Front Burner - Boris Johnson’s ‘partygate’ scandal

Episode Date: January 25, 2022

For over a month now, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been embroiled in a scandal involving gatherings at 10 Downing Street while the country was under lockdown restrictions due to COVID-19. One Conservative MP has crossed the floor to the Labour Party, while another has called for his resignation, saying to Johnson in Parliament, "In the name of God, go." Senior civil servant Sue Gray has been conducting an inquiry into the alleged rule-breaking, and that report looms. Today, CBC's Europe correspondent Margaret Evans explains what's led up to this point, and whether it could cost Johnson his job.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Jamie Poisson. Mr. Speaker, I see the very noise. I'm sure the Chief Whipper's told her to bring their own booze. I think it's fair to say that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson,

with his messy mop of blonde hair and his frequent gaffes, is no stranger to scandal. But this latest one he's caught up in, so-called Partygate, has members of his own party calling for his head in Parliament. So I'll remind him of a quotation altogether too familiar to him of Leo Amory to Neville Chamberlain. You have sat there too long for all the good you have done. In the name of God, go. In the name of God, go. Ouch. That is not great coming from your own team.

Today, CBC Europe correspondent Margaret Evans is here to explain what's led up to this point and whether it could cost Prime Minister Johnson his job. Hi, Margaret. Always a pleasure to have you. Thank you for being here. Thanks for having me. So this is quite the scandal engulfing the Prime Minister right now, hey? It feels like it's been coming out in dribs and drabs for a while, but I wonder if you could take me back to where this all started. When did the story that the prime minister and his staff might have been partying during lockdown first really start to become a problem for him? Well, it was, you know, the allegations started coming out back at the end of November. A tabloid newspaper here called The Daily Mirror began publishing reports about Christmas parties

at Downing Street. And you're right, it's sort of been this slow drip ever since then. Johnson came out pretty quickly and said, you know, as far as he knew, all the guidance had been followed, that nobody at number 10 was breaking lockdown rules. All the guidelines were observed, continue to be observed.

And what I can also tell you is that we're getting on with the job, as we have been throughout, of dealing with the priorities of the people, particularly fighting crime. So was it a party where the guidelines were followed, or was it not a party? I can tell you that the guidelines were followed. But then in December, despite these denials or Johnson coming out and saying everything, you know, we're all following the rules. This video was leaked of his staff and his former press secretary at the time, Allegra Stratton, basically making fun of COVID measures,

kind of doing a mock press conference, talking about a party. I've just seen reports on Twitter that there was a Downing Street Christmas party on Friday night. Do you recognise those reports? I went home. Hold on, Olam. Would the Prime Minister condone having a Christmas party? What's the answer? I don't know.

And saying that, oh, there was no social distancing at it. It was a business meeting. I'm joking. It is recorded. It's a fictional party. It was a business meeting. And it was not socially distanced. And that really, it just blew everything wide open

because the denials, obviously, she was referring to a Christmas party. And the Prime Minister had already said that these things weren't happening. You said former, I'm assuming the spokeswoman, Allegra Stratton had to resign? Right. I mean, she was at that time of the resignation, she was dealing with COP and environmental climate change issues. But yeah, there were tears on the doorstep. You know, the media was camped outside of her house. Can you stop? I'm going to make a statement. You don't. And she came out and she offered her resignation immediately and was just in tears saying that she would regret those remarks till the end of her days. My remarks seemed to make light of the rules,

rules that people were doing everything to obey. That was never my intention. I will regret those remarks for the rest of my days and I offer my profound apologies to all of you at home for them. Working in government is the... And I think that at that point, Boris Johnson and his entourage would have been hoping that that would have been enough to let them move on. But of course, it wasn't, right? Because here we are well into January and we're still talking about the prime minister and parties, right? we're still talking about the prime minister and parties, right?

