The British civil servant details the many downstreams of downing street with health rules imposed on the population by the government during the pandemic.
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Six months after the first revelations on the holidays at Downing Street during confinement, British politics remains stuck in “Partygate”. The endless saga was relaunched on Wednesday 25 May, by the entire publication of the high official Sue Gray report. He was ordered in December 2021, was ready at the end of January, but Scotland Yard had blocked his publication, claiming to launch his own investigation.
Mrs. Gray, a official with the reputation of integrity, had only been able to reveal at the time extracts from her work, but the conclusions were already edifying: she read 16 “gatherings” problematic, between May 2020 and April 2021, and noted serious “leadership failures” in Downing Street. The police investigation having been completed in mid-May (and led to the issue of 126 fines for violation of health rules, including one for the Prime Minister and another for the Chancellor of the chessboard Rishi Sunak), did not prevent the senior official from fully lifting the veil on the actions of Boris Johnson, his office and his advisers during the pandemic.
The multiple details provided throughout the forty pages of the document describe officials who have largely freed themselves from draconian health rules which they themselves had enacted and imposed on the rest of the country: strict prohibition of rallies until In the summer of 2020, no more than six people gathered indoors or outdoors, from the fall of the same year.
“cheese and wine”
On May 15, 2020, in full “hard” confinement, several people of Downing Street, including the Prime Minister or his special advisor at the Dominic Cummings era, gathered in the Downing Street gardens, to share glasses. Boris Johnson “brought cheese and wine” from his private apartment – located at 11 Downing Street. The “Garden-Party” of May 20, 2020, was planned for a good week, and despite some reservations issued in particular by the director of communication at the time (Lee Cain), a recovery by email was sent the Even day, on behalf of Martin Reynolds, private secretary of Mr. Johnson, at 200 recipients.
On June 18, for the starting pot of a Downing Street official, Prosecco sank in Flots and Helen McNamara, at the Ethics Director of Ethics at the Office Cabinet, even provided a system Karaoke. That day, noted Sue Gray, guests drank too much, one of them was sick and there was even an altercation. The last guest left the scene at 3 a.m.
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