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If you only read one page of the Partygate report into Boris Johnson, make it this one

John Plunkett. Updated June 15th, 2023

Today’s Partygate report into Boris Johnson makes for devastating reading.

The parliamentary privileges committee said the former PM deliberately misled parliament over Partygate and was part of a campaign to abuse and intimidate MPs investigating him.

The cross-party group said he ‘closed his mind to the truth’ and would have faced a 90-day suspension from the Commons had he not already quit in a huff.

It’s also very long – about 30,000 words of it.

But if you only read one page then make it this one, a first person account from a Downing Street whistleblower, effectively, which was included in the ‘additional evidence’ section and has never been seen before.

And just in case that’s tricky to read, here it is in full – every word hits like a punch (especially the bit we put in italics).

‘I was the which has the Press Office, Press SPAD office and a a vestibule connecting all three rooms together.

‘The Vestibule was a common area for meetings and gatherings which had been a place of meeting well before I started in 2018, this is where Wine Time Fridays took place.

‘These were calandered weekly events in our Outlook diaries starting at 4pm where Press Officers would gather on Fridays to have drinks.

‘During the Pandemic, No 10, despite seeing the rules to the country, was slow to enforce any rules in the building.

‘The press office Wine Time Fridays continued throughout, social distancing was not enforced and mask wearing was not enforced I once enquired to in March 2020, whether we should be wearing masks and was told that the science advice was that there was ‘no point’ and had ‘very little effect on the spread of Covid’.

‘This was all part of a wider culture of not adhering to any rules/ No 10 was like an island oasis of normality. Operational notes were sent out from the security team to be mindful of the cameras outside the door, not to go out in groups and to social distance, it was all a pantomime.

‘Birthday parties, leaving parties and end of week gatherings all continued as normal. Those responsible for the leadership of No 10 failed to keep it a safe space and should have set rules from the start that these gatherings should not continue.

‘It was only more than a year into the Pandemic that No 10 set up a one way system and desk divider screens.’

Simply extraordinary stuff.

And here are just a few of the things people were saying about it today.

Source Twitter @SamCoatesSky