That's right, because, you know, there was the Christmas break, New Year's, start the new year 2022. They're wanting to have a clean slate, but there are more allegations of these parties coming out. I should say to begin with, there's a huge number of parties, events, whatever you want to call them, that are being investigated somewhere between 7 and 15. And one in particular, back in May 2020, it emerged that the prime minister's private secretary had invited, according to testimony and leaked emails, more than 100 people to a garden party at Downing Street, a message saying, you know, we'd like to take advantage of the good weather, bring your own booze. Apparently around 40 or so people actually attended. Of course, you know, the spanner in the works was that this was happening

about an hour after the regular Downing Street ministerial briefing in which, you know, ministers were outlining the lockdown rules to the country. That time, May 2020, what was the situation like in the UK then? Well, it was really early on in sort of that first phase. You know, we've been through so many lockdowns, but my memory of it is that sense of eerie uncertainty. And the rules were very, very strict at the time. People were only allowed to meet one other person outside of their bubble or their family I certainly remember going out reporting at the time and seeing the police you know in on parks because the weather was quite nice you know

and they would break up gatherings and so it was really very very strict um it felt grim. You mentioned that there are, I think you said seven parties that are being probed or looked at. It sounds like quite a festive place to work. I wonder if you could tell me about some of the other parties that have come to light. You're right. They do call this Party Gate. But this one, it was two parties apparently on one night at Downing Street. And this was a year ago last spring, reports in the newspapers here talking about people being sent out with suitcases to fill them up with bottles of booze to bring them back to Downing Street, about dancing in the basement, a DJ, about the party then eventually spilling out into Downing Street backyard. This is where Prime Minister Johnson and his wife, Carrie, live and work. Apparently, some kind of swing from his baby boy was broken. So these are all the salacious details coming out. But of course, the date of the party is significant because it happened on the eve of Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth's funeral. And so

while Downing Street staff were partying away, the rest of the nation was getting prepared to mourn. And of course, the Queen, during that funeral, and the rest of the royal family followed the restrictions in place, which meant that she had to sit alone in the church because of COVID restrictions. Of course, people are, you know, comparing the behavior of the two. The Queen, masked and in mourning, sat alone for the first time in more than seven decades. The royal family was not spared the impact of coronavirus restrictions. Yeah, I remember that photo or that image of her sitting alone in the church.

It was incredibly striking and I think a really, really memorable image. You said that Johnson came out and denied these parties, but I wonder if you could tell me a little bit more about how he has responded and whether or not his response has evolved with all of this information, you know, coming out. Well, yeah, I mean, right from the beginning, sort of December 1st, we talked about that already. I'm just basically saying, repeating this line that guidance has been followed to the best of his knowledge. All guidance was followed completely during number 10. And can I recommend to the right honourable gentleman that he does the same with his own Christmas party? On December 13th, he said...

I can tell you once again that I certainly broke no rules. So that was his initial reaction. In terms of talking about things, like there was also a wine and cheese party where he and Kerry were pictured sitting with other groups of people in the back garden at Downing Street saying that that was a work event.

Those were people at work talking about work. So you were having a work meeting there without laptops, without any notes or paper. Do you normally have wine and cheese at a work meeting? you were having a work meeting there without laptops without any notes or paper do you normally have wine and cheese at a work meeting those were people at work those were meetings of people at work talking about this is where i live and where i work those were meetings of people at work and um it was the same that was his defense when he finally came to uh admit because again when he was confronted with allegations about this party, the big party, the one with the invitations being sent out, the bring your own booze,

he basically wouldn't admit, even though he was being asked direct questions, were you there or not? He kept saying, wait, we're having an investigation, wait until the result of it. So that deny, deny, not deny, went on for quite some time before in January, he turned up in Parliament and apologised for attending that Bring Your Own Booze party. And he said that he thought it was a work event. And he said he went to thank the people of Downing Street for their hard work at a very difficult time during the pandemic. I believed implicitly that this was a work event but Mr Speaker with hindsight I should have sent everyone back inside. I should have found some other way to thank them and I should have recognized that even if it could

be said technically to fall within the guidance, there would be millions and millions of people who simply would not see it that way. Of course, that created its own backlash in a sense, because people said, you know, well, what about the NHS workers? What about the people stocking shelves? What about all the other people who are working hard, who weren't allowed to gather in big groups and drink a lot of wine? Just picking up on that, I wonder if you could tell me a little bit more about how the public has responded to news of these parties and to Boris Johnson's explanations for them. Well, he when he made that apology in Parliament, he said, I understand. He spoke directly to people and said, I understand the rage you feel towards me and when you think we haven't followed the rules.

