By Ben Kerrigan-
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson must change the culture of Downing Street , Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Wednesday.
Johnson, who in 2019 won the biggest Conservative majority in more than 30 years, is facing a test to his premiership, as the publication of an official investigation into claims that there were multiple boozy Downing Street parties during lockdowns.
The results of that investigation by Cabinet Office official Sue Gray is to be published anytime, whilst police develop their own investigation. The prime minister has expressed confidence that he did not break the rules.
Truss, tipped as a possible future prime minister if Johnson is toppled, said Downing Street had not yet been given the findings of the Gray report but that it would come out very soon.
Truss said some of the reports were concerning.
“There clearly needs to be a change in culture,” Truss told the BBC. “We need to get the results of the report, we need to look at the results and fix the issues there are.”
Asked if she had leadership ambitions, Truss said Johnson, 57, had done a great job as prime minister by delivering Brexit and responding to the COVID pandemic. Truss said she was 100% supportive of Johnson.
Johnson has given a variety of explanations about the parties: first he said no rules had been broken but then he apologised to the British people for the apparent hypocrisy of such gatherings.
He has denied an allegation he was warned that a “bring your own booze” lockdown gathering on May 20, 2020, which he says he thought was a work event, was inappropriate.
ITV reported on Monday that Johnson and his now wife Carrie had attended a surprise party of up to 30 people for his birthday in the Cabinet Room at Downing Street in June 2020, when indoor gatherings were banned.
To trigger a leadership challenge, 54 of the 359 Conservative MPs in parliament must write letters of no confidence to the chairman of the party’s 1922 Committee.
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, said parts of the internal inquiry could be “problematic to publish”.
But she stressed: “We have been absolutely clear that we will publish the findings of the report.”
The government could have a fight on its hands if it decides to redact the report, with Tory MPs and opposition figures both having said the report should be released in its entirety. Cabinet now need to look themselves in the mirror and ask themselves why they’re still supporting this Prime Minister.
“There’s a Metropolitan Police investigation into the goings on in Downing Street. It’s time that some of those Cabinet members spoke out and said we’re not tolerating this any longer.”
And Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen told Channel 4 News that the findings needed to be “unredacted”.
“I think the sooner the report comes out now the better, if it is completed, because we can’t sit under this cloud, paralyzing the Prime Minister, paralyzing the Government,” he added.