Is Boris Johnson out of the woods on partygate?
Coffee House Shots
The Spectator
4.4 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 19 May 2022
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
James points out the fortunate timing of the Met police's announcement – at a time when the Durham police are investigating Keir Starmer for his potential breach when he was having a beer and curry, leaving the Labour party handicapped when the Sue Gray report comes out next week.
'The Gray report, though, I think is still very dangerous for Johnson, because it will highlight a lot of cultural and leadership problems within No. 10', Isabel says. Conservative MPs may yet have another wobble.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is sponsored by Canacord Genuity Wealth Management, |
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| 0:16.8 | Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, the Spectators' Daily Political Podcast. |
| 0:20.8 | I'm Katie Boors and I join by James Recife and Isabelle Hardman. |
| 0:24.3 | The police investigation into Partigate is complete. A final batch of fines have been |
| 0:29.7 | issued. That means that a total of 126 people have facing fines for the events which |
| 0:35.2 | took across eight different dates. Some have received more than one fine, but not Boris Johnson |
| 0:41.2 | or his wife Carrie. They have only received one fine, which is the birthday party in June 2020. |
| 0:48.1 | Today we've had the news that they're not expecting any further fines. |
| 0:52.0 | James, if someone had told you when this investigation first was called for in January, |
| 0:56.4 | the only fine Boris Johnson received before birthday cake. What would your reaction have been? |
| 1:01.3 | I mean the sound you can hear right now out of our window is the size of relief emanating from |
| 1:06.6 | Downing Street. Boris Johnson is in a stronger political position today because of his. |
| 1:12.0 | So the only event he's been fined for is an event that most Tory MPs have a certain level of sympathy |
| 1:17.2 | with. It was a brief break during the working day and it doesn't seem like an egregious breach |
| 1:23.1 | of the rules. And so I think that is one thing that will be relief. And so there isn't, I don't |
| 1:28.5 | think there is, this might change when the Great Report comes out. But I don't think today's news |
| 1:33.0 | is going to lead to a fresh set of demands from Tory MPs for Boris Johnson to resign or for people |
| 1:37.6 | to send in letters of no confidence. The second piece of good fortune for Boris Johnson is that this |
| 1:43.7 | news has come out while Keir Starmer is under investigation by the Durham police over the beer and |
| 1:49.2 | curry. Now this makes it much more difficult for Labour to go on not going to full frontal offensive |
... |
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