British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he accepts Sue Gray's report into lockdown parties at No 10.
Addressing MPs in the House of Commons today he said he was sorry and will make changes to how No 10 and the Cabinet Office is run
He told the Commons: “Firstly, I want to say sorry – and I’m sorry for the things we simply didn’t get right and also sorry for the way this matter has been handled.
“It’s no use saying this or that was within the rules and it’s no use saying people were working hard. This pandemic was hard for everyone.”
Boris Johnson faced shouts of “resign” from Opposition MPs as he told the Commons: “We asked people across this country to make the most extraordinary sacrifices – not to meet loved ones, not to visit relatives before they died, and I understand the anger that people feel.
“But it isn’t enough to say sorry. This is a moment when we must look at ourselves in the mirror and we must learn.
“While the Metropolitan Police must yet complete their investigation, and that means there are no details of specific events in Sue Gray’s report, I of course accept Sue Gray’s general findings in full, and above all her recommendation that we must learn from these events and act now.”
Mr Johnson said that “we are making changes now to the way Downing Street and the Cabinet Office run so that we can get on with the job that I was elected to do and the job that this government was elected to do”.
He added: “First it is time to sort out what Sue Gray rightly calls the fragmented and complicated leadership structures of Downing Street which she says have not evolved sufficiently to meet the demands of the expansion of Number 10 and we will do that, including by creating an Office of the prime minister with a permanent secretary to lead Number 10.”
Concluding his statement on the Sue Gray report, Boris Johnson said: “I get it, and I will fix it. I want to say to the people of this country I know what the issue is.”
Labour MPs should back: “You!”
The prime minister continued: “It is whether this Government can be trusted to deliver, and I say ‘yes we can be trusted to deliver’.”
He added: “The reason we are coming out of Covid so fast is at least partly because we doubled the speed of the booster rollout and I can tell the House and this country that we are going to bring the same energy and commitment to getting on with the job to delivering for the British people and to our mission to unite and level up across this country.”
Mr Johnson said: “Second it is clear from Sue Gray’s report that it is time not just to review the civil service and special adviser codes of conduct wherever necessary, to ensure that they take account of Sue Gray’s recommendations, but also to make sure that those codes are properly enforced.
“And third I will be saying more in the coming days about the steps we will take to improve the Number 10 operation and the work of the Cabinet Office, to strengthen cabinet government and to improve the vital connection between Number 10 and parliament.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urged the prime minister to publish Sue Gray’s report in full but insisted it is already clear that what she has disclosed so far is “the most damning conclusion possible”.
Sir Keir told the House of Commons: “The prime minister repeatedly assured the House that the guidance was followed and the rules were followed. But we now know that 12 cases have breached the threshold for criminal investigation, which I remind the House means that there is evidence of serious and flagrant breaches of lockdown, including the party on May 20 2020, which we know the prime minister attended, and the party on November 13 2020 in the prime minister’s flat.
“There can be no doubt that the prime minister himself is now subject to criminal investigation. The prime minister must keep his promise to publish Sue Gray’s report in full when it is available, but it is already clear what the report disclosed is the most damning conclusion possible.”
Sir Keir Starmer told MPs: “By routinely breaking the rules he set, the prime minister took us all for fools, he held people’s sacrifice in contempt, he showed himself unfit for office.
“His desperate denials since he was exposed have only made matters worse. Rather than come clean, every step of the way he’s insulted the public’s intelligence.
“And now he’s finally fallen back on his usual excuse: it’s everybody’s fault but his. They go, he stays. Even now he is hiding behind a police investigation into criminality in his home and his office.
“He gleefully treats what should be a mark of shame as a welcome shield. But prime minister, the British public aren’t fools, they never believed a word of it, they think the prime minister should do the decent thing and resign.
“Of course he won’t because he is a man without shame and just as he has done throughout his life, he’s damaged everyone and everything around him along the way.
“His colleagues have spent weeks defending the indefensible, touring the TV studios parroting his absurd denials, degrading themselves and their offices, fraying the bond of trust between the government and the public, eroding our democracy and the rule of law.”
