By Ben Kerrigan-
Dominic Cummings= the former adviser to Boris Johnson- has claimed photos will prove Boris Johnson lied over Partygate.
According to Cummings, Photos will emerge within the next two days which show that Boris Johnson “obviously lied” to police and the House of Commons about Downing Street parties, the prime minister’s former top aide Dominic Cummings has claimed.
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Mr Cummings has expressed confidence that pictures would be released by factions involved in in-fighting within No 10 as the official report by senior civil servant Sue Gray is finally published.
His stance comes following news comes that downing Street official instigated the controversial meeting between Partygate author Sue Gray and Boris Johnson, No10 has admitted.
At the weekend, Downing Street sources suggested that the senior civil servant had asked to see the prime minister to discuss the timing of the Partygate report, prompting Mr Johnson’s “allies” to accuse accused Ms Gray of playing politics.
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Mr Johnson’s official spokesperson said today that the idea of the meeting was first raised by a No10 official who suggested it could be useful to Ms Gray’s team. Ms Gray followed up the suggestion and they met in early May.
Mr Johnson and his top team are braced for the publication of the report, which will reportedly contain photographs of some of the events held during Covid regulations.
The prime minister is among dozens of Downing Street figures who have been warned they will be named in the report.
Top civil servant Simon Case could reportedly be among the hardest-hit by the document despite not being fined by police.
Senior civil servant, Sue Gray, is due to release her findings on partygate in relation t0.
Claims that Johnson and his staff enjoyed illegal office parties while millions in the country stuck to a dozen investigations in strict COVID-19 restrictions in 2020 and 2021 have dogged Johnson’s Conservative government since they first surfaced late last year. Critics, including some within Johnson’s own ranks, have called for him to resign.
Police investigated and said last week they had issued a total of 126 fines to 83 people. Most are thought to be junior staffers, but one 50-pound ($60) fine went to Johnson, for attending a surprise birthday party thrown for him in June 2020. That made him the first British prime minister ever found to have broken the law while in office.
Johnson apologized, but insisted that he didn’t knowingly break the rules, saying “it did not occur to me” that the brief gathering was a party — a claim that drew derision from many.
Police didn’t identify those who were fined, but Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, as well as Johnson’s wife, Carrie, have said they also paid fines for attending Johnson’s birthday party.
While “partygate” threatened to topple Johnson’s leadership earlier this year, he has clung on to power, partly because Russia’s invasion of Ukraine diverted public and political attention.
He got a reprieve when the Metropolitan Police told him last week that he wouldn’t be getting any further fines, even though he attended several of the events under investigation.
Treasury minister Simon Clarke defended the prime minister on Monday, saying Johnson “had a fine for a slice of cake between meetings.”
He said the context of the parties was a government under “extraordinary” pressure during the pandemic with people “working on questions of literally life and death” and operating under “exhausting strain.”
Gray’s full report could renew pressure on Johnson if it heavily criticizes him and senior officials, or contains photos and other vivid evidence of Downing Street socializing.
The government says it will publish Gray’s report in full once it is handed in.
A partial version of the Gray report was published in January after police requested her to leave out details to avoid prejudicing police inquiries. The partial report didn’t name individuals, but it did criticize “failures of leadership and judgment” that allowed the parties to take place.
About 30 people, including Johnson, have been contacted by Gray’s team over the past few days to warn them of the contents of the report before its publication.
While the Gray report is closely watched, the civil servant’s scope for censuring Johnson is limited — and it’s unclear the extent to which its publication will help restore public trust in the Conservative government.
On Friday, new questions were raised after British media reported that Johnson and Gray had met several weeks ago — though what exactly the two discussed is unclear.
Defending Johnson on Sunday, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said Gray is conducting an “independent” investigation and that he has never intervened or will seek to intervene or interfere with the investigation.
Opposition parties have raised issue as to why Boris Johnson held a “secret meeting” with Gray.
“Public confidence in the process is already depleted, and people deserve to know the truth,” said Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party.
Johnson also faces a separate inquiry by lawmakers about whether he knowingly lied to Parliament when he told lawmakers earlier that no laws had been broken at Downing Street. Ministers found to have done so are generally expected to resign.
This week he faces one more threat to his political future: a comprehensive report into lockdown-breaching parties in government offices that is expected to be published within days.