I think he speaks awesome rubbish. No one believes a word he says anymore. They were laughing at us while we were breaking, our families were breaking, this home were breaking and they were bringing their own booze to a party. And I'm not sure that people think he stood there without the support of friends and family, without being able to share stories about the wonderful person my dad was, that it reopens so many old wounds. And I feel I saw a clip of Boris Johnson being asked about this, where he was laughing about it. And I don't know what he thinks we are going to feel about the fact that he's mocking us, he's playing us for mugs.

For me, it's a story of two men. So one is my 55-year-old dad, who is dead, having spent 42 nights on a ventilator fighting COVID and no other illnesses. The other is a man who was 55 at the time of this party, Boris Johnson, having survived COVID himself, thought it was appropriate to host a party where you could bring your own booze, sit in the garden at Downing Street where Boris Johnson met me and four other bereaved families and told us to our

faces, after listening to my dad's story, I did everything I could to save him. And what you've seen here in the past few weeks is just this, it's been almost, it feels that there's some kind of catharsis going on because people are just in newspapers, on radio call-in programs, just talking on the street about what they've done, the horrible deaths, isolated deaths they've witnessed, being unable to say goodbye to a parent, to visit somebody in an old folks home. You know, one person was on the radio talking about having to choose which parent could be with their 13-year-old daughter who was dying of cancer because they couldn't both go in. And that just hasn't let up. And so that's, you know, there's rage and there's sorrow.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people, and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to,

50% of them do not know their own household income? That's not a typo. 50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. You mentioned an inquiry that's now underway, and I understand the report is due any day now. And can you tell me a bit more about this inquiry? It's, yeah, basically he has appointed a senior civil servant named Sue Gray to look into the allegations. And of course, it started out much smaller, but now she's got a whole lot of parties to look into. She's expected to deliver that report perhaps this week. questions about it because while the government, you know, ministers will be out briefing and they describe it as an independent inquiry, she is a civil servant. Basically, Boris Johnson is her boss. She's described as a woman of real integrity, but she's not a police officer. It's not entirely

sure what the parameters of her investigation are. I think most expectations are be that what she will try to determine the facts. But, you know, that does that mean you get into a situation where when the prime minister of the country is saying, I didn't know it was a work party? You know, what kind of evidence would she find to the contrary of that? So it's, it's really hard to know what it's going to say. But I'd say most people think that what it will try to do is sort of lay out what did or didn't happen without, you know, laying blame. Because I'm not sure that she will see that as her job. The idea that you walked into the garden, there's 40 people there, the tables are laid out with food and drink and there's alcohol being served in the middle of a lockdown and you think that's a work event. That is just ludicrous, isn't it? You are just taking the mickey out of the British people. You well i look i i you know how silly that sounds don't you

he's been grilled pretty hard on this idea that somehow he thought a garden party with wine and cheese was a work event um but it is a suggestion here that he has lied to parliament to the british people about these parties yeah i mean i've not so much i think about what he did or didn't think they were. It's more that, I mean, the ministerial code actually suggests that if a minister is seen to be misleading parliament, then they must hand in their resignation to the prime minister. So I think it's that. It's that if on these multiple occasions where he has said, nobody was breaking the rules, I certainly broke no rules. As far as I know, no one was breaking the rules. It's there, I think that he could get into trouble if it's just very clear

that he has misled parliament. He'd be under great pressure to resign. Parliament. You'd be under great pressure to resign. And speaking of that pressure to resign, the opposition Labour Party had been looking pretty weak coming out of the last election, but they are definitely having a field day with this. I'll tell you what we're waiting for. We're waiting for the Prime Minister to look into his heart and soul and decide whether or not he has a scrap of human decency in him. Because if he does, he will resign. But it's not just the opposition that's been putting the heat on Boris Johnson, right? Like how's his own party, the Conservative Party, responding to all of this? Yeah, I mean, you're right. The opposition is really trying to go at him.

Mr Speaker, first he said there were no parties. Next he said he was sicker than furious when he Yn gyntaf, fe wnaeth y Prif Weinidog ddweud nad oedd yna rhai partiau. Yn ddiweddar, fe dweud ei fod yn sychu ac yn ffurio pan aeth i ddysgu am y partiau, hyd yn oed pan ddododd yn dweud ei hun ei hun yn y partiau Gwarchod y Stryd Downing Street. Yn ystod y wythnos, fe dweud ei fod yn ddim yn sylweddoli ei fod yn rhai partiau ac, am gyffrediniaeth, doedd nid un yn credu ei fod yn rhai partiau. no one believed him. So this week, he's got a new defense. Nobody warned me that it was against the rules. That's it. Nobody told him. You know, Johnson is known as nicknamed the Teflon Prime Minister that, you know, he can get out of any scrape, he can say anything, do anything and still come back fighting. But this is really stuck. So they're making whatever pay they can out of that. But it is, as you say, it really comes down to his own party. I mean,

