Partygate: Labour demands publication of messages suggesting second No 10 flat gathering | ‘There are new questions the prime minister must answer for his involvement,’ Angela Rayner says

5 comments

  2. This seems to be what Dominic Cummings was referring to [earlier today](https://nitter.net/Dominic2306/status/1530838650614857728) when he claimed written messages were given to, but ignored by, the Metropolitan police, concerning an illegal gathering at No. 10 later on Johnson’s birthdy (19 June 2020).

    He had previously [posted about this on May 23](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2022/may/23/sue-gray-report-partygate-boris-johnson-downing-street-uk-politics-latest?page=with:block-628b600f8f0810d5e014cfcb#block-628b600f8f0810d5e014cfcb)

    > there was a separate birthday party, uncovered by the media so far I think, that evening (which almost nobody knew about at the time, including me). There is a paper trail including WhatsApps from the flat. Sounds very bad for Boris/Carrie right? Surely that must be investigated? No! The police simply ignored it. Simple! PM cleared!

    Labour’s Angela Rayner has written to the highly durable cabinet secretary Simon Case that “a gathering in the No 10 flat on 19 June, 2020, was first reported earlier this year, but knocked back as “totally untrue” by a No 10 spokesperson”.

    She asks:

    * whether he received correspondence from No 10 staffers “indicating this third gathering took place”
    * whether he had provided any evidence to Ms Gray’s inquiry.
    * whether Mr Johnson was present at the gathering
    * if any other ministers or civil servants attended

    Adding:

    > “Given the public interest at stake, I request that you make public [Johnson’s] correspondence pertaining to this event and his whereabouts on the date of Friday 19 June 2020 and publish the relevant messages you have received, as well as handing them over to the Privileges Committee to consider as part of their investigation.”

    The Privileges Committee is [currently working on](https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/289/committee-of-privileges/) publishing its conclusions after assessing

    > different options for enforcing the House’s powers to summon witnesses and call for production of documents

    before it can move on to consider the inquiry into Johnson’s truthfulness.

  3. Johnson and his friends in the media claim it is time to move on and that people want him to get on with the business of running the country again. Answers are going to be a long time coming as Johnson tries to convince us there is nothing to see, not that he has a history of answering questions as it is.

Leave a Reply