A report investigating a series of parties held by UK government officials, in contravention of the Covid regulations, was supposed to be released on Thursday. It was not. And its future has become murky. Allow me to offer some background.
In May 2020, as the UK’s conservative government established COVID lockdown protocols, including a ban on social events and non-critical business meetings, Boris Johnson’s Downing Street staff had a party. When details of the event hit the media, it might still have been a one-off. As wiser heads, realizing the moral blindness and hypocrisy of such a thing, when lockdowns confined regular Brits to their homes in social isolation, would say ‘no more.’ Fat chance. It was just the first illegal party in a series. Here’s a timeline.
May 20, 2020, Johnson’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, invites as many as 100 people to “socially distanced” drinks affair.
June 19, 2020, Johnson attends a party in Downing Street to celebrate his 56th birthday.
December 10, 2020, Gavin Williamson, then Education Secretary, throws a party for two dozen of his staff while London is under Tier 2 restrictions, banning social mixing between households.
December 15, 2020, Conservative MP and chairman of the Commons Defence Select Committee, Tobias Ellwood, attends a “Christmas party” for 27 guests at the Cavalry and Guards Club in Piccadilly.
December 18, 2020, A staff party takes place in Downing Street. And “several dozen” staff - some wearing Christmas sweaters, are asked to bring in Secret Santa presents.
December 25, 2020, The Johnsons’ friend Nimco Ali spends Christmas with the Johnsons at Downing Street at a time when lockdown restrictions in London prevent almost all household mixing.
April 16, 2021, A party was held to mark the departure of Boris’ then director of communications, James Slack. This one cut deeply as it was the night before Queen Elizabeth II sat in isolation, obeying protocols, at her recently deceased husband, Prince Philip’s funeral. The contrast between duty and entitlement was stark.
October 18, 2021, After Harper’s magazine reveals Ali spent Christmas with the Johnsons, officials refuse to confirm she had stayed with them. And they denied the couple broke their own coronavirus rules. “The PM and Mrs. Johnson have followed coronavirus rules at all times. It is totally untrue to suggest otherwise.”
November 30, 2021, Almost a year after the fact, the Daily Mirror accuses Boris Johnson and staff of breaking COVID rules by attending parties at Number 10 before Christmas 2020.
The paper said that in November 2020, Johnson gave a speech at a “packed leaving do” for a top aide during the second lockdown, and there was a smaller gathering on November 13, the night Dominic Cummings left Downing Street, “where [staff] were all getting totally plastered.”
December 8, 2021, a clip of House of Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg shows him joking about a party at a think tank event. “I see we’re all here obeying regulations, aren’t we? I mean, this party is not going to be investigated by the police in a year’s time.”
You have to ask why Rees-Mogg would think there would be no police investigation of the party “in a year’s time?” What did he know? Because initially he was right. When news of these COVID protocol-breaking parties surfaced, the Metropolitan Police (the Met) did decline to investigate.
However, there was sufficient disapproval by the general public and enough dissension among Tory MPs that Johnson realized he needed to do something. And he picked Sue Gray, Second Permanent Secretary in the Cabinet Office, to investigate the burgeoning ‘partygate’ scandal. Initially, the thinking was that Gray would provide Johnson with a whitewash. And besides, she had no authority to bring criminal charges. But she proved to be her own woman. And people came to believe her report would be very critical. The Met reiterated it would not run an independent investigation, but if the Gray report pointed to criminal activity, then it would investigate after it was published.
Then, a mere two days before the report was supposed to be published, the Met announced it would start an investigation. And as such, it wanted to look at the report before it was published so they could redact material that might damage its investigation. In a press release issued today it said,
"The Met did not ask for any limitations on other events in the report, or for the report to be delayed, but we have had ongoing contact with the Cabinet Office, including on the content of the report, to avoid any prejudice to our investigation."
So now Gray has delayed publishing the report until at least next week. And if the Met has completely bowdlerized it, she may delay its publication until it can be issued in its entirety — presumably, after the Met finishes their investigation. Which could take weeks, maybe months.
You can be sure the Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick, and her senior officers have monitored the situation closely. And you have to ask why they changed from a commitment to act after the report was published to demanding the report be redacted because they had already started an investigation? Is there a fix in? Is there an agreement, spoken or unspoken, between the police and the government to try and bury bad news?
It is reminiscent of the Mueller report. Which, before its redacted release, was preceded by an outline written by then-Attorney General Bill Barr, which misstated the findings of Mueller’s investigation. Is Gray replaying Mueller’s role? Is Dick cast as Barr? And is Johnson the English version of America’s ill-haired, pathological liar Trump?
Are Boris and Cressida conspiring to muddy the waters and allow so many opinions to be formed based on selected excerpts, spun to render them anodyne, that it will let Boris claim vindication? I’m sure that Johnson will have to offer some pablum about “mistakes were made.” And that “we should have done better.” And “it will not happen again.” But once again, he would dodge real consequences for bad, maybe criminal, behavior.
Perhaps the politics of the last six years have made me too cynical. And I should apply Hanlon’s razor to the matter. “Never attribute to malice, that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
No, I shall stick to my original opinion. In the UK, as it is in the USA, Conservative governments are attempting to use law enforcement to obfuscate criminal behavior. We shall see if Johnson and/or Trump manage to keep getting away with it.