by Boris Johnson embarked on an extraordinary rewriting of the Partygate story when he gave evidence at the Covid inquiry, insisting that public perception of parties that breached lockdown in No 10 was “a million miles” off. TRUE.
In comments set to enrage grieving families during the Covid pandemic, the former prime minister said the depiction of repeated gatherings during the pandemic was “absolutely absurd”.
When asked about the saga, which led to his eventual downfall as prime minister, Johnson said the way Partygate was presented was a “parody of the truth”.
“I apologize for the offense caused and if I had my time again I would of course have done things differently,” Johnson said. But he added: “The characterization, the representation that there has been of what the officials and advisers did in number 10, has been a parody of the truth.
“They thought they were working very hard, and I certainly thought what we were doing was, as I said before, within the rules.”
He added that “the version of events” that has entered the popular consciousness “about what is supposed to have happened in Downing Street” is “a million miles from the reality of what really happened in Number 10.”
Inquiry chair Baroness Hallet criticized Johnson’s defense of the Partygate scandal, saying it “exacerbated” the suffering of bereaved families during the pandemic.
“One of the problems is that I received several messages from grieving people while traveling around the UK, and many of them were in terrible pain during lockdown,” he said.
On his second marathon day before the Covid investigation:
-
The chair of the inquiry, Baroness Hallett, was forced to warn hecklers in the inquiry room not to protest during Mr Johnson’s evidence.
-
The inquest heard the former first minister brand his own Covid rules “stupid” and refer to the government’s mask policy as “f***ing”.
-
He retracted his own witness statement after being questioned over the claim that the Eat Out to Help Out scheme was discussed with senior advisers.
-
The former Prime Minister squirmed for three minutes as he was shown all the times he used the term “let it rip” in reference to Covid.
-
Johnson admitted Dominic Cummings’ infamous trip to Barnard Castle was a “bad day” and was “obviously detrimental” to trust in the government’s Covid policies.
-
He also privately criticized testing and tracing, telling advisers a month into the lockdown that the plan was “whistling in the dark”, the investigation found.
Summarizing Johnson’s evidence, UK campaign group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice said the sessions show he did not “get the big decisions right”.
The former prime minister “did not take the pandemic seriously in early 2020, leaving us brutally unprepared, and failed to learn from his mistakes, which meant the second wave had an even higher death toll than the first,” he added.
Spokeswoman Becky Kummer said: “Even when he knew action was necessary to protect lives, he delayed taking it for fear of how it would affect his reputation with certain sections of the press.”
The Liberal Democrats also criticized the former Prime Minister’s attempt to rewrite history on Partygate as “desperate”. Deputy leader Daisy Cooper said The independent: “These parties were investigated by the police and Boris Johnson accepted a fine for violating confinement rules. It is disconcerting that he continues to try to deceive the country.
“Boris Johnson cannot expect his apology to be taken seriously as he continues his desperate attempt to rewrite history.”
It came after Johnson, who resigned as an MP before he was forced to resign for lying to parliament, retracted his own witness statement at the inquiry.
Investigative barrister Hugo Keith KC questioned Mr Johnson over claims he knew the controversial Eat Out to Help Out scheme was discussed with top scientists Sir Patrick Vallance and Professor Chris Whitty before it was launched.
When asked, having stated in his written submission to the inquiry that this was the case, he backtracked and said instead that he “assumed” it must have been that way. Both Sir Chris and Sir Patrick have said they were taken by surprise by the hospitality plan.
Johnson was one of 83 people who received 126 fines for Downing Street parties that violated the UK’s pandemic restrictions.
He was given a fixed fine by the Metropolitan Police for attending his own birthday party in the Cabinet Room on June 19, 2020.
And despite his attempts to downplay Partygate ahead of the Covid investigation, the official Partygate report laid bare a shocking culture in Johnson’s Downing Street.
It exposed alcohol-fueled partying into the early hours, the tradition of Friday wine hours, an altercation between staff and a karaoke machine at the ready.
The 37-page report delves into 12 events, starting with a meeting in the Number 10 garden on May 15, 2020 when Boris Johnson brought wine and cheese from his own apartment, and ending with two meetings behind the famous black door on the 16th. of April. 2021, which was the eve of the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral.
Anger over the scandal was such that it played a major role in Johnson’s fall from grace and his eventual resignation.
In further evidence that Johnson did not take the scale of the scandal seriously, the Covid inquiry showed evidence that he called the fury when it came to light “crazy” and told his advisers “let’s get on with it”.
In a December 2021 WhatsApp, as the scandal grew, Johnson told Cabinet Secretary Simon Case that he was “truly sorry” for the “pain” he was causing her. “This whole thing is crazy…we will get through it and we will be victorious,” he said.
Mr Case responded to the Prime Minister: “Thank you Prime Minister, it’s a bit bleak but I hope it passes.”
And, in a message suggesting he was aware of the repeated meetings at the Downing Street press office, the former prime minister responded: “In hindsight we should all have told people, especially [comms chief] Lee Cain: To think about his behavior at number 10 and what he would look like.
“But now we must move on.”
