Minister's wife, Carrie, Cummings and Reynolds.
Mark Sedwill, Case, who was in charge of the pandemic response, and former comms chiefs James Slack and Jack Doyle are also namechecked.
Gray explained that she has decided only to name the most senior staff "who knew about and/or attended an event" or were involved in organising it.
She said this was "given their wider responsibility for the leadership and culture of the departments, subject to some limited exceptions based on personal circumstances".
In her report, she noted that many junior staff felt it was acceptable to attend the parties because they had the blessing of their bosses.
