Downing Street gatherings ‘represent a serious failure’ to observe even the general standards expected from the British public during lockdowns, Sue Gray has concluded
Senior civil servant Sue Gray has published a 12-page report following her inquiry into allegations government offices, including 10 Downing Street, held lockdown-breaching parties and events on several occasions during the pandemic. Among her findings, Gray noted there were “failures of leadership and judgment by different parts of No 10 and the Cabinet Office at different times.”
“It is not for me to make a judgment on whether the criminal law has been broken; that is properly a matter for law enforcement,” Gray wrote. However, at least some of the parties “should not have been allowed to take place” as they represented “a serious failure” to follow even the general lockdown rules, she concluded.
The report published on Monday was limited to focusing on four events out of 16 she identified as falling within the scope of her inquiry; the Metropolitan Police last week asked Gray to only make “minimal reference” to any potentially law-breaking parties as the force itself launched a criminal investigation into several of the events.
The document also called on the government to take some immediate steps to address concerns raised in Gray’s report, including the issue of excessive drinking “not appropriate in a professional workplace at any time.”
She underlined that “this does not need to wait for the police investigations to be concluded.”
Besides some practical recommendations, such as to keep the Downing Street garden “primarily” for the PM and residents’ private use and not as a workplace extension, the report also pointed at failures in leadership structures within the Prime Minister’s office. In Gray’s opinion, these “have not evolved sufficiently to meet the demands” of increased staff numbers in recent years.
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