Can Boris survive another Partygate scandal?

Coffee House Shots

The Spectator

News, Politics, Government, Daily News

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 January 2022

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Another day, another party scandal at No.10. ‘Bring your own booze’ said Martin Reynolds, the Prime Minster's private secretary in a leaked email to 100 staff in May 2020 inviting them to a picnic at 10 Downing Street. At the same time, the rest of the country was limited to socialising within household bubbles or one other person.

'This is the most serious party allegation yet when it comes to Boris Johnson specifically' - Katy Balls

No.10 have refused to respond to the leaked email whilst Sue Gray's investigation into other Downing Street parties are ongoing. Can this line of response last through to PMQ’s tomorrow? Boris Johnson can expect challenging questions from Keir Starmer on this scandal.

Meanwhile, Michael Gove is keeping busy with his newly announced policy on cladding. The new housing minister has gone against his predecessor, Robert Jenrick’s policy, making developers pay for dangerous cladding.

Max Jeffery is joined by Katy Balls and James Forsyth.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, the Spectator's Daily Politics podcast. I'm Max
0:07.8	Jeffrey and I'm joined by Katie Bulls and James Forsyth. Bring your own booze, wrote Martin Reynolds,
0:14.2	the Prime Minister's Principal Private Secretary, signing off an email to more than the 100 Downing Street
0:18.3	staff in May 2020, inviting them to drinks
0:21.4	in the number 10 garden. Katie, ITV's report of the new party emerged yesterday evening, can you
0:27.6	give us the details and the fallout that we've seen since? Yes, I think it's fair to say this is
0:32.5	the most serious party allegation yet when it comes to Boris Johnson specifically.
0:42.3	Because we've had this drip-drip of various stories about alleged Downing Street parties,
0:46.4	which appear to be in breach of COVID guidelines in place at the time.
0:50.3	And in a way it gets a little bit confusing because there are various points.
0:53.1	Somewhere around Christmas, you have the cheese and wine party.
0:54.3	That was the one that there was leaked footage of No. 10 staffers joking about cheese and wine party that was the one that there's leaked footage of number 10 staff as joking about cheese and wine party just after down the street
0:59.1	had denied a cheese and wine party ever existed and since then that sue gray who is leading the
1:05.3	investigation into this has had to include more and more events into the scope of the inquiry.
1:11.8	So, for example, there was a party of the Department of Education, which the Department
1:15.8	of Education quickly came out and just apologised for.
1:18.2	They didn't try the number 10 tactic of saying, you know, nothing to see here.
1:22.1	There was no party.
1:22.9	Everything's in the rules, which begins to wear thinner and thinner over time.
1:27.8	But among the various events they were looking at, there's the quiz night,
1:31.5	there's allegations that there was something in the Downing Street flat,
1:34.6	there's a leaving party of a staffer, but the new allegation,
	...

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