8 Thursday May 26 2022 | the times
News
A senior official in No 10 was given an
advance look at excerpts from Sue
Gray’s report into lockdown-breaking
parties in Downing Street, The Times
can reveal.
The sections were shared with the
person who has responsibility for deal-
ing with staff welfare. The excerpts
were sent on Tuesday, the day before
the report was made public.
It is not known whether the official
discussed the findings of the report
with the prime minister but No 10
formally denied asking for any part of
the findings to be changed.
Gray disclosed in the report that she
had abandoned her investigation into
an alleged “Abba party” held in the
prime minister’s flat, despite finding
that “food and alcohol” were available
at the event.
The senior civil servant found that
the prime minister had attended the
gathering on November 13, 2020, with
five special advisers. It took place on the
night that Dominic Cummings, the
prime minister’s most senior adviser,
was forced out of Downing Street.
However, Gray said that she had
halted her work and collected only
“limited” information once Scotland
Yard began its criminal investigation of
the gatherings.
She added that at the end of the
police investigation she had “consid-
ered whether or not to conduct any fur-
ther investigation” into the event but
“concluded it was not appropriate or
proportionate to do so”.
One source told The Times that
earlier drafts of Gray’s report gave more
details about the event in the No 11 flat,
referring to music being played and
stating when it came to an end. This was
denied by sources close to Gray.
The Met has refused to explain why it
did not issue fines to Johnson or his wife
Carrie, even though there was food and
alcohol at the event.
However, when it announced the
closure of Operation Hillman last week
Scotland Yard said that it had set a high
bar for evidence when issuing fines so
that police would be able to mount an
effective defence if any were contested.
No 10 official
saw parts of
Gray’s report
a day earlier
Given that the so-called Abba event
was relatively small, finding evidence
could have posed difficulties for detect-
ives. It is believed they accepted John-
son’s explanation that he was conduct-
ing a work-related interview at the time
and did not break the law.
The failure to investigate the party is
likely to come under scrutiny from MPs
on the Commons privileges committee
who will now investigate whether
Johnson misled parliament with his
denials that any rule-breaking had
taken place.
The prime minister was asked in
December last year by the Labour MP
Catherine West whether he would “tell
the House whether there was a party in
Downing Street on November 13?”
Johnson replied: “No, but I am sure
that whatever happened, the guidance
was followed and the rules were
followed at all times.”
In the Commons yesterday West
asked the prime minister again about
the party. He replied: “That evening
was extensively investigated, to the best
of my knowledge, and I don’t believe I
can improve on what Sue Gray has had
to say.”
Johnson later told a Downing Street
news conference that the official flat
has a “dual use”, with prime ministers
often having used it for meetings.
“The event in question was a work
meeting, the Metropolitan Police did
investigate it and that was certainly the
outcome of their investigation,” he
added.
Gray’s report confirmed that John-
son had attended the event from about
8pm. Downing Street has suggested it
was a strategy meeting following the
departure of Cummings.
The revelation that an official saw
parts of the report in advance cast
doubt on claims by Johnson that No 10
had received it only yesterday morning.
He told yesterday’s news conference:
“The first I saw the report and read it in
its entirety — and to the best of my
knowledge the first of any of my team
[saw it] was at 10 o’clock this morning.
“There was evidence and certain de-
tails that I simply hadn’t heard before.
Maybe they’d been published before
but I certainly hadn’t heard them.”Steven Swinford, Oliver Wright
stories of our times
thetimes.co.uk/podcasts/
stories-of-our-timesManveen Rana and
Charlotte Ivers dissect
the report’s key points on
our daily podcastBoris Johnson has personally apolo-
gised to cleaning and security workers
in No 10 over the “plainly, utterly un-
acceptable” way they were treated by
staff holding parties during coronavi-
rus restrictions.
The prime minister said yesterday
that on receiving Sue Gray’s report into
parties in Downing Street and White-
hall, he was “in particular appalled to
learn” about multiple occasions of “dis-
respectful and poor” treatment of the
most junior members of the Downing
Street team.
Workers were left to pick up the
pieces after multiple parties, including
cleaning up vomit, scrubbing red wine
met with “bottles, empties, rubbish —
in the bin, but overflowing — or indeed
sometimes left on the table”.
In the Commons, Johnson urged any
No 10 staff who had not treated securityPM apologises over disrespectful treatment of cleaners and guards
from the wall and throwing away empty
bottles left behind.
Johnson said that the reports were
“repugnant”. He had already spoken to
individual members of security staff
and will get up early today to meet
cleaners who work in the mornings.
A cleaning industry leader said that
workers had been treated with “con-
tempt”.
Gray’s report found “some staff had
witnessed or been subjected to behav-
iours at work which they had felt con-
cerned about but at times felt unable to
raise properly”.
Panorama reported that one member
of security staff had been mocked when
he questioned whether gatherings
should go ahead and that cleaners wereand cleaners correctly to apologise. At a
press conference later, Johnson said
that he did not know “who specifically
is guilty” of “alleged rudeness” to staff
but that it was “utterly intolerable for
people to be rude to hardworking staff”.
He added: “And at the very least, they
should apologise but I don’t yet have the
names of those responsible.”
However, a member of the PCS
union who works in the Cabinet Office
said that the apology was “too little too
late”. They said: “His empty words will
be no consolation to the hard-working
cleaners and security guards who have
suffered under his leadership.”
Jim Melvin, chairman of the British
Cleaning Council, said that cleaners
would have been putting themselves atrisk to continue working during the
pandemic.
“It is absolutely appalling and upset-
ting to hear that they were being treat-
ed with such contempt by people who
sit within government or the civil ser-
vice and who frankly should know bet-
ter,” he said.
The union boss, who has formally re-
quested a meeting with the govern-
ment over how cleaners are treated,
said the pressure caused by increased
hygiene standards because of Covid-
had driven “many colleagues close to
breaking point”. He added: “What
cleaning staff need is support and
recognition from the government, not
to be treated with such arrogance or
disrespect.”Geraldine Scott Political Reporter
News Politics