Boris Johnson’s response to the report was a similar mixture of lucidity and evasion
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskThis blend of precision and pixellation characterises Ms Gray’s report into events that scandalised Britons. The revelations that politicians and officials had been breaking pandemic-era restrictions had already resulted in 126 police fines for 83 people, including one each for Mr Johnson, his wife, and Rishi Sunak, the chancellor. But Ms Gray’s long-awaited report was meant to clear up what had been going on.
In the end, she delivered both. The report is an embarrassing portrait of a government which, while confronting the worst pandemic in a century, seemed remarkably preoccupied by a schedule of leaving drinks, Christmas parties, garden receptions and “Wine Time Friday”. But elsewhere its gaze is cloudy and incurious. As a crime report, it logs the blood, fingerprints and weaponry, but the perpetrator is no more than a silhouette.
Elsewhere, Ms Gray’s gaze is much less piercing. She decided to identify by name only the most senior officials. There are curiously few references to the role of Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s anarchic chief aide for much of the period, who once declared that successful political operations are characterised by “hot women and beer and pizza and music in the office on Friday and Saturday night”.
Mr Johnson’s response to the report was a similar mixture of lucidity and evasion. He told the House of Commons that he was “humbled”, and accepted “full responsibility” for his own breaches. Moments later he was rather less humble, accusing Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, of a “sanctimonious obsession”. He was right to drop in on his staff’s leaving drinks—one of the “essential duties of leadership” and a way to boost morale.
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