Senior civil servant Sue Gray is due to release her findings on “partygate,” the scandal over more than a dozen gatherings in Johnson’s No. 10 Downing St. residence and nearby buildings that took place when coronavirus restrictions barred people in Britain from mixing with others.
Claims that Johnson and his staff enjoyed illegal office parties while millions in the country stuck to strict COVID-19 restrictions in 2020 and 2021 have dogged Johnson’s Conservative government since they first surfaced late last year. Critics, including some within Johnson’s own ranks, have called for him to resign.
Police investigated and said last week they had issued a total of 126 fines to 83 people. Most are thought to be junior staffers, but one 50-pound ($60) fine went to Johnson, for attending a surprise birthday party thrown for him in June 2020. That made him the first British prime minister ever found to have broken the law while in office.
Johnson apologized, but insisted that he didn’t knowingly break the rules, saying “it did not occur to me” that the brief gathering was a party — a claim that drew derision from many.
Police didn’t identify those who were fined, but Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, as well as Johnson’s wife, Carrie, have said they also paid fines for attending Johnson’s birthday party.
While “partygate” threatened to topple Johnson’s leadership earlier this year, he has clung on to power, partly because Russia’s invasion of Ukraine diverted public and political attention.
He got a reprieve when the Metropolitan Police told him last week that he wouldn’t be getting any further fines, even though he attended several of the events under investigation.
Treasury minister Simon Clarke defended the prime minister on Monday, saying Johnson “had a fine for a slice of cake between meetings.”
He said the context of the parties was a government under “extraordinary” pressure during the pandemic with people “working on questions of literally life and death” and operating under “exhausting strain.”
Gray’s full report could renew pressure on Johnson if it heavily criticizes him and senior officials, or contains photos and other vivid evidence of Downing Street socializing.
The government says it will publish Gray’s report in full once it is handed in.
A partial version of the Gray report was published in January after police requested her to leave out details to avoid prejudicing police inquiries. The partial report didn’t name individuals, but it did criticize “failures of leadership and judgment” that allowed the parties to take place.
About 30 people, including Johnson, have been contacted by Gray’s team over the past few days to warn them of the contents of the report before its publication.
While the Gray report is closely watched, the civil servant’s scope for censuring Johnson is limited — and it’s unclear the extent to which its publication will help restore public trust in the Conservative government.
On Friday, new questions were raised after British media reported that Johnson and Gray had met several weeks ago — though what exactly the two discussed is unclear.
Defending Johnson on Sunday, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said Gray is conducting an “independent” investigation.
“The prime minister has made it very clear that he has never intervened or will seek to intervene or interfere with the investigation,” Zahawi told the BBC.
Opposition parties urged Johnson to explain why he held a “secret meeting” with Gray.
“Public confidence in the process is already depleted, and people deserve to know the truth,” said Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party.
Johnson also faces a separate inquiry by lawmakers about whether he knowingly lied to Parliament when he told lawmakers earlier that no laws had been broken at Downing Street. Ministers found to have done so are generally expected to resign.
Cummings, who has provided written evidence to the inquiry by the civil servant Sue Gray, which is expected to be released imminently.
“Any reasonable person looking at some of these photos will only be able to conclude that the PM obviously lied to the Commons, and possibly to the cops, and there is no reasonable story for how others were fined for event X but not him,” he wrote on his Substack.
Cummings said junior staff had taken the bulk of the blame for events that had been organised by their superiors. A number of staff have received multiple fixed-penalty notices for attending events.
“Lots of junior people and particularly women – some of whom were told to go to certain events … and assured that the PM’s PPS [principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds] had a process to ensure lawfulness – have been fined, sometimes multiple times, while those who organised and attended the same events including the PM have been let off,” he said.
Cummings said staff had believed there were some exemptions for No 10, including on mass Covid testing, so staff did not know exactly what rules applied internally.
“Obviously you knew an actual party (such as clearly happened in 2021) would be against the rules but many of the fines were for events that junior staff thought were a normal part of work and had been approved as lawful,” he wrote.
“If we’re being fined, how come the PM who was there and appointed Martin, and unlike us was told BYOB was NOT within the rules, isn’t fined?!’”
Cummings said the police had not investigated certain events that Johnson had attended and said there was also evidence of a separate birthday party in the flat in No 11 where Johnson and his wife, Carrie, live.
“There is a paper trail including WhatsApps from the flat. Sounds very bad for Boris/Carrie right? Surely that must be investigated? No! The police simply ignored it.”
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