Yesterday afternoon when Johnson had to come to parliament and apologise was an electrifying moment. The PM showed, as someone said this morning, a mixture of remorse, defiance and bad taste which entirely misjudged the tone needed. He looked like a dishevelled, thuggish back-bencher caught in a lie while Kier Starmer gave an absolutely commanding display. He looked totally prime ministerial and essentially dismantled Boris Johnson in front of grim faced Tory MPs. Dan Hodges, a Tory supporting columnist at The Daily Mail, said the prime minister’s display was, “one of the worst performances I’ve seen from a sitting Prime Minister in a major parliamentary debate.”
Difficult to see how that could have gone worse for Boris. Historic moment.
— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) January 31, 2022
I would go further, it was the worst performance by any PM - ever. He was again attacked by both sides.
This was all provoked by Sue Gray's extremely truncated report, just 12 pages and really only 6 when the front sheet and annexes are excluded which gave little away that we didn't already know, but it was enough to cause immense problems for Johnson. Gray said the affair demonstrated "a serious failure to observe not just the high standards expected of those working at the heart of Government but also of the standards expected of the entire British population."
"There were failures of leadership and judgment by different parts of No 10 and the Cabinet Office at different times. Some of the events should not have been allowed to take place. Other events should not have been allowed to develop as they did."
Theresa May said:
"What the Gray report does show is that No. 10 Downing Street was not observing the regulations they had imposed on members of the public, so either my right hon. Friend had not read the rules, or did not understand what they meant—and others around him—or they did not think the rules applied to No. 10. Which was it?"
Johnson had the chutzpah to claim "that is not what the Gray report says" when it patently does. Another lie.
What did we learn? That the metropolitan police are investigating 12 gatherings in Downing Street out of a possible 16, including events that took place in the Johnson's own flat. It also transpired later that Sue Gray has handed over 500+ pages of evidence and 300+ pictures to the police which Johnson has not yet seen.
A few quotes from Starmer's speech - words which will go down in history I think:
"There can be no doubt that the Prime Minister himself is now subject to criminal investigation."
"The Prime Minister gleefully treats what should be a mark of shame as a welcome shield..."
"Our national story about covid is one of a people who stood up when they were tested, but that will be forever tainted by the behaviour of this Conservative Prime Minister. By routinely breaking the rules he set, the Prime Minister took us all for fools. He held people’s sacrifice in contempt. He showed himself unfit for office."
"To govern this country is an honour, not a birthright. It is an act of service to the British people, not the keys to a court to parade to friends. It requires honesty, integrity and moral authority. I cannot tell hon. Members how many times people have said to me that this Prime Minister’s lack of integrity is somehow “priced in”—that his behaviour and character do not matter. I have never accepted that and I never will."
"Whatever people’s politics, whatever party they vote for, honesty and decency matter. Our great democracy depends on them. Cherishing and nurturing British democracy is what it means to be patriotic. There are Conservative Members who know that, and they know that the Prime Minister is incapable of it. The question that they must now ask themselves is what they are going to do about it."
"Many of them [Tory MPs] knew in their hearts that we would inevitably come to this one day and they know that, as night follows day, continuing his leadership will mean further misconduct, cover-up and deceit. Only they can end this farce. The eyes of the country are upon them. They will be judged by the decisions they take now."
All delivered I might say with preternatural calm and largely in silence - all the more brutal for it in my opinion.
There is no doubt in my own mind that Johnson is a present danger to democracy. He is the only man in Britain who could out-Trump Trump. I think it's the lies which are most corrosive. You cannot image him blushing because he doesn't feel any shame whatsoever when caught out in a lie.
The SNP leader Ian Blackford was forced to leave the House after accusing the PM of lying and misleading the House and refusing to withdraw his remarks. Every single person in the chamber - MPs, speaker and clerks knew the PM was lying, knew that he lies routinely, knew that he has misled the House of Commons on numerous occasions, yet watched as Blackford was ejected for telling the truth.
This is a national disgrace.
You need only look at the front page of The National, a Scottish newspaper this morning:
Here's a look at tomorrow's newspaper🗞️Ian Blackford kicked out of the House of Commons after saying Boris Johnson 'misled' parliament pic.twitter.com/MkSoEvIj3k— The National (@ScotNational) January 31, 2022
I don't know if Tory MPs realise it but with each step along the terrible road they are leading us, they raise the bar for judging ministerial wrongdoing. At the outset Johnson lied about there ever being any parties at all - presumably for fear he might have to resign.
Then an investigation by a civil servant is launched and even an interim report finds umpteen parties, a culture of drinking and "failures of leadership and judgment" in No 10. That still isn't enough for them.
We now have a police investigating breaches of the law with potentially criminal sanctions. When that comes out, an excuse will be found (it's only a fived penalty notice) and he will wriggle out of that. You are bound to ask what does it take? Who will rid this country of Boris Johnson?
Sue Gray called for changes to the way No 10 is organised and Johnson has used that as an excuse, as if the system is somehow to blame. But isn't the truth that he has organised things and every other prime minister managed it OK? Downing Street apparently needs to be made Johnson proof - a damning indictment in itself. He is so uncontrollable, so lacking in integrity and morality that extra safeguards must be put in place that no prime minister since Pitt the younger has needed.
Robert Peston pointed to the irony in that the Met are only investigating one of the original three cases. All the other 11 are ones Gray has uncovered. If Johnson had simply been honest back in December when the whole story broke, he might have got away with it. But he won't now. It's just a matter of time and the amount of damage he can inflict on the Tory brand.
For Tory MPs who regard partygate as being a prime ministerial competence issue, rather than an ethical issue, it is striking that of the three "parties" or events Sue Gray was asked to investigate by the PM, two are not deemed by the Met Police as being potential breaches...
— Robert Peston (@Peston) January 31, 2022
