The British often use the term “roller coaster” – roller coaster – to describe their emotional state or an unforeseen succession of events. This Monday, January 31, was a real “roller coaster” for Boris Johnson. In the morning, the Prime Minister seemed almost out of business: from Essex where he was visiting a shipyard, he was promising a new post-Brexit law to get rid of the Community legislative heritage. A telephone interview with Vladimir Putin was scheduled later in the day, a trip to Ukraine planned for the following days.
The long-awaited internal report by senior civil servant Sue Gray on the multiple parties being held in Downing Street during the lockdown was certainly imminent, but after the surprise intervention of the Greater London Police (Met), who demanded on January 28 that she purges her conclusions of all the details that could compromise her own investigations, the leader seemed almost out of danger. Who among the Conservative MPs (who hold their fate in their hands) would have the guts to call for their resignation on the strength of an inconsistent report?
But the wind suddenly changed at the beginning of the afternoon. Despite the constraints imposed by Scotland Yard, Sue Gray delivered conclusions much more severe than expected. Contrary to the Prime Minister’s repeated denials, there have been “meetings” in Downing Street and in Ministries (Mme Gray avoids the term “parties”, left to the discretion of the police). Sixteen in all were held there between May 2020 and April 2021, of which twelve are the subject of a police investigation, specified the number two of the Cabinet Office (the administration working for the government), renowned for its integrity and his courage. The Met is investigating in particular a meeting that took place on November 13, 2020, in the office apartment of Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie Johnson.
“Serious shortcomings”
Some of these events “represent serious breaches of the standards to which those working at the heart of government must adhere but also of the standards to which all the British people were expected to adhere at the time”, says Sue Gray. “There have been errors in leadership and judgment at various places in Downing Street and the Cabinet Office,” add Mme Gray, who denounces a ” excessive consumption of alcohol “ in the corridors of the British executive and demands that these dysfunctions be corrected “immediately, without waiting for the end of the police investigations”.
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