Boris Johnson brought the party to power with a huge majority, has an 80 seat majority in the House of Commons right now. And there isn't another election scheduled for two to three years. So it really means that only his own party can force him out. There's a strange committee, they call it the 1922 Committee, and people can write in anonymously to try to force a leadership contest. They need to get 54 votes. And most of the MPs that you've seen kind of being questioned lately are, you know, many of them are saying, we want to wait for the Gray Report before we decide what action to take. Is it possible that the report that we're waiting on could totally exonerate Johnson of any wrongdoing?

It's hard to say. I don't think so. In terms of what the Conservative Party decides to do, even if he hangs on and stays in power, he will be a much weakened leader. That sense of invulnerability has gone. And, you know, people have known he's, if they don't say he's lying, he's known for exaggerating, etc. I mean, one of his former bosses, Max Hastings, who was an editor at the Daily Telegraph when Boris Johnson was a journalist said in 2019, he predicted that his premiership would, this is a quote, would, you know, almost certainly reveal a contempt for rules, precedent, order and stability. But the sense that that's okay seems to have gone away for those people who are willing to look away for especially people who saw him really bringing change and energy. You know,

that sense of him being the one man who can lead the party to power, that's really damaged. And that means it will be a different leadership in the months to come unless he manages a remarkable rebound in terms of the opinion polls. I wonder why you think it's this story of all the stories, as you just talked about, and as we've talked about on the show before, as many scandals, as many gaffes over the years, his loose relationship with the truth. Why this story that seems to have people turning against him and that may even threaten his career?

I think it is because of you know we've touched on it in this in this chat about what people have felt that they've gone through that it's actually it's not okay people are not okay they've really suffered through this and at the bottom of it it the hypocrisy that seems to be coming from Downing Street, or at least the sense people have that stupid enough to stay away from the funeral or the wedding or say goodbye to their parent on video instead of holding their hand. I think that sense that they've been taken for fools and that this hypocrisy, you know, at the highest level of government has really also been shown up against that image of the queen where people are saying, you know, we need a leader to lead by example.

It's not the time for fun and jokes and shuffling along and, you know, talking about Peppa Pig. It's time to be serious. And people, I think that's probably why this is so potentially fatal for him. But again, you know, not everybody is ruling out his ability to get through this. Margaret, thank you for this. Before we go, I got to ask you what the Peppa Pig reference? Oh, he in a speech in November, I think it was, he was talking to one of the British Industry Associations and lost his place. Forgive me. And was talking about Peppa Pig.

Yesterday I went, as we all must, to Peppa Pig World. I don't know if you've been to Peppa Pig World. Who's been to Pansy? I don't know if anybody's been to Peppa Pig World. Not enough. And I think it's a little bit about what we were saying about, you know, during an election campaign, this is a man

who kind of, people would ask him what his hobbies were and he'd say, oh, you know, stumble around and say, I like to paint buses. You make models of buses? I make models of buses. So what I do, no, what I do make models of buses, what I make is I get old, I don't know, wooden crates, right?

And then I paint them. And it will have a dividing thing. And I turn it into a bus. So I put passengers. You really want to know this? You're making buses? You're making cardboard buses? That's what you do to enjoy yourself. No, I paint the passengers enjoying themselves on the wonderful

bus. And, you know, he still managed to come through. So it's that kind of sense that those things that people used to find endearing about him are just they're not they're not up for it right yeah uh thank you thank you so much thanks guys appreciate it uh it's breaking news another Another party has been discovered. Oh, seriously? Yes, seriously. ITV is reporting that it has information alleging, suggesting that the Prime Minister's wife, Carrie, actually organized a surprise birthday party for him also in 2020 during lockdown. And they are saying that about 30 people are said to have attended that event. Wow.

All right, that is all for today. If you are a fan of the show, we would love it if you had the time to rate and review us. It helps other people review us. It helps other people find us. That is all for today. I'm Jamie Poisson. Thank you so much for listening. We'll talk to you tomorrow.